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<div style="text-align:justify;">[[Ayurveda]], the Science of Life, traces back its origins to the Vedic ages in India. Considered a supplement to the Vedas, Ayurveda is a comprehensive system of health that focuses on leading a healthy life, helping an individual do his righteous duties (''dharma''), acquire wealth (''artha'') and gratification of desires (''kama''), and attain emancipation (''moksha'').

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For thousands of years, Ayurveda evolved through a process of scientific inquiry involving the ''loka'' (communities or societies). Within communities, scientific knowledge was created by an interchange of information between patients, physicians, and researchers. Teachers would pass their wisdom – updated with this scientific inquiry and application of their own learnings- to their students in an interactive manner, through what was called as the ''Guru-Shishya'' tradition. This knowledge was documented in the ''Brihatrayi'' , of which the [[Charak Samhita]] is considered the most important and definitive.

==Ayurveda==

<h2 id="mp-itn-h2" style="background:#cedff2; font-family:inherit; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">The Treatise</h2>

[[Ayurveda]], the Science of Life, traces back its origin to the Vedic ages in India. Considered a supplement to the Vedas, [[Ayurveda]] is a comprehensive system of health that focuses on leading a healthy life, helping an individual do his righteous duties (''dharma''), acquire wealth (''artha'') and gratification of desires (''kama''), and attain emancipation (''moksha'').

<div style="text-align:justify;">As mentioned earlier, the [[Charak Samhita]] is Ayurveda’s definitive treatise and the most referenced text of students, scholars, teachers, physicians and researchers of Ayurveda. As a text, the [[Charak Samhita]] epitomizes one of the finest examples of classical Vedic teacher-student (''Guru-Shishya'') interactions ever recorded and written, either in ancient or modern times. Though literally meaning the “Compendium of Charak”, it was actually not authored by Charak, an ancient physician of renown. Rather Charak redacted an earlier text called the Agnivesha Tantra, believed to have been written circa 1000 BCE by Agnivesha, a disciple of the legendary Vedic sage, Punarvasu Atreya. The term “Charak” is derived from the root Sanskrit word, ''Char'', or “move about”. There are no chronological records marking the evolution of the body of knowledge that is Ayurveda, but it is speculated that Charak lived sometime in the 8th century, BCE, and a scholar named Dridhabala (300 CE) worked on to restore some lost portions of the text.  

For thousands of years, [[Ayurveda]] evolved through a process of scientific inquiry involving the communities or societies (''loka''). Within communities, scientific knowledge was created by an interchange of information between patients, physicians, and researchers. Teachers would pass on their wisdom – updated with this scientific inquiry and application of their own learnings- to their students in an interactive manner, called as the ''Guru-Shishya'' (teacher/student) tradition. This knowledge was documented in the ''Brihatrayi'' (three major treatise), of which the [[Charak Samhita]] is considered the most important and definitive. However, due to suppression by foreign invaders and rulers of India for several centuries, Ayurveda went through its period of stagnation, or dark ages. There were no new updates or revisions to Ayurvedic text, for centuries. With the advent of modern medicine with focus on disease management, [[Ayurveda]] was relegated to relative obscurity.

 

Today, as leading thinkers are searching for more effective definitions of health, [[Ayurveda]] is again in the spotlight. The new edition of the [[Charak Samhita]], with updated inferences and applications, is one step in re-initiating that process of interaction between teachers and scholars to help researchers in their quest for more effective solutions to problems of health.

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the [[Charak Samhita]] epitomizes one of the finest examples of classical ''Vedic'' teacher-student (''Guru-Shishya'') interactions ever recorded, either in ancient or modern times. Though literally meaning the “Compendium of Charak”, it was actually authored by Agnivesh, an ancient physician of renown. Charak redacted the text called the Agnivesha tantra, believed to have been written circa 1000 BCE by Agnivesha, a disciple of the legendary Vedic sage, Punarvasu Atreya. There are no chronological records marking the evolution of the body of knowledge that is Ayurveda, but it is speculated that Charak lived sometime in the 8th century, BCE. A scholar named Dridhabala (300 CE) worked on to restore some lost portions of the text.

In the last two thousand years, the popularity of [[Charak Samhita]] spread beyond the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent, when it was translated into Arabic (8th century CE) and Persian (10th century CE). With the spread of Buddhism, it got translated into Tibetan and subsequently, Mongolian languages. Approximately 43 commentaries in Sanskrit were written through centuries – of which, Chakrapanidutta’s Ayurveda Deepika (or the Light of Ayurveda) is considered the most authoritative.

In the last two thousand years, the popularity of [[Charak Samhita]] spread beyond the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent, when it was translated into Arabic (8th century CE) and Persian (10th century CE). With the spread of Buddhism, it got translated into Tibetan and subsequently, Mongolian languages. Approximately 43 commentaries in Sanskrit were written through centuries – of which, Chakrapanidutta’s Ayurveda Deepika (or the Light of Ayurveda) is considered the most authoritative.

In terms of its contents, while the Samhita addresses eight specialized branches of medicine, including Internal Medicine (''Kayachikitsa''), Supraclavicular/Ear, Nose and Throat (''Shalakya''), surgery (''Shalya''), toxicology (''Vishagarvyrodhikachikitsa''), demonology including psychiatry (''Bhutavidya''), pediatrics (''Kaumarabhritya''), science of rejuvenation (''Rasayana''), and science of infertility medicine and aphrodisiacs (''Vajeekarana''), it is ''Kayachikitsa'' that is considered the prime area of focus of the [[Charak Samhita]]. In terms of its contents, it could have the unique distinction of being the only texts available worldwide on restorative science, emphasizing on the promotion of health and prevention of disease as the actual solution for controlling diseases, which is especially relevant in modern times. Further, it also seriously dwells upon the concept of longevity and healthy aging, as described in its chapters on ''Swasthavritta Chatushka'' and four ''padas'' of ''Rasayana Adhyayas''.  

 

In terms of its contents, the Samhita addresses eight specialized branches of medicine, including Internal Medicine (''Kayachikitsa''), Ear, Nose and Throat (''Shalakya''), surgery (''Shalya''), toxicology (''Vishagarvyrodhikachikitsa''), demonology and psychiatry (''Bhutavidya''), pediatrics (''Kaumarabhritya''), science of rejuvenation (''Rasayana''), infertility medicine and aphrodisiacs (''Vajeekarana''). It is Kayachikitsa that is considered the prime area of focus.

 

In terms of its structure, the [[Charak Samhita]] consists of 120 chapters broken into eight sections, or ''Sthana''. The text is written partly in the form of verses, or ''shloka'', and partly in prose. In the last chapter of the last section of the [[Charak Samhita]] ([[Siddhi Sthana]], 12/52), it has been indicated that there are 12000 verses in the text. However, the extant versions of the treatise seem to have 8419 verses and 1111 prose paragraphs. Thus, some 2000 verses seem to have been lost in the course of its existence. The treatise’s first section – [[Sutra Sthana]] – lays the foundational principles of Ayurveda in 30 chapters.  

In terms of its structure, the [[Charak Samhita]] consists of 120 chapters broken into eight sections, or ''Sthana''. The text is written partly in the form of verses, or ''shloka'', and partly in prose. In the last chapter of the last section of the [[Charak Samhita]] ([[Siddhi Sthana]], 12/52), it has been indicated that there are 12000 verses in the text. However, the extant versions of the treatise seem to have 8419 verses and 1111 prose paragraphs. Thus, some 2000 verses seem to have been lost in the course of its existence. The treatise’s first section – [[Sutra Sthana]] – lays the foundational principles of Ayurveda in 30 chapters.