Ayurvedacharyas – The bridge between physical & mental wellness

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Ayurvedacharyas are practitioners of Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian subcontinent and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative medicine.

Practioner’s holistic approach

Ayurvedacharyas regard physical existence, mental existence, and personality as their own unique units, with each element being able to influence the others.

This is a holistic approach used during diagnosis and therapy, and is a fundamental aspect of Ayurveda.

Another part of Ayurvedic treatment says that there are channels (srotas) which transport fluids, and that the channels can be opened up by massage treatment using oils and Swedana (fomentation).

Unhealthy, or blocked, channels are thought to cause disease.

Ayurveda has eight ways to diagnose illness, called Nadi (pulse), Mootra (urine), Mala (stool), Jihva (tongue), Shabda (speech), Sparsha (touch), Druk (vision), and Aakruti (appearance).

Ayurvedacharyas approach diagnosis by using the five senses.

Massage with oil is commonly prescribed by Ayurvedacharyas.

Oils are used in a number of ways, including regular consumption, anointing, smearing, head massage, application to affected areas and oil pulling.

Liquids may also be poured on the patient’s forehead, a technique called shirodhara.

Prominent Ayurvedacharyas

This is a list of prominent Ayurvedacharyas past and present.

Jīvaka

Jīvaka was the personal physician of the Buddha and the Indian King Bimbisāra.

He lived in Rājagṛha, present-day Rajgir, in the 6th–5th century BCE.

Sometimes described as the “Medicine King”, he figures prominently in legendary accounts in Asia as a model healer, and is honoured as such by traditional healers in several Asian countries.

Charaka

Charaka was one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in Ancient India.

He is known as an editor of the medical treatise entitled Charaka Samhita, one of the foundational texts of classical Indian medicine and Ayurveda, included under Brhat-Trayi.

Shubha Raul

Dr. Shubha Raul was the Mayor (2007–09) of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for a period of 33 months. And now she is currently the Spokesperson of Shivsena and is a Member of COVID-19 Ayush Task Force, Government of Maharashtra. She was elected to the post of Mayor on 10 March 2007 and was the third woman mayor of the 124-year-old civic body. She has also served as a Corporator for continuous 3 terms representing the Northern Mumbai suburb of Dahisar, and has served almost all the committees of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).

Malladihalli Raghavendra

Raghavendra Swami of Malladihalli (1890–1996), popularly known as ತಿರುಕ Tiruka (“beggar”), was the founder of Anatha Sevashrama Trust, Malladihalli.

He taught yoga from his base as Malladihalli near Holalkere in Chitradurga district, a village in Karnataka, India.

Mohanlal Chunilal Dhami

Mohanlal Chunilal Dhami was a Gujarati novelist, poet, playwright, journalist and Ayurveda practitioner from Rajkot, Gujarat, India.

He had published more than 170 books. His literary works are chiefly based on Jain literature.

Nancy Lonsdorf

Nancy Lonsdorf is an American author and medical doctor who practices Maharishi Ayurveda. She received her training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and studied Ayurveda in Europe and India, and is the author of several books on the subject.

Om Prakash Upadhyaya

Om Prakash Upadhyaya is an Indian Ayurveda practitioner and the vice chancellor of Guru Ravidas Ayurved University. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of medicine.

Ram Harsh Singh

Ram Harsh Singh is an Indian practitioner of the Ayurveda system of alternative medicine and the founder vice chancellor of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Rajasthan Ayurved University. An Emeritus Professor of Banaras Hindu University and a National Professor of the Ministry of AYUSH of the Government of India, he was conferred with the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri, in 2016.

Ramdev

Swami Ramdev, also known among followers as Baba Ramdev, is an Indian yoga guru, businessman and brand ambassador of Patanjali Ayurved. Ramdev is primarily known for being a proponent of Yoga and Ayurveda in India. Ramdev has been organizing and conducting large yoga camps since 2002, broadcasting his yoga classes on various TV channels. He co-founded the Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. with his colleague Balkrishna. In 2010, he announced to form a political party for 2014 General Election. However, he has more recently become a vocal supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP.

Acharya Chatursen Shastri

Acharya Chatursen Shastri was an Indian writer of Hindi literature. He wrote many historical fictions, including Vaishali ki Nagarvadhu adapted into a feature film (1948), Vayam Rakshamah (1951), Somnath (1954), and Dharamputra which was adapted into the 1961 feature film of the same name.

Lakshmana Pandita

Lakshmana Pandita was the author of Vaidyarajavallabha, a Sanskrit book on Ayurveda written during the Vijayanagara Empire in the 15th Century. He was a Paramacharya of King Bukka II.

Sushruta

Sushruta, or Suśruta was an ancient Indian physician and world’s first surgeon known as “Father of Surgery”, “Father of Plastic Surgery” for inventing and developing surgical procedures.

