Ayurveda is the rich traditional Indian medical heritage, serving the humanity since the Vedic times. Three great classics (Br̥hattrayī) are said to be to the pillars in learning the Ayurvedic system of medicine. Carakasaṁhitā is the most ancient, comprehensive and authoritative textbook of Ayurveda among the three. Carakasaṁhitā originally named as Agnivēśatantra. This compendium is compiled based on the teachings of the expounder Ācārya Ātrēya, by the sage Agnivēśa and is redacted by sage Caraka. Later on Dṛḍhabala complimented it further by adding some parts of cikitsāsthāna, kalpasthāna and siddhisthāna. This is the first comprehensive manuscript on philosophy and fundamentals and practices of Ayurveda. Every Scholar of Ayurvedic fraternity should study this book to attain proficiency in Ayurvedic medical science.

Since this is the era of advanced communications and e-learning, The Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha, felt the need of bringing out electronic form of ancient Ayurvedic classics to facilitate the reader and to make it user friendly. As a first step we are bringing out the foremost important Ayurvedic classic the Carakasaṁhitā in e-Book form. This book is containing the mūlapāṭha of eight sthāna of Carakasaṁhitā along with Āyurvēdadīpikā commentary of Cakrapāṇidatta. I feel delighted in presenting the first e-book on Carakasaṁhitā which incorporates mūlapāṭha, commentary and relevant footnotes. I hope this will cater the demands of the Ayurvedic scholars, Researchers, students & practitioners.

I appreciate the untired efforts of Dr. Ala Narayana, Director, National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage, Hyderabad and his team's dedication and commitment in preparing this e-Book in a short period of time.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Secretary and Joint Secretary, Dept. of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India, for their keen interest, encouragement and appreciation of the work.

(G.S. LAVEKAR)
Director General, CCRAS