The Roots of Ayurveda (Penguin Classics)

THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING A SUCCINCT AND RELEVANT SUMMARY OF EXCERPTS FROM MAJOR AYURVEDIC TEXTS SO I CAN INTEGRATE THEM INTO MY STUDY OF AYURVEDA. THERE IS NO OTHER BOOK LIKE THIS AND IT DESERVES NOT JUST POPULARITY BUT THE SPOT OF A REQUIRED READ IN ALL AYURVEDA PRACTITIONER CIRLCES.

Ayurveda, whose Sanskrit name means "the science of longevity" is an ancient (perhaps the most ancient) art of healing, that has been practiced in India for millenia and survives today as a living medical tradition whose principles are at the heart of many alternative, complementary and "holistic" therapies now increasingly popular in the West. According to myth, Ayurveda is said to have materialized at the beginning of time, when life itself was created - born of the mind of Lord Brahma, creator of the universe, and transmitted through Indra, Dhanvantari and other deities to humankind for the sake of relieving suffering. It is therefore thought to have no concrete beginning and will thus continue until the end of creation.Ayurveda's exact roots are difficult to reckon as its practices do indeed go back to the mists of primordial antiquity around the time when people started to cultivate crops and herd animals, settle in communities and become conscious of their own welfare, synchronously awakening to the fact that they had to take measures to improve and preserve their lives and when fallen ill restore their health.While it is hard to set a concrete time when actual Ayurvedic practices came about, by the time of the Indus Valley Civilization (whose earliest antecedents at Mehrgar trace back to about 7,000 BCE), Ayurveda was well developed and the attitude of people towards health practices was advanced. The ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were intricately planned to include drainage systems, public wells and waste removal structures indicating their appreciation of proper sanitation. Excavations of these cities found stag-horn and cuttlefish bone suggesting that vegetables, animals and minerals were used as sources for drugs (stag horn and cuttlefish bone are known to be useful in treating cardiac pain and respiratory disorders and, interestingly, among many of these ancient remedies are still used in Ayurveda today).In addition to the use of certain drugs, Indus peoples placed great emphasis on personal hygiene and fitness, and with their efficient techniques, sound thinking about health matters and insightful knowledge into therapeutics, the Indus Valley Civilization played a vital role in the early development of Ayurveda. In addition to its great age, dating Ayurveda is made all the more difficult by the fact that its canon was reduced to writing very late in its development, having existed solely in oral form for countless centuries."The Roots of Ayurveda" brings together selections from the Sanskrit classics of Ayurveda's founding rishis, seers and sages: physicians Charaka, Sushruta, Kashyapa, Vagabhata and Sarangadhara who likely lived between the mid-first millennium BCE up to the fourteenth century CE. Their encyclopedic works included discourses on the structure and function of the physical body; the therapeutic natures and actions of a great many plant and mineral drugs; the surgical treatment and repair of trauma and a great many other kinds of surgical operations; the circumstances leading to the miscarriage and the means to be utilized to ensure a maximum number of births of male children; the means for arresting and reversing the ravages of aging - these are among the aspects of speculative and practical interest described in Ayurveda's foundational works which are ably translated and described in detail in this volume. Here readers will find wide-ranging and fascinating advice on the benefits of garlic therapy, prayers for protection against malevolent disease deities, exercise regimens, the treatment of poisons, the interpretation of dreams, and much more.The translations - which are from the oldest extant writings of the physicians rather than later commentaries - are in standard modern English. But care has been taken not to transpose English medical terms onto the Ayurvedic concepts. Author Dominik Wujastyk's authentic, critical and reader-friendly renderings of original Sanskrit medical texts offer us a glimpse into Ayurveda as a complete, scientific and living medical tradition.This is a very concise but nonetheless comprehensive distillation of the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda's classics, the Sushrutha Samhita (the surgical compendium), the Charaka Samhita (the internal medicine compendium) and the Ashtanga Hridaya (the Eightfold Heart of Medicine), to name only the most important. This volume is highly recommended for newcomers to Ayurveda and those interested in developing an appreciation for the historical side of the practice and the unique flavor of its literary cadence. It is also a very worthwhile read for students of Hinduism, ancient India and medical anthropology as well as the history of science generally. Dr. Dominik Wujastyk has done a wonderful service for the Ayurvedic community in producing this thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening work.

I bought this book on a whim. Every now and again Penguin Classics throws out something completely different - and this book is one of them.This book is basically an anthology of Indian medical literature. It includes authors such as Caraka, Susruta, Kasyapa, Vaghhata and Sarngadhara. Don't know them? Well, this is an excellent chance to find out more. Unfortunately, the biographical information is fairly sparse and the manuscript tradition confused as many of these texts were re-edited, added to and interloped over the centuries. For example Susruta (or Sushruta) is dated anywhere between 1500 BC to the first century AD. Indian nationalists tend to go for the earlier date to prove the priority of Ayurveda over Greek medicine represented by Hippocrates (and Galen).Dominik Wujastyk provides an extensive 45 page introduction to Ayurveda and each author gets his own brief introduction as well. As with Greek medicine there is a combination of practical and senseable advice (not to mention advanced!) and crazy superstition. I was impressed that plastic surgery on the ears and nose was known so early in Susrata's Compendium. The advice he gives on the removal of arrows, darts and splinters is great. Very practical and obviously based on experience. Then Susrata has a section on bloodletting which is based on the same misconceptions as Greco-Roman medicine. The sound advice of Caraka and Susrata on childbirth is contrasted with Kasyapa's view that a demoness named Revati is the cause of miscarriage and child death. Another example is in Caraka when he claims bad rulers cause epidemics because the gods punish the bad ruler's subjects. Earlier Caraka had mentioned the usual causes of bad air, bad water and bad location.An interesting section by Vagbhata on the places on the body that are lethal points - either quick or slow - was fun to read.As a bonus this book includes a translation of a small tract from the Bower manuscript on garlic. The Bower Manuscript was discovered in 1890 in the ruins of a Central Asian Buddhist monastery. It is a series of palm leaves and dates from the 5th century AD, making it one of the oldest Sanskrit manuscripts. Garlic is really lauded as a cure for practically everything.

Great historical background in to Ayurveda. A great introduction.