Charaka Samhita is not your typical reference book for instant prescription. It will be more appropriate to call it a treatise on holistic health science. No doubt it has detailed prescriptions to all diseases. But it gives equal importance to preventive health care. While most of the modern systems of medicine examine disturbance to health from a few angles, Charaka Samhita examines not only physical and psychological factors, but also the spiritual sources of diseases and wellbeing. It also recognises that a person’s social life has a bearing on his health.