Is Panchakarma practised in Kerala more advanced?

[Guest guest]

dear Dr Muzumdar,

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in my answer - I thought I

sent this some time ago. Perhaps you wouldn't mind providing a brief

recent history of Ayurveda in India. From what I have been able to

piece together there was a significant decline in Ayurveda during the

colonial period, with many physicians losing the patronage they had

previously enjoyed. Also, with the rising influence of Western

medicine, the status of Ayurveda had been undermined even further.

Even as recently as 1997 I observed that Western medicine was growing

apace in India - it seems to me maybe the pendulum has begun to swing

back to Ayurveda in India very recently, as the West is also

beginning to make that shift with more earnestness.

 

Having has the good fortune to have traveled throughout most of

India, it is has been my general observation that the south has

faired much better when it comes to the preservation of traditional

knowledge, simply because it has been insulated from foreign

influences to a relatively greater degree than the north. Of course

the south also has its distinct differences as well, and so I am not

suggesting that it is entirely representative of Ayurveda across the

subcontinent - indeed, my thesis all along is that the principles of

Ayurveda are adapted to place and custom.

 

Regardless of all the tourism hype, Kerala has been a center for

Ayurveda for a very long time, since the Ashta Vaidyan tradition was

established in the line of Vagbhata. This tradition has been

preserved and maintained for perhaps the longest time, without

foreign interruption. Although it could be rightly argued that the

Kerala vaidyas are the inheritors of Ayurvedic knowledge from the

north, and that the knowledge isn't necessarily _indigenous_ to

Kerala, they have been holding the torch for a very long time now.

Is it not true that that even today many Ayurvedic physicians outside

of Kerala go there specifically to study PK practices and the various

Keraliya specialties? From what I have observed in the north, what

is called PK is more a modified form of out-patient therapy, and thus

many might not be following the shastras with complete precision. I

believe that a doctor wrote in awhile back highlighting his

experience in this regard, discussing the benefits of implementing

authentic in-patient PK treatment, which seems to be most advanced in

Kerala.

 

best regards... Todd Caldecott

 

best... Todd Caldecott

Caldecott, Dip. Cl.H, RH(AHG)

Ayurvedic practitioner, Medical Herbalist

web: http//:www.toddcaldecott.com

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> I would definitely like to point out that Panchkarma is being

> extensively practised in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan also

> besides Kerala.AND there is nothing much difference from Kerala

> variety except language and names of procedures and herbs......