English
In its function of cooking it is called pacaka, in its function in the liver and spleen, as supplying the colouring matter of blood, it is called “colouring” (rafjaka), in its function in the heart it serves intellectual purposes (sadhaka), in its function in the eyes it is called ‘‘ perceiving,” or locaka, in its function of giving a glossy appearance to the skin it is called bhrajaka. It is hot, liquid and blue or yellow, possesses bad smell, and after 1 etad dhi salya-tantram, salya-tantre ca vranch pradhana-bhiitah vrane ca disyesu madhye raktasya pradhanyam iti sonitopadanam (ibid.). Susruta also uses the word dosa to mean pus (piiya) (I. 5. 12). ® Susruta, I. 21.3 and 4. Dalhana, commenting on this, writes : “ sukrartavadi sahak@ritaya deha-janaka abhipretah.” XIII] Vayu, Pitta and Kapha 331 passing through unhealthy digestive actions tastes sour. Coming to slesman, SuSruta says that the stomach is its natural place; being watery, it flows downwards and neutralizes the bile-heat, which otherwise would have destroyed the whole body by its ex- cessive heat. Being in Gmasaya, it works in the other centres of Slesman, such as the heart, the tongue, the throat, the head and in all the joints of the body. The place of vayu is the pelvic regions and the rectum (sroni-guda-samsraya) ; the main place of the blood, which is counted as dosa by Susruta, is regarded as being the liver and the spleen. I have noticed above, that in the Atharva- Veda mention is found of three kinds of diseases, the airy (vataja), the dry (Susma) and the wet (abhraja)?. In the Caraka-samhita vata, pitta and kapha are regarded as being produced from kitfa, or secretions. They are thus regarded here as being of the nature of internal waste-products of unassimilated food-juice at the different stages of its assimilation, as chyle, flesh, etc., which have important physiologicai functions to perform for the preservation of the process of the growth of the body, when they are in due proportions, and they break up the body when they are in undue proportions. What exactly kitta means is difficult to determine. It may mean merely the part of the food-juice unassimilated as chyle, or the part of it unassimilated as blood, and so forth; or it may mean such unassimilated products, together with the secretions from the respective dhatus, which absorb the substantial part of the food-juice and throw off some of its impurities into the unabsorbed material; this at least is what kifta ought to mean, if it is interpreted as dhatu-mala, or impurities of dhatus. These secretions and waste-products form the source of most of the con- structive and destructive forces of the body. The watery character of kapha and the fiery character of pitta are not ignored; but their essence or substance is considered to be secretive, or of the nature of waste-product. Sugruta, however, does not seem to refer to this secretive aspect, but he seems to have grasped the essential physiological activity of the body as being of the nature of digestive operation and the distribution of the heat and the products of digestion ; and the analogy of cooking, as requiring fire, water and air, seems to have been well before his mind. Suégruta also seems to 1 Susruta-samhitda, 1. 11. 8-16. 2 Ye abhraja vataja yas ca susmo (Atharva-Veda, 1. 12.3); again, agner ivdsya dahata eti susminah (ibid. V1. 20. 4). 332 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. have leant more towards the view of the physiological operations of the body as being due to elemental activities, the food-juice taking the place of earth and the other three principles being fire (pitta), water (slesman) and air (vata). The reason why the prin- ciples of the body are here regarded as being transformations of fire, water and air is not explained by Susruta. The supple- mentary Ufttara-tantra, however, thinks that they are the three gunas. Vagbhata, always fond of taking a middle course in his endeavour to reconcile the different attempts to grasp the prin- ciples under discussion, holds that they are comparable to the three gunas, because, though opposed to one another, they also co-operate together; and, because diseases are but modifications of the dosas, he further thinks that dosas, dhatus and dhatu-malas are quite different entities; but he is unable to give any definite idea as to what these dosas are. The person who seems to have had the most definite conception of the dosas was Caraka. In the Uttara-tantra and by Vagbhata the Samkhya analogy of the gunas seems to have had a very distracting influence, and, instead of trying to find out the true physiological position of the dosas, these writers explain away the difficulty by a vague reference to the Samkhya gunas. Let us now return to