Parikartika: A literary review based on various ancient classical ayurvedic lexicons

Abstract

Health of an individual depends upon his diet ,environmental condition and lifestyle. In the present era of fast food, due to busy schedule, there is great irregularity in the dietary habits and people are adopting sedentary life style. Due to which there is disturbance in the digestive system which results in many diseases. Anorectal diseases like fissure in ano, haemorrhoid, fistula in ano etc. could also be considered as a problem originated from disturbed digestive system due to bad food habits and improper lifestyle. Fissure-in-ano is a common painful anorectal disease. In Ayurveda it can be correlated to Parikartika. Parikartika is not mentioned as a separate disease entity in Ayurvedic text.It is described as complication of Bastikarma Vyapad [1],Vamana-Virechana Vyapad [2] and as Garbhini Vyapad [3]. It is also explained as the Arsh Purva Roopa, Updrava of Atisar and Vyapad of Grabhini. The first reference of the disease Parikartika is presented by Sushruta Samhita. It has symptoms like pain, burning, sensation, bleeding per rectum, constipation etc. According to modern texts the secondary factors responsible for disease are Crohn's disease, tuberculosis, ulcerative colitis etc.