Many scholars consider Ayurveda to be the oldest healing science. In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “The Science of Life”. Ayurvedic knowledge originated in India more than 5000 years ago and is often called the “Mother of All Healing”. It comes from ancient Vedic culture and was taught for many thousands of years in an oral tradition of consummate teachers to their disciples. Some of this knowledge was printed a few thousand years ago, but much of it is inaccessible. The principles of many of the natural healing systems now familiar in the West are rooted in Ayurveda, including homeopathy and polarity therapy.
History of Ayurveda
Ayurveda has an ancient history from the 2nd century a.C. Ayurveda has its foundations established by the ancient schools of Hindu philosophical teachings called Vaisheshika and the school of logic called Nyaya. It is also related to the framework of the demonstration, known as Samkhya, and was established in the same period when the nyaya and Vaisheshika schools flourished.
The Vaisheshika School preached about the inferences and perceptions to be obtained about a patient’s pathological condition for treatment. Whereas nyaya school extended its teachings on the basis that one must have a broad knowledge of the patient’s condition and condition of the disease before proceeding with treatment.
Vaisheshika’s school classifies the attributes of any object into six types: substance, particularity, activity, generality, inherence, and quality called Dravya, Vishesha, Karma, Samanya, Samavaya, and Guna respectively, in Sanskrit language. Later, the Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools worked together and jointly founded the Nyaya – Vaisheshika school. In recent years, the Nyaya – Vaisheshika school gave glory to ancient knowledge and helped spread knowledge about Ayurveda.
Even before these schools were established and also today, the origin of Ayurveda is considered divine, from the Hindu god, Brahma, who is called as the creator of the universe. It is believed that the creator of the universe passed by. this holistic knowledge of the healing of sages for the well-being of humanity. Of the wise, knowledge of traditional medicines passed to the disciples and then to the common man through various writings and oral narratives. Information on the healing properties of herbs was composed in the form of poems, called “Shlokas“.
These were used by the sages to describe the use of medicinal plants. The Hindu healing system is believed to be based on four eminent compilations of knowledge (Vedas) called Yajur Veda, Rig Veda, Sam Veda and Atharva Veda. The Rig Veda is the best known of the four Vedas and describes 67 plants and 1028 Shlokas. The Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda describe 293 and 81 plants of medicinal utility.
Ayurveda’s practice is based on the knowledge gained from these Vedas. The writings in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda are attributed to “Atreya“, who is believed to have received this knowledge from Lord Indra, who initially received it from Lord Brahma. Agnivesha compiled the knowledge of the Vedas, and was edited by Charaka and some other scholars and is now called “Charaka Samhita”.
Charaka Samhita describes all aspects of Ayurvedic medicine and Sushruta Samhita describes the science of surgery. Both legendary collections are still used by practitioners of traditional medicine. These ancient texts are available in various translations and languages such as Tibetan, Greek, Chinese, Arabic and Persian. There are several other minor allied compilations such as Nighantu Granthas, Madhava Nidana and Bhava Prakasha from the contributions of various scholars, however Charaka Samhita is the most respected of all records.
Ancient Stories 