Ayurveda (Devanagari:
आयुर्वेद ) or Ayurvedic medicine is a practice in use
primarily in the Indian subcontinent, which advocates argue
assists with health and healing. The word "Ayurveda" is a
tatpurusha compound of āyus "long life" and veda
"knowledge", and roughly translates as the "Science of a
long life".[1] Ayurveda deals with the measures of healthy
living, along with therapeutic measures that relate to
physical, mental, social and spiritual harmony. Ayurveda is
also one among the few traditional systems of medicine
involving surgery.
The origin of Ayurvedic medical sciences is claimed to come
from a divine revelation from Lord Brahma.[2]
AYURVEDAVATARANA is the anecdote that shows the first
existence of ayurveda into the world. Lord Brahma is
considered as creator of this universe according to Indian
mythology. Brahma the creator, created ayurveda much before
human came into existence. It was an unscripted knowledge
which was passed to Daksh Prajapati. Daksh Prajapati is said
to be the father of Parvati, a goddess who is well known as
the wife of lord Shiva, the destructor. Daksh Prajapati
obtained the knowledge of ayurveda in the form of shloka
hymned by Lord Brahma.[3] Ayurveda was first described by
Agnivesha, in his book Agnivesh tantra. The book was later
revised by Charaka, and renamed to Charaka Samhitā.[4]
Another early text of Ayurveda is the Sushruta Samhitā,
which in addition to the Charaka Samhitā, served as the
textual material in the ancient Universities of Takshashila
and Nalanda.[1] These texts are believed to have been
written around the beginning of the Common Era, and is based
on a holistic approach rooted in earlier Vedic culture. Its
conspicuous use of the word veda, or knowledge, reveals its
role in early Hinduism and explains its popularity in India.
History
A statue of the Hindu God, Brahma. Hinduism believes in the
divine origin of Ayurveda
Dhanvantari, the God of Ayurveda
Nagarjuna, a follower of Buddha, was a well known
herbologist, known for inventing various new drugs for the
treatment of ailmentsDocumented references to the precise
timing of the origins of Ayurveda are not available. The age
of Ayurveda has been established on the basis of correlating
the evidence with other disciplines as well as
circumstantial evidence. Ayurveda is said to have been first
compiled as a text by Agnivesha, in his book Agnivesh tantra,
which was written during Vedic times.[citation needed] The
book was later revised by Charaka, and renamed to Charaka
Samhitā (encyclopedia of the physician Charaka).[5] Other
early texts of Ayurveda include the Charaka Samhitā and the
Sushruta Samhitā[1] The system was orally transferred via
the Gurukul system until a script came into existence.
The earliest scripts would have been written on perishable
materials such as Taalpatra and Bhojapatra, which could not
be readily preserved.[citation needed] The script was later
written on stone and copper sheets.[citation needed] Verses
dealing with Ayurveda are included in the Atharvaveda, which
implies that some form of Ayurveda is as old as the
Vedas.[6] Ayurvedic practices have also evolved over time,
and some practices may be considered innovations upon
earlier Vedic practices, such as the advances made during
the Buddhist period in India. [citation needed]
Hinduism attributes the genesis of Ayurveda to several
theories in which the knowledge is believed to have been
passed on from being to being, initially, through its
realization by the divine sages, and gradually into the
human sphere by a complex system of mnemonics. Details of
Ayurvedic traditions vary between writers, as is expected
when oral traditions are transcribed from multiple sources.
The earliest authors of Ayurvedic manuscripts recorded
divergent forms of the tradition.
Development
Ayurvedic practice was flourishing during the time of Buddha
(around 520 BC) , and in this period the Ayurvedic
practitioners were commonly using Mercuric-sulphur
combination based medicines.[7] In this period mercury,
sulphur and other metals were used in conjunction with herbs
to prepare the different medications.[citation needed] An
important Ayurvedic practitioner of this period was
Nagarjuna, a Buddhist herbologist, famous for inventing
various new drugs for the treatment of ailments. [citation
needed] Nagarjuna was accompanied by Surananda, Nagbodhi,
Yashodhana, Nityanatha, Govinda, Anantdev, Vagbhatta etc.
