Prabhava Revisited
1 National Institute of Ayurveda Amer Road, Jaipur (Rajasthan), India – 302002
Corresponding Author:sudipt kumar rath
Ayurveda, contrary to the popular projection is a complete science revolving around well thought out and comprehensive theoretical underpinnings. Drug action, the epicenter of Rational Therapeutics has also been attempted to be explained and rationalized in terms of five concepts Rasa, Guna, Virya, Vipaka and Prabhava. The first four has been described to be potentially deduced by means of drug's interaction with the body and by and large follows a pattern, whereas Prabhava has been said to be established after observing the drug action on clinical material. The prabhava has also been found to be unique to each drug and do not follow a specific pattern. Charaka, Sushruta, Vagbhatta all have said prabhava to be beyond common logic by using a term Achintya. This Achintya term has been translated and interpreted as inexplicable, empirical and so on giving rise to notion that many of the ayurvedic drugs follow an empirical prescription guideline, thus putting a question mark on the scientific basis of Ayurveda. But, an unbiased and comprehensive analysis reveals that the concept of Prabhava has many facets and acquires different meaning in different situations. The crux behind this concept was found to be rationalization of drug action and to guide the physician in prescribing a drug on that basis. The analysis reveals that Prabhava relates to specific affinity of a drug to a particular site of action and produce mahabhautika changes therein beyond the normal pattern of Rasa, Guna, etc.
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How to Cite
rath, s. k., shinde, a., nagar, l., lamo, r., gahunge, p., & khemani, n. k. (2012). Prabhava Revisited. International Journal of Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicine, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.47191/ijahm/v2i3.20
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