Rejuvenative Health Care in Ayurveda (An Old and Rare Book)

The book presents a vivid account of Rejuvenative health care in Ayurveda, with a special reference to the Carakasanthita; the oldest available text on the science of life.

Ayurveda is traditionally regarded as an Llpaveda of the Atharvaveda. Ayurveda does not only deal with therapeutics, but it spells out the healthy and unhealthy aspects of the entire human personality.

"Yuktaharavihara" constitutes the fundamental principle par excellence of Ayurvedic health care. Various details regarding human diets and regimens are, accordingly spelt out. Rasciyana (Rejuvenation) is nothing but the adoption of therapeutic and other devices aimed at the restoration of (Minus to their natural equilibrious state. Mere administration of a prescribed medicine is not enough. Psychological, spiritual, environmental, seasonal and even astrological factors play an important role there.

Proper identification of plants with their proper habitat and proper processing is considered to be the primary desideratum of rejuvenation therapy.

Ram Karan Sharma (born March 20, 1927 at Shivapur, Saran, Bihar) was initiated to vedic and allied studies (including Ayurveda) on traditional lines by Pandit Ambikadatta Sharma at Lokamanya Brahmacaryagrama, Muzaffarpur. As a Fulbright scholar, he worked with Prof. M.B. Emeneau at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. He worked with other eminent Professors like Pandit Uma Nath Jha (G.B.B.College, Muzaffarpur) and Dr. Ishvara Datta (Patna College) affiliated to Patna University.

He was founder Director, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan; Vice Chancellor, Sampurnanand Sanskrit University and Kameshvara Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University; Joint Educational Adviser, Govt. of India; Visiting Professor, 'Universities of Columbia and Chicago also at the university of Bihar. Presently he is. The President of International Association of Sanskrit Studies.

Areas of his special interest are: MahAbharata, Dar§ana, Kavya and Ayurveda. More than one hundred research papers and about a dozen major publications he has authored. His creative writings include Sandhyd (Poetry), a recipient of Sahitya Akademi award and Sinui (novel) a recipient of Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad award. He has been working on the Caraka Sarphitd (English translation of the text and critical • exposition based on CakrapArtidatta's ityurvedadipikai with Vaidya Dr. Bhagwan Dash as a co-author; three vols. already published, vol. IV in press; material for Vol. V being processed.

Deeply interested in Sanskrit and other classical traditions of the world.

I have great pleasure in presenting this humble study of mine to the esteemed readers interested in the indetrienous traditions of health care.

But for the magnanimous generosity of Prof. Pramod Kumar Shrivastava, Head, Cancer Im-munology Programme, Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University, New York and the resultant financial assistance from the same university, it would not have been possible for me to live in solitude and complete the work. Professor Emeritus Alex Wayman and Professor Theodore Riccardi of Columbia University were immensely helpful by providing library and other academic and physical facilities. Mrs. Hideko Wayman and Ms. Keiko Nakayama, a promising young acupuncturist inspired me to correlate the present study with other Asiatic traditions of health care. I have no words to express my deepest sense of gratitude to all of them.

I am also grateful to Dharam Hinduja Center of Indic Research, Columbia University including Dr. Mary McGee, Dr. Gary Tubb, Dr. Kenneth Zysk and Dr. Nancy Braxton for providing me with a forum to interact with distinguished scholars of New York, on the various aspects of Rejuvenative health care.

M/S Pratibha Prakashan and its proprietor Dr. Radhey Shyam Shukla deserve all my best wishes and thanks for bringing out this study so speedily and so well.

**Contents and Sample Pages**