Ayurveda is as science of life and a holistic system of medicine. In the present era revalidation of ayurvedic concepts is the prime need for its development and scientific validity. So need of the hour is to develop a proper methodology for research in Ayurveda and application of statistics to put it on scientific platform.

This book is based upon my experiences in research as a student, practitioner and teacher. The difficulties faced in understanding research as a student, my discoveries about what was applicable and inapplicable in the field as a practitioner, and my development of the ability effectively to communicate difficult concepts in simple language without sacrificing technicality and accuracy as a teacher have become the basis of this book.

This text book is divided in to two section part A comprises of research meth odology and part B comprises of medical statistics. Part A and part B are further di vided in to nine and eight chapters respectively. The script of the book is formatted in such a way that it will be suitable not only for undergraduates but also for postgraduates and research scholars of ayurveda. It also provides a comprehensive but consice presentation of how the research has to be planned, executed, analyzed and reported upon.

May this text book act as an effective stimulus for the students to gain firsthand knowledge of research methodology and medical statistics and ease their journey through a complex but fascinating subject and eventually develop interest and appreciation for the value of documentation. The development of this approach will then become the most exiciting and rewarding experience in their lives.

We look forward to receive opinions, comments and valuable suggestions from students and teachers, so that the book can be reviewed and revised form good to better status in the succeeding editions.

A complete biodata of both the authors is provided on the back side of this.

Research methodology is taught as a supporting subject in several ways in many academic disciplines such as health, education, psychology, social work, nursing, public health, library studies and marketing research. The core philosophical base for this book comes from my conviction that, although these disciplines vary in content, their broad approach to a research enquiry is similar. This book, therefore, is addressed to these academic disciplines.

It is true that some disciplines place greater emphasis on quantitative research and some on qualitative research. My own approach to research is a combination of both. Firstly, it is the objective that should decide whether a study be carried out adopting a qualitative or a quantitative approach. Secondly, in real life most research is a combination of both methods. Though they differ in the philosophy that under pins their mode of enquiry, to a great extent their broad approach to enquiry is similar. The quantitative research process is reasonably well structured whereas the qualitative one is fairly unstructured, and these are their respective strengths as well as weaknesses. I strongly believe that both are important to portray a complete picture. In addition, there are aspects of quantitative research that are qualitative in nature. It depends upon how a piece of information has been collected and analysed. Therefore I feel very strongly that a good researcher needs to have both types of skill. I follow a qualitative-quantitative-qualitative approach to an enquiry. This book, therefore, has been written to provide theoretical information in an operational manner about methods, procedures and techniques that are used in both approaches,