Charaka Samhita: Reorganised (Set of 2 Volumes)

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Charaka Samhita has been the most important treatise on Ayurveda for several centuries. It gives complete authentic knowledge on the great ancient medical science of India. Millions of students, teachers and practitioners have been benefitted by the book.

During the past few decades, the structure of Ayurvedic degree courses has undergone some changes keeping in line with modem academic trend. The course contents, though strictly adhere to ancient Samhitas, have been redesigned. Simultaneously learning techniques have also changed from memory centric to concept centric. The focus of the student is now on quick reference, based on subject and topic.

Keeping in view this objective of easy referencing for the present day students, teachers, researchers and practitioners, the current book "Charaka Samhita: Reorganised" has been written by regrouping all the verses into content-wise sections and chapters. The book has everything that is there in the Charaka Samhita and does not have anything that is not there in the Samhita. However, reorganisation is meant for referring any topic very easily.

The book is expected to be helpful to all interested in the great Indian medical science - Ayurveda, not only today, but over several generations to come across the globe.

Dr. Gayatridevi is a practising Ayurvedic physician for about three and half decades. In order to make available the expertise she has gained through her experience, she has chosen to write books for students of Ayurveda as well as common readers. Her popular books in Telugu titled Prakriti Varaalu (in 2 parts), Ayurveda Saram, Putrakameshti and Ammayi Amma Ammamma giving medical advice to people of various ages and stages in life have been very helpful in adopting natural lifestyle for overall improvement of health. She has also translated a book on Asanas - Why and How into Telugu. Her textbooks written as Made Easy series in English on Padartha Vijnana, Streeroga, Prasutitantra and Kaya Cikitsa (in 2 parts) are proving to be very helpful and reader-friendly to Ayurvedic students across the country.

In addition to writing books, she has been writing health columns in Telugu journals and magazines and giving TV programs on health for the benefit of people. She has presented her work on Yoga and Ayurveda in various seminars and conferences including the international conferences at Chandigarh, India and New York, USA. As recognition of her work and service to society for the improvement of health, she has received several prestigious awards that include "Adarsa Vanitha Puraskaram", "Uttama Mahila Puraskaram" and "Sriramanavami Pratibha Puraskaram".

Why This Book?

Charaka refined the original Agnivesha Samhita and since then the Samhita is being called as Charaka Samhita. As time passed, some parts of the Samhita were probably lost. Therefore, a few centuries after Charaka refined the original Agnivesha Samhita, Dridhabala had to rewrite, by reconstructing the lost parts. This rewritten Samhita has since then been serving as the authentic textbook on Ayurveda.

There have been translations of the Samhita into various languages. Several commentaries have been written on it. However, the structure and contents of the Charaka Samhita as written by Dridhabala were retained intact, without any changes.

With all due respects to all the rishis and the gurus of the ancient and modern era, I have taken up the task of reorganising the Samhita as "Charaka Samhita: Reorganised". Let me at the outset make it clear that I have not taken up this reorganising task because I felt that there were any shortcomings in the Charaka Samhita. I know the greatness of the book and competence of its authors. Yet, I undertook this bold task of reorganising; let me explain why I took this courageous step.

There have been several changes in the education system and the learning methods during the recent past. Earlier, the students of Ayurveda used to memorise the entire text of Charaka Samhita and recollected the relevant verse as and when required. It is not the case now. At present the students of the ayurvedic courses in colleges are studying Ayurveda as separate subjects like Sarira Kriya, Sarira Rachana, Swasthavritta, Ahara, Dravyaguna, Nidana, Kaya Chikitsa, Visha Vijnana, Streeroga, Prasuti Tantra and Salya Tantra. They need not memorise the entire text. They can refer to the Samhita for any specific subject or topic as and when needed.

Charaka Samhita, when it was originally written, did not factor for such random references. Accordingly its organisation was perhaps not intended to suit the way Ayurveda is studied now. Therefore, today's students sometimes may find it difficult to search for the topic they require. In fact, I myself faced such occasional difficulty to find a reference.

It is to address the needs of such students, researchers and faculty of today, I have reorganised the Samhita. My attempt of re-arrangement of the slokas is to make reading or referring any topic easy. I trust that scholars will appreciate my humble attempt to be genuine and useful.

Who am I to Write the Foreword?

The first question I have to address is "Who am I to write the foreword?"- foreword to this book on the Charaka Samhita; a book by Dr Gayatridevi, an Ayurvedic consultant with over three and a half decades of experience; a book in which she has reorganised the Charaka Samhita to meet the needs of the twenty-first century reader?

The answer to the question is simple. I am the husband of Dr Gayatridevi and that is my sole qualification to write a foreword to her book. As her husband, I had the opportunity to observe her from very close quarters for the past thirty-six years. I have been actively associated with her writings, including her PhD thesis on Ayurveda and Yoga, as a first reader and sometimes a critic. I read and re-read the concepts she has been putting together in her thesis and other books.

I have also been having the opportunity to listen to her recollections from her consultancy. Quite often, she described the diseases and her advices on treatment without ever revealing the details of her patients as she considers the patient-doctor relationship sacrosanct. Though I could not learn much about diseases and treatments, I got a broad sense of the human body and mind in the two states-wellness and illness. In the process, I realized that it is not easy to draw a line between those two states.

It was Dr Gayatridevi's thoughts that made me reflect on the fundamental questions of what health and ill-health are. They made me ruminate over how generation after generation human beings have been discovering new methods and techniques to understand disease, its symptoms and treatment. They made me mull over the evolutionary role of theory and practice of medicine. In the process, I have accumulated several questions. I always believe that raising questions is the beginning to explore new vistas of knowledge. Therefore, I am raising a few important questions in this foreword with a reasonable degree of confidence that this book by Dr Gayatridevi holds satisfactory answers to most of the questions.

How does Questioning Help?

If Darwin's Theory of Evolution were to be believed, then human beings descended over a very long period of time from apes, who themselves descended from the earlier species over a similar or even longer period of time. Further, if we were to believe the theories proposed by anthropologists, then there was a time not long ago when our ancestors roamed around forests like apes and other animals. Keeping our doubts about veracity of these theories aside, let us for the time being accept them to be true. Let us imagine that human beings lived not only without Internet and electricity but also without wheel and fire in dark continents in darker ages. Let us presume that they were hunting for food, protecting themselves from predators, sheltering from extremities of weather and procreating themselves. Like all other animals do even today.