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A History of Indian Philosophy - Surendranath Dasgupta, 1922

English

Susruta remarks that the two main con- stituents of the body, semen and blood, are respectively made up of the watery element of the moon (saumya) and the fiery element (agneya) ; the other elements in atomic particles are also associated with them, and all these mutually help one another and co-operate together for the formation of the body!. Susruta further goes on to say that at the union of female and male the heat (tejah) generated rouses the va@yu, and through the coming together of heat and air the semen is discharged?. Caraka, however, thinks that the cause of discharge of semen is joy (harsa)°. The semen is not produced from the body, but remains in all parts of the body, and it is the joy which causes the discharge and the entrance of the semen into the uterus*. Thus he says that, being ejected by the self as joy (harsa-bhiitenatmanodiritas cadhisthitas ca), the semen constituent or the seed, having come out of the man’s body, be- comes combined with the menstrual product (@rtava) in the uterus (garbhasaya) after it has entrance thereinto through the proper channel (wcitena patha). According to Suégruta the ejected semen enters into the female organ (yonim abhiprapadyate) and comes into association there with the menstrual product®. At that very moment, the soul with its subtle body comes into association with it and thus becomes associated with the material characteristics of sattva, with all its organs, it remembers its previous birth and knows its good and bad deeds and repents that, on account of its previous karma, it is suffering the pains of the life of a foetus, and resolves that, if it can once come out, it will follow the Samkhya-yoga discipline. But as soon as the child is born it comes into connection with Vaisnava vadyu and forgets all its previous births and resolutions. A body is called Sarira, because three fires reside in it (srayante), viz. the kosthagni, darsanagni and jnandgni. The kosthagni digests all kinds of food and drink, by the darsandgni forms and colours are perceived, by the jnanadgni one performs good and bad deeds. This Upanisad counts the cranial bones as being four, the vital spots (marman) as being 107, the joints as 180, the tissues (snd@yu) as 109, the sivas, or veins, as 700, the marrow places as 500, and the bones as 300. 1 Susruta-samhitd, 111. 3. 3. 2 Ibid. ut. 3. 4, Nirnaya-Sagara edition, 1915. Dalhana, commenting on this, says, ‘‘sukha-laksana-vyadyamajosma-vilinam vidrutam anildc cyutam.” 3 Caraka-samhitd, Iv. 4. 7. 4 Cakrapani, commenting on Caraka-samhitd, iv. 4.'7, says that “‘nangebhyah Sukram utpadyate kintu sukra-riipatayaiva vyajyate,”’ i.e. the semen is not pro- duced from the different parts of the body, but it exists as it is and is only mani- fested in a visible form after a particular operation (Suéruta, III. 3. 4). 5 As Dalhana interprets this, the female organ here means the uterus; thus Dalhana says, “ones tritiydvartavasthita-garbhasayyam pratipadyate,” i.e. the . semen enters into the third chamber of the female organ, the place of the foetus. The uterus is probably considered here as the third chamber, the preceding two being probably the vulva and the vagina. 314 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. rajas and tamas, and godly (deva), demonic (asura), and other characteristics. Caraka, referring to the question of the association of the soul with the material elements, says that this is due to the operation of the soul acting through the mind-organ (sattva- karana)', Cakrapani, in commenting on the above passage, says that the self (atman) is inactive; activity is however attributed to the soul on account of the operative mind-organ which is asso- ciated with it. This, however, seems to be a compromise on the part of Cakrapani with the views of the traditional Samkhya philosophy, which holds the soul to be absolutely inactive; but the text of the Caraka-samhita does not here say anything on the inactivity of the soul; for Caraka describes the soul as active (pravartate) as agent (kartr) and as universal performer (visva- karman), and the sattva is described here only as an organ of the soul (sattva-karana). In the first month, the foetus has a jelly-like form -(kalala)?; in the second month, the material constituents of the body having undergone a chemical change (abhiprapacyamana) due to the action of cold, heat and air (Sitosmanilath), the foetus becomes hard (ghana). If it is the foetus of a male child, it is spherical (pimda) ; if it is of a female child, it is elliptical (pesi); if it is of a herma- phrodite, it is like the half of a solid sphere (arbuda)*. In the third month five special eminences are seen, as also the slight differentiation of limbs. In the fourth month the differentiation of the limbs is much more definite and well manifested ; and owing to the manifestation of the heart of the foetus the entity of con- sciousness becomes also manifested, since the heart is the special seat of consciousness; so from the fourth month the foetus mani- fests a desire for the objects of the senses. In the fifth month the consciousness becomes more awakened; in the sixth intelligence begins to develop; in the seventh the division and differentiation of 1 Sattva-karano guna-grahandya pravartate—Caraka-samhita, iv. 4. 