Essentials of Ayurveda

The present Book on Essentials of Ayurveda has been aimed to provide a complete background of main Ayurvedic fundamentals, the Indian philosophical basis and the primitive historical aspects of Ayurveda. These are the essential footings for a student of Basic Principles of Ayurveda. The first part of the book has been completely devoted to basic components of life, the theory of evolution, the theory of Pancamahabhutas, Dosa-dhatu-mala vijnanas, Rasa-guna-virya-vipakas, agni-vyapar, aeteopathogenesis of diseases, vyadhiksamatva or immunity and the phenomenon of rebirth or punarjanma. The efforts have been made to fulfill the purpose in general to have a critical dispassionate and scientific study of above said Ayurvedic fundamentals and doctrines so that they may be understood in a proper way, with a view to apply the same intelligently and with advantage in practice. The second part embodies two sections viz., the Indian philosophical aspects and the primitive historical aspects of Ayurveda. Dealing with the philosophical aspects, an effort has been made to incorporate both the theistic and atheistic approaches of Indian system of philosophy. Carvaka, Jain and Bauddha darsanas have been precisely ascribed with a view to make the subject matter understandable to both the Ayurvedic and philosophical disciplines of students. Nyaya and Vaisesikas, have been dealt with full of their essentials and at the end an endeavor has been made to throw light on the synthesis of both the systems coming up under the heading of Navya-Nyaya system of Indian philosophy. Similarly, in Vedant system of philosophy, besides the Sankara (Advaita or monism) and Ramanujacarya (Qualified monism) views, the advaita propositions of Madhavacarya have also been incorporated to aim the subject matter get completed in its all respects. The section on primitive historical aspects of Ayurveda enlightens only the early phases of western and eastern history of medicine and more emphasis has been given to deal with and to establish a cronological development of Ayurveda with a view to bring it upto the stage of commencement of present scientific era of medicine. Aim behind this approach was to develop a link in between the unrecorded and recorded history of Indian System of medicine. Details of recorded history of Ayurveda have been knowingly ignored just to avoid the work become more voluminous. It is hoped and trusted that the material presented in all the three parts of small prints will serve the purpose of basic students and research scholars and will be-of great value to those who wishes to persue the subject more deeply.