Ayurveda – Natural Calamities and Epidemics and the root cause of Disease

Ayurveda for a healthy life- 48/2025 on 16.03.2025

Janapadodhwansa (Natural calamities and epidemics)

‘Janapad’ is a large area of land such as a city or a State. ‘Udhvansa’ means getting destroyed. To manage the diseases, Ayurvedic physicians need to stock medicines well before any natural disaster strikes, since it is likely that medicinal plants in the respective areas may become polluted due to the disasters.

A natural calamity or an epidemic may affect a region or a country invo­lving many people of different constitutions taking different diet and having different strength, resistance and digestive power. The factors that affect people in common are Wind, Water, Country, and Season concerned. Various microbes can invade the body through the vitiated Air, Water or Food and lead to infectious diseases.

1.     Wind or air :Storms can devastate a particular region. Similarly the air may be polluted by chemicals or bad odours, smoke, dust, moisture and sand. Air pollution predisposes to epidemics of infectious fevers, cold, cough, breathlessness, headache, vomiting and eye diseases.

2.   Water : Water is polluted by excreta of man and animals; chemicals, putrefying matter, bacteria etc. Such water may have altered smell, colour, taste and temperature. If aquatic animals like fish and frogs do not survive or start leaving the reservoir, that particular reservior should be taken as unfit for human use. Epidemics of cholera, gastro-enteritis, worm infestations, abdominal distention, fever, cough, breathlessness, cold, colicky pain, jaundice, anaemia, oedema, skin diseases, elephantiasis, gulma, heart disease, diseases of throat and head are caused by polluted water.

3.     Region or country : The country may be affected by excess or inade­quate rainfall or pollution by human or animal excreta, chemicals or worms. Excessive humidity in anupa (wet) region predisposes to kaphaja disorders example cough, breathlessness, oedema, tumours etc. Wars also devastate the areas around all the fronts.

4.     Time and season : Abnormal season has characteristics opposite to the normal season or exhibits the usual environmental changes of the season in an excessive or deficient degree. This leads to deaths due to heat stroke or subnormal temperature etc. or predisposes to respiratory infection when exposed to heavy showers.

A.    Infectious diseases : Epidemics of infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms, when the body resistance is lowered as a result of vitiated air, water, country or season. Ayurveda mentions that these microorganisms are present all over that is in earth, water and in atmosphere. They are microscopic and naturally cannot be visualised. They enter the body in large numbers, which may amount to millions. These are termed as Jantu, Sookshmakrumi, Bhootas or Rakshasas and these Bhootas are supposed to be controlled by various divine powers termed as ‘grahas’. These micro organisms are classified as those growing on blood (Raktada), muscles (Mansada), fat (Vasada), nervous tissue (Majjada), nails (Nakhada), teeth (Dantada), and those thriving on heart (Hrudayachara). They grow in unclean, moist and dark areas.

प्रसङ्गात् गात्रसंस्पर्शान्निःश्वासात् सहभोजनात् ।
एकशय्यासनाच्चैव वस्त्रमाल्यानुलेपनात् ।। – मा. नि. कुष्ठनिदान

They are transmitted from person to person through clothes, garlands, direct contacts, food, breath or inter­course. These are described in chapters on krumiroga, fever, natural calamities and epidemics, grahabadha, tuberculosis, ear-nose-throat diseases, skin diseases and diseases of children in Ayurvedic texts.

What Ayurveda says on defence system ?

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Rogapaharakshamata (Defence mechanisms of the body)

Every living organism has to adapt and struggle continuously to maintain its structural and functional integrity.

At birth, the organism is thrown into an infinite universe and its chance of survival can be compared only to a certain extent with that of a small boat sailing singly in an ocean. Every living creature is continuously attacked by the five basic elements namely space, wind, energy, water and earth. On the other hand, this little creature tries not only to adapt continuously to the changing environment, but utilises, digests, absorbs and assimilates the same elements and grows and survives on them. In this struggle between the individual & the environment if the individual wins that is controls & utilises the environment in a masterly manner, he enjoys sound health. If the individual cannot face the environment in an effective manner, but continues to struggle and survive, he suffers from a disease. On the other hand if environment wins, death ensues. Thus, health or disease is the result of interplay of resistance of the individual and environment.

Man has to constantly adjust to continuously changing environment example temperature, humidity, breeze etc. which vary from time to time, from day to day and from season to season. Man has developed some control over environment example by using air-conditioners and heating devices he can still maintain comfortable ambient temperature. Ayurveda has outlined daily & seasonal regimen so that one can withstand daily and seasonal changes in the environment easily and one doesn’t become a prey to the disease.

