Men Of Science : Charaka

Charaka

Charaka, sometimes spelled Caraka, born c. 300 BC in a Maga Brahmin family was one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle thought to be developed about 5000 years ago in Ancient India.

Charaka & Ayurveda
According to Charaka's translations, health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort and attention to lifestyle.
The following statements are attributed to Charaka:
A physician who fails to enter the body of a patient with the lamp of knowledge and understanding can never treat diseases. He should first study all the factors, including environment, which influence a patient's disease, and then prescribe treatment. It is more important to prevent the occurrence of disease than to seek a cure.
These remarks appear obvious today, though they are often not heeded, and were made by Charaka, in his famous Ayurvedic treatise CharakaSamhita. The treatise contains many such remarks which are held in reverence even today. Some of them are in the fields of physiology, etiology and embryology.
Charaka was the first physician to present the concept of digestion, metabolism and immunity. According to his translations of the Vedas, a body functions because it contains three dosha or principles, namely movement (vata), transformation (pitta) and lubrication and stability (kapha). The doshas are also sometimes called humours, namely, bile, phlegm and wind. These dosha are produced when dhatus (blood, flesh and marrow) act upon the food eaten. For the same quantity of food eaten, one body, however, produces dosha in an amount different from another body. That is why one body is different from another. For instance, it is more weighty, stronger, more energetic.
Further, illness is caused when the balance among the three dosha in a human body is disturbed. To restore the balance he prescribed medicinal drugs. Although he was aware of germs in the body, he did not give them any importance.
Charaka knew the fundamentals of genetics. For instance, he knew the factors determining the sex of a child. A genetic defect in a child, like lameness or blindness, he said, was not due to any defect in the mother or the father, but in the ovum or sperm of the parents (an accepted fact today).
Charaka studied the anatomy of the human body and various organs. He gave 360 as the total number of bones, including teeth, present in the body. He wrongly believed that the heart had one cavity, but he was right when he considered it to be a controlling centre. He claimed that the heart was connected to the entire body through 13 main channels. Apart from these channels, there were countless other ones of varying sizes which supplied not only nutrients to various tissues but also provided passage to waste products. He also claimed that any obstruction in the main channels led to a disease or deformity in the body.
Under the guidance of the ancient physician Atreya, Agnivesa had written an encyclopedic treatise in the eighth century B.C. However, it was only when Charaka revised this treatise that it gained popularity and came to be known as Charakasamhita. For two millennia it remained a standard work on the subject and was translated into many foreign languages, including Arabic and Latin.

Contributions
According to the Charaka tradition, there existed six schools of medicine, founded by the disciples of the sage Punarvasu Ātreya. Each of his disciples, Agnivesha, Bhela, Jatūkarna, Parāshara, Hārīta, and Kshārapāni, composed a Samhitā. Of these, the one composed by Agnivesha was considered the best. The Agnivesha Samhitā was later revised by Charaka and it came to be known as Charaka Samhitā. The Charaka Samhitā was revised by Dridhbala.
Āyurveda is traditionally divided into eight branches which, in Charaka's scheme, are:
Sūtra-Sthāna, general principles
Nidāna-Sthāna, pathology
Vimāna-Sthāna, diagnostics
Sharīra-Sthāna, physiology and anatomy
Indriya-Sthāna, prognosis
Chikitsā-Sthāna, therapeutics
Kalpa-Sthāna, pharmacy
Siddhi-Sthāna, successful treatment

Charaka Samhita
The Charak Samhita contains 120 adhyayas (chapters), divided into 8 parts.
Sutra Sthana
Nidan Sthana
Viman Sthana
Sharir Sthana
Indriya Sthana
Chikitsa Sthana
Kalpa Sthana
Siddhi Sthana

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charaka"

Save Earth By Doing...........

Every Indian is causing Global Warming.
The name Global is international. When you try to contribute .00000001% to the casue the effect is projected exponentially.

The most common thing we do is taking plastic covers from shops, supermarkets, malls, showrooms, cloth shops, grocerry shops, Raitu baazars, vegetable markets, etc etc. its like

"Wherever we go PLASTIC covers follow"

what we do afterwards is just dumping the plastic outside our houses. The plastic has a great tendency of not degrading itself into the earth. It mixes with the ground water and in very few years we will be drinking PLASTIC WATER. So please please keep in mind when you go outside for shopping use a jute bag or some sort of carton boxes or cotton bags, or from our Chandana bros, RS bros we will be getting lot of jute bags. please use them for shopping.

And spread that awareness among the neighbours. These are the small things which every one could do. Try to practise atleast 5 of them.

remember always as Swami vivekananda said "we are the creator and destroyer of our own destiny"

1. Use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
2. Inflate Your Tires
3. Use Recycled Paper
4. Check Your Waterheater
5. Buy Organic Food
6. Take Shorter Showers
7. Buy a Fuel Efficient Car
8. Carpool When You Can
9. Don't Idle in Your Car
10.Reduce Garbage
11.Plant a Tree
12.Replace Old Appliances
13.Be a Meat Reducer
14.Unplug Un-Used Electronics
15.Air Dry Your Clothes
16.Switch to Double Pane Windows
17.Bring Cloth Bags to the Market
18.Turn off Your Computer
19.Ditch the PLASTIC
20. and more importantly Please do practise atleast five of the above things.....