A STUDY OF KAUMARABHRITYA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHARAK SAMHITA

Abstract

The self born propounder of this science Ayurveda- a branch of Atharva veda even before creating living beings, composed it in one hundred thousand verses divided into Astanga ayurveda (8 branches of Ayuveda). The 8 branches are Kayachikitsa, Shalakya tantra, Shalya tantra, Vishgarvairodhik prashaman, Bhoot vidya, Kaumarbhritya, Rasayana and Vajikaran. Kaumarbhritya which is one of the branches of Astanga Ayurveda is defined as the branch of Ayurveda which described the methods of bringing up (looking after) children, purification of breast milk of the mother, diseases arising from drenching vitiated breast milk and their treatment.

Charak samhita though deals or covers all the 8 branches of Astanga ayurveda but it emphasis more in Kayachikitsa. Kaumarbhritya is more elaborately and nicely dealt by Kashyap samhita. The Kaumarbhritya related topics are all scattered in Charak samhita and make it hard for the readers to find out their topics. So, for the convenience of the reader and to make it updated with the changing present era and easily assessable and handy, the present work has been carried out. In total 10 chapters of Charak samhita has Kaumar bhritya related topics. 4 chapters of Sutrasthana, 5 chapter of Sharir sthana and 1 chapter of Chikitsa sthana has Kaumarbhritya related topics. Compiling the scattered topics of Kaumarbhritya available in Charak samhita will make the reader easy to choose its topic of interest in Charak samhita regarding the Kaumarbhritya related topics.