The knowledge of Ayurveda progressed a lot during this
period, including development of newer and more effective
medicines, and is therefore termed as the Golden Period of
Ayurveda.[citation needed]
After emerging victorious at the Kalinga War, Emperor Ashoka
(304 BC-232 BC) influenced by the Buddhist teachings, banned
any bloodshed in his kingdom in 250 BC. Therefore many
Ayurveda practitioners, who were practicing surgery along
with medicine, left the surgical intervention and adopted
totally new medicinal treatments. In this period, Ayurveda
again evolved and flourished with the invention of new
drugs, new methodology and new innovations. The practice of
the accompanying surgery slowly died out during this
period.[citation needed]
During the regime of Chandragupta Maurya (375-415 AD),
Ayurveda was part of mainstream Indian medical techniques,
and continued to be so until the invasion of the English.
Chakrapani Dutta (DuttaSharma) was a Vaid Brahman of Bengal
who wrote books on Ayurveda such as "Chakradutta" and
others. Chakrapani Dutta was the Rajabaidya of King Nayapala
(1038 - 1055). It is believed by some practitioners that
Chakradutta is the essence of Ayurveda.
Ayurveda has always been preserved by the people of India as
a traditional "science of life", despite increasing adoption
of European medical techniques during the time of British
rule. For several decades the reputation and skills of the
various Ayurvedic schools declined markedly as Western
medicine and Western-style hospitals were built. However,
beginning in the 1970s, a gradual recognition of value of
Ayurveda returned, and today Ayurvedic hospitals and
practitioners are flourishing throughout all of India. As
well, the production and marketing of Ayurvedic herbal
medicines has dramatically increased, as well as scientific
documentation of benefits. Today, Ayurvedic medicines are
available throughout the world.
Gurukul system of Ayurveda
In the earlier days of its conception, the system of
Ayurvedic medicine was orally transferred via the Gurukul
system until a written script came into existence.
In this system, the Guru gave a solemn address where he
directed the students to a life of chastity, honesty, and
vegetarianism. The student was to strive with all his being
to heal the sick. He was not to betray patients for his own
advantage. He was required to dress modestly and avoid
alcohol or drugs. He was to be collected and
self-controlled, measured in speech at all times. He was to
constantly improve his knowledge and technical skill. At the
patient's home, he was to be courteous and modest, directing
all attention to the patient's welfare. He was not to
divulge any knowledge about the patient and his family. If
the patient was incurable, he was to keep this to himself if
it was likely to harm the patient or others.
The normal length of the student's training appears to have
been seven years. Before graduation, the student was to pass
a test. But the physician was to continue to learn through
texts, direct observation (pratyaksha), and through
inference (anumāna). In addition, the vaidyas attended
meetings where knowledge was exchanged. The practitioners
also gained knowledge of unusual remedies from laypeople who
were outside the Ayurvedic community such as hillsmen,
herdsmen, and forest-dweller
Traditions of Ayurveda
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Three traditions of Ayurveda exist today — two of them based
on the compendia of Charka and Sushruta Samhitās, and a
third tradition known as Kāshyapas. However, Ayurvedic
remedies prior to these traditions also exist, as mentioned
in the earlier Vedic literature (2nd millennium BC). Both
the Sushruta and the Charaka Samhitās are the product of
several scholars, having been revised and supplemented over
a period of several hundred years. The scholar Vāgbhata, who
lived in Sindh at the beginning of the 7th century AD, wrote
a synthesis of earlier Ayurvedic materials in a collection
of verses called the Ashtānga Hridayam. Another work
associated with the same author, the Ashtānga Samgraha,
contains much of the same material in a more diffuse form,
written in a mixture of prose and verse. The relationship
between these two works, and a third intermediate
compilation, is still a topic of active research. The works
of Charaka, Sushruta, and Vāgbhata are considered canonical
and reverentially called the Vriddha Trayi, "The Triad of
Ancients"; or Brhat Trayi, "The Greater Triad." In the early
8th century, Mādhav wrote his Nidāna, a work on etiology,
which soon assumed a position of authority. In the 79
chapters of this book, he lists diseases along with their
causes, symptoms, and complications.
