REVIEW ARTICLE ON RASAYANA (REJUVENATION THERAPY)

The description of Rasayana comes in detail in all the Ayurvedic texts. This branch of Ayurveda appears to have been practiced in ancient times as an important specialty aiming at rejuvenation and geriatric care. Rasayana is one of the eight branches of Ayurveda. Rasayana Chikitsa has importance from both the preventive and curative aspects of the disease. So much importance is given to this particular branch that the chapters of Rasayana find foremost place in the Charaka Samhita Chikitsa sthana. Whereas Charaka Samhita describes Rasayana in the first padas of Chikitsa Sthana in Sushruta Samhita, it is pushed back to chapters 27-30 of Chikitsa sthana. In Astang Hridaya Rasayana does not find a special place in Chikitsa sthana and is described only briefly in the 39th chapter of Uttar Tantra. This reflects on the declining importance of Rasayana therapy in the Samhita period itself.