Chapter 13 - Conclusion

Thus these medical thinkers thought of diseases and classified them from the point of view of both biological scientist as well as of the practical clinician. The particularly medical aspect of Ayurveda which in its entirety is the biological grasp of the secret workings of the life mechanism, is based on practical utility. Its understanding and approach to disease and its treatment, is immediate and ready-made. It is calculated to avoid much waste of time and vacillation and to help the physician possessed of even the most elementary enlightenment to take note of the basic nature of the disorder by the symptoms in the light of the three basic genera of Vata, Pitta and Kapha, and start suitable medication with the least delay. A further investigation into its general and local aspects can await delay without further aggravation of the condition, if this general line of therapeusis is already afoot. In seventy out of a hundred cases, this elementary method of tackling even is bound to produce salutary effect. It is for the intelligent physician, meanwhile to make closer scrutiny and investigation into the finer blends and overlappings of the vitia, the causative factors, the site of affection, the degree of the morbid condition and the indications and contra-indications in the measures of therapeusis and the likely complications.

Caraka described the actual nature of the cryptic method of his exposition and the suggestive nature of the system propounded, thus:—

[Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.149]

“Like the initial handful of grain carried by the mendicant and the seeds in the hands of the sower, these aphorisms though small in measure yield to the intelligent physician abundant result i.e., complete knowledge of the subject. It is thus a guide to the intelligent physician in the use of his powers of imagination and logic. But for the mediocre it is good to follow the method laid down Following it in the prescribed way, such a physician accomplishes his task successfully or errs only very slightly if at all, owing to the succint nature of the exposition”

These teachers so formulated their instruction that even the man of moderate intelligence might fully benefit by it and the etiology, pathology and the principles of co ordination between the disease and the drug are all expounded in terms that are eary to understand and retain in mind, that are true to the manifestations in health and disease and that are capable of being put into practice with the least delay and demand on the physician’s intellectual initiative. Such a system though simple and un-intricate in its broad outline, is yet eminently fruitful in application and eliminates the grave risks of incompetence and pretentious ignorance. It is an attempt to reduce medicine to a rule of thumb, a practical chart to guide the learned and the unlearned alike.

But it is elastic and comprehensive enough to allow of the most intricate and exhaustive details of the various branches of science All the accumulated knowledge of experiment and microscopic observations can be made to enrich the picture bound by these outlines and can contribute to the furtherance of the objective of medicine if only tne basic direction of the perspective and the light offered by the physiology and pathology of the triumvirate be never lost sight of. They are the stars that guide the helmsman at the head of the ship of life, and to ignore them is to allow the ship of life to drift and be wrecked against the hidden rocks of disease and death. The attempt at completing the picture of Ayurveda, filling it with the rich detail that modern medicine has culled from the depths of life is the responsibility of the future medical student and scholar who asserts his heirship to the wisdom of the east and the west, of the ancients and moderns alike.

This brief and general outline of the physio pathological nature and significance of the triumvirate which forms the fulcrum of all life-processes is intended mainly for the general reader who is to be introduced to the Caraka Samhita. It is not fit here to go into the intricacies of detail on the subject as would interest the researcher and the learned practitioner.

The triumvirate of biological organizations determines, as we have seen, the constitution of each individual. And Caraka has dwelt elaborately on the attributes of the various types of human constitution both from the purely psychic point of view (Carakasaṃhitā Śārīrasthāna 4.37-40) as well as from the somatic point of view (Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.95-100) in terms of habitus (Prakriti—prakṛti) or the preponderant constituent vitium.

An intimate and deep knowledge of Ayurveda will enable the practical clinician of its immense value in the matter of early diagnosis i.e., long before any actual structural and deep-seated functional disorders have crept into the organism, as well as in the procedures of active immunization and prophylaxis. The daily diet and behaviour of the individual and his continual adjustment to the demands of the changing environment are to be built upon the facts of constitutional pecularity (Prakriti—prakṛti). The details of normal living, not to speak of the exigencies of therapeusis are to be patterned in view of the fundamental diathesis of the man. The understanding of constitution in its fullness provides the key to allergic reactions and psychic and somatic idiosyncracies [idiosyncrasies?]. This aspect of medicine is thus all important to the clinician and Ayurveda with its various branches is like a wheel whose spokes are fixed firmly and converge to the navel of the concept of the three vitia (Tridosha—tridoṣa). Thus it is that this physio-pathological perspective is all-embracing in its scope and deserves the most intense and searching scrutiny by the modern medical scholar. It is only thus and then that its soundness as a faithful representation of the body organization and mechanism of functioning, and the extent of its practical applicability and utility can be appreciated. It is a subject for profound study and judgement for the sincere and serious-minded student of medicine