Textbook of Ayurveda, Volume One:
Fundamental Principles by Vasant
Lad
Textbook Of Ayurveda, Volume One: Fundamental Principles
In his Ayurvedic Studies Program, Vasant Lad, Ayurvedic Physician,
teaches Ayurveda as a science of moment-to-moment living. Each lecture
that he gives flows from his own heart in a river of healing wisdom that is
inspired by and pertinent to the students who are present at the time of the
lecture. This textbook is a presentation of Dr. Lads years of teaching in that
classroom setting. It conveys the philosophical and fundamental principles
of his first year Ayurvedic Studies Program at the Ayurvedic Institute in a
dynamic and inspirational way. This book will give the student a detailed
foundation upon which to pursue deeper knowledge, including that of the
future volumes in this series.
Personal Review: Textbook of Ayurveda, Volume One:
Fundamental Principles by Vasant Lad
Destined to become the definitive English-language textbook of ayurveda

Dr. Vasant Lad is a world-renowned ayurvedic physician, born and
educated in India, with more than forty years of clinical experience. He is
one of the world's leading teachers and scholars of ayurveda, and served
as professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pune College of
Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery as well as director of its affiliated hospital.
Currently, he is president of and a senior faculty member at the Ayurvedic
Institute, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Vasant Lad is the author of several
professional texts and popular works on ayurveda and has written
countless articles on the subject.
There have been many textbooks published for intending practitioners of
ayurveda, but until now nearly all of these have been in Sanskrit or more
frequently Hindi or one of India's regional languages. Lacking facility in one
or more of these, the English speaking student was left with one of two
relatively time-consuming and unsatisfactory alternatives: consulting
English-language translations of ayurveda's classics (i.e., the Sushruta and
Charaka compendiums and the Astanga Hridaya, inter alia, a prospect
unwieldy to say the least given the host of ancient therapies no longer in
existence in today's world and the often untranslatable proper names of
conditions and medicines) or compiling and correlating information from
popular works on the subject and online sources.
Dr. Vasant Lad's "Textbook of Ayurveda: Fundamental Principles" has
resolved this daunting task for the professional student of ayurveda and
provided in one well-organized, well-written and very clear English-
language volume all salient aspects of the philosophical and scientific
foundation that ayurveda stands upon: from the metaphysical
underpinnings to the foundations of ayurvedic anatomy and physiology.
The book is arranged into ten sections covering, respectively the shad
darshan (the metaphysical assumptions underlying ayurveda); the
elements, gunas (qualities of matter) and the tridoshic theory; dosha
subtypes and their locations and functions; agni (degistive processes) the
sapta dhatus (seven tissue types); srotamsi (channels or meridians), ojas,
tejas, and prana (subtle forms of the doshas), digestion and nutrition and
swasthavritti (ayurvedic concepts of healthy lifestyles and regimens). The
flow of instructional material in the book is superlatively well-organized,
with the information provided in one section providing a knowledge base
for the effective study of material provided in subsequent sections.
With the coming of ayurveda to the West, there has emerged a great need
for a foundation-level textbook that not only caters to Western learning
styles but that also forges a link between ayurveda's conceptions of
anatomy and physiology and those of Western biomedicine. It contains the
necessary foundation for the understanding of a paradigm of health and
disease far removed from the Western one, going far beyond the level of
detail and sophistication than that encountered in works published for the
interested lay public.

The appearance of this valuable work by Dr. Lad is synchronous with the
creation of more and higher quality, academically rigorous programs of
instruction and training in ayurveda outside of the country of its birth. Dr.
Lad has written what I believe will become the definitive textbook of
ayurveda for English-speaking and reading students in the West, and is
due an enormous debt of thanks by the ayurvedic profession and by the
public in general. I heartily and unhesitatingly recommend this work as a
necessity for all aspiring practitioners of ayurveda. It will also be of use to
health professionals schooled in Western biomedical concepts who wish to
achieve a degree of familiarity with ayurvedic concepts.
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