ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES RAJKOT

ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES RAJKOT

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rajkot (AIIMS Rajkot) in Gujarat is one amongst the several new AIIMS, being established under the Ptradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Its circular emblem has a green outer border and yellow ochre inner border, inside which a number of motifs are placed along with its mottos. The outer border is a banner carrying its name in English and Devanagari. Green, the colour of life, has myriads of connotations. It is associated with healing power, renewal and energy, symbol of growth, harmony, fertility and environment. The star is a symbol of divine guidance and protection representing good luck, purity in action, and advancement in life. The inner border symbolises Bandhani blocks. Just as Bandhani or Bandhej binds and ties, so do the 33 districts of Gujarat bind the people of the state and maintain unity. The 33 Bandhani blocks portray 33 districts of Gujarat, Kutch being the largest. The inner circle ensconced a number of motifs. The motto at the top is derived from the rich Vedic Sanskrit tradition ‘सर्वे सन्तु निरोग्यः’ in Rigveda emphasises on 'Everyone’s Good Health and Disease-free Life'. Extracted from ancient Indian Vedic Upanishad titled ईशोपोनिषद् Yajurvaveda, ‘विद्या अमृतम् श्रुते’ meaning ‘He who knows That as both in one, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, by the Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the Knowledge enjoys Immortality’. At the crest of the motif is a diamond which is an emblem of purity and perfection. Caduceus, the staff/rod of Asclepius and the two serpents represent the pineal gland and the pituitary gland (which both look snakelike when uncoiled); the staff represents the spinal column; the knob represents the medulla and the wings signify the two hemispheres of the brain (the wrinkled cross-section of the brain has the shape and texture of stylized wings); the number of intersections of the snakes corresponds to the endocrine glands or the chakras. Open book is a motif which propagates accumulation and dissemination of knowledge which AIIMS strives to provide to its 18,000 students. Oceans offer multifarious benefits to humanity. Asiatic Gir Lion, the pride of Gujarat, represents majesty and royalty. Gujarat’s socio-religious-cultural folk dance form, Dandiya Raas and Garba, is a performance by both men and women. The Ironman of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s monumental and world’s tallest (182m) The Statue of Unity manifests the national, spiritual, historical and academic values into Indian culture. The Spinning Wheel, yarn-producing instrument, is an embodiment of Mahatma Gandhi’s constructive programme which depicts self-sufficiency rooted in the idea of the ‘sun’ at the centre in ‘the solar system’.