Scientific Foundation of Ayurveda

By his own admission, the author found it difficult to comprehend the ayurvedic concepts as a student while pursuing a degree in ayurveda. He underwent the course at Poddar Medical College, Mumbai, at a time when Integrated Medicine was taught, enabling students to imbibe the essence from both streams of medicine. Later, he went on to complete MBBS and an MD in Modern Obstetrics and Gynaecology, choosing the latter for a career.

Author: Dr H S Palep Publisher: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Pratishtan Post Box No. 2113, Delhi 110007 Price : Rs 250 Paperback Edition, 290 pages.

But later events in life and his teaching assignments at his almamater rekindled the urge to delve deeper and decipher the philosophical contemplations of our ancient religion, the vedic mantras as also the concepts of ayurveda therefrom. Armed with a dual understanding of both streams of medicine and an enquiring mind, the above book is the culmination of almost 30 years of devotion into research and teaching.

In his line of specialisation, Dr Palep found the true value of ayurvedic herbs in the prevention of recurrent pregnancy loss and went on to create two ayurvedic formulations for correcting pregnancy complications, eg; PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) and IUGR (Intra uterine growth retardation). The author undertook a clinical study to understand the above problems and also validated the formulations with well-documented scientific data on modern lines including post marketing surveillance for efficacy and ADRs. In the well-intended Foreword to the book, Dr R D Lele laments the absence of documentation on sufficient sample size of studies in the clinic by present day ayurvedic researchers and practitioners even as he feels that the Rasayana drugs in ayurveda could soon be the focus of research for the prevention of chronic diseases.

Whether it is the ‘pancha mahabhuta’ concept of life being explained in simple terms of modern physics, chemistry or biology or explaining the ‘tridoshas’- vata, pitta and kapha - in terms of modern day biochemistry, Dr Palep has done a commendable job in writing this book to stimulate interest of those versed in modern science to understand ayurveda. His other objective of writing the book to help ayurvedic students appreciate the ancient medical science taught to them vis-a-vis modern medicine and shed their inferiority complex, is laudable.

However, in student-life with all the pressures of completing their syllabii in either streams of medicine, one wonders as to what will make the students put in efforts to read extra-curricular material. This elementary tome interpreting the ayurvedic concepts in relation to the terms and vocabulary used in current life sciences will immensely help those genuinely interested in appreciating, understanding and integrating both systems of medicine for the benefit of the patient.

Of the nine chapters in the book, the first on ‘Ayurveda and Indian Philosophy’ should immensely interest all readers as the author lucidly explains the ‘Sankhya-Vaisheshika’ model for evolution of life and the universe or the ‘Upanishads’ the foundation of Hindu philosophy, and lastly, the segment on Religion, Science and Medicine contains gems of information about ancient Indian rituals and practices based on scientific insight which our ancient scholars possessed, now verifiable and explained by modern science!

Chapters two and three on ‘Chemistry of Life in Ayurveda’ and ‘Tridoshas or Biochemistry of Life’ are equally interesting and insightful where the concepts of three primal qualities of ‘sattva, Rajas and Tamas’ or the ‘Tanmatras’ and their basics and the chemistry of life and the ‘pancha mahabhutas’ is explained in a contemporary scientific basis. Likewise the ‘Vata-kapha-pitta’ concepts being co-related with modern day concepts of molecular biology.

Chapter four on ‘Embryogenesis and Prakriti’ is equally interesting and the author writes about the role of ‘Rasadhatu’ in embryogenesis, relevance of ‘prakriti’ examination in clinical practice and relationship between prakriti and somatotyping.

Chapters five, six and seven deal with ‘Saptadhatus,’(prime tissue elements),‘Malas’(waste products) and ‘Nidana Panchaka’ (pathology), of which chapter five dealing in the basic molecular biochemistry of the body in the formation of ‘dhatus’ or tissues, is dealt with in great details. Chapter eight on ‘Dravyaguna Vignana’ or ayurvedic pharmacology is also an important one where the reader can better appreciate the ayurvedic concepts explained in terms of modern science. In the last chapter on ‘Concepts based ayurveda researches’, the author deals with the need for documenting clinical data and verifying correctness of the known ancient ayurvedic concepts. This chapter also deals with the researches carried out by the author and the products developed by him.

As the title suggests, the author has tried to describe the theoretical aspects of this ancient science and should be very useful to all those with some scientific background to understand ayurveda and appreciate it better.

It goes without saying that it must be read not only by ayurvedic students but also by all students and practitioners of modern medicine and scientists alike.

Barring some typos and punctuation errors, which the author should rectify in the next edition, the quality of print production and paper is good. While there is a Bibliography and Recommended Reading at the end, inclusion of an Index would have been useful. Finally, a suggestion. All the ‘shlokas’ amply quoted in various chapters are not in ‘devnagri’. As Indians are more comfortable reading in this script, it should figure in the devnagari script followed by the English rendition of the verses in the next edition.

—- N V Ramamurthy