Charaka Samhita is the Ayurvedic text obtained from the ancient Indian tradition written by the great Ayurvedic physician Charaka. It is said to be the oldest of the three ancient treaties of Ayurveda. Charaka Samhita has relevance in the modern day practice of Ayurvedic medicine. Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita are famous worldwide as an important source of old Ayurveda practice. Thus this book helps to gather an idea of the ancient medicinal practice.Source of Charaka Samhita
The text Charaka Samhita is written in Sanskrit. The term ‘Charaka’ means ‘wandering scholars’ or ‘wandering physicians’ and ‘Samhita’ denotes ‘collected’ or ‘compendium’. The original source of Charaka Samhita is the Agnivesha Tantra based on the teaching of Punarvasu. It is thought that Charaka has edited this work and in later times another Ayurvedic Scholar Dridhabala extended the Charaka Samhita further more. The Charaka Samhita was most probably written in Mauryan era (around 3rd century BC).
Context of Charaka SamhitaThe text contains eight sections having 120 chapters in total. The eight sections are Sutra Sthana (General principles), Nidana Sthana (Pathology), Vimana Sthana (Specific determination), Sarira Sthana (Anatomy), Indriya Sthana (Sensory organ based prognosis), Cikitsa Sthana (Therapeutics), Kalpa Sthana (Pharmaceutics and toxicology) and Siddhi Sthana (Success in treatment).
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