Ayurveda and it’s importance in treatments
The meaning of Ayurveda is “Basic knowledge of Life”.
The ATHARVAVEDA (the holy book) has described the fundamentals of Ayurveda in the form of Versus or Sutras. Ayurveda may be called as “ science of life”, because it is dealing with the branch of knowledge which is related to life and death.It tells how a person can protect his health, how he can be cured from any disease which he is suffering from and how he can attain a long life.
Just as nature has no beginning and no end, similarly, Ayurveda is timeless. It is guided by principles of nature. All the systems of the medicine in the world came into existence from this of pure Ayurveda, whose basic principles are given in the form of versus, though there have been changes according to geographical places, time and circumstances. The allopathic system of medicine has especially undergone so many changes that it is now far away from the nature.
HISTORY OF AYURVEDA
It is a common belief that Ayurveda is eternal.This does not refer to the work of any particular author . Ayurveda is a collection of the principles of life that took birth with the world itself and is not liable to change at any time or in any part of the world. It is believed that these principles were discovered
by Lord Bharma, the creator himself and compiled into a large volume.
This original work is known by the name of ‘Ayurveda’. The ancient sages who later realized that it is impossible for anyone to learn this Big compilation in a life span, so it has been divided into eight parts to make it easy for individual to learn the subject ones choice.As knowledge of all these parts were essential to become a good physician, later authors began to abridge these parts into one or two books. The aim of abridgers was to compress the whole matter into fewer words. Later great Acharyas like Charak , Susrut, Vagbhata helped establishing Ayurveda into a complete science.
PRINCIPLES OF AYURVEDA
Ayurveda says that human body is made up of the five principles (Panchmahabhootas) viz. Akasha (air), Vayu (Vital force), Tejas (Some mineral , acids, alkalies etc) Jala (Water) and Prithvi (Organic substances). Any part of the body, however minute, is an inseparable combination of these Principles.
In Ayurveda, combination of these principles are classified into three viz.
Vayu ( air), Pitta ( fire), Kapha (water). These are related to five principles as follows:
- VATA : Akasha & Vaayu : Vata is that body constituent which generates power and motivity. Besides, Vata includes that body-constituent that carries oxygen to the parts of the body for Activating their bio functions.
- PITTA : Tejas : Pitta is a combination of the material that digests the food and transform it into body constituents.
- KAPHA : Prithvi & Jala : kapha is a combination of the material used for structuring and sustaining the body.