His work on the subject, the Sushruta Samhita is considered one of the oldest texts in the world on plastic surgery and is highly regarded as one of the Great Trilogy of Ayurvedic Medicine, the Brihat-Trayi; the other two being the Charaka Samhita, which preceded it, and the Astanga Hridaya, which followed it.

Todd Caldecott

Todd Caldecott is a Canadian clinical herbalist, Ayurvedic practitioner in Vancouver, British Columbia, author of the textbook Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life (2006) and Food As Medicine: The Theory and Practice of Food (2011), and co-editor of Ayurveda In Nepal: The Teachings of Vaidya Mana Bajra Bajracharya (2011). He is also a former film and television actor.

Uday Chand Dutt

Uday Chand Dutt or Udoy Chand Dutt (1834-1884) was a physician and expert on Ayurveda who served as a civil medical officer at Serampore, Bengal, India and wrote the Materia Medica of the Hindus, a major translation of Sanskrit works into English, first published in 1870. This book included translations of a number of Sanskrit sources on traditional Indian medicine into English and later revisions included a glossary of the botanical names was provided by Sir George King. Dutt helped Sir George Watt in producing his Dictionary of the economic plants of India and his work is widely cited. An edition in 1877 included revisions by Binod Lall Sen, Kaviraj Ashutosh Sen, and Kaviraj Pulin Krishna Sen (Kavibhushan).

Vagbhata

Vāgbhaṭa (वाग्भट) is one of the most influential writers, Scientist, Doctor and advisor of ayurveda. Several works are associated with his name as author, principally the Ashtāṅgasaṅgraha (अष्टाङ्गसंग्रह) and the Ashtāngahridayasaṃhitā (अष्टाङ्गहृदयसंहिता). The best current research, however, argues in detail that these two works cannot be the product of a single author. Indeed, the whole question of the relationship of these two works, and their authorship, is very difficult and still far from solution. Both works make frequent reference to the earlier classical works, the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita. Vāgbhaṭa is said, in the closing verses of the Ashtānga sangraha to have been the son of Simhagupta and pupil of Avalokita. His works mention worship of Cows and Brahmanas and various Vedic Gods, he also begins with a note on how Ayurveda evolved from Brahma. His work contains syncretic elements.

Vaidya Bhagwan Dash

Vaidya Bhagwan Dash was an Indian author and scholar in the field of Ayurvedic and Tibetan Medicine.

Vaidya Suresh Chaturvedi

Vaidya Suresh Chaturvedi (1928-2017) was an Ayurveda practitioner from Rajasthan, India. Previously he was a professor at Bombay University and has written many books on Ayurveda. In 2000, he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the India. As an active practitioner of the ancient science of Ayurveda (healing), he is known in the national and international arenas of alternate medicines and has presented numerous papers. He has held a number of conferences in India. He was, a Ph.D guide in the University of Mumbai.

Vaidyaratnam Triprangode Moossad

Vaidyaratnam Triprangode Parameswaran Moossad (1847–1919) was an Ayurveda practitioner from Kerala, India. He is well-regarded as the First Ayurvedic practitioner in Kerala to be awarded with the title of “Vaidyaratna”, given to the native medical practitioners in India, by the erstwhile British Raj in India. Vaidya, in Indian language means a medical practitioner, and ratna means jewel. Only three such awards were ever given by the British Raj in the state of Kerala, which was part of Madras Presidency then. The second award was given to E.T.Narayanan Mooss of Thaikkattussery, in the year of 1923 and third was given to Vaidyaratnam P. S. Warrier of Kottakkal in the year 1934. The second and third Vaidyaratna awardees had business acumen as well and they had established their Ayurvedic hospitals which are being run by their successors even today. In contrast, the first awardee, Triprangode Parameswaran Moossad had not established any commercial institutions. He had taken a lead role in establishing the Keraleeya Ayurveda Samajam, an organization founded by several scholars of those times, with the objective of making the benefits of Ayurveda system of treatment available to all the sections of the society, irrespective of the caste, creed and religion. It is notable that T.P. Moossad had lived during troubled times, wherein India was still under colonial rule of the British Raj, and the country was highly caste-driven, orthodox and very poor. Moossad, along with his several associates had established the Samajam, breaking several social barriers in their efforts to give relief to many from various diseases.

Madhava-kara

Madhava was a 7th-century or early 8th-century Indian Ayurveda practitioner who wrote the Rug-vinischaya, also known as the Madhava Nidana, which soon assumed a position of authority. In the 79 chapters of this book, he lists diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications. He also included a chapter on smallpox (masūrikā).

Jogesh Chandra Ghosh

Jogesh Chandra Ghosh was a scholar, Ayurveda practitioner, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He pioneered the use of Ayurveda in British India and founded the Ayurvedic drugstore Sadhana Aushadhalaya. In the genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War, he was shot to death by the Pakistan Army.

Krishna Chandra Chunekar

Krishna Chandra Chunekar was an Indian ayurvedic practitioner and writer, known for the books he published, especially the translation of Vedic literature on herbal pharmacopeia. The Government of India awarded him, in 2013, the Padma Shri in medicine, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions.

