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The Roots of Ayurveda

Author Various

Introduction by Dominik Wujastyk

Translated by Dominik Wujastyk

Notes by Dominik Wujastyk

Paperback

$20.00 US

Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics

5.12"W x 7.75"H x 0.96"D | 11 oz | 40 per carton

On sale Apr 29, 2003 | 416 Pages | 978-0-14-044824-5

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Ayurveda, the ancient art of healing, has been practiced in India for more than two thousand years and survives today as a living medical tradition whose principles are at the heart of many "alternative" therapies now used in the West. This "science of longevity" has parallels with Buddhist thought, and advocates a life of moderation through which the three humors of the body will be brought into balance. The writings selected for this volume are taken from Sanskrit medical texts written by the first Ayurvedic physicians, who lived between the fifth century b.c. and the fourteenth century a.d. Here readers will find wide-ranging and fascinating advice on the benefits of garlic therapy, prayers for protection against malevolent disease deities, surgical techniques, exercise regimens, the treatment of poisons, the interpretation of dreams, and more.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Candice Brathwaite is the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother. She is a contributing editor at Grazia and a presenter on Lorraine, and her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, Stylist, Metro and Huffington Post. She is also the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse - an online initiative that aims to ensure many more mothers see themselves reflected online - and a hugely popular influencer.

Candice Brathwaite is the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother. She is a contributing editor at Grazia and a presenter on Lorraine, and her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, Stylist, Metro and Huffington Post. She is also the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse - an online initiative that aims to ensure many more mothers see themselves reflected online - and a hugely popular influencer.

Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was the author of many novels, including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Beloved, Paradise and Love. She received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize for her fiction and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour, in 2012 by Barack Obama. Toni Morrison died on 5 August 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.

Tessa Hadley is the author of eight highly praised novels, Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl, The Past, Late in the Day, Free Love and three collections of stories, Sunstroke, Married Love and Bad Dreams. She won the Windham Campbell Prize for Fiction in 2016, The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016, and Bad Dreams won the 2018 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker.

Helen Simpson's sixth short-story collection, Cockfosters, follows Four Bare Legs in a Bed (1990), Dear George (1995), Hey Yeah Right Get a Life (2000), Constitutional (2005) and In-Flight Entertainment (2010). A Bunch of Fives: Selected Stories (2012) includes five stories from each of her first five collections. She has received the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M.Forster Award. She lives in London. View titles by Various

The Roots of AyurvedaList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Author's Note

Introduction
The Historical Context
Classical Indian Medicine
The Choice of Texts
The Translations
Plant Names
Measures
Medical Terminology

Caraka's Compendium
Introduction to the Selections
On Not Suppressing Natural Urges
On Eight Sets of Three
On Hospitals
On Epidemics
On Heredity

Susruta's Compendium
Introduction to the Selections
The Use of Knives
Gaining Surgical Experience
Starting Out as a Surgeon
Plastic Surgery on the Ear and Nose
The Diagnosis of Embedded Splinters
The Extraction of Splinters
Blood and Bloodletting
On Breath and Wind
Rejuvenation through Soma
Safeguarding Food and Drink
Stationary Poisons

The Uses of Garlic (from the Bower Manuscript)
Introduction to the Selection
The Uses of Garlic

Kasyapa's Compendium
Introduction to the Selections
Lady Opulence the Demoness Child-Killer

Vagbhata's Heart of Medicine
Introduction to the Selections
Desiring Long Life
Daily Regimen
Seasonal Regimen
The Six Savours
The Science of the Humours
Lethal Points on the Body
On Insanity

Sarngadhara's Compendium
Introduction to the Selections
On Weights, Measures, and Definitions
Pulse, Omens, and Dreams
Introducing Medicine Through the Skin
On the Human Body

References
Vocabulary Index: Flora, Fauna, and Medical Terms
Index

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