Post Brhat Trayi period
The Brhat Trayi (literally "the three great compositions")
is a classic Ayurvedic literary work, which was composed,
compiled, and edited by Vagbhatta II, under the title
Ashtānga Samgraha. At one time, it was believed that those
who read and fully understood the contents of Vriddha Trayi
and the Brhat Trayi, were good practitioners of Ayurveda.
Legends concerning the origins of the text refer to the
Ayurvedic practitioner Vāgbhata who lived during the time of
the epic Mahabharata and was the chief physician of king
Yudhisthir. Most believe that the author of the Ashtānga
Samgraha was born before 200 AD and is properly known as
Vāgbhata the 1st. Another man named Vāgbhata (who was born
about 100 BC) recomposed the text, including the writings of
Charaka, Sushruta under a new title Astang Hridaya.
Mythology also refers to another Ayurvedic physician known
as Vangsen. Myths place him in ancient Bengal where he wrote
a classic Ayurvedic book, simply called Vangsen. The book is
written in easy and understandable language and adds many
new chapters to the previous texts.
After Vangsen, a scholar by the name of Madhavacharya
composed the book, Madhav Nidan. He is thought to have been
the prime minister for the Emperor of Vijaynagara. Madhav
Nidan is widely considered the best Ayurvedic book for the
diagnosis of some diseases known during that period.
After Madhav Nidan, the next in line of famous Ayurvedic
books Bhav Prakash was written during the time that the
Portuguese first came to India in 1498 by a man named Bhav
Mishra of Madras. The period in which he wrote can be
pinpointed accurately because in the Bhav Prakash, he
described the symptoms of a disease called "Firang" (Gonorrhoea
and Syphilis), which was introduced to the subcontinent
through contact with Europeans. ("Firangi" was a
Persian-derived pejorative for Europeans in India, who
brought the diseases with them). Bhav Mishra's other
contribution to Ayurvedic medicine was the introduction of
pulse examination / pulse diagnosis.
Many writers after Bhav Mishra contributed to Ayurvedic
literature. Among them Sharangdhar, Chakra Dutta, Vaidya
Vinod, Vaidya Vamanotsava, Bhaisajya Ratnawali, and the
Lolimb Raj, who wrote the Vaidya Jeevan in verse form. The
first lines of the verses of the Vaidya Jeevan are addressed
to the author's "beloved", while the rest of the verse has
contains information about curing diseases.
About 200 years ago, Pranacharya Shri Sadanand Sharma wrote
the Ras Tarangini, which was the "base book" for modernizing
Ayurveda practices. In this book, advances in chemistry are
included. The book describes the use of many chemical
substances as medicine and their successful uses. Upon
considering the advice of this book, Ayurvedic practitioners
began to process the traditional herbs in sulphate, nitrate,
muriate, phosphate and nitromuriate forms. Sarpagandha
[Latin: Rauwolfia Serpentina] Muriate, Sarpagandha Sulphate,
Sarpagandha Phosphate, Sarpagandha Nitrate, Sarpagandha
nitromuriate and many others have been prepared and tested
on patients. The Ras Tarangini mentions "Shankhadrav", which
is a medicine used internally and externally in many disease
conditions. Shankhadrav-based herbal medicine, invented by
an Indian physician, is regarded by the National Innovation
Foundation, Ahmedabad, India.
Medications
Ayurvedic practitioners believe that the tulsi (holy basil)
plant has medicinal qualitiesAyurveda operates on the
precept that various materials of vegetable, animal, and
mineral origin have some medicinal value. The medicinal
properties of these materials have been documented by the
practitioners and have been used for centuries to cure
illness and/or help maintain good health. Ayurvedic
medicaments are made from herbs or mixtures of herbs, either
alone or in combination with minerals, metals and other
ingredients of animal origin. The metals, animals and
minerals are purified by individual processes before being
used for medicinal purposes.
