What a BAMS means on a doctor's profile
The BAMS is the primary degree of Ayurveda; its holder registers with a state Ayurveda board, not a medical council, and practises Ayurveda.
The BAMS is the primary qualification in Ayurveda: four and a half years of study and a year of internship, entered through NEET-UG, awarded by universities under regulations now made by the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine. A BAMS holder registers with a state board of Indian medicine and is licensed to practise Ayurveda. On this site BAMS holders are listed under AYUSH, and they are numerous — the second most common primary degree after the MBBS, concentrated in Madhya Pradesh.
What a BAMS does not do is license the practice of modern medicine. Whether and where a BAMS holder may prescribe modern drugs has been contested state by state and in the courts, and the position varies; this site records the system of medicine on every profile and lists AYUSH practitioners separately from physicians so that a search for one does not return the other.
How to check whether a practitioner holds a BAMS
The qualification is recognised under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine or the National Commission for Homoeopathy, and the state board that registered the practitioner recorded it. Ask which board issued the registration and check with it; the awarding university can verify the certificate. On this site AYUSH qualifications are marked as supplied until a person has checked them.
1,679 doctors record a BAMS
None of them has the qualification checked against the awarding body yet. All are recorded as supplied. Counts are read from the live database and refresh hourly.
Specialities they practise
Where they practise
Questions people ask
- Is a BAMS a recognised qualification in India?
- Yes, when awarded by an institution recognised for it. The NCISM or National Commission for Homoeopathy maintains the list of recognised qualifications and of the institutions permitted to award each; a BAMS from a college that was not recognised for the course in that year is not a recognised qualification, and a registering body can refuse to enter it on the register.
- Is a BAMS holder a doctor?
- A BAMS holder is a registered practitioner of Ayurveda and uses the title "Dr". They are not on the medical register and are not a doctor of modern medicine; the profile says which system a practitioner is registered in.
Every profile lists its qualifications as supplied and says which of them have been checked against the awarding body and when. Where none has, the profile says so.
General information about medical qualifications in India, checked against the sources listed on 25 Sep 2026. Not advice about your situation. Errors can be reported through the corrections process.