Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

An ‘ anjali ’ is. the hollow or cavity which is formed by joining the two palms together. It is a measure applied to both solids and liquids. One measures rice by the ‘ anjali.’ One drinks water, when one has no vessel to use, with the 'anjali,’ In offering oblations, of water to, deceased ancestors, one offers, them with the aid of the ‘anjali.’ In offering flowers to, the gods, one uses the 1 anjali.’ The ‘ anjali,’ therefore^ is a well-known measure. — T.

f Some, texts read ‘ yleshmanajcliaujasah.’ Gangadhara-, following this, reading, explains it as meaning ‘ the particular kind of phlegm known as. ojas.’ This can be hardly correct. The ‘ ojas ’ has been before described. It is not regarded as any kind of phlegm. On the other hand, it is the blood of blood, the mosjt vital ‘ dhatu ’ in the body. The reading is evidently incorrect.— T.

8io CHARAgA SAtflUTA,

This is called ‘the Science of the Body,”10

In this connection it should be said that those (parts of the body) which are distinguished as gross, firm, having form and weight, rough, and hard, such as nails, bones, teeth, flesh, skin, stools, hairs, beard, bristles, arteries and veins, &c., partake of the element of earth (in their composition).

So also Is smell and the sense of smell.17

Those constituents of the body which are liquid, moving, mild, oily, soft, and glutinous, such as the juice into vyhich the food ■eaten is first converted, blood, adeps, phlegm, bile, urine, sweat* &c., partake the property of water. [Besides these, taste and the sense of taste are both of water.18

The bile and heat and the radiance that are in the body, all partake of the property of fire.

Besides these, form and the sense of sight are pf the same kind.1®

These, via., the inhaling and the exhaling of breath, the opening and the shutting of the eyelids, contractions and distensions, walking (or motion), urging out and retention, &c., all partake of the air.

Besides these, touch and the sense of touch are of the same kind.2*?

All those which are regarded as holes (or empty spaces) in the body, and all the great or gross and the minute ducts, partake the property of space (or ether).

Besides these, sound and the sense of hearing are of the same kind.

As regards Mind and Understanding, they take, in a large measure, the property of that particular constituent of the body which they control or direct for the time being.*

* There occurs a misreading in this aphorism. The correct reading is ‘ Guna-pradhanam ’ and not ‘ Sankhya-pradhanam.’ It is curious to see how the Bengali translators have missed the sense,

What is said by the Rishi here is this :

Having stated which constituents partake of the nature of which primal element, the Rishi wishes to speak of the Mind and the Understanding. Of what particular primal element do these partake, both being immaterial? The answer is that Mind and Understanding are ‘ prayoktris,’ or controllers, of

'OâARAM samhita.

:8ti

Thus have the riumbefs been set forth, according to palpable 'distinctions, of the several parts ahd constituents of the body.28

Taking the body as consisting of atoms, its ’Constituting parts may be regarded as incalculable, since the'se atoms are many, ‘exceedingly subtile, and beyond the ken of the senses-.

In the Union and disunion of these n’toms, the causes are th'e Wind, the acts (of previous lives), artd Nature.

Hence, this which is called the body really consists of infinite Iparts.

They are, however, seen to be united into one (Co'm'pound). (For this reason) it is called ‘ Sanga ’ or attachment.

When it cart be regarded as a disunited mass of atoms, it is Emancipation.

Through this-, the Pfadhana (or Self) becomes dissociated.

When all entities are regarded as ceasing to exist, the Self becomes dissociated (from life’s concerns).*2®

"directors of the other constituents of which the body is made up. They partike, for the time being, of the nature Or properties of that particular cons¬ tituent which they may control Or direct. Thus, when the Mind and the Understanding direct vision ind the eye, they may be said to partake of the hature of fire, as vision and the eye partake of that primal element. So wheii they direct hearing and the sense of hearing, they miy be said to partake of Space (or ether), as hearing arid the sense of hearing partake of that particular primal element.— T. ....

* This is a very important aphorism frOm the Rishi’s point Of vieW; In numbering the parts of which the body is made, he took care to state that those are the parts which a division in the gross (sthulatah) would yield. There is another division which is very minute (sukshihatah) and which yields a really infinite number of parts-. The body is a union Or conglomeration Of atoms. These are innumerable, exceedingly subtile, and beyond the ken Of the gross senses. They can be understood and their infinity in point of number grasped through the aid of that inner sense which is above all the grosser senses.

Having explained that the body is a mass of atoms, the llishi explains the 'cause of their union of conglomeration into one whole. The cause, or, rather, 'causes Ore wind (one of the five primal elemerits), acts-, and Nature.