Ayurveda

By Attila Grandpierre, Deepak Chopra, Menas C. Kafatos

By Attila Grandpierre, Deepak Chopra, Menas C. Kafatos

This contribution lists all translations into Western languages of ancient works on Ayurveda, Found by the author through searches in various university libraries and other sources.

The author probes in this paper the identity of 'Kumbika' multifaceted plant-species mentioned in the Ayurvedic literature and establishes its identity by interpreting various classical texts.

In this paper, the South Indian crude drug samples of Prsniparni, Sahacara, Hapusa and Renuka are evaluated. Their accepted source, alternative sources along with botanical and chemical constituents for the S. Indian source plants are provided. Suitable photographs of the crude drugs and the herbarium specimens are also provided of facilitate identification.

In the first part the authors have discussed the botanical identity of the drug 'Thamalaki' as it is used in Kerala. The second part deals with the identity of a few more drugs namely, 'Puskaramula, Punarnava, Suryavartha and Nirgundi'.

India has a rich heritage of herbal medicine of which the most important system namely Ayurveda needs even today a critical scientific scrutiny both in the correct identity of the proper drug plants and in the standard of the preparation of Ayurveda drugs. Authentic data on the medicinal plants growing in the Srikakulam district of Northern Andhra Pradesh is presented in the paper along with their etnobotainical data and their distribution in the district.

Several arguments have been forwarded for the stagnation of Ayurveda, and most of these focus on the discrimination that Ayurveda faces under Mughal and then under British rule. Even for Ancient India, the halcyon portrait of Ayurveda synergetically related with religion and politics during the period, as has been portrayed in many books of history and in countless lores, is false. This paper then deals with the interaction between the State and Ayurvedic medicine in ancient India.

In this paper the author discusses how the secret of life was taken care of by our ancients. The contribution of modern research scholars in this fields are also summed up here.

Ayurveda, the ancient Indian "Science of Life" and age - old traditional medical science of India, has a recorded history of more than 2000 years. During this period certain changes and developments occurred in the conceptual framework of this science as well as in the political, socio - economic, and religion contexts in which Ayurvedic science must be seen.