Kerala Traditional Vaidyas

About Traditional Ayurveda Practitioners of Kerala
This session is dedicated to countless Ayurvedic practitioners of the past from Kerala. Ayurveda would not flourish without the selfless service of those countless vaidyas who have defied all odds to extent their hands to the poor and needy with their knowledge.

All of the practitioners are well versed in both Sanskrit and Ayurveda. Ayurveda and Sanskrit are closely linked with each other. Some of them have made the efforts to make the knowledge available in local Malayalam language.

Only a few of the acharyas of the past are listed here. We also bestow before the thousands of other Ayurveda practitioners, about whom we have no reference or solid knowledge.

Family Traditions in Ayurveda, Ashtavaidyas of Kerala
Ashtavaidya is an Ayurvedic practitioner who is proficient in all the eight different branches of Ayurvedic treatment. Kerala’s rise as a prominent center for Ayurveda is in a great way indebted to the selfless service of ashtavaidyans. Their service can’t be fully appreciated without mentioning the social situations that prevailed in India and Kerala till less than a century ago.

Racial discrimination was prevalent in this land and the veda or science knowledge was restricted to upper class Brahmins. They were the only vaidyas. A vaidya is a practitioner of Ayurveda or an Ayurvedic physician. It was impurity for the Brahmins to touch or even see people of lower castes. The ashtavaidyans denied this tradition and practiced salya tantra (surgery technique) on people from all castes. Thus ashtavaidyans got their place in their community lowered. Other Brahmins that did poojas at temples didn’t recognize practitioners of vaidya (vaidyans). Thus, marital alliances between Brahmins practicing vaidya and Brahmins that remained pure from touching people of lower castes ceased.

Learning and practicing Ayurveda to practice vaidya caused the vaidyans not pursuing education of Vedas and pooja rituals. However, later this condition changed and now marital alliance is possible between all Namboodiri or Brahmin families.

Vaidyamadam family, a family that traditionally practiced asthavaidya was a bit different and they practiced Vedas and participated in Yagnas and poojas. History suggests that this family was not known for salya thantra (surgery). They give and take women to and from almost all Namboodiri families.

These ashtavaidyas or ashtavaidyans have recorded their treatment methods. Tracing down descendents of Ashtavaidyas is a difficult task today because of the relative indifference of such families with other Brahmin families.

Thaikkattu vaidyar, Kuttancheri, Vaidyamadam, etc are some of the families usually associated with ashtavaidyans.

Rama Varma Appan Thampuran
Ramavarma Appan Thampuran was the thing of erstwhile Kochi princely state. He promoted Ayurveda education among his people. He was a patron of many students of Ayurveda – he sponsored the education of many financially backward students that wished Ayurveda education.

He also learned ashtangahridaya, and wrote a lot about the requirement of making science accessible to lay man.

He was also closely related with Arya Vaidya Samajam.

V M Kuttikrishna Menon
VM Kuttikrishna Menon is the son of Appan Thampuran. He translated the six main chapters of Ashtangahridayam to common man’s language. He also wrote ‘kriya kaumudi’, a book that depicts damstra chikitsa or toxicology. It concerns mainly about snake venom and treatment.

Vachaspathy T C Parameswaran Moossathu
Vachaspathi TC Parameswaran Moosathu was a famous Ayurvedic practitioner of Kerala in the last century. His book on Amarakosam, Parameswary entitled him the honorary distinction – Vachaspathi.