Even though the word massage entered in the English literature in 1879, the History of massage is as old as the history of human civilization. The practice of massage is mentioned in all the recorded ancient civilizations. The French colonist in India first used the term massage during 1761–73. The modern massage techniques often known as Swedish massage or classical massage was standardized during nineteenth century by PH ling a teacher of physical education who classified the technique of conventional massage, incorporated French words like effleurage, tapotement, etc. and evolved a system of treatment for musculoskeletal disorders using massage as principle component. However Ling did little to distinguish between exercise and massage it was left to Dr. Mennel of England to distinguish between massage, passive movement and active exercise during 1917–1940. History of massage in twentieth century was dominated by development of new techniques and new system. The well known figures in this century were Rosenthal, Cyriax, Graham and Mennel. While the diversity of techniques increased manifold it uses in therapy was diminished through the world in the first half of the twentieth century. People started using massage as mode of luxurious comfort and reports of abuses of massage which ranges from quackery to prostitution stared coming which gave a very bad publicity to this ancient mode of treatment. It is due to this many physiotherapists stared using the term soft tissue manipulation in lieu of the term massage. In the recent years the effects of massage established till date by subjective and observant methods have been subjected to rigorous objective evaluation using advanced equipments. The discovery of pain gate theory gave a new credence to the role of massage in pain management. In its entire history massage therapy has been subjected to alternating period of advocacy and denigration and the current phase is one that of resurgent advocacy.