Caraka. By him va@yu is described as being dry (ruksa), cold (sita), light (laghu), subtle (saksma), moving (cala), scattering everything else in different directions (visada) and rough (khara)!. It is neutralized in the body by those things which have opposite qualities. In the healthy constructive process the vayu is said to perform physiological functions as follows: it sustains the machinery of the body (tantra-yantra-dharah), it mani- fests itself as prana, udana, samana and apana and is the generator of diverse kinds of efforts; it is the force which controls (ntyanta) the mind from all undesirables and directs (pranetda) it to all that is desirable, is the cause of the employment of the sense-organs, is the carrier of the stimulation of sense-objects, collects together 1 Caraka-samhita,1.1.58. Cakrapani, in commenting on this, says that, though vayu is described as neither hot nor cold according to the Vaisesika philosophy, yet, since it is found to increase by cold and decrease by heat, it is regarded as cold. Of course, when connected with pitta it is found to be hot, but that is on account of its association with the heat of pitta (yoga-vahitvat). In the Vata-kala-kaliya chapter (1. 12. 4), six qualities of vdta are mentioned; siiksma is not mentioned, however, and, in place of cala, daruna is mentioned. Cakrapani says that ddruna means the same as cala. In the same chapter (I. 12. 7) vayu is qualified as susiva-kara, i.e. that which makes holes. XIII] Vayu, Pitta and Kapha 333 the dhatus of the body, harmonizes the functions of the body as one whole, is the mover of speech, is the cause of touch and sounds, as also of the corresponding sense-organs, the root of joy and mental energy, the air for the digestive fire, the healer of morbidities, the ejecter of extraneous dirts, the operating agent for all kinds of circulation, the framer of the shape of the foetus, and is, in short, identical with the continuity of life (@yuso ’nuortti- pratyaya-bhita). When it is in undue proportions, it brings about all sorts of troubles, weakens the strength, colour, happiness and life, makes the mind sad, weakens the functions of the sense-organs, causes malformations of the foetus, produces diseases and all emotions of fear, grief, delirium, etc., and arrests the functions of the pranas. It is interesting to note how Vayorvida describes the cosmic functions of air as the upholding of the earth, causing the burning of fire, the uniform motion of the planets and stars, the production of clouds, the showering of rains, the flow of rivers, the shaping of flowers and fruits, the shooting out of plants, the formation of the seasons, the formation of the strata of minerals, the production of the power of seeds to produce shoots, the growing up of crops, etc.+ In the same discussion Marici considers fire to be contained in the pitta and productive of all good and bad qualities, digestion and indigestion, vision and blindness, courage and fear, anger, joy, ignorance, etc., according as it is in equilibrium or is disturbed. Kapya maintains that soma, contained in slesman, produces all. good and bad qualities, such as firmness and looseness of the body, fatness, leanness, energy and idleness, virility and impotence, knowledge and ignorance, etc.” These discussions seem to indicate that before Atreya’s treatise was written attempts were made to explain the physiological func- tions of the body in health and disease by referring them to the operation of one operative principle. The Chandogya Upanisad speaks of earth, water and fire as being world-principles of con- struction: the different va@yus were known as early as the Atharva- Veda, and vayu is regarded in many of the Upanisads as the prin- ciple of life. It seems fairly certain that the theory of vata, pitta and kapha is a later development of the view which regarded air (pavana), fire (dahana) and water (toya) as the fundamental con- stitutive principles of the body. Thus Susruta refers to this view + Caraka-samhita, 1. 12. 8. 2 Ibid. 1. 12. 11 and 12. 334 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. in 111. 4. 80: “ Some say that the constitution (prakrtt) of the human body is elemental (bhautiki), the three constitutive elements being air, fire and water!.” 'The advance of the medical schools of thought over these speculations and over others which consider the body to be a product of one bhiita or of many bhiitas is to be sought in this, that, besides allowing the material causes (upadana) of the body to be the dhatus, they emphasized the necessity of ad- mitting one or more inherent dynamic principles for the develop- ment and decay of the body. This explains how véta, pitta and kapha are regarded both as dhatu and as dosa, as prakrti and as vikrti.