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

The three fundamental principles of Vayu,,Pittam and Kaphah: — The actions of living matter vary and so may be reduced to^ three categories. They are either— (i), functions which affect the material conipositJDn of the body and determine its mass, which is the baUnce of the processes of waste on one hand and t^hose of assimilation on the other. Or (2), they are functions which subserve the process of reproduction which is essentially the detachment of a part endowed with the powers of developing into an independent whole, or (3), they are functions in virtues of which one part of the body is able to exert a direct influence on another, and^ the body, by its parts as a whole, becomes a source of molar motion. The first may be termed Sustentative, the second Generative, and the third Correlative functions. The above is the sum and substance of the works which a living matter has to perform. But setting apart the processes of reproduction as a subject for future discussion, we shall now try to examine what the other two functions are as understood by Oriental thinkers. In the Mahfibhiratam the Prdna vayu is described as a force, akin to electricity. It is somewhat like a flash of lightning (1). This fact aHonce shows the errors of confounding Prana vdyzi with an effete material — with gases generated during the processes of digestion. Shushruta describes it as a force, (2) which sets the whole organism into motion. Self-evolved, it acts as the principal

(i) HTOSIT^^^ JJcTRt Mm ?sifvf^?j^ I

MahSbMratam. ShAnti Pa^va S. 39.

(2) Fo'ce may be defined as ihat which tends to produce motion in a body at lesi, or to produce change of motion in a body which is movjng. — Daschanel, xlii INJRODUCTION.

factor that deLerinines the genesis, continuance and disintegration of the livir-g body. It is the primary cause — an all-in-all that governs our organic as well as our cognitive faQulties. Its special feature is that the vibration, that is produqed in it, instead of travelling like light in a transverse direction, takes a course as the controller of the correlative functions of the system. It maintains an equilibrium between the Pittam and Shleshma which are said to be inert, (i) But for this adjustment the living body would stand in imminent danger of being consumed like fuel by its internal heat or fire. Taking into consideration the various functions the living body has to perform, Sushruta attempts a classif.cation of Vdyu into Prana, Udana, Samana, Vyana and

Apana, which, in detail, correspond to the divisions of functions performed by the Cerebro-spinal and Sympathetic nerves of the Western physiology. Tintric literature abounds in the descriptions of the Nadichakras (nerve plexuses) and contains a more detailed account of the motor, sensory, and mixed nerves according to their differences in their functions and relations. In short, the term Vayu may not only be rightly interpreted to mean the nerve force, but is often extended to include any kind of electro-motor or molecular force (as when we speak of the V^yu of the soil), though the term is loosely applied now to signify gas or air. The Rishis of yore gave the name of V;iyu to the bodily force in the absence of any suitable nomenclature, little suspecting that it might be confounded with the atmospheric air by the foreign translators of their works.

Charaka, Sutraslh4nam. Chap. XII.

Inert i.s Pittam, inert is Kaphah, inert are the Malas & 'Jh^lus Like clouds, they go wherever they arc!- carried by the V5yu,

INTRODUCTION. xliii

Pittam : — The function of the »Pittam consists in metamorphosing the chyle, .through a graduated series of organic principles, to a protoplasmic substance like sperm in men, and the ovum in women. Thus we see that the Pittam of the Ayurveda corresponds to metabolism of Western physiology. But b}? a confounding carelessness of terms the excreted portion of Rasa and blood though ultimately connected with those normal physiological processes has been respectively styled as the Doshas or defiling principles of Kaphah and Pittam. Again, as in the case, of soil, the terms V^yu, Pittam and Kaphah are extended to denote magnetism, kinetic energy and humidity of its molecules. The circulation of blood is connected with the Pittam, while the circulation of lymph chyle fRasa) is related to Shleshmi the two combinedly forming what is called the sustentative function of the Western Physiology.

The term Pittam, which, by its etymology, signifies the agent of metabolism, has been loosely used by our Ayurvedic physiolgists to denote two different organic principles from an observed similarity in their nature and functions. Pittam in Sanskrit means both bile and metabolism of tissues as well as the bodily heat which is the product of the latter.

Hence a few commentators lean towards the view that Pittam is the heat incarcerated in the bile, and the principal agent in performing digestion (i). The real import of the term may be gathered from the five sub-divisions of the Pittam, made by our ' Rishis according to their functions and locations, and which are called the Pachaka, Ranjaka, Sadhaka, A'lochaka and