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

1^ "From these extracts ii appears to us still more vividly that our countrymen did also discover, like Dr. Pavy, the importance of fat and sugar in the animal economy, as well as the mode in which they can be elaborated from one common principle. (76-78). A comparative study of the two systems of medical science, Indian and European, has led us to arrive at this conclusion ; if we, therefore are not inclined to identify Ojah with albumen, as it has been done by some modern Indian commentators, we have reasons to believe that the aforesaid extracts have not as yet received sufficient consideration from them, as forming the nutri'ive basis of the procreative elements ; in short the subject has hitherto been neglected or, at least, been placed in the back-ground, rom want of attention on the part of those whose business it was to investigate into the truths of Science. To hold that Ojah is kept in deposit in the heart, as a reserved food material, for the maintenance of its own work

INTRODUCTld^'. » Ivii

Space does not permit us to giVe here even something like a satisfactory synopsis of the physiology of Sushruta. It is enough for our purpose if we can create for our readers an interest in the various physiological problems discuss'ed by our author in this part of his work, or in his description of the various physiological processes, which are essential to the healthy continuance of human economy. But if Hindu physiology is startling in its demonstration of the as well as for the production of germinal seed, is to admit that efficiency of reproduction depends entirely upon the efficiency of this important substantt in the body."J

(76) ^?5%7>JT^SigTUT'?rf?T*TT^' Tfl^tTmj

(77) ?fT' 21^ fifW€tT#^:

(78) ^??tSt2IT^?l' '^^W. q^TRTTRTW

—Ibid.

76. Those who partake of heavy and cooling food abounding in acids and salts, of new rice, and beverages, or constantly enjoy sleep and luxuries, or neglect the exercise of body and mind, or who hal)itually abstain from the use of corrective medicines, help to accumulate in their bodiej phlegm, bile, fat and flesh ; and these interfere with the functions of the \'Ay\i, which causes the Ojah to be displaced from its proper place down in the bladder and produces glycosuria,

77. As Ghee pervades the whole of milk, so Teja (f^yah) permeates all the tissues of the body.

78. Teja (Ojah) too is combustible : in course of tissue-combustion, the excess quantity of it gets deposited especially in the female body as fat which produces softness and elegance.

Iviii ifiTRonucTioN.

fact tha'L growth is not the only condition of Ufe, that vitality is somewhat independent of the physiological processes, that the inner man, with the he4p of Yoga, can long survive even without food and respiration,* and that death and decay" may be arrested to a considerable degree by completely stopping nfany of those physiological processes in the body,t which are considered ^j very essential to living by the savants of the West, then Hindu pathology is unique in its conception of the nature of disease.

Sushruta's Pathology : — What is it in a man, asks Sushruta, that falls sick ? What is that that we treat medicinally ? The body or the mind ? 'Sushruta says that, "anything that afflicts the nmer man (self or Purusha) is disease! and that disease has its primary seat in the inner spring of vitality from which it flows out to the surface, the external body". In man, as in everything else in the universe, the direction of the inherent force is from the centre to the circumference. The shock is felt first at the centre of vitality, whence it is transmitted outwards and thus affects the energy which holds the molecules together, Dvyanuks and Tryanuks (Binary and teriiary atoms) of which the gross body is composed, and further opposes the dissolution of those molecules into their elemental constituents in the living organism. Even in cases of external injuries such as snakebite, etc. the potency of the virus is carried at once to that centre from whence it is almost instantaneously transmitted through the external channels of the body to its surface, ff^TTUr *^^« 1

Palanjala Uarshanani X^ibhudpAda 29 — 30 A.

Pcitanjala Daishanam. Vibhutipada. 21. A.

Sushruta samhitA. Sulra. Chap. 1.

INTRODUCTION. , lix'

Otherwise what purpose does the \iyu (nerve force),5erve in the human economy ? What do those myriads of Chaitanyavahini Nadis (sensory ne,ivt^s) exist for in the human system ? In all diseases the subjective sensations are I'he first to be experienced. "I am ill," "I feel hot," etc. are the voices of sensations, which form the "esse" of the disease. Disease then is a force ar^d not matter.*