Ayurveda

Ayurveda is the 'Knowledge or Science of Life'. According to Charaka, the ancient physician-sage, life is a unified state of the physical body, the cognitive organs, the mind and the soul, thus signifying a living being. Ayurveda deals with the maintenance of health and relief from disease. Susruta, another physician-sage of early times, defines the healthy state thus: 'A person whose somatic and psychic humours are in equilibrium, digestion is uniformly healthy, with normal functioning of the fundamental tissues of the body and body wastes, accompanied by the processes of the soul, cognitive organs and the mind, is said to be a healthy person'. The primary position given to humoral equilibrium indicates its importance in maintaining health. Any disequilibrium is considered to lead to disease. Health is the physiological maintenance of all the functions of the living being, while disease is the disturbance in the physiology. The contemporary practice of Ayurveda is based on the several hundred volumes of Classical treatises and on the official Formulary and Pharmacopoeia.