The Power of Histroy

The process of being receptive to the teachings of Ayurveda is a great deal related to appreciation of history. Like many of the historic events and books, Ayurveda too is an ancient science that is a representative of history. Whilst the records of the events are chiefly fact based, Ayurveda as a part of history represents stored knowledge. Thus the first step in the direction of comprehending Ayurveda would be to appreciate the potential and scope of history being a reserve of ancient knowledge.

The advanced man of today has traced back many evidences and is still in the process of tracing, identifying and comprehending the evidences of a glorious and thoughtful past. History in its most fascinating forms presents reserves of knowledge and facts that have proven to give foundation to many beliefs of man.

The mere sound of the word “history” creates automatic virtual images of what has been witnessed by eyes in the form of pictures, movies etc about various topics of historical importance.

Considering this “history” in the context of health, not many or rather any motion pictures or stills related to this part of history were ever made. This is one of the main reasons perhaps, behind people not knowing what Ayurveda is all about.

Shedding some light on the different historical texts of India and their relation to health which has been incorporated in Ayurveda-

The Jewels of India
Literature of Indian origin is vast. It includes various texts on various subjects. The ones that have given inputs in the formation of Ayurveda are:

1. Ramayana
2. Mahabharata
3. The Darshan Shastras
4. The Upanishads.
5. The Four Vedas – Rigveda, Yajurveda, Saamveda and Atharvaveda.

1) Ramayana and Mahabharata: The Indian civilisation began with the oldest documented evidences that go back to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These were the tales of kings and queens that resided in various parts of India.

Health – With regards to health, these texts tell tales of war. The various injuries suffered during the war time. Along with these they give information about how these injuries were cured using powerful herbs from the jungles. Some of these herbs are today used as medicines in western medicines to heal wounds.

After the epochs of Mahabharata and Ramayana, came the period of the Darshan Shastras.

2) Darshan Shastras:
Word meaning – Darshan – sight
Shastra - text.

The texts that destroyed the darkness of ignorance with the light of knowlegde.

These Shastras were written by people who were referred to as Acharyas. The word acharya comes from the Sanskrit root – achar which means good conduct. Thus acharyas were the people who followed good conduct (read towards healthy body and healthy mind). These people spend hours thinking and analysing nature and phenomena around them. Their motive behind writing the texts was to form a documentation of knowledge, put forth theories that explain phenomena around them, prove these theories. Knowledge in their terms meant the knowledge that was literally taking human kind away from the state of not understanding what’s happening. Fr e.g. – Ripening of a fruit, rain, different seasons etc.

To put it in today’s better known terminologies - they explored metaphysics. They explored it however not only as a branch of philosophy but as a part of science. In 300 B.C when the Greeks put forth the term metaphysics, they meant all those nature related questions which did not have a scientific proof yet and hence they were explained on the basis of philosophy. However as time progressed, so did science and when science began to explain all these phenomena metaphysics came to be known as a branch of science. Acharyas in India conceived these as science since the very beginning. The different Darshan Shastra's were

1. Pramana Shastra ~ epistemology – Nyay darshan and Vaisheshik darshan
2. Tatva shastra ~ ontology – Sankhya darshan
3. Manovidnyan. ~ Psychology – Yoga darshan

Thus they stored knowledge about the components of nature and the interactions between these various components to to explain various natural phenomena.

They did not quite stop here in this quest and went on to establish that the human being was a component of this same nature as well. They concluded that every change in the nature causes change in the human body and that it should be understood and appreciated and above all considered as a precipitating factor for achieving a state of good health.

3) The Vedas:
The Vedas as the word suggests are the knowledge bank. They are belived to be of a divine origin. They were compiled in a fairly modern time when the civilisation had begun to function. These Vedas were written so as to document rules of leading a healthy and happy life. They are four in number. Among the four Vedas, Ayurveda is an upaveda (sub branch) of Atharvaveda.

4) Ayurveda specific texts –

There are three main texts that were written that held the knowledge of Ayurveda.
The three authors undertook gruelling efforts to study the human body. They studied it through observations, dissection, and analytical experimentation. They referred to the Darshan Shastras and the Ramayan and Mahabharata for guidance and proceeded in their journey of forming a scientific system of medicine.

It must’ve taken years of hard work. They worshipped what they did and the process was almost like a “yagya”. They completed their work and compiled the “Bruhat Trayee”

1. Charaka Samhita
2. Sushruta Samhita
3. Ashtanga sangraha.

Many others followed after these.

Food for thought – Thus the Ayurvedic texts hold immense knowledge about the functioning of the human body and human mind. The science behind health is too deep to explore within the shallow scope of chemistry and biology. It takes years to understand this piece of work and considering the time a human spends in thinking about his “health”, it is hardly a task to explain why the realisation of good health dawns upon so late in life.