A REVIEW ON JARA- AVASTHA AND GERIATRIC CHANGES IN CHAKSHURENDRIYA (EYES)

Dr. S.D. Rokade, Dr. Jyoti Shukla*, Dr. S.K. Muley

ABSTRACT

Aging is a complex phenomenon, a sum total of changes that occur in a living organism with the passage of time and lead to decreasing ability to survive, stress, increasing functional impairment and growing probability of death. An important concept not widely appreciated is the distinction that must be made between the normal attrition of function occurring in all persons with advancing age and the loss of function that marks the onset of pathological changes from one or more of the disease encountered with increased prevalence in the older age group. Failure to recognize this difference can lead to progressive disability from treatable diseases in many cases. The specific physical, physiological and psychological changes in relation to ageing process have been described in ayurvedic literature. In Sushruta samhita several physical and mental symptoms have been described as a consequence of ageing process. It includes Dhatu- kshaya (degeneration of tissues), Indriya- kshaya (deterioration of sense organs), Bala- kshaya (loss of physical strength and body immunity), virya- kshaya (decreased sexual power), utsaha- kshaya (loss of motivation), vali (wrinkles), palitya (graying of hair), khalitya (baldness), kasa and swasa (cold, cough and asthama) and klishta (inability to perform mental and physical work). Acharya Vagbhatta and Sharangdhara have described the characteristic feature of decade wise changes both in psychic and somatic changes brought about by ageing process. All ayurvedic texts had told about eleven indriyas in which five are gyanendriya, five are karmendriya and the last one is ubhayendriya mana. This paper will focus a light on changes on chakshurendriya(eyes) according to age as per ayurveda and modern texts.

Keywords: Jara, Indriyas, Gyanendriyas, Karmendriyas, Ubhayendriya, Indriya- kshaya, Chakshurendriya.