The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

(i"^.

In the Vataja type the entire cavity of the mouth is studded with vesicles attended with a pricking sensation in their inside. In the Pittaja type a large number of small yellow or red-coloured vesicles attended with a burning sensation crops up on the entire (mucous membrane lining the cavity of the mouth. In the Kaphaja variety a similar crop of slightly painful, itching vesicles of the same colour as the skin (is found on the entire inner surface of the mouth.) The blood-origined Kaktaja type is nothing but a modification of the Pittaja one (giving rise to similar symptoms) ; it is also by others called Mukha-patka. 69-72.

Thus ends the sixteenth Chapter of the Nidana Sthanam in the Sus'ruta
Samhita which treats of the Nidanam of the diseases of the mouth.

Here ends the Nidana Sthanam.

THE

SUSRUTA S AMHIT A

SARIRA STHANAM.

(Section on Anatomy). -.o:

CHAPTEE L

Now we shall discourse on the Sdriram which treats of the science of Being in general (Sarva-Bhuta

Chintsi ^gfriram). i.

The latent (lit : unmanifest) supreme nature (Prakriti) is the progenitor of all created things. She is self-begotten and connotes the three fundamental or primary virtues of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. She is imaged or embodied in the eightfold categories of Avyakta (unmanifest), Mahdn (intellection), Ahamkdra (Egoism) and the five Tanmdtras or elementals (proper sensibles) and is the sole and primary factor in working out the evolution of the universe. The one absolute and original nature is the fundamental stone house of materials out of which the bodies of all self-conscious (Karma-Purusha) working agents (agents who come into being through the dynamical energy of their acts or Karmas) have been evolved in the same manner as all water, whether confined in a tank or a reservoir, or coursing free through the channels of streams and of mighty rivers, have been welled up from the one and shoreless primordial ocean. 2.

Out of that latent unmanifest (Avyakta) or original nature (impregnated by the atoms or elemental units ofp. 15 ri4 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. I.

consciousness or Purushas) Intellection or Mahdn has been evolved, and out of Mahdn egoism. This Mahan or intellection should be likewise considered as partaking of the three fundamental attributes (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) of the latent (Avyakta) or original nature.* Ahamkara or egoism in its turn may be grouped under three subheads as the Vaikdrika Taijasa (operative) or Rdjasika, and Bhutadi (illusive or Tamasika). 3.

3.

The eleven organs of cognition, communication or sense perception have emanated from the co-operation of the aforesaid Vaikarika Ahamkara with the Taijasa or Rajasa. They are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue, nose, speech, hands, genitals, anus, feet and the mind (Manah). Of these foregoing organs the first five are intellectual or sense organs (Vuddhi-Indriya) ; the next five being operative (Karma-Indriya\ The mind (Manah) partakes of the character of both the intellectual and operative organs alike. 4-5.

The five Tanmatras or elementals (or the five proper sensibles of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell) characterised by the Nescience, etc. have been evolved out of the Bhutddi etc. (or Tamasa Ahamkara) concerted with the Taijasa Ahamkdra through the instrumentality of the Vaikarikam. The gross or perceptible modifications of these five Tanmatras are sound, touch, taste, sight and smell. From the combination of the aforesaid five Tanmdtras (Bhutadi) taken one at a time, have successively emanated the five gross matters of space such as

* Sattva, Rajas and Tamas :— Adhesion, cohesion and disintegration in the Physical plane ; affection, love and hate in the moral ; emancipa. tion, spiritual affinity and sin in the Psychic.

Simply phenomenal or the simple outcome of the phenomenal evolution without being by othet specific attributes of matter and hence Skttvika or iUuminatiDg or quasi-spiritual.

Chap, i.] SARIRA STHaNAM. 11$

ether, air, heat, (fire,) fluid (water), and earth (solid). These twenty four categories combinedly form what is technically known as the twenty four elements (Tattvas). Thus we have discoursed on the twenty four fundamental principles (Chaturvins'ati-tattvam). 6.

Hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell respectively form the subjects of the five intellectual (Vuddhi) organs of man, whereas the faculty of speech, handling, pleasure, ejections or evacutation, locomotion successively belong to the (remaining) five operative (Karma-Indriya) ones. The original nature (Avyakta), Mahan* (intellection), Egoism (Aliamkara),the five sensibles (Tanmatras), and the five gross material principles in their nascent stage in evolution form what is included within the eight categories of Nature (Prakriti), the remaining sixteen categories being her modifications (Vikara), The objects of intellection (Mahan) and Egoism (Ahamkdrd) as well as of the sense organs of knowledge and actions are the material principles (Adibhautika) though they are spiritual in themselves and in their nature.

The tutelary god of intellection (Buddhi) is Brahma. The god Is'vara is the presiding deity of the sense of egoism (Ahamkdra) ; the moon god is that of the mind (Manah) ; the quarters of the heaven, of the ears ; the wind god is that of the skin ; the sun is that of the eyes ; the water is that of the taste ; the earth is that of the smell ; the fire is that of the speech ; Indra is that of the hands ; Vishnu is that of the legs ; Mitra is that of the anus and Prajapati is that of the organs of generations. 7.

* Mahan, Ahamkara and the five Tanmatras, though but modifications of the original Nature in themselves, have been included within the category of Nature (Prakriti) in asmuch as they form the immediately prior or antecedent conditions of the evolution of the phenomenal universe.

ri6 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. t.

All the aforesaid (twenty-four) categories or elementals (Chaturvinsati-Tanmdtras) are devoid of consciousness. Similarly the modifications of the primal cause of Prakriti such as the Mahat etc. are all bereft of consciousness in as much as the cause itself, the Avyakta or the original nature is devoid of it. The Purusha or the self-conscious subjectivity, enters into the primal cause (Mula-Prakriti or original Nature) and its necessary effect (the evolved out phenomena) and makes them endued with his own essence or self-consciousness. The preceptors and holy sages explain the proposition by an analogy that as the milk in the breast of a mother, though unconscious in itself, originates and flows out for the growth and sustenance of her child ; (as the semen in the organism of an adult male though devoid of consciousness, flows out during an act of sexual intercourse) ; so these twenty-four primary material principles (elementals), though unconscious in themselves, tend to contribute towards the making of the self-conscious self or the universal individual (the aggregate of limited or conditional selves) for the purpose of working out his final liberation or emancipation i.e., attainment of the stage of pure consciousness or perfect knowledge. 8.

Now we shall describe the tracts which the Purusha (subjective or self-conscious reality) and Prakriti or nature (passive non-conscious eternity) pass in common as well as those wherein they differ from each other. 9.

Traits of commonalty :—Both the Purusha and Prakriti are eternal realities, both of them are unmanifest, disembodied, without a beginning or origin, eternal, without a second, all — pervading and omni* present.

Chap. I.] SARIRA StHANAM. II?