Category: Health Services

Tags: History of Ayurveda, Principles of Ayurveda, Ayurveda and sleep, Types of Sleep according to Ayurveda

Five Ayurveda Practices to Help You Sleep Better “The great thing about Ayurveda is that its treatments always yield side benefits, not side effects. What comes to your mind when I say ayurveda? Spa….costly herbal cosmetics…panchakarma….kerala…Goa? Well let me give you a brief introduction to ‘ayurveda’ today. Ayurveda is the ’the knowledge of life’. It cherishes our innate nature. It tell us to ‘honour and love who we are’ not what others think ‘what we should be’ . Ayurveda is an ancient system of Indian medicine which is now accepted worldwide. It has a (much advertised and now very popular) holistic approach ( now are you interested?) towards life and prescribes nature based medicines to various diseases. If our ancient wisdom fascinates you then you must be interested to know about the history of ayurveda. This traditional Indian science originated in the Vedic era. Well, I am sure you know about Vedas. In case you want me to remind you once more, Vedas are the oldest sacred texts that mark Hinduism. According to historians, Ayurveda belongs to ‘Atharvaveda’( the four vedas being: Yajurveda, Rig veda, Sam veda and Atharvaveda). However the mention of medicinal plants and diseases are also found in the ‘Rig veda’. The most ancient codified document of Ayurveda is the Charaka Samhita. Another codified document is Sushruta Samhita. The Charaka tradition descended through Atreya whereas the Sushruta tradition descended through Dhanvantari (The God of Hindu Medicine). If you are a fan of mythology you must recall ‘samudra manthan’. According to some beliefs, that’s when Lord Dhanvantari originated. The sushruta school is basically dominated by surgery whereas Charaka Samhita focuses on internal medicine.