Traditional System Of Indian Medicine Ayurveda The Background

Author(s): V V Gokhle
Publisher: V V Gokhle

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particular animals." 4. (iii) Qualitative change in substances
Another point regarding the relationship of the living body with its environment is that the material stuff available to the body could either serve as its nutrition (poşaņa) or as a curative drug (aușadhi) or as a poison (visa). The Ayurveda is seen to have studied all these three aspects very minutely on the basis of observation and experiment and have described in detail how, in many cases, a particular capacity (e.g. that of acting as poison) could be converted into a different capacity (e. g. that of acting as a drug) when the stuff is suitably combined with certain dietetic conditions or subjected to certain pharmacological treatment. 4. (iv) The theory of Three Humours (Tri-dosa)
For appreciating this, we have to take a look at the most fundamental theory, developed and applied by Ayurveda in its medical practice. This theory concerns the origin of all diseases and it lays down three humours (or vitiating agencies) known as Tridoşa, viz., Wind (vāta), Bile (pitta) and Phlegm (kapha) which, if they keep in harmony. (sāmya) keep the body healthy, but fallen into disharmony (vaişamya) produce disease. This theory again rests on the neatly presentedevolutionary philosophy of the Sāmkhya. We have seen above, that the five material elements (viz., Earth, Water etc.) together with their corresponding sense-organs evolve themselves into what is called a living being, whose well-being and longevity is the subjectmatter of the Ayurveda. But the Sāmkhya goes back still further to find that in their turn all those elements, including the physical as well as the mental, owe their existence to three creative factors (called “guņa"), viz. (1) the Sattva (Intrinsic Purity), (2) the Rajas (Activity), and (3) the Tamas (Inertia), and it is these three which are represented in the human body as (1) Pitta (Bile), (2) Vāta (Wind) and (3) Kapha (Phlegm) respectively. Thus, we have here a picture of that cosmic unity of which life is a product. And in this product, the five material elements : Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Space, which build up the natural world, have their due share. This could be shown in a sort of a geneaological table, in which the cosmic factors : (1) Sattva, (9)
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