Ayurveda is, one of the most ancient of the health systems in the world that has had an uninterrupted practice stretching over the last two millennia and beyond. Accordingly, its origins and antiquity are widely debated. What is, however, universally accepted is that this health system has been in practice in several regions in India through all of recorded history.

Ayurveda is best understood as a science of life rather than a mere stream of health system. Here we present a brief introduction to the science of Ayurveda from the well known texts dealing with Ayurveda.

DEFINITION OF AYURVEDA


          “Hita ahitam sukham dukham ayu tasya hita ahitam
          Maanam cha tat cha yatroktham Ayurveda sah uchyatae”
                                                                  Charaka Samhitha.

The science which describes the advantageous and disadvantageous, happy and unhappy states of life, things good and bad for life, the measurement of the above said factors and the life itself is called Ayurveda.

Ayurveda when split becomes Ayuh and Veda. The term Ayuh means life and the term Veda means the science or the knowledge, so the term Ayurveda means the knowledge or the science of life. 

Ayurveda is considered to be one of the upavedas of the atharvanaveda and was passed down to us in form of sutras or small phrases written in the form of poetry.

The knowledge contained in Ayurveda deals with the nature, scope and purpose of the life, Ayurveda embraces the metaphysical and physical, health and disease, happiness and sorrow, pain and pleasure.

Swasthasya swasthya rakshanam aturasya roga nivaranam

Ayurveda is the art of daily living in harmony with the laws of the nature. The main aim and objective are to maintain the perfect health of a healthy person through prevention and to cure the disease in an unhealthy person through proper diet, lifestyle, panchakarma and rejuvenation.

The ancient texts of Ayurveda beautifully explain how effectively a person can prevent the diseases. Ayurveda emphasizes on the dinacharya (daily regimes) which explains all the activities that a person should follow right from the time he/she wakes up in the morning till bed-time. A detailed description regarding the lifestyle, diet and the activities that a person should do during the respective seasons is explained in the rtucharya (seasonal regimes). 

flatulence, urination, sneeze, cough, sleep, thirst, hunger etc. in order to prevent diseases. These are normal physiological activities of the body intended to eliminate the unwanted material. The process of such elimination is a chain reaction initiated and carried out by the nervous system. Suppressing it not only stops the elimination of wastes but also brings about strain and disorders of the nervous system leading to many diseases.

Suppressible urges : One desirous of his well being during his lifetime and after should suppress urges relating to rashness and evil deed – mentally, orally and physically. Such urges that should be suppressed by a wise person are listed below.

Mental Urges	Oral Urges	Physical Urges
urges relating to greed, grief, fear, anger, vanity, shamelessness, jealousy, excessive attachment and malice	Urge to speak extremely harsh words, back-biting, lying and usage of untimely words.	Urge to commit violence to others whatsoever, other physical urges including adultery, theft and prostitution.

THE CONCEPT OF THE TRIDOSAS


          “Vayuh pittam kapha cha iti thrayoh dosah samasathah
            Vikrutha avikrutha deham ghnanthi te vardhayanthi cha”
                                                                               (Astanga Hridayam) 



           “Sarva shareeracharasthu vata pitta shleshmana sarvasmin
             Shareerae kupitha akupitha shubha ashubhani kurvanthi”           
                                                                                (Charaka Samhitha)

This is a pivotal concept on which the entire corpus of the Ayurvedic theory and practice is built. It is vata, pitta and kapha which move in the whole body and along with the dhathu (body tissue) and mala (faeces) carry out the various biological processes and simultaneously produce good or ill effects upon the entire systems according to the normal or the provoked states.

The normal state of the dosa is the prakrti i.e. ones own normal constitution and the abnormal state is the vikrti or the diseased stage.

AROGYA AND THE DOSAS 


               “Sama dosa samaagnischa sama dhathu mala kriyah
            Prasanna atma indriyah manah swastha iti abhideeyathae”
                                                                                 (Sushrutha Samhitha)

Arogya or the normal health is the state when the individual is experiencing himself. This is the state when the individual’s dosa, Agni, dhathu, and mala are functioning in their optimum and the Indriya atma manas (sense organs) are in a prasanna avastha i.e. they all function to their optimum.

It is this dosas that have the ability to corrupt or vitiate all the dooshyas, has the capability to give rise to a constitution or prakrti to an individual, and finally the ability to trigger the samprapti i.e. the process that leads to the genesis of the disease.

All the dosas undergo diurnal as well as seasonal changes and the samana dravyas or the quality or the action similar to the dosa will augment them and the dissimilar factors will cause the diminution.

Dosas having varied qualities functioning in tandem with normalcy, contribute to the possible health of the individual and the knowledge of their qualities helps to understand their functions in the normalcy so that clinically the changes in the dosas can be tackled or managed by the appropriate use of aahara (food), ousadha (medicine), and vihara (activities) so that they reinstate the equilibrium of the deranged dosa gunas.

The cleansing or elimination treatments are commonly referred to as Panchakarma.

ASHTANGA AYURVEDA

CONCEPT OF SAPTA DHATUS