From VedicSocietyWiki
RISHI PUNARVASU ATREYA
Amongst the disciples of Bharadwaja, Punarvasu became very popular. He was commonly known as Atreya.
Atreya classifies diseases as curable and incurable; curable by charms and those scarcely possible to cure. He distinguishes patients on whom physicians must attend from those to whom they must refuse assistance.
He describes the influence of winds, soil and seasons on age and temper. He enumerates six tastes such as sweet, astringent, bitter, sour, salty and pungent and talks of the influence of each on the human body.
He describes the medical qualities of different kinds of water and the use of hot and cold water in various diseases, the physical and medical properties of various milks, sugarcane, sour gruel, infusions from rice, barley and other grains, oils, fruits, herbs, alcoholic liquors made from molasses, honey etc.
He discusses the properties of the flesh of various animals, birds, fishes, snakes and gives rules and principles of diet. Of dreams, he describes the lucky and the unlucky symptoms and foreboding.
He deals with moral causes of diseases and describes various diseases in detail, such as fevers, diarrheas, dysentery, consumption, hemorrhage, etc. and also their treatment. He also deals with various antidotes against poisons.
The beginning of Ayurvedic Medicine can be attributed to Atreya. Though the concepts of controlling the forces of the body are contained in Vedic literature, yet it is to Atreya that Ayurvedic medicine owes its full elaboration of 'Tridosa' concepts. The fundamental concepts of the various factors causing diseases and the action of drugs in Charaka Samhita, belong to Atreya. As a teacher of Ayurvedic Medicine, Atreya is known to be unsurpassed.
