Ayurved – Our priceless treasure.
Ayurved
touches many aspects of our life. It’s not only about medicines. Yes, it heals
cures and prevents disorders and malfunctions in the human body. It is not all. It
is omnipresent. It tells us everything about the way; we are to lead our life,
a healthy life. It is really amazing when we find that, a great deal of thought
was applied by our ancestors to small and minute details of everything that
affects our life. They have done it through “Ayurved”.
We all remember very
well, a very expensive battle has to be fought before the patents on Neem and
Turmeric was revoked in favor of India. Most of the countries especially
industrially advanced now know that all drugs used in the olden days to combat
diseases were such specialty chemicals and plant compounds were used as
therapeutic agents. The ongoing search for Neem-based pesticides is similarly
an expression of interest in doing away with synthetic pesticides.
Likewise, Ayurvedic
medicinal preparations, which some people may like to use to enhance the beauty
of complexion are now on-demand. Countries like Japan, Germany have shown deep
interest in the traditional herbal remedies of disease and they are actually
importing various tropical plants and herbals from India. India’s medicinal
practices like Naturopathy and Ayurveda are becoming very popular in countries
like the US, France, Germany, and Italy, apart from other Afro-Asian countries in
the world. Traditional remedies based on Neem, Turmeric, Shankhpushpi,
Sandalwood, Shatavari had been a part of the traditional Ayurvedic medicinal
system since ancient times. It has a history of thousands of years and it is
time-tested. Even in the grand old days, in the absence of modern medicines,
various traditional herbal treatments used to take care of the health of the
people. In the late 17th Century, a Dutch official, named Van Rheede
visited Malabar and studied Ayurvedic traditions of Kerala and took the help of
Etty Achyuthan and other Vaidyas to record the treatment of various diseases
with the help of herbal remedies. To aid in correct identification of the
plants from which the drugs were derived, he described them, classifying them
with the help of the system used by the Kerala Physicians. The result was
‘Hortus Malabaricus’ – published between 1678-1703, a landmark of the history
of modern botany.
In recent GST
announcement; there is no incentive provided for our traditional Indian
medicines like Ayurveda. On the contrary, govt. had promised to encourage
traditional medicines and, therefore, the rate of tax must be reduced and it should
be put in the 5% bracket. It has actually been increased from 6% to 12%. It
means instead of giving encouragement to Ayurvedic medicines, govt. has doubled
the tax on Ayurvedic medicinal products.