Writers and compilers of Ayurvedic literature such as
Charaka, Sushruta, Vagabhatta, Bhav Mishra, Shaligram and
others have written about the qualities, characteristics and
medicinal uses of the herbs, mineral, metals, chemicals,
animal parts, cooked food articles, natural foods, fruits
etc. Among them, the Bhav Prakash Nighantu, written by Bhav
Mishra, is known for its detail .The composition of the
Nighantu part (Ayurvedic Materia Medica) of the Bhav Prakash
is part of the classical book. The details of the medicinal
herbs are given according to the nature, effects, and
curative properties as observed by the Ayurvedic
practitioners.
Ayurvedic literature has been written by several authors in
languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, and more recently, in
English.The Shaligram Nighantu was written in Sanskrit. The
Banaushadhi Chandrodaya was written in Hindi.The Indian
Materia Medica was written in English.
See also: List of herbs and minerals in Ayurveda
Panchakarma and Ayurvedic Massage
Ayurvedic massage is a form of treatment for various age
related and other common disorders. Some of the advantages
which can be cited are pain relief, improved circulation,
stress relief, better sleep, flexibility, athletic
performance and emotional benefits [citation needed].
Massage therapy can soothe pain, relax stiff muscles, and
reduce the swelling that accompanies arthritis [citation
needed]. Advocates claim that, with ayurvedic massage,
deep-seated toxins in the joints and tissues are loosened
and released into the system for elimination through natural
toxin-release processes.[8]
Current Status
In the early 20th century, Ayurvedic physicians began to
organize into professional associations and to promote their
case for national recognition and funding.[citation needed]
This began to become a reality after Indian independence in
1947.[citation needed]
Ayurveda is now a statutory, recognised medical system of
health care like other medical systems existed in India. The
Central Council of Indian Medicine {CCIM} governs and
recommends policies for the research and development of the
system. An Encyclopedia on Ayurveda - Ayushveda.com[2] has
been developed to promote the knowledge of Ayurveda
worldwide.
In certain states in India, Charak Samhita and Sushruta
Samhita are included in the curriculum of modern medical
courses (M.B.B.S).
Ayurvedic institutions and practitioners
Ayurvedic practitioners have been appointed as Honorary
Ayurvedic Physician to the President of India. Every year on
the occasion of Dhanvantari jayanti, a prestigious
Dhanvantari Award is conferred on a famous personality of
Medical Sciences including Ayurveda. Today, Kerala is one of
the states in India that promotes research and practices of
Ayurveda. This has been attributed to its well established
Ayurveda centers and Ayurveda pharmaceutical companies, as
also the presence of medicinal herbs and plants on the
Western Ghats mountain range that runs through the state.
There are many Ayurvedic centers (known as Vaidya shalas)
all over Kerala.
Practice in the west
As a result of strong regulations in medical practice in
Europe and America, the most commonly practiced Ayurvedic
treatments in the west are massage, dietary and herbal
advice.
In the United States, the National Institute of Ayurvedic
Medicine (established by Scott Gerson) is an example of a
research institute that has carried out research into
Ayurvedic practices.[9] Gerson has published part of his
work on the antifungal activities of certain Ayurvedic
plants in medical journals.[10]
Several Pharmecutical companies and Academic Institutions in
the west have come into conflict with Indian academic
institutions and traditional Ayurvedic practitioners over
the intellectual property rights of herbal products
researched by the western agencies. The Ayurvedic
practitioners have known about the efficacy of such products
for centuries and so contend that they carry precedence with
regards to patent rights on such products.
On December 1993, the University of Mississippi Medical
Center had a patent issued to them by U.S patents and
trademarks office on the use of turmeric (U.S. patent No.
