Ayurveda is known as “Science of Life”. ‘Ayu’ means Life & ‘Veda’ means Science. Ayurveda is the oldest life science, which was originated in India thousands of years back. Ayurveda’s first reference was seen in Vedas.
Through verbal communication, Ayurveda was kept alive. After some years, Rishi’s started discussing and studying Ayurveda. i.e. Sambhas’s. Many respected Rishi’s of the ancient time wrote literature which is still referred to by Ayurveda students.
Majorly 3 Rishi’s
Acharya Charaka, Acharya Sushrut & Acharya Waghbhat wrote Charak Samhita, Sushrut Samhita & Ashtanghrudaya respectively, which have covered Ayurveda with details. They revealed the details of Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, Diseases & their treatments. In these Samhitas, all the clinical eight branches are described with their fundamental principles.
Acharya Sushrut
Acharya Sushrut is known as “God of Surgery” & Acharya Charak is known as “God of Medicine”. It has two main objectives
1) Prevention & Health. Means Ayurveda tells about how a healthy person should prevent our self from disease & maintain their health. 2) To treat the diseases of diseased individuals. This means how to cure a disease by Ayurvedic treatments. So in short, It deals with diseased as well as healthy people.
Ayurveda explains about Happy & Unhappy life. Ayurveda covers all parts of the life cycle from birth to death. It tells what is good & bad for a person (Do’s & Don’ts). Pancha Mahabhutas
Elements
As every material in this universe is made by Pancha mahabhutas, Our human body is also composed of Pancha Mahabhutas (Five Elements – 1) Prithvi (Earth), 2) Jal (water), 3) Agni (Fire), 4) Vayu (Air) & 5) Akash (Space).
Doshas
Ayurveda is based on 3 biological energies called Doshas. There are 3 doshas named Vata, Pitta & Kapha. A person is called healthy when these three doshas are balanced. Every individual has all these doshas.
Since birth, everyone has his own unchanged Prakriti (constitution). There are 7 types of Prakruti’s based on the predominance of these 3 doshas. According to age, place, food, living habits, etc some changes are found in the doshas, due to which imbalance of doshas happens & results in diseases. Ayurvedic treatments are helpful to maintain the balance of these 3 doshas.