Chakrapani Datta

Chakrapani Datta was a Bengali scholar and practitioner of Ayurveda medicine.

Ashutosh Bhattacharya

Ashutosh Bhattacharya was a noted Indian classical musician of Hindustani classical music from Varanasi, who was Tabla player and music educator, besides a practicing Ayurvedic doctor.

Balendu Prakash

Vaidya Balendu Prakash is an Indian Ayurveda practitioner. He is a former physician to the President of India and the founder of Paadav, a specialty Ayurvedic hospital in Dehradun. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1999.

Bhaskar Vishwananth Ghokale

Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale, also known as Vaidya Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale, and popularly called Mama Gokhaleji, was an Indian Ayurveda practitioner, Ayurvedic teacher, freedom fighter, and philosopher.

Bhavamishra

Bhavamishra was an Indian physician in the 16th century. He is one of the most revered writers in Ayurveda for his work Bhavaprakasha.

Brihaspati Dev Triguna

Brihaspati Dev Triguna (1920–2013) was a Vaidya or Ayurveda practitioner and an expert in Pulse diagnosis . He completed his formal ayurvedic studies under the guidance of Rajvaidya Pandit Gokul Chand ji in his Gurukul from Ludhiana.

Cameron Alborzian

Yogi Cameron Alborzian is an Iranian-born British yoga and Ayurveda therapist and a former fashion model. After a successful career as male model in the fashion industry as the face of labels such as Guess, Levi’s and Versace as well as a starring role in Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video, he shifted his focus to work with people as an Ayurveda and yoga therapist. The Guru in You, his first book published in America, was released by HarperCollins in January 2011.

David Frawley

David Frawley is an American author, astrologer, teacher (acharya) and a proponent of Hindutva.

He has written numerous books on topics spanning the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology.

In 2015 he was honored by the Government of India with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India.

Referring to his book Yoga and Ayurveda, Frawley is mentioned as one of the main yoga teachers of Deepak Chopra and David Simon in their book, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga (2005).

Agnivesa

Agnivesha is a legendary rishi (sage), reputedly one of the earliest authors on Ayurveda. He was a pupil of Punarvasu Atreya. The Agnivesh tantra, or Agnivesha Samhita, is based on Atreya’s teachings and is a lost text on Ayurveda. It was the foundational text of the Agnivesha school, one of the six schools of early Ayurveda.

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is an Indian-American author and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in alternative medicine. His discussions of quantum healing have been characterised as technobabble – “incoherent babbling strewn with scientific terms” which drives those who actually understand physics “crazy” and as “redefining Wrong”.

Devendra Triguna

Devendra Triguna is an Indian Ayurveda practitioner, known for his expertise in Pulse diagnosis. He is a former honorary physician to the President of India and the incumbent president of the Association of Manufacturers of Ayurvedic Medicine (AMAM) and the All India Ayurvedic Congress (AIAC). The Government of India awarded him the fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, in 1999, and followed it up, a decade later, with the third-highest honour of the Padma Bhushan in 2009.

Divi Gopalacharlu

Divi Gopalacharlu was a medical scientist, Hindu orthodox researcher, Ayurvedic scholar and president of All India ayurvedic vidyapeeth. In medicine he was credited with the titles Vaidyaratna and Ayurveda Marthanda Bhishmagrani. He was known for Ayurvedic medicine and also preoccupied with propagating Ayurveda across the country and striving for extensive surveillance. He addressed various national conferences and activities.

Gopi Warrier

Gopi Warrier is a practitioner of Indian Ayurvedic medicine, a playwright, and a poet.

Harjot Kamal Singh

Harjot Kamal Singh is an Indian politician. He was a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly representing the Moga Constituency Assembly during 2017-2022 and is a member of Bharatiya Janta Party. By profession, he is an Ayurveda vaidya and runs a rural Ayurveda center named “Bhai Bishan Singh Memorial Bharj Hospital” at Ajitwal (Moga).

Jamini Bhushan Ray

Jamini Bhushan Ray was an Indian physician, as well as an Ayurvedic doctor (Kabiraj), an erudite Sanskrit scholar, and a philanthropist.

Yajnavaraha

Yajnavaraha was priest-doctor and a royal physician at the court of king Rajendravarman in Angkor, Cambodia, practising traditional Cambodian medicine and Ayurveda. He was a Brahmin of royal descent and was the grandson of King Harshavarman I. Most of his learning was from his father Damodara, who was a vedic scholar. He was known for his religious contributions and helping the poor. He was rewarded for this with a parasol of peacock feathers. He was also a musician and an astronomer at the royal court. Along with his younger brother, Vishnukumara, he commissioned the erection of a Shaivite temple called Isvarapura or Banteay Srei, 15 miles north of Angkor Wat. He went on to become the guru of King Jayavarman V and practised ayurvedic medicine at the royal court.