5,401,504) for healing. The patent was contested by India's
"Council for Scientific and Industrial Research" (C.S.I.R)
on the grounds that traditional Ayurvedic practitioners were
already aware of the healing properties of the substance and
have been for centuries, making this patent a case of
bio-piracy.[11]
After a complex legal battle, the U.S. Patents and
Trademarks Office ruled on August 14, 1997 that the patent
was invalid because it was not a novel invention, giving the
intellectual property rights to the principle back to the
traditional practitioners of Ayurveda. R. A. Mashelkar,
director-general of the CSIR, was satisfied with the result,
saying:
"This success will enhance the confidence of the people and
help remove fears about India's helplessness on preventing
bio-piracy and appropriation of inventions based on
traditional knowledge[11]"
The turmeric patent was just one of the hundreds that the
several academic organizations and Pharmecutical companies
in the west have claimed by ignoring Ayurvedic knowledge.
Vandana Shiva, a global campaigner for a fair and honest
Intellectual Property Rights system, says patents on herbal
products derived from Neem, Amla, Jar Amla, Anar, Salai,
Dudhi, Gulmendhi, Bagbherenda, Karela, Erand, Rangoon-kibel,
Vilayetishisham and Chamkura also need to be revoked.[11]
Seven American and four Japanese firms have filed for grant
of patents on formulations containing extracts of the herb
Ashwagandha. Fruits, leaves and seeds of the Indian
medicinal plant withania somnifera have been traditionally
used for the Ayurvedic system as aphrodisiacs, diuretics and
for treating memory loss. The Japanese patent applications
are related to the use of the herb as a skin ointment and
for promoting reproductive fertility. The U.S based company
Natreon has also obtained a patent for an Ashwagandha
extract. Another US establishment, the New England Deaconess
Hospital, has taken a patent on an Ashwagandha formulation
claimed to alleviate symptoms associated with arthritis. It
is clear that the Ashwagandha plant is catching the
attention of scientists and more patents related to
Ashwagandha are being filed or granted by different patent
offices since 1996.[12]
Scientific Criticism of Ayurveda
Ayurveda claims that illness and disease are a result of
imbalance in the doshas, which contradicts modern science's
understanding of disease in terms of pathogens, infectious
agents and genetic disorders.
Scientific studies and standards
Critics object to the lack of rigorous scientific studies
and clinical trials of many ayurvedic products (although see
Research and innovations in Ayurveda for details of the
evidence which is available). The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine states that "most
clinical trials of Ayurvedic approaches have been small, had
problems with research designs, lacked appropriate control
groups, or had other issues that affected how meaningful the
results were."[13]
In India, scientific research in Ayurveda is largely
undertaken by the statutory body of the Federal Government,
the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS),
through a national network of research institutes.[14] A
large number of non-governmental organisations are also
conducting research work on different aspects of
Ayurveda[3]. However, "even staunch advocates of Ayurveda
like cardiologist Dr. M.S. Valiathan...admit that 'clinical
studies that would satisfy the liberal criteria of WHO World
Health Organisation have been alarmingly few from India, in
spite of patients crowding in Ayurvedic hospitals"'.[13]
Safety concerns
There is evidence that using some ayurvedic medicine,
especially those involving herbs, metals, minerals, or other
materials involves potentially serious risks, including
toxicity.[15][2][16]
A research study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association[17] found significant levels of toxic
heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic in 20% of
Ayurvedic preparations that were made in South Asia for sale
in America. The Journal found that, if taken according to
the manufacturers' instructions, this 20% of remedies "could
result in heavy metal intakes above published regulatory
standards"[17] Similar studies have been performed in India,
and have confirmed these results. In response to the study,
some practitioners of Ayurveda claimed that "heavy metals
are integral to some formulations and have been used for
centuries. There is no point of doing trials as they have
been used safely and have mention in our ancient texts."[18]
"Miracle Cures"
Some critics also question the safety of those Ayurvedic
drugs that are said to provide "miraculous cures". The
critics argue that simply following age-old Ayurvedic
formulas is no guarantee of safety and the fundamental
processes and concepts on which these ancient processes are
based must be exposed to serious scientific scrutiny. |
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