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About Ayurveda
The Ayurvedic system traces its roots to the Himalayan Mountains of India over five thousand years ago. In Sanskrit, words āyus, meaning "longevity", and veda, meaning "knowledge" or "science". Ayurveda has been suggested that a more appropriate translation would be "the knowledge of life span." In Hindu mythology, the origin of ayurvedic medicine is attributed to Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods .
Ayurvedic knowledge was passed orally and through bower manuscripts from generation to generation for over a thousand years, continuously growing as each Ayurvedic added his insights and experiences. Finally Ayurveda’s fundamental philosophy principle and applied science got organized and enunciated in 1500 B.C. The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India,[3] i.e., in the mid-second millennium BCE. The Suśruta Saṃhitā and the Charaka Saṃhitā are encyclopedias of medicine compiled from various sources from the mid-first millennium BCE to about 500 CE.
By that time, and hundreds of years before the birth of European medicine, Ayurveda had 8 specialists in.
Ayurvedic medicine probably predates any other healing tradition in existence today - even Chinese medicine. The Chinese pilgrim Fa Hsien (ca. 337–422 AD) wrote about the health care system of the Gupta empire (320–550) and described the institutional approach of Indian medicine, also visible in the works of Charaka, who mentions a clinic and how it should be equipped. Even before the Ayurvedic conference, knowledge of the medicinal plants of India has spread to the other continents. Seeds from plants indigenous to India have been found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. Travelers had carried information about Indian plants through Tibet into China, and Arabs and traded for Indian herbs before the birth of Islam. According to Ayurvedic philosophy, health is dependent upon one’s ability to live in harmony with one’s self and with the external universe. As much attention was given to illnesses of the mind as to illnesses of the body.
The Ayurvedic physician of vedic era taught that in order to avoid illness and pain, the patient must control the destructive ( and self-destructive) nature. Living in harmony with the environment was recognized as essential to one’s mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Ayurveda aims at making a happy, healthy and peaceful society. The two most important aims of Ayurveda are:
Ayurvedic physicians taught was more desirable than a cure. Their ideal was to develop an individual’s natural resistance to
disease to the point where one’s immune system could function as one’s best medicine. Their goal was to maintain an individual in his or her individual health throughout life, so that the ultimate goal of life- the awareness of his or her connection with the life principle- could be pursued.
Ayurveda sees everything in the universe, including human beings, as composed of five basic elements (or Panchamahabhutas): space, air, fire, water and earth.These five elements combine to form the Tridoshas – VATA,PITTA, KAPHA.
Today’s Ayurvedic physicians, like their predecessors, recognize their major body (or physiology) types which they refer to as the three DOSHAS: VATA, PITTA, and KAPHA. 
One’s body type is also referred to as one’s PRAKRITI, and is determined by heredity. Most people are a combination of types: a VATA/PITTA type for example. Ayurvedic physicians evaluate their patients using techniques such as observation, interview, and pulse diagnosis to determine the patient’s body (or physiology) type. They then determine the imbalances that are present in the body and make recommendations according to the patient’s body type. Dietary and herbal recommendations make up a large part of their treatment, and music therapy is also employed.
Thanks to the Ayurvedic tradition, many herbal combinations based on centuries of accumulated knowledge are available to today’s eclectic herbalists and natural health enthusiasts.
Sushruta was the son of Maharshi Vishwamitra. He wrote the SUSHRUTA SAMAHITA , which is the world's first book on the practise of Shalya ( Surgery ) in Sanskrit.
The English translation itself runs into 1800 pages. The original Sanskrit text contains 184 chapters . It deals with every facet of surgery including from Caesarian surgery, amputations, brain surgery, cataract surgery, piles, hernia, fibroids --right up to plastic surgery and grafting. His books deals with first aid, anti-toxins and child care too.
Current Status
Up to 80% of people in India use either Ayurveda or other traditional medicines. In 1970, the Indian Medical Central Council Act which aims to standardize qualifications for ayurveda and provide accredited institutions for its study and research was passed by the Parliament of India. Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) a statutory body established in 1971, under Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, monitors higher education in ayurveda. The state-sponsored Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has been set up to research the subject. To fight bio piracy and unethical patents, the Government of India, in 2001, set up the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library as repository of 1200 formulations of various systems of Indian medicine, such as ayurveda, unani and siddha. The library also has 50 traditional ayurveda books digitized and available online.
Outside India
Several international and national initiatives have been formed to legitimize the education and practice of ayurvedic medicine as CAM in countries outside South Asia:
Due to different laws and medical regulations in the rest of the world, the unregulated practice and commercialization of ayurvedic medicine has raised ethical and legal issues; in some cases, this damages the reputation of ayurvedic medicine outside India.