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There are two major schools of Ayurveda. The school of physicians, which would be akin to the notion of Internal medicine, is called Atreya Sampredaya and the school of surgeons, Dhanbantri Sampredaya. There are a variety of branches or sub specialties in Ayurveda. They include:
The philosophy of Ayurveda is as follows:
In Ayurvedic thought there are seven types of constitutions based on three basic attributes. The three attributes are:
These three basic constituents can be recombined to include vat/pit, pit/kaph, kaph/vat and vat/pit/kaph, rounding out the seven different types of constitutions. One finds, for instance, a vat individual will have a body type that is tall or small and thin, ill nourished, hard, dry and cold. The skin will be dry, cracked, rough, broken, brownish and black. The body hair will be scant, coarse, dry and brown. Hair on the head will be brown, scant, course, curved, wavy and wrinkled. The head and forehead will be small. The eyebrows will be small, thin and unsteady, and on goes the list. By contrast the body frame of a kaph will be stout, well nourished, big, oily, greasy, cold and beautiful. The skin will be greasy, soft, yellow or white. The body hair will be plentiful, smooth and black. The head hair will be black, plentiful, firm and wavy. The head will be big and steady, and so on. One must remember that this particular system of medicine was developed in a fairly pure ethnic culture. They had very little need to worry about blonde or fair skinned individuals. They were looking primarily at ethnic Indians. |
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