This was the first sage who wrote about Ayurveda 5000 years ago.

AYURVEDA
(A bird’s eye view)

Ayurveda, the combination of two sanskrit words “Ayus” and “Veda” literally means the “knowledge of life and longevity”. This knowledge of life and longevity is the health care system indigenous to India, which is perhaps the oldest existing body of knowledge on the healing process. Ayurveda has a long history that spans a period of many thousands of years.

Origin of Ayurveda.

As per the Ayurvedic literature, there are several mythological origins told of Ayurveda. Most popular one is that Lord Brahma (Creator of Universe), recalling to his mind the science of life, taught it to Prajapati, who in turn passed it to Aswini kumaras (physician for Gods). They in turn taught Indra, the king of Gods.

When diseases began to trouble the human beings, the great sages assembled in the valley of Himalayas to find a solution to ward off this misery. They decided to learn the Science of Ayurveda from Indra. One of the great sage, Bhardwaja took this responsibility, and went to Indra’s abode and learned Ayurveda. After his return, he passed his knowledge to the fellow Sages and they taught this to their students and thus Ayurveda was propagated. Hence Ayurveda was considered to be Anaadi i.e. without beginning.

This mythological origin may be one way of giving divinity and spiritual outlook to Ayurveda, which gives better authenticity and acceptability to this health system in ancient communities. This mythological origin can also be interpreted as that knowledge of Ayurveda evolved from the keen observations and experiments of the highly evolved sages who lived in the valleys of Himalaya for ages which was recorded systematically.

Concept of health

According to World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and emotional well being and not merely the absence of any disease or deformity. Ayurveda had given much more beautiful, holistic and complete definition of health taking into account physical, mental, psychological and spiritual aspects of life. Ayurveda says that the proper health is indicated by proper digestion, lightness of the body, freshness of the mind, proper evacuation of bowels, undisturbed sleep, all the sense organs are able to function to their fullest potential as well as a sense of contentment and well being.

The main factors that promote and maintain health are food, sleep and restraint from over indulgence. These three factors are called as three pillars of life. A person who is conscious and careful about the above three can maintain and protect his natural body strength.

Ayurveda emphasizes that the human body and mind have the innate design to monitor states of disease and health. This enables us to have a signaling system which keeps us informed of changing states of health and disease.

Ayurveda looks at health and disease through a rational framework called triskandha or three supports. They are cause (hetu), signs (linga) and remedial measures (Aushadha). Both health and disease are effects produced by causes, which can be recognized by observable signs and maintained or cured by specific actions. By having the knowledge of this, every human being can monitor his or her state of health.

Concept of disease and treatment.

According to Ayurveda, the human body is made up of three functional units (Vata, Pitha and Kapha) also called ‘Doshas ‘ and seven vital tissues called ‘ Dhatus’. A state of equilibrium between the Doshas and the Dhatus results in good health and its imbalance results in diseases. This imbalance can be caused by diet, regimens, seasonal variation, age and other factors like trauma etc.

Hence the treatment aims to bring back the natural equilibrium of the “Doshas” and “Dhathus”. This can be achieved by avoiding the basic causes of disease, correcting the diet and regimens, following life style in accordance with seasonal variations, age etc and by internal and external medications. Proper diet is considered as the greatest medicine and without this no medicine will have effect. The medicines are selected according to the theory that the substances having similar qualities will result in the rise of the similar qualities of doshas and dhathus and vice versa.

Basic Classification

Ayurveda as such is divided into the two domains of

Swastha Vrutha i.e., Preventive and
Athura Vrutha i.e., Curative.
Preventive medicine is given greater importance than the Curative. This is a major difference of Ayurveda from other health systems. Preventive medicine consists of basic knowledge of the body, daily routines, seasonal regimens, qualities of food items etc. Curative medicine consists of detailed description of aetiology, premonitory symptoms, symptoms, prognosis and treatment of diseases.

Ayurvedic therapeutics specialized into eight branches.

1. Kayacikitsa – General Medicine,

2. Bala cikitsa – Pediatrics

3. Graha cikitsa – Psychiatry

4. Salakya tantra – Otorhinolaryngiology, Ophthalmology and Dentistry,

5. Salya tantra – Surgery

6. Agada tantra – Toxicology

7. Rasayana – Geriatrics, and

8. Vajikarana – Aphrodisiacs.