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19, says that the nadis or Siras, called hita, which are developed out of the food-juice and are 272,000 in number, emanate from the heart and spread over the whole body (puritat)?. The buddhi resides in the heart and from there controls the external senses. Thus, for example, at the time of hearing in the awakened state the buddhi passes through these nadis to the ear and from there expands the auditory organ and superintends it. When the buddhi thus expands, we have the state of awakening, when it contracts, the state of deep sleep (susuptz). The Circulatory and the Nervous System. The names sira (also hira) and dhamani, of two different kinds of channels in the body, seem to have been distinguished at a period as early as the Atharva-Veda*. 'The Brhad-Granyaka Upanisad de- scribes the hita nadis of the heart as being as fine as a thousandth part of a hair, and they are said to carry white, blue, yellow and green liquids ; Sankara, commenting on this, says that these various colours are due to the various combinations of vata, pitta and Slesman which the nadis carry*. He states that the seventeen elements (five bhiitas, ten senses, prana and antahkarana) of the subtle body, which is the support of all instinctive desires, abide 1 See Brh. 11. 1. 19, IV. 2. 2 and 3, IV. 3. 20, Iv. 4. 8 and 9; Chand. vitt. 6. 6; Katha, v1. 16; Kaus. 1v. 19; Mund. 1. 2.6; Maitri, Bibliotheca Indica, 1870, VI. 21, VII. 11; Prasgna, 111. 6 and 7. 2 The word puritat means principally the covering of the heart. But Sankara takes it here to mean the whole body. 3 gatam hirah sahasram dhamanir uta. Atharva-Veda, vu. 36. 2. Sayana explains hird as garbha-dharandrtham antar-avasthitah siiksma ndadyah and dhamani as garbhasayasya avastambhika sthila nddyah. Atharva-Veda, 1. 17. I, 2, also seems to distinguish hird from dhamani. In 1. 17. 1 the hirds are described as being of red garments (lohita-vdsasah), which Sayana explains as lohitasya rudhirasya nivasa-bhita hi (the abode of blood) and paraphrases as rajo-vahana-nddyah. It seems, therefore, that the larger ducts were called dhamanis. In 1. 17. 3 the Atharva-Veda speaks of hundreds of dhamanis and thousands of hirds. 4 Brh. 1.3.20, with Sankara’s commentary. Anandagiri, in commenting on the same, quotes a passage from Susruta which is substantially the same as Susruta-samhita, 11. 7. 18, to show that those sirds which carry vata are rosy (aruna), those which carry pitta are blue, those which carry blood are red, and those which carry slesman are white: arunah Ssird vata-vaha nilah pitta-vahah sirah asrg-vahas tu rohinyo gauryah slesma-vahah sirah. XIII] The Circulatory and the Nervous System 345 in these nadis. In Brhad-aranyaka, iv. 2. 3 it is said that there is the finest essence of food-juice inside the cavity of the heart; it is this essence which, by penetrating into the finest nddis, serves to support the body. It is surrounded by a network of nadis. From the heart it rushes upwards through the extremely fine hita nadis, which are rooted in the heart. Chandogya, vit. 6. 6 speaks of 101 nadis proceeding from the heart, of which one goes towards the head?. In Mund. 11. 2. 6 it is said that, like spokes in a wheel, the nadis are connected with the heart. Prasna, 111.6 and 7, how- ever, says that in the heart there are one hundred nd@dis and in each of these are twenty-two hundred branches and the vydana vayu moves through these. The Maitri Upanisad mentions the susumna nadi proceeding upwards to the head, through which there is a flow of prana?. None of these passages tell us any- thing definite about the nadis. All that can be understood from these passages is that they are some kind of ducts, through which blood and other secretions flow, and many of these are extremely fine, being about the thousandth part of a hair in breadth. The nada, or hollow reed, is described in the Rg-Veda (vil. 1. 33) as growing in ponds and in the Atharva-Veda (Iv. 19. 1) as being varstka, or “‘ produced in the rains.” This word may have some etymological relation with nadi*. In another place it is said that women break nada with stones and make mats out of them‘. The word nadi is also used in the Atharva-Veda in the sense of ‘‘ducts®.” In Atharva-Veda, v. 18. 8 the word nadika is used 1 This passage is sometimes referred to in later literature to show that the susumnda nadi, which goes towards the head, was known as early as the Chandogya Upanisad. See also Katha, v1. 16. 2 Urdhva-ga nadi susumnakhya prana-samcarini. Maitri, v1.21. Sayana, in his commentary on A.V. I. 17. 3, quotes the following verse: madhya-sthayah susumnadyah parva-pancaka-sambhavah sakhopasakhatam praptah sirad laksa-trayat param ardha-laksam tti prahuh sarirartha-vicarakah. 