Begin your study of the Ashtanga Hridayam with the quest for longevity and the story of how Ayurveda was passed down from Lord Brahma through Daksha Prajapati, the Ashvini Kumaras, Lord Indra, Atri Muni, Agnivesha, and other sages. You'll see how the Ashtanga Hridayam brings their separate works together in one balanced text, and you'll meet the eight branches of Ayurveda, from internal medicine and pediatrics to surgery, toxicology, rejuvenation, and virility. The course closes with the three doshas: where each one sits in the body, how they shift across life stages, seasons, and phases of digestion, and how they shape digestive fire (agni), the digestive tract (koshta), and body constitution (prakriti).

Learn the classical Ayurvedic daily routine (dinacharya), starting with waking during Brahma Muhurta and checking in with your body before the day begins. You’ll study each morning practice the text recommends, including cleaning the teeth with herbal twigs, applying collyrium to the eyes (anjana), nasal drops (nasya), gargling, herbal smoking, oil massage (abhyanga), exercise, herbal powder massage (udvartana), and bathing, along with the benefits of each and who should avoid it. The course closes with the text’s guidance on good conduct (sadvritta): the ten unwholesome acts of body, speech, and mind to avoid, kind and truthful speech, personal hygiene, everyday safety, and following the middle path.

Learn to live in step with the six seasons (ritucharya), grouped into two halves of the year: the northern solstice (uttarayana), with sisira, vasanta, and grishma, and the southern solstice (dakshinayana), with varsha, sarath, and hemantha. You'll find out which tastes dominate each season, how body strength rises and falls through the year, and how the environment affects digestive fire (agni). The course then covers the text's routine for specific seasons: warming foods, oil massage, and warm baths in early winter; Panchakarma and enema therapy (asthapana vasti) to support weak agni during the rains; and bitter ghee, bloodletting, purgation, and purified water (hamsodaka) to calm Pitta in autumn.

Over 15 sessions, you'll explore the healing properties of liquids, starting with water: rain, river, and well water, how to test whether water is safe to drink, and when and how much to drink. Next, you'll study milk from different animals and dairy products such as yogurt, buttermilk, butter, and ghee, along with sugarcane products, honey, oils, alcoholic beverages, vinegars, and medicinal urine. The course closes with grains and legumes, from rice, barley, and wheat to mung beans and sesame, and how rice cooked with different amounts of water (manda, peya, vilepi, and odana) supports digestion.

Continue the text's teachings on food with prepared dishes such as soups, puffed and flaked rice, and fruit drinks, and learn how cooking methods like steaming, pan-roasting, and baking change how easily a food digests. You'll then explore the eight groups of animal foods, sorted by where the animals live and how they feed, and how the land they come from shapes each food's effect on the doshas. The course closes with vegetables, leafy greens, gourds, and lotus and water-lily roots, along with the healing qualities of each.

Deepen your understanding of Ayurvedic nutrition and the natural medicinal ingredients the text describes. You'll learn how to protect food and recognize when it has become toxic, which foods are incompatible and which combinations work well, and the text's guidelines for healthy eating.

This part opens with six sessions on Ayurvedic food guidelines: the concept of ama, the gut disorders and toxicity that come from improper eating and how to remedy them, what to avoid in your daily eating habits, and how much fluid to drink. Next, you'll spend four sessions on where natural ingredients come from, how to identify them by their elemental makeup, and the properties that shape how they act on body and mind (rasa, veerya, vipaka, prabhava, and vichitrapratyayarabdha). The course closes with five sessions on the six tastes: where they come from, their qualities and functions, common ingredients in each taste group, and how tastes combine.

Discover how the doshas, dhatus (tissues), and malas (wastes) affect body and mind when they are balanced, increased, or depleted, how to manage each state, and the role of ojas. You'll then spend eight sessions on the subtypes of each dosha, their functions, and how the doshas combine to cause illness or support health. The course closes with two sessions on managing imbalances caused by the doshas.

Explore the three doshas in depth: where they are located in the body, what they do there, and how they affect body and mind when they function well and when they don't. You'll then look at how dosha combinations and imbalances affect health and begin learning to manage disease, including when to use nourishing therapies and when to use depleting ones.

This part opens with six sessions on 33 groups of herbs and healing ingredients, sorted by what they do in the body: their role in Panchakarma purification (vamana, virechana, vasti, and nasya), how they pacify Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, and when to use them clinically. Next, you'll spend six sessions on oleation (snehana), including its indications and contraindications, the benefits of ghee, sesame oil, and animal fat, how to administer it, and how to manage complications. The course closes with three sessions on sudation (svedana): its types, indications, and contraindications, how to recognize the right amount, and the signs of too much.

Learn how four key detoxification therapies are used in clinical practice: sudation (svedana), therapeutic emesis (vamana), purgation (virechana), and enema (vasti). For each one, you'll study the text's guidance on indications, contraindications, and classification, and how to bring the therapy into your clinical work.

