Achanta Lakshmipathy

Trained in Allopathy but practised Ayurveda, in which he specialised by self-effort, wrote many books on Ayurveda,. As a teacher and a student of Ayurveda he was very well known even overseas and students from Germany and America came to study Ayurveda from him.

Svīyacaritra: Auto-biography of Dr. Achanta Lakshmipathi

http://www.vepachedu.org/manasanskriti/Achanti.html

Lakshmipati Achamta (1880-1966)

Lakshmipati Achamta was born in Madavavaram village in West Godavari district in Andhra to Janakamma and Ramayya. His grandfather Subbarayudu was a Sanksrit Pundit, but his father Ramayya was not. He dreamt of learning agriculture along with medicine.

Social reformer Veeeresalingam Kandukuri was his High School teacher. After finishing FA, he worked as a clerk for a while for Umamaheswarrao Davuluri. When Umamaheswarrao was transferred to Madras (now Chennai), he went along. At that time, Andhra was part of Madras Province under the British rule. Later, he finished his BA degree in 1904.

He obtained a scholarship with the help of Umamaheswarrao Davuluri to study medicine and obtained MBBS degree in 1909. After finishing education in Allopathy medicine, he further studied Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medicine, under the guidance of Pundit Gopalacharyulu Deevi, who ran an Ayurveda medical college in Madras. In 1920, Lakshmipati took over as the principal of the Ayurveda Medical College. He ran several medical journals like "Dhanvantari" in Telugu, "Andhra Medical Journal" in English etc. Lakshmipati wrote 63 books on Indian medicine, including darshanamulu, aayurveda vignana sarvasvamu, aayurveda siksha, vanoushadha vignanamu, bhaaratiya vignanamu etc. He also wrote several books on Ayurveda in English.

After his first wife Seetamma died at a young age, he married again. His second wife was Rukminamma, who later became Health Minister for the State of Madras, which included Andhra, after independence. During this period Lakshmipati did a lot of service to the Ayurveda Medicine. He also served as a president for All India Ayurveda Medical Society and Andhra Ayurveda Board. He also served as a secretary for Andhra Sahitya Parishattu in Madras.

In recognition of his services to Medicine and Health in general and to Ayurveda Medicine in particular, various Medical Institutions were named after him in Chennai, e.g., Achanta Lakshmipathy Unit for Research in Ayurvedic Medicine at Voluntary Health Services, Chennai, Achanta Lakshmipathy Neurosurgical Centre, VHS, Chennai, etc