Kaya Chikitsa (A Text Book of Medicine)

Kayachikitsa or internal medicine is a subject, which has attached attention of all those who are eager to learn Ayurveda. Physicians of other medicines, students and common people all want to know more about this subject as it deals with description of various diseases and its treatment. The subject is very vast and it is practically difficult to cover the entire matter in one book. However this book has been written more in the interest of the students of Final Year of Ayurveda. The syllabus of Kayachikitsa for Final B.A.M. & S. examination has been divided in 4 papers. In this book I have covered first three papers in detail. The fourth paper deals with Panchakarma and we intend to publish seperate book for this paper. I have also given due consideration for the common readers who are interested in this important subject. The book deals with basic principles of Kayachikitsa, description of all important diseases and their treatment. The treatment has been described in detail and proper care has been taken to include all important herbs, decoctions, avalehas, ghrutas and readily available herbo-mineral combinations. Totally more than 1000 for- mulations and their effect on various doshas, dhatus and diseases have been described.

I am sure students of FinaI B.A.M.& S. as well as the scientists, physicians and common people who are interested in this subject will find this book useful.

Prof. Dr. Subhash Ranade, has recently retired as Principal of Ashtang Ayurveda College in Pune, India. He has authored more than 50 books on Ayurveda which have been published in German, Polish, Italian, English and many Indian languages. He has given many television and radio interviews on Ayurveda in India and abroad, and has attended many International Seminars. He has the honour 0 being the visiting Professor to all the colleges of Ayurveda in U.S. and other Institutes like Sewa Akademie in Germany, Ateneo Veda Vyasa in Italy, Foundation of HeaIth in Poland and Ayurveda International Diffusing Association of Japan. His pioneering work in Ayurvedic CD-ROMS like Dhanvantari and Ayurvedic Massage and Manna therapy has been whole- heartedly welcomed and highly appreciated. Since 1981, he has visited and conducted hundreds of Ayurveda courses for medical practitioners as well as for common people in Europe, U.S.A. and Japan. He is also working as consulting editor for various magazines like Ancient Science of Life, Health and Psychology and Jeevaniya.

Anmol Prakashan, Pune, has published my Kayachikitsa book in Marathi language in 1981. This was written as per the syllabus for B.A.M. & S. Course, of integrated system pattern. Since that time there were constant changes in the syllabus and accordingly the book was updated several times. The last updating was done in 1998, as per new changes made by the CCIM, Delhi. This book is so popular in Maharashtra State, that so far; eight editions have come out and more than 25,000 copies have been sold.

When the same pattern of syllabus was introduced at the All India level, there was great demand, that this book should also be published in English language.

The present book has been divided in 7 sections. This covers the entire syllabus of Kayachikitsa of third B.A.M&S. excluding the topic of Panchakarma. The reader will find information on more than 130 diseases and their treatment including 400 generic medicines described in various ancient texts. I have added many important diseases, which have not been included in the syllabus, but are useful to Ayurvedic physicians and students.

At the end, I have also included the list of important medicines with their contents along with detailed list of herbs with their Sanskrit-English names for easy reference of users.

I hope that like my other 59 books published in various languages like Hindi, Malayalam, German, Polish, Italian and other English books published in United States, Germany, Poland and Italy the readers will also appreciate this book. I am happy that Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratishthan, Delhi has taken up the task of its publication and have published the book in excellent manner.