It is not easy to say as to who was the founder of
this science of Ayurveda. According to all authentic classics, the science
was first conceptualized by Lord Brahma, (the creator of this universe)
who looked into the agonies of human beings as well as the other animals
and thought of curing them by the means and measure available on the
earth.
This knowledge of curing the illness or the
science of life is reported to have been passed down the line to four
celestial personalities in following order:
From Lord Brahma – To Lord Daksha Prajapati (Preservator)
From Lord Daksha Prajapati – To Lord Ashwinou (Celestial Physician)
From Lord Ashwinou – To Lord Indra (Celestial King of clouds and heaven)
From Lord Indra – to saintly physicians who were human prodigies.
Till the level of Lord Indra, there appears to be an agreement in the
opinions of all major textbooks. Hereafter, Ayurveda appears to have
descended through saintly physicians who disseminated the knowledge of
their speciality subjects in their own ways for the welfare of mankind.
The reason to accept this theory is that the writer of all the three major
textbooks states that their preceptors obtained the lessons of Ayurveda
directly from Lord Indra. This makes us to infer that Lord Indra who could
have been a great physician with divine powers and must have passed on the
knowledge of different branches of Ayurveda, on different occasions to
different scholars. These scholars must have established their specialized
schools of learning and in turn taught the same to their disciples.
A close look into the revelations made in major treatises are as follows:
