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Part I: Ayurveda ♦ Introduction & History ♦ Indian Cosmology ♦ The Human Body ♦ Health & Sickness Part II: Ayurvedic Herbalism ♦ Humans & Plants ♦ Food Energies ♦ Plant Classification ♦ Herbal Preparations ♦ Herbal Usage ♦ Common Herbs Part III: Future of Ayurveda ♦ Limits to Ayurveda ♦ Ayurveda-Western Medicine Comparison ♦ Ayurveda as CAM ♦ Conclusion |
Introduction & HistoryWhat is Ayurveda?Ayurveda is a traditional Indian health care system dating back approximately 5000 years. Its name comes from the combination of two Sanskrit words, ayus meaning “life” and veda meaning “knowledge.” It is roughly translated into the "science of life". Ayurveda is one of the world’s oldest healing systems that have developed a rich pharmacopoeia of herbal medicine, a philosophy on healthy living, and that offer spiritual insight. It is suspected that it has even influenced the development of traditional Chinese medicine (1).Ayurveda is a preventative medicinal and healing system, meaning that it aims to keep the healthy person healthy and heal the sick person. Theoretically, if a person follows Ayurvedic practices correctly, he or she should rarely ever fall sick. If he or she does fall sick, Ayurveda has many natural solutions, predominantly food and herb based, to eliminate the cause of sickness. Ayurveda is a holistic system, meaning that it not only treats physical illness but also the psychological, emotional, and spiritual illnesses of a person. Ayurvedic knowledge recognizes that there are more than one aspect of the person (commonly known as bodies) that should be taken care of and that a person is not in full health until all the bodies (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) are in balance. In essence, it heals the whole person rather. Ayurveda is not merely a medicinal system, but a philosophy promoting healthy living through having balance in our lives. While there is an extensive knowledge of herbal medicine in Ayurveda, it predominantly depends on food and physical action to maintain good health. Food and action are forms of preventative medicine. Herbal medicine is usually used to heal sickness. Ultimately, its goal is to help people live in balance with themselves, other people, and the world around them. History of AyurvedaAyurveda had its beginnings more than 5000 years ago in India among the Vedas, which are the most valued records of India’s culture, history, philosophy, and knowledge. The ancient seers of India, called rishis, compiled the Vedas after receiving their wisdom through meditation from the universe and the Vedas contain knowledge almost entirely in poetic form of the universe, humankind, health, and nature. To this day, many Ayurvedic practitioners still refer to the Vedas to gain original spiritual insight.Among all of the Vedas that exist in Indian history, only two of them, Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, explicitly discuss the issues of health, disease, and treatments. It was only around 600 B.C. that the principles and practices of Ayurveda as we know them today were fully, explicitly explained in two ancient books, Charka Samhita and Susruta Samhita. These two books contain an extensive knowledge on preventative and surgical medicines, respectively (2). After Ayurveda was officially developed in Charka Samhita and Susruta Samhita, it enjoyed an explosive growth in India fostered by political stability, cultural openness, and the lack of competing systems of medicine. Ayurveda was the only source of knowledge for people who were sick or dying. During India’s medieval period, political instability and cultural fragmentation slowed the growth of Ayurveda. Since Ayurveda was not a unified, national health care system, its practice was severely reduced to folk remedies in small villages during times of war and invasion. Ayurveda remained virtually unpracticed well into the 20th century (3). In the 1940s, when Indian revolutionaries, such as Mahatma Ghandi, began a nationalist movement towards Indian freedom from Great Britain, a cultural awakening of Ayurveda occurred. When people began to celebrate India’s culture, history, and heritage, Ayurveda was naturally brought back into the spotlight as the desired medicinal system competing against the allopathic medical system of the West introduced to India by Great Britain. After India became officially free in 1947, Ayurveda gained recognition from the first Health Minister’s Conference as a part of the National Health network of India (4). Since its rebirth in the 1950s, Ayurveda has existed side by side with conventional allopathic medicine. It has changed dramatically since its beginnings more than 5000 years ago. Now, Ayurvedic practitioners use modern technology to diagnose illnesses rather than relying on spiritual principles to explain causes of disease. However, their practices to cure and heal still remain relatively unchanged. References: 1. Life Positive.com. “Ayurveda: Introduction”. http://www.lifepositive.com/ayurveda.html. 2000. (Accessed: November 29, 2006). 2. AllAyurveda.com. “Discover Ayurveda”. http://www.allayurveda.com/discover.htm. Date Unknown. (Accessed: November 20, 2006). 3. Government of India- Department of AYUSH. “Ayurveda- Introduction”. http://indianmedicine.nic.in/html/ayurveda/ayurveda.htm#de. Date Unknown. (Accessed: November 20, 2006). 4. Ibid. |
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This website was created by Daniel Lim as a research project for:
HCOL 195-C: Ethnobotany- An Ecological Economics Perspective, Fall 2006
Professor Marta Ceroni
University of Vermont