Origin of Ayurveda 

Ayurveda dates back an estimated 5,000-10,000 years and is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. It is understood by many scholars that knowledge of Ayurveda spread out from India and influenced the ancient Chinese system of medicine, Unani medicine, and the humoral medicine practiced by Hippocrates in Greece. For this reason, Ayurveda is often referred to as the "Mother of all healing".


Ayurveda Slokas

 

"समदोश समग्निस्च समधतुमल्क्रियह्,

प्रसन्नत्मेन्द्रियमनह् स्वस्थ इति अभिधियते।"


Mythological Origin


The mythological origin of Ayurveda has a link with Brahma, the God of Creation. Hindu myth holds that Brahma wanted to ease the suffering of human by offering knowledge of Ayurveda to other Gods. One of those deities was Dhanvantari, who then transmitted the knowledge to mortal sages. 

Hence, Ayurveda is viewed as a divine science of revelation and thus values personal insight as much as empirical observation. 

As Ayurveda has a divine origin, it is considered as holistic science that is blessed by God. Some of the various sages have contributed their whole life in spreading the magic of Ayurveda in this world that is suffering from various ailments and sorrows. The main motto behind spreading this divine knowledge was to make people achieve the contended life essential for healthy and peaceful living.

Ayurveda is an ancient holistic system of medicine from Ancint India that understands health in terms of a constitutional model. Each of us manifests a mixture of each of the three constitutional energetic forces – or doshas. Its aim is to provide guidance regarding specially designed treatments, food and lifestyle so that health can be optimized and illness healed.

Ayurveda has mythological association with the creation of cosmos and preservation of life- force.It is said in "Ayurvedavatarana"(the descent of ayurveda) that lord Brahma sung these life- giving slokas to other deities who would together relieve human race of severe suffering. Dhanvantari was one among those deities who propagated Ayurveda in the mortal sages. This elixir of life , thus came to be known as the divine science of revelation .It equalizes the worth of deep perception, inner vision and realization with empirical observation.

Development in Ayurveda 

The initial phase of development of Indian medicine are traced back to India's Indus River civilization that flourished from about 2700 to 1500 B.C. Mythico-religious hymns associated with this civilization were written down in Sanskrit in the form of Vedas. Out of these Vedas, Atharvaveda; the youngest one contain many references to medical lore. 

Ayurveda flourished from around 800 B.C. to A.D. 1000, its so-called golden age. The three most important treatises in Ayurveda appeared during the golden age and are referred to collectively as the Senior Triad: the Charaka Samhita, the Sushruta Samhita, and the Ashtanga Hridaya Samhita. The next important treatises in Ayurveda are the Madhava Nidana, the Sarangdhara Samhita, and the Bhava Prakasha, known collectively as the Junior Triad. The Samhita means compilation or collection.

Ayurveda flourished significantly, during the times of Buddha(520B.C.). The Ayurvedic practitioners of that period invented the unique formula of mixing mercury, sulphur and different metals with beneficial herbs in medicinal compositions. Nagarjuna,the Buddhist herbologist was the greatest exponent of medical science ,then. Also big names like Nagbodhi,Yashodhana,Govinda,Vagbhatta worked with him. 

The tradition of Ayurvedic medicine, as a chief medical practice,in the rule of Chandragupta Maurya was also present in Emperor`s Ashoka`s paradise of peace.Moreover,the prevention of bloodshed, as a must, inspired the ayurvedic doctors of that era to innovate new and advanced treatment techniques to avoid surgery. With the Islamic invasion in India(1100-1800A.D.)

 

Later Development in Ayurveda

Before Ayurveda began its recent renewal in the West, it went through a period of decline in South Asian Region when Western medical education became dominant during the era of British rule across the world. Ayurveda became a second-class option used primarily by traditional spiritual practitioners and the poor.

"Ayurvedic Practitioners were regarded as non-professionals and put into shadow for decades. However, after the fall of British Amipire, Ayurveda started recognized as an official form of medicine along with allopathic, homeopathy, naturopathy, unani, tibb, siddha and yoga therapy. In 21st century Ayurveda spread throughout the world and it is said ‘Ayurveda revisited’. 


Ayurvedic Pioneers

Brahma is said to be the most knowledgeable person in every science subject. Also he is said to be the first former of Ayurveda. He wrote the first book on Ayurveda i.e. Brahmasanhita.

'Daksha Prajapati' and 'Bhaskara' were the first persons who got knowledge from Brahma about Ayurveda. There was dominance of rules (Siddantha) in tradition of Daksha and in Bhaskara's tradition treatment (Chikitsa) was dominant. The short description of some of the legends are as follows:

Bharadwaj

He was the first person who learnt ayurveda from indra and educated the mankind.

Aatreya

He was the guru (teacher) of agnivesha who created charaksanhita's original novel 'agniveshatantra', and bhed etc. he

was also recognized by the name punarvasu and chandrabhag.

 

Agnivesh

Agnivesh was foremost among the disciples of atreya and the author of the agnivesh - tantra. agnivesha is mentioned in sarngaravadi, aswadi, gargadi and tikakitavadi ganas of panini's astadhyayi.

 

Charaka

On the second stratum stands charaka who was the first man to refine the treatise of agnivesha thoroughly and enlarge it with his interpretations and annotations. his contributions in this respect were so spectacular that the original treatise in its new form began to be known on the name of charaka himself instead of the original author.


Drudhabala

Drudhabala, son of kapilabala and resident of pancanadapura reconstructed the charaka sanhita, which was deficient in its one-third part e.g. 17 chapters in chikisitaasthana and entire sections of kalpa and siddhi. he completed the sanhita in these respects by taking relevant materials from several treatises (then available).


Bhaav Mishra

Bhaav mishra, the son of latkan mishra is the writer of this novel. he was a brahmin by cast. keeping similarity to ancient sanhitas, he introduced new thoughts and dravyas. it is the last and important novel of laghutrai.