Various cultures of the past had their own system of medicine and this motivated Indian scholars to develop their own system of medicine. Gradually there hard work brought fruitful result in the form of development of Ayurveda. Ayurveda, 'The Science of Life' developed with the growth and evolution of Indian civilization and culture. Even the Vedas have mentioned about this science of medicine. Ayurveda was developed after a series of observations and analysis combined with patient labor of several investigators for thousand years. Though the status of Ayurveda faced a set back during the foreign rule, it emerged again post independence.
A full account of Ayurveda - Development and Status can be studied in Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita- the first compendia on Ayurvedic medicine and surgery. It is believed that Ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of health care that works based on the experiences and observations over the past several years. Ayurveda grew in two major schools and eight specializations. The two schools are namely, 'Atreya Sampradaya' and 'Dhanvantri Sampradaya', school of physicians and school of surgeons respectively.
In Charka Samhita you will get a description of about 600 drugs of plants, animals, mineral origin. This compendium deals with different branches of Ayurveda like anatomy, prognosis, aetiology and pathology. While Sushruta Samhita deals with the school of surgery and focuses on principles and theories of surgery. In this compendium you will get to know about bandaging, extraction, incision and excision along with a mention of about 650 Ayurveda drugs.
Human life and knowledge of preserving it as a going concern, in the face of overpowering and brute physical and biological environment, must have come into being almost simultaneously. It has to be so. There cannot be any other plausible explanation, other than this, to account for the continuity of human race and survival of its several highly developed cultures and civilisations. All known cultures of the past - Egyptian, Babylonian, Jewish, Greek, Indus -Valley etc. - had their own equally glorious and useful systems of medicine and health care.
In India, development and growth of such a body of knowledge known as Ayurveda, meaning science of life, was coeval with the growth and evolution of Indian civilization and culture. Vedas, which are considered to be the repositories of recorded Indian culture, have mention of this knowledge both in theoretical and practical form. There is discussion of theories about the composition of living and non-living matter, the physical, biochemical, biological, psychological and spiritual components of man and the vital motive forces working both inside and outside the body. In other ancient works there is mention of such current medical subject like anatomy, physiology, aetiology, pathology, treatment and environmental factors. This medical knowledge has been the work of ages. It is the out-come of the great power of observation, generalisation and analysis combined with patient labour of hundred of investigators spread over thousand of years. This knowledge has played so important a part in the development of Indian culture that it has been documented in an integrated form in the Vedas-the ancient most documented Indian wisdom and knowledge.. Most of the mythological and medico-religious genesis of Ayurveda is even today shrouded in the mist of antiquity.
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