Learn how to prepare and perform two core Panchakarma procedures: vasti (therapeutic enema), including anuvasana, asthapana, and uttaravasti, and nasya (nasal therapy), including how to prepare anu thailam. You'll go on to smoke therapy (dhumapana) and oral therapies such as gandusha, kabalagraha, pratisarana, and mukhalepa, along with shirovasti and karna purana. The course ends with eye therapies (aschyotana and anjana), and for every procedure you'll cover indications, contraindications, classification, and clinical use.

This part opens with two sessions on eye therapies (tarpana and putapaka): when to use them and when to avoid them, how to prepare and perform them, and how to make putapaka juice (rasa). Next, you'll spend four sessions on blunt surgical instruments (yantra), including forceps (swastika yantra), tongs (sandamsha yantra), and the muchuti, talayantra, naliyantra, and arshoyantra, along with accessory instruments (anuyantra) and what each one does. The course closes with nine sessions on sharp instruments and bloodletting: the features of sharp instruments (shastra) such as the mandalagra and vriddhipatra, accessory sharp instruments (anushastra), leech therapy (jalaukavacharana), multiple puncturing (pracchana), and venesection (siravyadha), including the qualities of pure blood, the effects of impure blood, and where and when the procedure is done or avoided.

This part opens with four sessions on removing foreign objects lodged in the body: how to locate them, how to extract them from different tissues, how to remove objects or insects from the ear, and how to resuscitate a drowning victim. Next, you'll spend eight sessions on surgery and wound care, including treating injuries, draining infected wounds, the qualities of a good surgeon, post-surgical care and diet, Ayurvedic bandaging, and the herbs and formulations that help wounds heal. The course closes with three sessions on cautery: how to prepare kshara and perform alkaline cautery (ksharakarma), and how to perform thermal cautery.

Over ten sessions, you'll learn what supports healthy conception, the causes of infertility and their remedies, and how to prepare before pregnancy. You'll then follow the baby's development month by month, along with the care each month calls for, through natural childbirth and postpartum care. The course closes with five sessions on pregnancy complications, including early and late bleeding, miscarriage, and fetal death, and how to manage them.

This part opens with four sessions on pregnancy complications: miscarriage and how to prevent and manage it, stillbirth, and false pregnancy. Next, you'll spend eleven sessions on how the body's systems develop and what they look like when healthy, including circulation, the channel systems (srotas) and their imbalances, and how digestion and metabolism (agni) work. The course closes with body constitution (prakriti) and what optimal physical and mental health and strength look like.

Discover the marmas, the body's 107 vital points. Over eight sessions, you'll learn where each marma is, how big it is, how marmas are classified by tissue type, and how their injuries are managed, including the complications and outcomes of those injuries, from disability or severe pain to death. The course then spends seven sessions on prognosis: why it matters, the signs of a poor outcome, changes in sensory perception, and what dreams and signs from nature suggest about whether a disease can be cured.

Learn how Ayurveda reads prognosis, including the signs of a poor outcome and the signs that a person is nearing the end of life, such as changes in sensory perception and events around them. You'll explore how omens from nature, the messenger, and events on the physician's way to the patient can point to either a quick recovery or a poor prognosis. The course closes with dreams, what they reveal about health, and the signs of good health.

Discover how Ayurveda understands disease: its causes, warning signs, development (samprapti), stages, and prognosis. You'll learn the definition of disease, the five factors of diagnosis, and how to recognize cardinal symptoms, then spend nine sessions on the types of fever and inflammation (jwara), their dosha-based classification, and their differential diagnosis. The course closes with the causes, stages, dosha-based classification, and prognosis of bleeding disorders (raktapitta) and cough.

Explore respiratory disorders, degenerative conditions, and alcoholism from an Ayurvedic perspective, including their causes, stages, prognosis, and dosha-based classification. You'll study cough, the five types of asthma, and hiccups, then tuberculosis, voice and taste disorders, vomiting, cardiac conditions, and thirst disorders. The course closes with alcoholism: its types and stages, how it affects body and mind, and the behavioral disorders linked to it.

Continue your study of alcoholism from Part 20, then explore how Ayurveda understands hemorrhoids, diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disorders, and urinary conditions, including stones and an enlarged prostate. For each condition, you'll study its root causes, early warning signs (purvarupa), the doshas involved, and how the disease progresses. Building on Parts 19 and 20, this course sharpens your diagnostic insight and grounds your practice in Ayurveda's classical approach to pathology.

Deepen your understanding of Ayurveda’s approach to metabolic and abdominal health in this comprehensive module covering Prameha (Diabetes), abscesses, hernias, ascites, anemia, swellings, jaundice, and herpes. Explore classical teachings from Nidanasthanam Chapters 10–13 with practical insights into causes, pathogenesis, clinical features, and doshic perspectives.