Occupation Ayurvedic Physician Awards Padma Shri | Parents Pankajam Rama Varier | |
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Born 23 September 1951 (age 65) ( 1951-09-23 ) Shornur, Palakkad, Kerala, India Website Website of Arya Vaidya Pharmacy Known for The Ayurvedic Trust, AVP Research Foundation | ||
P. R. Krishna Kumar (born 23 September 1951) is an Indian ayurvedic physician and the founder of the AVP Research Foundation, a non-profit research organization promoting research in the Indian medicine system of Ayurveda and Managing Director of The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (Coimbatore) Ltd.. He is the Chancellor of the Avinashilingam University, the Chairman of CARe Keralam (Confederation for Ayurvedic Renaissance - Keralam), a resource centre involved in efforts to standardize the ayurvedic medicines and is a recipient of an honorary doctoral degree from Kuvempu University. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2009, for his contributions to Medicine.
Biography
Krishna Kumar was born on 23 September 1951 in an ambalavasi family of traditional physicians in Shornur, Palakkad district in the south Indian state of Kerala, to Pankajam and P. V. Rama Varier, an ayurvedic physician and the founder of the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. His formal education in ayurveda was at the Shornur Ayurveda College, one of the notable institutions in the state, after which he joined Arya Vaidya Pharmacy and got involved in the promotion of ayurveda as a medical science. He was instrumental in the introduction of a seven and a half year curriculum for ayurvedic studies, first affiliated to the University of Madras and, later to the Bharathiar University. His participation has also been reported in a clinical study conducted jointly by the World Health Organization and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
In 2003, Kumar founded AVT Institute for Advanced Research, later renamed as AVP Research Foundation, to promote scientific research in ayurveda. The foundation initiated several research programs which included a study, funded jointly with the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of California Los Angeles, California, to ascertain the efficacy of ayurvedic medicines in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, where Kumar was the project director. DIVYAM Academy is another institution founded by him which is a centre for holistic value-based education for children. He is also known to have contributed in conceptualizing and implementing the preparation of ayurvedic medicines in tablet form and has also conducted several free medical camps for the poor in rural areas. The Government of India honoured him with the civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2009.