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Arya Vaidya Sala

Started essentially as a village clinic, it has now grown into a multi-unit, multi-disciplinary and multi-crore organization

Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala (AVS) is a century-old charitable institution engaged in the practice and propagation of Ayurveda, the ancient healthcare system of India. AVS offers classical Ayurvedic medicines and authentic Ayurvedic treatments and therapies to patients from all over India and abroad.

AVS was established at Kottakkal in Kerala in 1902 by the visionary physician and philanthropist, the late Vaidyaratnam PS Varier. Started essentially as a village clinic, it has now grown into a multi-unit, multi-disciplinary and multi-crore organisation. It has operations in different areas of Ayurvedic practice.

AVS manages Ayurvedic Hospitals at Kottakkal, Delhi and Kochi. All classical Ayurvedic medicines, therapies and expert medical advice are available there. AVS has two modern medicine manufacturing units, has well equipped quality control labs, has full-fledged research activities, publishes Ayurvedic periodicals and books, cultivates medicinal plants and conducts educational programmes. AVS also runs a Kathakali academy where the classical theatre of Kathakali is taught and performed.

Many special treatments prescribed in the ancient medical classics for some of the most distressing diseases are currently practised only in Kerala, a state in the southern part of India. These treatments are specially effective in paralysis, rheumatism, arthritis, spondylosis, and other psychosomatic diseases. The classical therapies are also made use of, for devising new treatment modalities to deal with several serious ailments of the modern man such as Parkinson's, motor neuron diseases, cancer etc. The major treatments provided at the hospital are Snehapanam Dhara (Oordhwanga Dhara & Sarvanga Dhara), Pizhichil, Navarakkizhi, Sirovasti, Pichu and Sirolepa. Besides these specialised methods, the hospital offers Panchakarma treatments like Kashayavasthy, Snehavasthy, Nasyam, Virechanam and Raktamoksham.

Arya Vaidya Sala has recently joined hands with HLL Lifecare Ltd., with an aim of expanding the reach of Ayurvedic medicaments to larger segments of Indian society. HLL is a mini-ratna public sector enterprise with considerable presence in the commercial and social sector segments across the country with a wide range of health care products and services with a focus on maternal and child health. The association between AVS and HLL envisages to utilise the strengths of both partners in such a manner that appropriately selected medicines from the time tested product range of AVS and even some newly developed formulations will be positioned in the Indian market through the wide marketing channels of HLL.

This programme is expected to serve one of the functional objectives of AVS by enabling the Ayurvedic medicaments to reach segments of Indian society which had limited access to them until now. It will similarly serve the objective of HLL by filling gaps in the existing product range which will focus at special needs of women and child's healthcare. A memorandum of understanding was executed between Dr PK Warrier, Managing Trustee, AVS and M Ayyappan, Chairman & Managing Director, HLL at Trivandum. Not only this, Arya Vaidya Sala has commissioned a new drug manufacturing unit at Nanjangud in Karnataka.

The Nanjangud Unit is designed and established by incorporating modern technological and pharmaceutical concepts and methods in all possible aspects.

The Unit is set up with an aim of expanding the manufacturing capacity of AVS and to upgrade the production methods for meeting the increasing needs of Ayurvedic sector.