Doctor Bon

The origins of Ayurveda are shrouded in antiquity. Legend says that Brahma the creator, a part of the Hindu holy trinity of gods, first perceived it and taught it to his son, Dakshaprajapati. Subsequently, lord Dhanwantari, the god of healing and the teacher of the medical science passed it on to the prominent Hindu sages Atreya, Bharadvaja, kashyapa, sushruta, parashara, and charaka.

Sage Atreua’s disciple agnivesha is said to have written the original agnivesha sambita around 1000 BC which has come down to us in the form of charakasambita. This text is considered an authoritative pronouncement of Ayurvedic doctrine. Its present form goes back to the seventh century BC.

Sage Charaka defines Ayurveda as ‘the science through which one can obtain knowledge about the useful and harmful types of life (bita and abita ayus), happy and miserable types of life, things which are useful and harmful for such types of life, the span of life as well as the very nature of life’. Ayurveda thus emphasizes on hot only leading a happy life from an individualistic point of view but also aims to be beneficial t society as a whole.