An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

It is needless to say that the hypothesis is based on erroneous data, inasmuch as the fact of acid digestion (acid taste developed at the close of the digestive process or reactionary acidity) is contrary both to the properties of matter and the collective experience of the race embodied in the dictum of the Shastras, and which should be rather ascribed to the acid taste of the Pittam remaining in an undigested or unassimilated condition owing to imperfect gastric digestion. The probability of a saline digestion (a reactionary saline taste following upon the close of the digestive process) should be necessarily presumed, if the fact of an acid digestion were to be upheld as a tested and corroborated principle of medical science. The hypothesis of an acid digestion (reactionary acidity) does not preclude the possibility of a similar saline one owing to the participation of the natural taste (saline) of the bodily Kapham in the process of digestion, as is said of Pittam in the preceding instance. Hence the theory that only three tastes, such as sweet, acid, and pungent are developed through digestive reaction, appears to be untenable, and naturally points to the doctrine that a sweet taste (partaken of by a man) brings on a sweet tasted digestion ; an acid taste (reactionary acidit}') begets acid digestion, and so on, a taste of whatsoever kind partaken of by a man imparting its specific character to his digestive reaction.

Chap. XL. ] SUTRASTHANAM. 37 j

Those, who adhere to the last named doctrine, endeavourto substantiate it by the following analogy, and argue that as milk kept boiling in a basin placed over a fire does not change its natural sweetness (with the change of its temperature), as cereals such as Shalirice, wheat, barley, Mudga, etc. sown broadcast in the ground do not part with their inherent, generic attributes (through their successive stages of development), so the tastes of food-stuff do not alter even after being boiled in the heat of the digestive organs.

Others, on the contrary, assert that weak tastes are naturally merged in the strong ones in the course of digestion. And since the consensus of expert opinions on the subject serves only to increase the confusion on account of their differences and bigoted antipathy, we shall judiciously refrain from indulging in idle theories on the subject.

Only two kinds of digestion (digestive reactionary tastes) have been noticed in the Shastras, such as, the sweet and the pungent, the first being heavy and the second light. The specific properties of the five essential material principles of the world such as, the earth, water, fire, air and sky may be roughly described as heaviness and lightness, the two attributes which appertain to their fundamental natures. Heaviness forms the characteristic attribute of earth

372 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XL.

and water, while lightness stands for the essential properties of fire, air and sky. Hence the digestion of all food-stuff may be described as either heavy (Guru) or light (Laghu).

Authoritative verses on the subject :— Of substances under the process of digestion, those, which are characterised by attributes, specifically belonging to earth and water, are called substances of sweet (heavy) digestion ; while those which are permeated with the specific properties of air, fire and sky are called substances of pungent (lightj digestion (easily digestible articles of food). We have fulh^ stated the text of the controversy as regards the primary importance of drugs and their tastes, virtues, potencies and digestive reactions, as well as the views of those who build their theories on the separate or exclusive importance of any of the five afore-said factors. The wise and the erudite set an equal importance to each of them, and ascribe the curative efficacy of a medicine to the co-operation of all these five factors. A drug ot a substance sometimes destroys or originates a deranged condition of the humours through the dynamical action of its native or inherent properties, sometimes in virtue of its specific potency and sometimes by natural taste or digestive (chemical) reaction. Digestive reaction is impossible without drug potency. There is

Chap. XL. J SUTRASTHA'NAM. 373