Symposium on

“THE DOCTRINES & EMPIRICAL DIMENSIONS OF VASTI KARMA”

25th and 26th November 2011

SOUVENIR

Exploring the new frontiers in academic and

scientific Ayurveda

Dept. of Ayurveda,Kasturba Medical College,

Manipal University, Manipal

From the desk of H. O. D……….

Ayurvision

A MISSION WITH A VISION

Before the days of modern medicine, societies around the world had their own ways of preventing and

treating illness. These were based on local beliefs, religion and culture. Ayurveda, is one such system. It

started in India thousands of years ago with roots in the Indian culture and religion. Roughly translated,

"Ayurveda" means "the science of life."

“It needed a scientific age for the world to appreciate the full dignity of Ayurveda as a holistic system

of perfect health. Now it has become clear to the world of science that every thing in the universe has

its basis in the ‘unified field’ and everything can be successfully handled from this one area. It is this

that has authenticated Ayurveda’s holistic approach to perfect health for both individual and society.

Ayurveda today stands as the technology of the ‘unified field’ for perfect health of the individual of

the nation, and of the world as a whole”

- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

India has a large infrastructure for teaching and clinical care training under Indian systems of Medicine

and teaching and training has been availed of according to the curriculum set up by the Central Council

of Indian Medicine. The diagnosis and treatment of various ailments, use of drugs and Ayuvedic

profession as a whole has its basis to the education based on authoritative texts recognized for these

systems, but, the scientific validation of the treatment has not been done on a wide scale. The off take

and output from these institutions has so far been limited and has not been able to meet the standards

for scientific enquiry. In the present era of globalization and development of a world market for

Ayurveda as a whole (education, research and medical care delivery), research and development is

needed.

Ayurvision is a step towards standardizing Ayurvedic Clinical practice, based on which depends the

quality and standards of research. Ayurveda is Intellectual Property of we Indians. Every Indian has the

right to protect it.

Today, Too much emphasis is laid on modern medicine at the level of Ayurvedic education thereby

neglecting Ayurvedic tradition and practice. Ayurvedic profession is looked down by the public greatly

because graduates of Ayurveda sideline their science and resort to unethical practice of Modern

Medicine, truly a sort of quackery. Emphasis needed to improve the quality and standards of Ayurvedic

Education, accountability of the Profession and standardization of Ayurvedic medicines.

It is unfortunate that Graduates of Modern medicine are deprived of any knowledge of this science

during their education. If an effort is made to expose students of modern medicine to the principles

and practice of Ayurveda, either during their graduation level training or during their Internship period,

we can hope for a better interaction among these practitioners in future. Medical Council of India, IMA

and Central Council Of Indian Medicine should come to single platform and discuss this issue, as to how

to implement this.

Changing with times:

In the meanwhile even the 20th century has passed. And we are fully aware of the tremendous change

that breath-taking advances of science and technology during this century have brought upon human

society, providing in particular the material basis of our health, illness and wellness, as well as present

process of globalization.

Ayurveda must open to advances in science and renew itself. The growth and continued development

of Ayurvedic knowledge however, suffered serious setbacks since 1500 years ago due to various

historical reasons. Orthodoxy, dogmatism and superstitions began creeping in to these intervening

years and this glorious tradition began to lose its luster and credentials. During this long period of

inertness and apathy a lot of filth and garbage had accumulated over such heritage, and Ayurveda lost

its stature. It confronted with the problems of fixing standards and specifications of identity, purity and

strength.

It can well be accomplished if Ayurveda adopts appropriate scientific methods and practices. But it

does not mean that it should adopt the parameters of modern medicine in evaluating its quality and

fixing standards as well as finding evidence. Evaluation and standardization of Ayurveda has to be

based on the concept, theory, practice and parameters of Ayurveda only. Modern scientific knowledge,

tolls and technology including information technology may be incorporated whenever needed and

appropriate for Ayurveda. The Ayurvedic specialists are required to change their mindset and imbibe

the spirit of scientific inquiry.

Evidence based Ayurveda

While talking of searching and applying evidence base to Ayurveda, we need to understand that in

conventional sense, the term is primarily coined to help in clinical decision making in the light of best

among overwhelmingly available evidences within modern medicine. Conventional modus operandi of

applying evidence base to medical practice therefore is limited to screening of best evidences that help

in decision making. Thereby, defining the best evidence and finding them pragmatically in a clinical

setting are the only real challenges.

Referring to Ayurveda, however, the issue of applying evidence base needs to be redefined in reference

to its unique propositions. There is a ubiquitous agreement upon the traditional evidences of Ayurveda

of which experience, long-term use, and textual classical references form a large sum.

The issue of evidence base in Ayurveda therefore requires to be dealt at various levels like

documentation of existing evidences, designing diagnostic and clinical parameters which can act as

evidence to help in decision making and generating more evidences in reference to the safety and

efficacy pertinent to Ayurvedic practice. This is the time when we need to understand that bringing

evidence base to the practice of Ayurveda is mandatory if it is thought to be raised as a medical system

where predictability and dependability are featured as key components.

Ayurvedic Industry and Academia

Ayurveda need more academic backup and evidence. I call upon Ayurveda Industry to strengthen and

support academic research and clinical documentation of their products and standardizing the products

to International standards, instead of simply adopting unconventional methods like advertising the

products in lay magazines and news papers with unscientific methods and evidence less, false claims.

These practices may lead to people start looking at Ayurveda with a commercial angle and ultimately

losing their faith and trust on the science itself. We need to build up Ayurvedic academic centers at par

with Oxford or Cambridge University type of Institutions in India or abroad in future.

" The future belongs to those who fuse intelligence with faith and who, with courage and

determination, grope their way forward from chance to choice, from blind adaptation to creative

evolution" - Charles Merriam

Through this Ayuvision we propose to explore the new frontiers in academic and scientific Ayurveda.

Dr. M. S. Kamath MD (Ayu.)

Additional Professor & Head

Department of Ayurveda

Manipal University

KMC, Manipal.

Tel. 0820 29 22105

mail : msk9msk@yahoo.com