Ayurveda in Coastal Karnataka -Returning to Nature’s Healing Wisdom
- Shashi
- Aug 30, 2025
- 2 min read
After fifty years of bustling city life, I left behind the lecture halls and the life of a professor in Bombay and chose instead, to return to my roots- the native sands of coastal Karnataka, where Mangalore and it's ancient Ayurveda wisdom awaits with open arms.
Here, the first drops of monsoon are not just rain, they are a blessing. They soak into the parched soil, filling the air with an earthy aroma that soothes a tired soul. With the touch of rain, Mother Earth herself seems to transform: from an old, haggard dame into a sprightly, youthful girl, clad in green. Waterfalls leap awake, fields turn lush, and life quietly springs forth.
Nature’s Secret Apothecary: Ayurveda in Everyday Life
To city eyes, it may just look like “grass” to be chopped away. But in these hidden pockets of less disturbed land, nature reveals her medicine cabinet: bouquets of weeds with medicinal wisdom, waiting to heal us if only we remember ancestral traditions.
One striking example is the Pale da Kette Kashaya, known to the world as the Devil Tree, Spirit Tree, or Milk Wood Pine. Local lore says that spirits dwell in it all year, leaving only on Aashada Amavasya. On this one night, young men and village elders carefully strip its bark, preparing a potent drink.
Consumed on an empty stomach, this bitter, pungent, heat-generating elixir must be balanced half an hour later with a cooling payasam of fenugreek seeds and coconut milk. Such practices, rooted in ritual and wisdom, are nature’s way of teaching balance.
Moringa: Food, and Ayurveda in Coastal Karnataka
Today, Moringa has become a global celebrity- bottled, powdered, and marketed in every form imaginable. Yet here, in the coastal kitchens of Karnataka, it has always been more than a health fad.
During Shravan, Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, and Dasara, Moringa leaves are a sacred must on the plantain leaf platter. Tender, nutritious, and cleansing, they symbolize both nourishment and purity.
The wisdom runs deep: pregnant women are forbidden Moringa until their seventh month. Then, during the Seemantha (baby shower), a dish of Moringa Palya is served just once. This single meal helps regulate blood pressure, a gentle gift as she nears childbirth.
Listening to Ayurveda’s Whisper
What these traditions reveal is not superstition, but a holistic rhythm of life that Ayurveda has always championed.
Each plant, each practice, has its season, its moment, its dosage. When followed with humility, they heal. When ignored or commercialised, they can harm.
Ayurveda is not merely a system of medicine, it is a philosophy of living in reverence with nature. To treat it casually, without depth of knowledge, is to invite imbalance.
Closing Thought
My move from the city to Mangalore was not just a change of place, it was a return to rhythm. The rains, the soil, the trees, and the ancestral whispers: they remind me daily that healing is not found in haste, but in harmony.
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