SO et ee ee ee oo ee or tren etre
we ‘mula’ ox wr:
CHAPTER I.
Lees Visa re 2!
INTRODUCTION
Yoga and Ayurveda are allied sciences dealing
with seience of man in depth. Ayurveda approaches to the
life process with a holistic view based on the Pancamaha-
boutic doctorine of the humoural, theory of Tridosa. It
considers the 'Sarirendriyasattvatma' rupa composite entity
of life process as its field of actions. It is denoted to
the Welfare of man and his health i.e. the 'Arogya’ which
has been considered as 'mula' or means of achieving the
purusartha catustaya i.e. Dharmarthakama Moksa. So comprehension
is the object of life in this tradition. And hence the
objectives of this great life science are equally comprehensive.
It is not only concerned with human welfare by way of
preservation of health and cure of diseases but is also
eoncerned with absolute and relief from fear and grief i.e
liberation. The latter aspect appears to have been der’
more comprehensively by the Schools of Yoga and 7?
AS a principle Ayurveda does not gi:
to the anatomical details of living bo’
holistic science and treats the 1°
nowever, scattered descriptic
also seen in Ayrvedic texts. Th
Ayurveda does not describe the de.
INTRODUCTION
Yoga and Ayurveda are allied sciences dealing
with science of man in depth. Ayurveda approaches to the
life process with a holistic view based on the Pancamaha-
boutic doctorine of the mmoural, theory of Tridosa. It
considera the 'Sarirendriyasattvatma’ rupa composite entity
of life process as its field of actions. It is denoted to
the Welfare of man and his health i.e. the ‘Arogya' which
hag been considered as ‘mula’ or means of achieving the
purusartha catustaya i.e. Dharmarthakama Moksa. So comprehension
is the object of life in this tradition. And hence the
objectives of this great life science are equally comprehensive.
It is not only concerned with human welfare by way of
preservation of health and cure of diseases but is also
concerned with absolute and relief from fear and grief i.e.
liberation. The latter aspect appears +o have been dealt
more comprehensively by the Sehools of Yoga and Tantra.
As a principle Ayurveda does not give much importance
to the anatomical details of living body, because it ia a
holistic science and treats the life process as a whole.
however, scattered descriptions of biological systems are
also seen in Ayrvedic texts. There is a common belief that
Ayurveda does not describe the details of nervous system,
and it desires the same from Yoga and Tantra traditions
obviously there is a prevalent thought that Yoga and
Tantra are the rich sources for the knowledge of nervous
system and its biological and metaphysical aspects.
The nervous system being an important component
of the biological assembly of life process, it was
considered useful to examine the concept of nervous system
in Yoga and Tantra and to evaluate its implications in
Ayurveda. And s0 the present conceptual study was launched
with thie objective.
The literature on classical Ayurveda, Yora and
Tantra including many contemporary writings on related
subjects were critically examined and assessed to work out
the ancient concept of the nervous system.
In this study the another has liberally adopted
the statements of some later writers like Prof. T.M.P,
Mahadevan, Sir John woodroffe, Dr, D.N.Roy, Theos Bernard,
Jr. Bhagwan Das, Nik Douglas, Ajit Mukherjee, Dr. 0.P.Jaggi,
Swami Vivekananda, Swami harihsarananda Aranya, Yogiraj
Shyama Charan Lahiri, Dr. Chintaharan Chakravarty and certain
others in order to substantiate his hypothesis. This study
has revealed a number of hither to unknown facts about
concent of nervous system and thought science of Hindus,
3
The final write up is being presented in seven
well identified chapters viz. definition, classification
and the critical study of the eight components of Yoga;
scientific exposition of Nadi, Hridaya, Kosha and lrana;
Oxigin and Development of Tantra and Mantra; Fundamentals
of Ayrveda; the Physiological and pathological asvects of
Tridosha Theory; general clessification of diseases with
snecial reference to Avarnas followed by overall conclusion
and a selected bibliography.
