Rogi Pariksha

The term Rogi Pariksha, also spelt as Rogi Pariksa/Rogi Pareekhsa, is referred to as the examination of a person who seeks treatment in Ayurveda. It is a complete observation, which involves a detailed step to identify his/her social, physical and mental conditions. Rogi Pariksha is a three level process that looks for all possible causative aspect of the ailment in the patient’s body.

The three levels or stage are:

Darsanam: It refers to the stage of inspection and observation.Factors like age and other physical characteristic of the person is thoroughly examined in this level.

Sparsanam: The observation is done through touch method in this stage. Three different ‘sparsanam’ techniques include Palpation, Percussion and Auscultation.

Prasnam: This is an interrogation stage where the patient is asked about his ailments and the symptoms that he is observing on a daily basis. The physician utilizes this stage to harmonize the feelings of the patient.

In addition to the above three-fold examination steps, the patient is also put to further detailed check-ups at fixed intervals of time, so as to realize all the possible causative elements behind the disease. The steps further elaborated in to Dasavidha Pareeksha (which is a Tenfold (ten factors) Examination) and Ashtasthana Pareeksha (which is an Eightfold (eight factors) Examination).

Dasavidha Pareeksha

•  Dooshyam: Examines the structural and functional abnormalities of the body.
•  Desham: Involves the analysis of the patient’s geographical situation of the living place (eg: marshy).
•  Balam: Considers the person’s physical strength.
•  Kalam: Studies the season and climatic conditions.
•  Analam: Examines the digestive system of the patient.
•  Prakrithi: Looks at the natural Thridosha constitution of the body.
•  Vayas: Considers age of the patient.
•  Satvam: Concerns psychological strength of the patient.
•  Sathmyam: Studies general and personal habits of the patient (e.g. smoking, hard working, day sleeping etc).
•  Aharam: Considers patients diet (e.g. vegetarian or non-vegetarian)

Ashtasthana Pareeksha

•     Nadi: Pulse
•     Moothram: Urine
•     Malam: Faecal matter
•     Jihwa: Tongue-taste
•     Sabdam: Voice and speech of the patient
•     Sparsham: Touch, skin and tactile sense
•     Drik: Eyes and vision
•     Akrithi: Body type, eg: lean, muscular, etc.