An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)

The latent (lit : unmanifest) supreme nature (Prakriti) is the progenitor of all created things She is selfbegotten 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), Mahan (intellection), Ahamkara (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. 15p. 114 consciousness or Purushas) Intellection or Mahdn has been evolved, and out of MahAn egoism. This Mahdn 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.

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 Bhutadi etc. (or Tamasa Ahamkara) concerted with the Taijasa Ahamkara 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 Tanmatras (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 ; emancipation, spiritual affinity and sin in the Psychic.

Simply phenomenal or the simple outcome of the phenomenal evolution without being by other specific attributes of matter and hence Sattvika or jlluir.inating or qi'asi-spiritual,p. 115 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 (Ahamkara),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 (Ahamkara) 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 (Ahamkara) ; 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.

Il6 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. I,