The Ayurvedic Trust

History

The Ayurvedic Trust (AVT) is a public charitable trust established by Arya Vaidyan P. V. Rama Variar along with P. S. G. Venkatasamy Naidu in 1950, The trust has made a scientific impact on the course of Ayurveda with an initiative to scientifically study efficacy of Ayurvedic treatment in Rheumatoid Arthritis along with Indian Council for Medical Research and World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1980's. This was a path breaking moment in Ayurveda with a rigor to study Ayurveda scientifically.

In collaboration with the UCLA Medical School, the institution had a long-term study to see which works better for rheumatoid arthritis, Ayurveda or the Western drug methotrexate.

Activities

The activities of the trust although are multi-fold, right from spiritual to full fledged scientific researches is centered to health care. The trust runs temples, hospitals, training Centres, Ayurveda Colleges, Research Centres and other philanthropic health centered establishment. The activities of the trust is centered at the headquarters of the trust known as the Ayurvedic Trust Campus.

The Arya Vaidya Chikitsalayam and Research Institute

The campus has the Arya Vaidya Chikitsalayam and Research Institute which is a 120 bed Ayurvedic Hospital with an attached out patient department also. The Clinical wing was started in the year 1957 and is now known as The Arya Vaidya Chikitsalayam & Research Institute (AVC). AVC offers classical Ayurvedic treatments for a wide range ailments. This Chikitsalayam is one of the first Ayurvedic hospitals to become ISO 9001 : 2000 certified for its compliance with international quality standards. The first ever clinical research project to scientifically evaluate Ayurveda outside the US, funded by the National Institutes of Health, USA was conducted in this hospital. The hospital has treated eminent personalities including: K R Narayanan : Ex. President of India, Abdul Kalam : Ex. President of India, Yaswant Sinha : Former Finance Minister of India, Anirud Jaganath : President of Mauritius, Shujaath Hussian : Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Janardhana Reddy : Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, P Chidambaram : Finance Ministry of India, P.V. Narasimha Rao : Former Prime Minister of India, R. Venkataraman : Former President of India, Jaswant Singh: Former Union External Affairs Minister, Uma Bharati: Former Union Minister & Former Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh Saudi Royal Family etc.

AVT Institute for Advanced Research (AVTAR)

The Ayurvedic Trust Institute for Advanced Research, popular as AVTAR, is housed in the Ayurvedic trust campus. AVTAR was formed in June 2003, the activities aim to blend the three areas of research, teaching and practice to create a new breed of Ayurvedic physicians who can meet the challenges of globalization. AVTAR has initiated the RUDRA (Random Uninterrupted Documentation for Retrospective Analysis) Program to generate practice based evidence in the field of Ayurvedic clinical practice. The thrust areas of research at AVTAR are

Literary research

Locating, cataloging, critically editing and publishing manuscripts in private and public collections.
Establishing a comprehensive library of Ayurvedic works to serve as a one stop reference for researchers.
Creating online digital library of medical manuscripts.
Developing methodology for critical edition of Ayurvedic texts.
Evolving methodology for interpreting and translating classical Ayurvedic texts.
Historical issues in the study of Ayurveda Veda and Ayurveda, Buddhism and Ayurveda, Jainism and Ayurveda, Greek Medicine and Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda
Studies on epistemology of Ayurveda.
Studies on teaching methods in Ayurveda.
Critical evaluation of the contribution of post graduate and doctoral studies to Ayurvedic research.

Field research

Survey of natural, knowledge and human resource base in the field of Ayurveda.
Survey of medicinal plants and their status.
Documentation of living traditions of Ayurveda and traditional practices like visa vaidya, netra cikitsA, bhUta vidya etc.
Survey current trends in the field of Ayurveda and publish state of the art reports on the status of Ayurveda in India.

Experimental research

Reviews of experimental research already done in the field of Ayurveda Pharmacognosy, Quality Control, Standardization, Pharmacology.
Fine tune existing methodologies to identify medicinal plants used in Ayurveda.
Further work on methodologies to standardize and ensure quality of Ayurvedic medicines.
Bio-prospecting of medicinal plants used in Ayurvedic medicines to isolate new chemical entities.
Explore scope and limitations of pharmacological studies on animal models to evaluate safety and efficacy of Ayurvedic drugs.
Design methodologies to evaluate the medicinal properties of a plant/drug on the basis of Ayurvedic principles viz., - rasa-guNa-vIrya- vipAka.
Standardize methodologies to evaluate safety and efficacy of mineral and metal based formulations used in Ayurveda.
Promote studies on methodologies to develop new formulations in ayurvedic practice with focus on the difference between patent and classical formulations.

Clinical research

Observational Studies Introducing well designed documentation systems to establish evidence based practice in the field of Ayurveda.
Clinical Trials Exploring scope and limitations in the context of Ayurveda, designing protocols and conducting trials in selected diseases.
Review of previous clinical trials and their contribution to betterment of Ayurvedic practice.

Arsha Yoga Vidya Peetam Trust

Arsha Yoga Vidya Peetam Trust is an institution engaged in preserving and propagating “Indian knowledge systems”, mainly focusing on Yoga and Ayurveda in the traditional lineage imparting education and practice. The word “Arsha” literally means - as taught by the seers or sages. The uniqueness the institute uphold is the authenticity in sharing knowledge based on original scriptures, without compromising or hampering its genuineness. The yoga fame Yogi Cameron was trained in this institute by Dr. V. Vasudevan.

The Dhanvatari Temple

The Ayurvedic Trust Campus also houses the famous Dhanvantari Temple where in daily rituals of the deity of Ayurveda is performed for the well being of the patients and the human kind. This is one of the rare temples in the whole world for Lord Dhanvatari which was consecrated during 1977 April 26 at the heart of Coimbatore City in The Ayurvedic Trust Campus. Built following the traditional architectural science of Vasthu, Dhanwanthari Temple has Lord Dhanwanthari, the God of medicine, as the main deity and other sub-deities Durga / Bhagavathy, Sri Ayyappan, Hanuman, Brahmarkshas, Nagaraj, Uma Maheshwarar, Lord Siva, Muruga, Ganapathy and Navagrahas. Lord Dhanwanthari was consecrated in the month of Medom (Chitra in Tamil) under the Punarthom, by Sri Kalpuzha Hareeswaran Nambudiripad under the chief guidance of Tantrika Ratnam Kalpuzha Divakaran Namboodiripad.

Research journals

The Ayurvedic Trust is the largest publisher of scientific communications in Ayurveda with two research journals, the Ancient Science of Life (ASL) Ancient Science of Life launched in 1981, which is now the largest PubMed indexed journal on Ayurveda and the first speciality research journal in Ayurveda titled ASL-Musculoskeletal Diseases published in alliance with Medknow Publications.