8. Cakrapani rightly points out that guna here means material elements which possess qualities-—gunavanti bhiitant. The word guna is used in all these passages in the sense of material entity or bhata. Though guna means a quality and gunin a substance, yet the view adopted here ignores the difference between qualities and substances, and guna, the ordinary word for quality, stands here for substance (guna-guninor abhedopacarat—Cakrapani, 1bid.). 2 Dalhana explains kalala as singhana-prakhyam. 3 On the meanings of the words pest and arbuda there is a difference of opinion between Dalhana and Gayi. Thus Gayi says that pest means quadrangular (catur-asra) and arbuda means the form of the bud of a silk cotton tree (Salmali- mukulakaram). XII] Foetal Development Bx limbs become complete; in the eighth, the vital element (ojas) still remains unsettled, and so, if a child is born at this time, it becomes short-lived?. Caraka, in ‘describing the part played by different material elements in the formation of the body, says that from the element akasa are formed sound, the organ of hearing, lightness (/aghava), subtleness of structure (sauksmya) and porosity (vireka) ; from vayu (air) are formed the sensation of touch, the organ of touch, rough- ness, power of movement, the disposition of the constituent elements (dhatu-vyithana), and bodily efforts; from fire, vision, the organ of vision, digestion, heat, etc.; from water, the sensation of taste and the taste-organ, cold, softness, smoothness and watery characteristics ; from earth, smell, organ of smell, heaviness, steadiness and hard- ness. The parts of the body which are thus formed from different material elements grow and develop with the accession of those elements from which they have grown?. As the whole world is made up of five elements (bhita), so the human body is also made up of five elements?. Caraka maintains that the senses and all other limbs of the body which grow before birth make their appearance simultaneously in the third month*. When, in the third month, the sense-organs grow, there grow in the heart feelings and desires. In the fourth month the foetus becomes hard, in the fifth it gets more flesh and blood, in the sixth there is greater develop- ment of strength and colour, in the seventh it becomes complete with all its limbs, and in the eighth month there is a constant exchange of vital power (ajas) between the mother and the foetus. The foetus being not yet perfectly developed, the vital fluid passes from the mother to the foetus; but, since the latter cannot retain it, it returns to the mother’. Cakrapani, commenting on this, says that such an exchange is only possible because the foetus 1 Susruta-samhitda, 111. 3. 30. 2 Caraka-samhita, IV. 4. 12. 3 evam ayam loka-sammitah purusah—yavanto hi loke bhava-visesas tavantah puruse, yavantah puruse tavanto loke (Caraka-samhitd, tv. 4. 13). In ibid. tv. 3, it is said that the foetus gets its skin, blood, flesh, fat, navel, heart, kloma, spleen, liver, kidneys, bladder, colon, stomach, the larger intestines, and the upper and the lower rectum from the mother, and its hair, beard, nails, teeth, bones, veins and semen from the father; but, however this may be, it is certain that the development of all these organs is really due to the assimilation of the five elements of matter. So the development of the human foetus is, like the develop- ment of all other things in the world, due to the accretion of material elements. 4 Ibid. Iv. 4. 14. 5 matur ojo garbham gacchatiti yad ucyate, tad-garbhauja evamatr-sambaddham san matroja itt vyapadisyate. Cakrapani, Iv. 4. 24. 316 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. is still undeveloped, and the foetus, being associated with the mother, serves also as the mother’s vital power (gas); for other- wise, if the ojas went out altogether from the mother, she could not live. There is a good deal of divergence of opinion as regards the order of the appearance of the different limbs of the foetus. Two different schools of quarrelling authorities are referred to by Caraka and Sugruta.