Herbal Treatment

Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine based on natural and holistic living, derives from two Sanskrit words- Ayu or life, and Veda or knowledge. This Science of Life analyses the human body through a combination of the body, mind and spirit. Ayurveda is based on man's symbiotic relationship with nature and its resources. According to ayurvedic teaching, everyone and everything in the universe consists of three basic forces or elements. In Sanskrit they are called vata, pitta and kapha (also spelled as vat, pit and kaph). They are thought to control all physical and mental processes and are compared to the workings of the wind, the sun and the moon:

• Vata is linked to the wind, which is constantly on the move, and controls the central nervous system.
• Pitta is like the sun, a source of energy. It controls the digestive system and all biochemical   processes.
• Kapha governs the balance of tissue fluid, controlling cell growth and the firmness of the body—rather as the moon governs the tides.Good health is believed to result from the three forces being in harmony—not unduly stronger or weaker than each other.

Bad health is said to occur when they are out of balance. Maintaining a harmony between the different elements is the key to the ayurvedic concept.

Get to know about the herbs and plants commonly used in Ayurveda. Ayurveda's mythological origins, though, are attributed to the Indo-European Nasatya or Aswins, twin physicians of the gods of the ancient Indo-European pantheon. Four thousand year old references to the Nasatya are found in the now extinct, Hurrian and Hittite languages in Turkey, and in the Sanskrit language in India. Ayurveda is considered the upaveda or accessory Veda to the Atharva Veda. The four Vedas are the world's oldest literary documents in an Indo-European language.

A classic ayurvedic text, that parallels the time frame of the Atharva Veda, is the Charaka Samhita. Written in the Indus Valley area around 1000 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in Sanskrit, it is a treatise on general medicine. This strongly suggests the probability that ayurveda, though of pan Indo-European origins earlier, had begun to evolve into a distinct entity within the subcontinent by the first millennium B.C.E.

Ayurveda's lasting influence in the non Indo-European sphere began after the rise and spread of Buddhism in the 6th century B.C.E. Buddhist monks introduced Ayurveda to China, Tibet, Korea, Mongolia and Sri Lanka, leaving a lasting legacy in their medical systems.

More recently, the German translation of an ayurvedic text that dates back to less than 1000 B.C.E., the Susruta Samhita, contributed to modern medicine the discipline of plastic surgery. Susruta mentions eight branches in ayurveda - General medicine, Surgery, ENT and Eye diseases, Toxicology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Sexology and Virility.