DEFINITION of DRAVYAGUNA
द्रव्याणां गुण कर्माणि प्रयोग विविधास्तथा । सर्वशो यत्र वर्ण्यन्ते शास्त्रं द्रव्यगुणं हि तत् ।। (द्रव्यगुण विज्ञान – Part 1 by PV Sharma)
The branch of Dravyaguna is defined as that part of Ayurveda which deals with the substances, their properties and actions in detail. The main intention of Dravyaguna is to have a proper understanding of the pharmacodynamics. It is pertaining to different substances that are in use either in the form of medicine or food by us in our daily life.
Plants have been the integral part of one’s life. It’s multiple use right from food to medicine have made it all the more important source for our living. Food give us energy such that we can perform our activities. While the medicines helps us to heal from different disease conditions. The use of plants as medicine have led to the rise of many local and traditional systems of medicine. These cater a large spectrum of treatment options concerned with many known and even unknown disease conditions.
These local health traditional systems have been either neglected or misunderstood due to the development of materialistic sciences. Now it has once again risen from the ashes of our memory to prominence. Ayurveda too is not away from this sway. This life science has much in store and can be useful to cater the needs of today. This can be possible only with proper analysis and understanding.
IMPORTANCE OF DRAVYAGUNA
Among the various important components of healing, Dravya (Substances) have been given the second importance after the Bhishak (Physician). This shows the utility of the medicaments in the various branches of science. An extensive explanation is given to understand and analyse these substances with respect to their properties and actions. This page and its sub-pages will mainly deal with this aspect of Ayurveda in detail.
We from “ayursoln” will strive hard to provide justice to this great science. We will discuss about the plants that are mostly in use for medicinal purposes. We will also be discussing on the various actions enumerated by Charaka in the 4th chapter of the section “Sutrasthana” in Charaka Samhita as heading for the Gana or Groups.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF DRAVYAGUNA
In Ayurveda, the pharmacodynamics is on the basis of five concepts namely the RASA, GUNA, VEERYA, VIPAKA and PRABHAVA. The five concepts are together known as “RASAPANCHAKA”. Like any other concepts in Ayurveda even these five concepts are derived from the theory of PANCHAMAHABHUTA itself. Along with these five concepts, two more namely the concept of Dravya and Karma together form the seven core concepts of Dravyaguna or Ayurvedic Pharmacology. These seven concepts are together known as “SAPTAPADARTHA” of Dravyaguna. In the present section we will be trying to explain about the concepts in detail.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF DRAVYAGUNA
The Rasapanchaka are the basic concepts on which the whole explanation of drug action is based upon. As a result these have to be clearly known to understand how a medicine acts in the body as per Ayurveda. Like any other concepts in Ayurveda even these five concepts are derived from the theory of PANCHAMAHABHUTA itself. Infact, along with these five concepts, two more concepts namely the concept of Dravya and Karma together form the seven core concepts of Dravyaguna or Ayurvedic Pharmacology. These seven concepts are together known as “SAPTAPADARTHA” of Dravyaguna. In the present section we will be trying to explain about the concepts in detail.
DETAILS OF PLANT
Do you know that there are about 8000 medicinal plants that are used in Ayurveda spread over different classical texts. These references have mentioned the properties, uses either directly or indirectly through synonyms. Even the morphology have been described in the form of synonymous names. But today majority of the plants are identified with their standard botanical names. In the present section we will try to explain the different medicinal plants that are studied and used in Ayurveda.
DETAILS OF ACTION
Action of medicinal plants in Ayurveda are known as “KARMA”in Ayurveda. There are many activities mentioned in various texts of Ayurveda. But among them, 50 that are selected by Acharya Charaka like JEEVANEEYA, BRIMHANEEYA, etc and named the group or “GANA” that consisted of those substances that are of medicinal importance denoting the importance of these actions and its common appearance. In the present section we will try to explain the different pharmacological actions in detail.