Ayurveda and Siddha that dates back to at least 3000 yrs in the World History are the two most ancient medical technologies that are still been practiced by the modern society even today. Though both these systems have their commonality in its construct, today unlike Siddha, Ayurveda has slowly stepped out of India to visit the alien world for the first time. For instance in the last 20yrs it has made significant progress in breaking  its original demographic boundaries to enter into most parts of Asia, some parts of Europe, Australia and the United States. When 60% of the Indian population are exclusively dependent on Ayurveda one way or the other, with or without their knowledge, the most obvious questions are; why is the so called “holistic medicine of India” not considered as a mainstream medical system from a global perspective? Why is Ayurveda rather called as an alternative/complementary medicine? What is it stopping Ayurveda from reaching the entire world? These are some of the fundamental issues this book will try to address.

For centuries together the east and the west have had a stark contrast in viewing this world and the universe. Ayurveda fundamentals were built based on the eastern view of looking into the body and the universe. Whereas, the west has so far viewed this observable Universe using the modern science axioms which has its own short-comings. The modern fundamental axioms are not sufficient to explain the few thousand year old Ancient Science that is constructed from an older set of axioms which are much more fundamental in nature compared to the modern one.  Most of the Ayurvedic literature are written in Sanskrit and Tamil. So it is not very uncommon to assume that this lay back in cross-cultural knowledge exchange falls on the linguistic barrier that existed between the two different cultures that is mostly attributed to the translation and interpretations of eastern language to western language. As a matter of fact, the linguistic barrier is only one aspect of the problem but the major weightage of the problem lies in the axiomatic construct of an entire Science that it unknown to the World yet. Ayurveda is only a small fraction of this bigger Science that was practiced in the world, which the world has neglected to identify it so far due to various reasons. Indeed, the whole world will be surprised to know that an independent science ruled the world that had all divisions of sciences (not limited to) that the modern schools are teaching today. Yet this science was drafted and documented in a different language during a different time. This science can be coined as the ‘Ancient Science of Wisdom and Technology of the World’.

The ancient science was constructed based on wisdom. Mostly many of the work has been fused with religion and culture, therefore it is not easy to identify this science today. Similar to the separation of modern science from Christianity in the past, the Ancient Science was so far not been separated from the Hindu religion. But doing this separation a new dimension is unfolded. A new view of the universe is opened up, yet we can link this with the modern science for the benefits of humanity as a whole. However, shifting from the current Newtonian view (robust mechanics) or the Cartesian view (three coordinate system of viewing space) of the Universe to a Conscious View of the Universe is not an easy task as one might conceive. This is one of the key reasons for the stagnation of the developments in the Ayurvedic medical system so far.

  One may wonder why did not India developed Ayurveda as a mainstream medical system on its own similar to the modern medical system. This has to do with the last 200-300 yrs of Indian History where India was slowly shifted to the Newtonian view through the colonized education system that was enforced in India during the British rule.  Therefore, at least for the past 100 yrs India was focusing mainly on getting freedom from the colonizers. This was the highest priority for the freedom fighters of India. Therefore, after independence India had very little time that was just good enough to focus on fixing the economic recession, which has occurred during the transition to independence, rather than India concentrating on resurrecting the traditional knowledge and science hidden in the Indian culture?  In the meantime western medical system that was introduced by British was propagated much strongly overriding traditional knowledge that was preserved for thousands of years. Today the situation is changing gradually, the same Western world that got boredom with the Cartesian view of the universe so far is taking serious steps to probe into other cultures and perspectives, Ayurveda being highest priority among the many other subjects of interest.  Indeed, Europeans and the Americans are looking for alternative ways of life leave alone Ayurveda.

Now that we understand that science is just a cultural expression and so far paradigm shift has taken place scientifically only within the same culture. For instance the difference between the Newton’s views of the Universe has a significant contrast from the Einstein’s view of the Universe yet both paradigms came from the same culture. Though Einstein’s Relativity is remarkable in history, it is also just another Cartesian view with new dimensions but definitely a much interesting view compared to the solid Newtonian mechanical view of the universe. In this context now we need to look from yet another new paradigm shift that also carries a cultural dimension added to it. Therefore, this paradigm will be a stark contrast to the world since so far the west and western education system has been viewing the world and universe from the Cartesian reference points.

Keeping this is mind, in this book an attempt is made to switching the current Cartesian view of the Universe to an ancient Conscious view of the Universe.  However, many of the words are translated using modern equivalent terms as closely as possible with high priority given to avoiding the defragmentation of the authenticity involved in the Ayurvedic fundamentals. To a great extent effort it taken to describe this ancient science without misinterpreting its original meaning.  Today modern world is demanding for alternative theory/ hypothesis given the current downfall of the modern medical system and modern science in general in various aspects of life. Though the ancient science can classically be constructed using its own axiom, an effort is made here in this book to bridge the gap with modern science using a series of steps. This procedure may be very useful to mankind as a whole in building a new universe in the future with the suggested new set of axioms. 

The term ‘Ayurveda’ (Indian system  of medicine) means knowledge of life. The main objects of Ayurveda is maintenance of the metabolic equilibrium of human psychosomatic machine and the restoration of the same to normalcy, if the homoeostasis is upset or disturbed by the aetiopathological factors. We feel that if Ayurveda is presented in today’s scientific language, it will be welcomed in better way from other scientists.

Now a days, Ayurvedic Panchkarma (5 body cleansing procedures) are popular worldwide. When the treatment of internal medicine falls short and expected results are not achieved, the Ayurveda physicians has to opt for Panchkarma.  Nasya karma or ‘Ayurvedic Intranasal Drug Therapy’ is one of these five body cleansing procedures. This book entitled ‘Ayurvedic Intranasal Drug Therapy’ (Nasya karma Chikitsa ) is an effort, taken for the explanation of Nasyakarma. Nasya karma (Transnasal Drug delivery) procedure is basically, a sort of cleansing procedure for the body when it is desired to extract the vitiated Dosha entities loged above the supra clavicular (Urdhwa jatru gat) part of the body.

Further, the book describes the scientific methodology of Nasyakarma procedure and its probable mode of action. We tried our best to explain the destiny of drug or metabolism of the drug administered(exploration of the path of administered drug)by nasal route in scientific way.

This book will prove very beneficial for the Ayurveda scholars and researches in the health science field who wish to benefit from this unique technique (Nasya karma) and use it for curing their patients. The topics described in this book have not been dealt in detail in the classical texts of Ayurveda, hence this book will act as a ready reckoner for students, Ayurved practitioners and last but not the least research scholars and researchers from all health discipline from all over the globe.