European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

BASTI KARMA OR ENEMA THERAPY – A CRITICAL REVIEW

Hemant* and Seetharamu M. S.

ABSTRACT

Ayurveda, the science of life, which maintains the health and cures the diseased, indicates with every treatment that there is a need of Bheshaja, and the route of intake of Bheshaja is also highly significant to consider. Basti is the one of the Pradhana Karma of Panchakarma which is commonly administered by anal route, having multi-faceted actions, serves as Pradhana Chikitsa for Vatavyadhis and also known as Ardhachikitsa, but worldwide it is seen that the Ayurveda practitioners use the term Enema Therapy to explain the Basti Karma. All the texts related to enema only deals with cleaning of bowl and as the pre-procedure for commencing several examinations. The real questions arises is spreading the word Basti Karma with the translation as Enema Therapy is valid or just another mistake practitioners are doing. So an attempt is made to describe whether Basti should be termed as Enema Therapy or the word Enema Therapy is unable to give its true meaning as a translation.

Keywords: Basti Karma, Enema Therapy, Panchakarma, Translation.