3 Macdonell makes the following remarks in his Vedic Index, vol. 1, p. 433: “‘ Nada is found in several passages of the Rg-Veda (1. 32, 8; 179, 43 - 34, 33 vul. 69, 2; X. II, 2; 105, 4) but its sense is still obscure. It is identified by Pischel (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, 35,717 et seq.; Vedische Studien, 1. 183 et seq.) with Nada, being explained by him in one passage (1. 32. 8). Here Caland and Henry, L’Agnistoma, p. 313 would read nalam. See also Wackernagel, Altindische Grammatik, 1. 173, as a reed boat, which is split, and over which the waters go, etc.” 4 yatha nadam kasipune striyo bhindanty asmanda (Atharva-Veda, V1. 138. 5). } . 5 In the Atharva-Veda, v1. 138. 4, the nddis are described as ducts over the testes, through which the seminal fluid flows: ye te nadyau deva-krte yayos tisthati vrsnyam te te bhinadmi(I break with a stone upon a stone those two ducts of yours 346 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. to denote the speech organ (vak). The word dhamani is used in Rg-Veda, u. 11. 8 and is paraphrased by Sayana as sound (sabda) and by Macdonell as “reed” or ‘“‘pipet.”” If Sayana’s explanations are to be accepted, then in A.V. 11. 33. 6 the word snava means fine siras (siksmah-strah) and dhamani the larger ducts (dhamani-sabdena sthilah). In v1. go. 5 one hundred dhamanis are said to surround the body of a person suffering from colic or gout (sala), and Sayana paraphrases dhamani here as nadi. In Chandogya, 11. 19. 2, the rivers are said to be dhamanis (ya dhamanayas ta nadyah), and Sankara paraphrases dhamani as Sira. I have already referred to the use of the word /ird in the Atharva- Veda; the word is also used in the Re-Veda?. The above references show that nadis, siras (or hiras) and dhamanis were all ducts in the body, but sometimes the na@dis or Siras had also the special sense of finer channels, whereas the dhamanis were the larger ducts. I shall now come to Caraka: it will be found that there was not much advance towards a proper understanding of the significance of their distinction and functions. Caraka plainly regards dhamanis, siras and srotas (secretory currents) as ducts and thinks that different names are applied to them on account of their different functions. He says that the roots of the ten dhamanis are in the heart. These carry through- out the body the ojas, by which all people live and without which they all die. It is the essence by which the foetus is formed, and which goes to the heart at a later stage, when the heart is formed; when it is lost, life also ceases to exist; it is the essence of the body and the seat of the pranas. These ducts are called dhamanis, because they are filled with chyle from outside; they are called srotas, because the chyle, etc. which nourish the body are secreted (sravanat) out of these; and they are called sia, made by God over your two testes, through which your semen flows). In X. 7. 15 and 16, the hollows of the seas are described as nd@dis (samudro yasya nadyah), and so also the interspace of the quarters of the sky (yasya catasrah pradiso nadyah). * “ Dhamani, ‘reed,’ appears to denote ‘pipe’ in a passage of the Rg-Veda (11. 11. 8) and in a citation appearing in the Nirukta (v1. 24).”’ Vedic Index, vol. 1, p. 390. The word sird is spelt with a palatal “‘$”? in Caraka and with a dental in the Vedas, and it has therefore been differently spelt in this chapter in different contexts. 2 tvam vrtram Gsaydnam siradsu maho vajrena sisvapah. R.V.1. 121. 11. The word dhamani is spelt with a long “i” in Caraka and with a short “‘i” in the Atharva-Veda. XIII] The Circulatory and the Nervous System 347 because they go (saranat sirah) to the different parts of the body!. The ten dhamanis spread out in manifold branches throughout the body. In the Caraka-samhita srotas means properly the path through which the successive evolutionary products of the body- constituents (dhdtus) or other kinds of secretion run and accumu- late together with elements of their own types?. Cakrapani explains it thus: The transformation into blood takes place in connection with chyle (rasa). The coming together of vasa with blood at a different part of the body cannot take place without a path of trans- mission, called srotas. So the transformation of dhatus takes place through the function of this path of transmission. So for each kind of product there is a separate srotas. Vayu, pitta and kapha may be said to go about through all the srotas, though there are, no doubt, special channels for each of the three?. Gangadhara, however, takes the srotas as being the apertures through which the dhdtus and other waste-products flow4. In whatever way it may be looked at, the srotas is, according to Caraka, nothing but the duct of the dhamanis.