Every individual is born with a specific constitution, which he inherits from his parents. A person with healthy genes has an ideal constitution, which can resist various stresses & strains in life easily. More the defective genes, worse is the constitution. Such a person suffers from severe diseases & dies a premature death. The constitution that is resistance is constantly modified by diet, rest, activity, happiness, sorrow and environmental factors.

Defence mechanisms of the body & Root causes of diseases – With the constitution of every individual

Tissues and organs of good qualities

Tissues of inferior qualities are vulnerable to various stresses and strains example a person of poor quality of muscular tissue is prone to frequent attacks of cold. A person with inherited defect in the synthesis of blood may suffer from diseases like Cooley’s anaemia for which there is no cure. On the other hand, a person with good quality of liver & heart rarely suffer from jaundice & heart attack respectively.

A person with poor quality of bones is prone to develop fractures even with slight injury. On the other hand, a person with good quality of tissues rarely develops disease related to that tissue example person with ideal nervous tissue will rarely develop poliomyelitis, meningitis etc. & will have good memory even at the age of 100 years.

The resistance of tissues improves by administering appropriate diet and ‘tissue tonics’ as advised in chapter 15 of ‘Tissue’ of Prin­ciples of Ayurveda and in the chapter on Rasayana that is tonics.

In addition, Ayurveda has mentioned diet & medicines that act as tonics for various organs example ‘Hrudya’ diet & medicine means that act as tonic for heart, ‘Netrya’ means eye tonics, ‘Keshya’ means hair tonic, ‘Kanthya’ means throat tonics etc.

Thus healthy molecules, tissues and organs which have ideal structure and functions can defend themselves as well as the body from various stresses and strains of life.

Roganam Moolakaranani (Root causes of diseases)

The imbalanced state of doshas that is structural & functional molecules (both intracellular as well as extracellular) of the body, dhatus & malas is defined as disease. The various aetiological factors alter the milieu interior that is bring about quantitative increase or decrease; or alter quality of the various doshas, dhatus and malas. The aetiological factors as well as precipitating factors are limited. The same aetiological factor can give rise to number of diseases or different diseases in different persons e.g indigestion may give rise to rheumatism, bronchial asthma, vomiting, diarrhoea, skin disorders, depending on which organ is weak in particular patient. The products of indigestion that is Aama gets absorbed in circulation & accumulate in tissues or organs which can’t resist their entry. Weakness of tissues or organs is either hereditary that is genetic in origin or is the result of various illnesses or insults. A person with weak lungs is susceptible to recurrent attacks of cough or asthma; while a person with weak intestines suffers from recurrent attacks of diarrhoea and dysentery. In a person with marked weak­ness of a particular organ, the disease will be precipitated by minor, or insigni­ficant precipitating factors example even exposure to breeze, or fan, fatigue, infection, hair bath etc. can precipitate an attack of asthma in a person born with weak lungs. A person born with genetically healthy tissues can live a full life of over hundred year’s despite of all the vices and irregularities of life. On the other hand, one peg of alcohol or smoking few cigarettes may cause cirrhosis of liver or lung cancer in persons with weak liver and lungs respectively.

In medicine, very rarely can we incriminate one agent as the cause of a disease. Even in case of infectious disease, causative organism is only one of the causes of the disease example though we say that poliomyelitis is caused by virus of polio, only 1 out of 5000 cases infected with the virus develop an attack of paralysis in poliomyelitis. Only those children whose nervous tissue can’t defend itself against polio virus develop poliomyelitis. The susceptibility to disease is increased by injury, exertion & fatigue. Thus, poliomyelitis is caused by not the virus of polio alone but number of factors like 1. in­herent weakness of anterior horn cells 2. poor defence mechanism of the body like antibody formation 3. lower resistance of the anterior horn cells by factors like injury, exertion, fatigue, injection etc 4. the number of polio viruses entering in the body 5. virulence of polio virus 6. state of immunity of the child which may be natural following previous exposure to the virus or acquired as a result of administration of polio vaccine. Thus, every disease is multifactorial in origin, though some factors may be more important than others as causative agents.

The details of history gives clue to the aetiological factors which include the main causative factors as well as the aggravating, relieving and precipitating factors. Examination of the patient as well as the history give us an idea about the structural and functional state of various biological molecules that is vata, pitta and kapha, various tissues and organs and waste products.

It is much more important to understand the genesis of the symptom, or the disease process in an individual patient rather than labelling the name of the disease. This is natural as unless the aetiological factors, which vary from patient to patient, are corrected, the disease cannot be eradicated example treating lung cancer alone is not sufficient unless one tackles the route cause that is smoking. Hence, the physician who understands aetiopathogenesis of the diseases can alone get the insight into the disease process and guide the patient correctly so that he can restore his health.