Nadi Vignanam

Nadi Vignanam

diagnosis and prognosis by reading of the pulse.Nadi in Siddha means two things -one is the pulse and the other is the nerves. In Yoga philosophy there are 72,000 nadis or meridians. They take root from the main sushuma , intertwined by the ida and the pingala. These are three most important nerves in the body along the spinal cord. The sushuma resides inside the spinal cord, and ida and pingala cross at the chakra points along spine. Science has yet to locate these three nerves. They are part of the sympathetic nervous system. The pulse is influenced in health or in a disturbed state by the nerves mentioned above and their minute branches all over the body .The following pre-conditions are necessary before taking pulse.The patients should not have oil on his/her head and the body should not be wet. The pulse should not be taken after a meal, running, any physical exercise, emotional disturbances (anger, joy). The general rule is for males , the right hand pulse is taken , female -left hand pulse. But owing to anatomical variations other places for pulse taking can be used, such as ankle, ear lobes .The pulse should also be read at different parts of the day according to the season.( NB: Most of these temperature changes are based on Indian weather . This could vary in other countries.)April to May, the pulse read at sunrise. June to July. October, and November the pulse should be felt at noon. December , January and February the pulse is read while the sun sets. In March , August and September the pulse is read in the right hand. Due to the disturbance of the doshas by the temperature changes, the normalcy of the pulse is affected.This is due to the increase and decrease of the doshas in the day (warmth, cold), seasons and atmospheric changes. This increases and decrease will affects the life stream or Jeeva dhatu. At noon the heat of the noon sun increase pitha dosha thus normal pitha pulse will not be felt. In the cold season karpa pulse is increased. In the hot season because of the dryness, the vatha increases and in autumn pitha increase. So these natural seasonal changes will be reflected in the pulse. This is the reason in the hot months (April to May) the pulse should be felt before sunrise. As pulse reading is subjective, evaluation, concentration and experience is valuable.Vatha increases in morning for 4 hours after sunrise. Pitha for the next 4 hours and karpa in the evening. In earlier part of night vatham increases, pitham during middle of night and karpam at end of nightThe place for feeling of this pulse is on the lateral aspect of the right forearm, two centimetres up from the wrist -joint. The index, middle and ring fingers are used to feel the vatham, pitha and karpa nadi in this respective order. An experienced Siddha practioner can read the threedoshas by placing his/her finger on the radial artery. In feling the pulse, the pressure should be on on efinger after another. The pressure alternates, on alternate fingers. The pulse is felt in the order of vatha nadi, pitha nadi and kapa nadi.Vatha nadi imbalance will indicate flatulence of the abdomen , pain and ache all over the body, difficulty in urination, fever, change in voice, constipation , dry cough, discolouration of skin.Pitha nadi imbalance will indicate eyes, urine, and faeces become yellowish, burning sensation in the stomach, headache, thirsty, dryness of mouth, confusion, diarrhea.Kapa nadi imbalance will indicate heaviness of the body and head, sweet taste of tongue, cold to touch, loss of appetite, flatulencem cough with phlegm, m difficulty in breathing.