Ayurvedic medicine began over 5000 years ago in the Himalayan Mountains of India. Legend holds that a great meeting of the wisest healers took place in a Himalayan cave, where they shared their healing secrets. Some of these men traveled thousands of miles, bringing their knowledge of medicinal herbs from their tribes. These healers combined their knowledge and called this new body of medicine Ayurveda. This name came from two Sanskrit words; “Ayus” meaning “life” and “Veda” which means “knowledge.” The translation is “knowledge of life” or “science of life.”
These traditions were passed orally from generation to generation. Each physician added to them as they developed new ideas. This continued until the first century A.D. when Charaka, an Ayurvedic physician, finally wrote them down. At that time Ayurvedic medicine had specialists in the areas of psychiatry, pediatrics, gynecology, ear/nose and throat, ophthalmology, surgery, virility and fertility.
Ayurvedic herbal medicine is probably the earliest organized medical system, pre-dating even traditional Chinese medicine. The Arabs had traded for Indian herbs before the birth of Islam.
The ancient tombs of Egyptian pharaohs contained seeds from plants native to India. Eastern traders brought the knowledge of Indian herbs down through Tibet and into China. The Queen of Sheba, during the time of King Solomon, traded herbs and spices from India to the Israelites.
Ayurveda was practiced by many Arab physicians during the rise of the Greek and Roman empires. This knowledge was passed to the Greeks and Romans who helped spread it throughout Europe. Even after the fall of the Roman empire, Europeans continued to value Indian spices. They traded with Arab countries for them. This trade led to the discovery of America. Christopher Columbus was searching for a shorter route to India to trade spices when he landed in the New World.
Western science and medicine has been slow to accept the philosophy and ideas of Ayurvedic medicine, but many individuals in the West have recognized its value. More and more physicians are finding value in these ancient principles and their herbal formulas.
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