Last Updated on February 21, 2024 by Neelam Singh
Ayurveda — One of the ancient healing practices – is a holistic system of medicine that emphasises the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit. Rooted in the Sanskrit words ‘Ayur’ (life) and ‘Veda’ (knowledge), Ayurveda seeks to balance the body’s doshas—Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—to promote overall well-being. With a focus on prevention rather than just curing symptoms, Ayurveda assumes significance in today’s world, which is battling pandemics, adulterated food, pollution and lifestyle diseases.
THIP Media in conversation with Dr Purnima Siddhanta, an Ayurveda expert, discusses the holistic system in detail.
Q. What is Ayurveda’s relevance in today’s world?
Ayurveda is not only a way of healing but also a way of life. Its relevance has increased in the past few years and I expect it will only grow bigger in the future. The reason for this is increasing stress of daily life and its impact on our overall health and well-being. Increased stress levels are leading to low immunity and compromising our mental well-being too. According to a report that came out last year, 24% of all Indians are struggling with stress caused by factors such as work situations and financial instability. In this context, more people have been turning to Ayurveda for restorative healing, which addresses the root cause of the problem instead of just fixing the symptoms.
“Generation of jobs, smartly packaged products, awareness campaigns and greater engagement with people—the field of Ayurveda is buzzing with activity.”
Dr Purnima Siddhanta
A shloka in Charak Samhita describes Ayurveda as:
“Hitahitam sukham dukham ayushatasya hitahiam maanam ch tachha yatroktam ayurveda sa uchhyate
(The science which deals with or describes the favourable or unfavourable happy or unhappy measures for a span of life). What is conductive or non-conductive for such a life span is known as Ayurveda).”
The Covid-19 pandemic has also contributed to Ayurveda’s growing popularity in recent years. The pandemic has led to a paradigm shift in the way we approach health care. People are now focusing more on the preventive aspects of health care by adopting wellbeing practices such as healthy eating, meditation, mindfulness and yoga. Since Ayurveda promotes mindful and healthy eating, it has also witnessed a resurgence. For example, choosing to eat healthy foods along with practising yoga and meditation for stress management as a long-term strategy. Or as a supporting therapy to manage persistent acidity and indigestion instead of popping antacid tablets.
There’s higher demand for its products, practices and knowledge sharing. Alternative systems of medicine like Ayurveda can help you get to the root of the problem, eliminate it and improve your overall lifestyle to promote better health of the body and mind. Ayurveda treats the body as one whole entity and acknowledges the intricate connections between organs in a deeper way.
Q. How has Ayurveda evolved with time to serve patients today?
Ayurveda originated in India more than 3,000 years ago. In comparison, the history of modern medicine goes back to the early 1800s. From facing suppression during colonial time to getting global recognition in the early 90s, Ayurveda and its scholars have struggled a lot, but its knowledge and practice have been kept alive through our various daily rituals – taking ginger and pepper for cough, adding Tulsi to tea for immunity, tempering our curries with cumin and turmeric to improve digestion, drinking buttermilk in the summer to stay cool, etc. Whether we realise it or not, Ayurveda is an immutable part of our culture. And it is intimately integrated into our daily lives.
From the early 90s to now, Ayurveda has evolved a lot. Now, it is like a micro-industry that is creating jobs, generating consumer awareness, smartly packaging its products, conducting awareness campaigns and more. A lot of credit for this transformation goes to the West, where people started recognizing the value of herbal medicine with the rise in lifestyle diseases and cancers. Ayurveda is now a growing field that is contributing immensely to wellness—the fastest growing industry today.
Q. What factors would you like to attribute to its increasing acceptance among people?
As I said earlier, Ayurveda’s acceptance has increased for sure in the past few years, and more so after the Covid-19 pandemic that brought the whole world to a grinding halt and led to more than 15 million deaths worldwide. It made us realise the relevance of traditional systems of herbal medicine like Ayurveda that aid everyday wellness and personalise wellness for you.
For example, understanding what foods will suit your body, exercises that strengthen your body, kriyas (cleansing techniques) that will help unite the body, and massages as a form of self-care that will improve your lymphatic circulation and, in turn, strengthen immunity.
Now, many people understand the importance of undergoing Panchkarma (a detox ritual) every six months. The efficacy of healing herbs like ashwagandha, shallaki, triphala, neem, haldi and ginger in the form of supplements to treat diseased states and aid well-being is widely recognized and understood.
More people are now studying Ayurveda to understand the daily way of life (dincharya), food groups, seasonal way of life (ritucharya) and its many other principles.
While Ayurveda has gained a lot in the past few years, more needs to be done to give Ayurveda the status it deserves.
Q. What kind of role can the AYUSH ministry play when it comes to Ayurveda in terms of research and development?
The AYUSH ministry is constantly making plans to improve the status of Ayurveda and aiding organisations to do more research and come up with formulations. The cost and licensing of manufacturing Ayurvedic medicine have improved, and the process has been simplified. Packaging and export norms are also much better than before.
The opening of the All India Institute of Ayurveda in New Delhi was a wonderful step to promote and support this ancient healing system of medicine. We need more institutions like this, as they help in making Ayurveda education more formal and organised and help in weeding out quacks. Similarly, including a week of AYUSH training for all MBBS students was a step towards giving due recognition and platform to Ayurveda and other ancient systems of medicine.
The biggest responsibility today is to preserve the existing oral and textual knowledge of Ayurveda. Eventually, to transfer it to the new generation of practitioners. And the ministry’s support is vital for this.
Last but not least, we need to remove the myth that there are no side effects of Ayurvedic medicines. They can also have side effects and there can be cases of overdosing. The ministry should look into this and take appropriate steps to flag contraindications. This will create more trust in the medical system and lead to greater accountability and acceptance. There’s also a need to improve the manufacturing licence policy for Ayurvedic drugs.
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