Author: Gita Krishnakutty
Publisher: Penguin/Viking
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 263
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670049158
Description
A Life of Healing: A Biography of Vaidyaratnam P S Varier reconstructs the history of this extraordinary man and the institutions he established and nurtured. It shows how an ordinary student succeeded in improving, modernizing and popularizing Ayurveda.
P S Varier founded the Arya Vaidya Sala in 1902 one of the first centers that sole readymade Ayurvedic medicines. Fifteen years later, he established the Arya Vaidya Patasala, one of the first educational institutions that taught Ayurveda. Today, the Patasala has become an Ayurvedic College and the Arya Vaidya Sala has evolved into a national institution, with branches all over India.
‘A Live of Healing: A Biography of Vaidyaratnam’ P S Varier reconstructs the history of this extraordinary man and the institutions he established and nurtured. It shows how an ordinary student, spurred on by curiosity and determination to explore avenues of knowledge, succeeded in improving, modernizing and popularizing Ayurveda at a time when allopathic medicines were making inroads into the Indian market. Written in a style that brings the very rooms of the Arya Vaidya Sala to life, the book is a tribute to the man who was equally skilled in writing Ayurvedic textbooks, songs in praise of God and plays for his drama troupe to perform.
Exploring the different sides of the man, the book shows how nothing was too difficult or tool trivial for P S Varier to try: new ways of processing a medicine, different methods of instruction for students, courses of study that sought to combine various traditions, textbooks that integrated the old and the new, variations in style of architecture, innovative ways to stage a play or novel trends in music.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Prologue
The Beginning
Birth and Childhood
The Life of a Student
The Restless Years
The Long Period of Waiting
The Arya Vaidya Sala
The ‘Dhanvanthari’ Magazine
The Parama Shiva Vilasam Nataka Company
Widening Horizons
The Arya Vaidya Samajam
The Patasala
The Revolt of 1921
The Arya Vaidya Sala Silver Jubilee
Kailasmandiram Takes Shape
The Sixtieth Birthday
The Temple for Vishvambharan
A Renaissance Personality
The P S V Natya Sangham
The Will
Turning Seventy
At Rest
Kottakkal Today
Index