Abstract:
Terminology used in Ayurveda medical science has its own peculiar
interpretations. These temls cannot be sufficiently comprehended through general
dictionary meanings. P!lhivi, ap, reja, •.üyu, äküia are commonly used terminology
Of rasa, rakfa, medha. asrhi, maffåand
are those of Sapradhä,'usiddhän/a. The objective of this study is to
comparatively review this lerminology on the basis of their Ayurvedic
interpretations and the usage in current research papers. Twenty research parxrs
containg these terms were downloaded from the Google scholar for this study
while Carakasamhitä, Susrurasab'hi.'ä, Asrä'jgahrdayasamhitü and their
commentaries (Jiküs) were used as reference texts. The results revealed that
terminology related to Paicomahäbhfitaprinciple such as Puhivi, up, teja, l@vu,
åkåürhave been substituted with common English equivalents: Prihivi as earth,
earth principle. etc; ap as water, water principles, etc; teja as fire, heat, energy, etc;
väyu as air, air principle, äkä'a as space, ether, etc. Similarly, terminolog_v relating
to Sap'adhün,' principle has been replaced with a considerable range of English
translation: rasa as skin, chyle. lymph, etc; rakta as blood. må'hsa as muscles.
protein, meda as fat. adipose tissues, etc; asrhi as bone, bone tissues. etc: majjé as
marrow. nervous system, as semen. reproductive fluid, etc. Some
researchers had used the English equivalent within brackets in its first occurrence
in the research paper while some others had used the English word in the body of
the research paper while the terminology was used within brackets. There were
also some research papers where only terminology had been used. The research •
further revealed that the common equivalents used as substitutes to terminology do
not accurately convey the intended concepts.
