The Philosophy of the Upanishads c11.s2.t2.21

c11.s2.t2.21

The names and number of the organs are still uncertain in the older texts. In Chând. 3. 1. 3 and Bṛih. 6. 4. 5 f. the word *indriyam* has still the meaning of "force"; it is first employed by Kaush. 2. 15, Kâṭh. 3. 4 as a name for the organs, as the physical forces in man. In the older texts the organs collectively are called the *prâṇas*, the "vital breaths," by virtue of a *denominatio a potiori*, from the organ of breathing (*prâṇa*), as being the most important and that upon which the life is dependent. "Therefore they are not called voices, eyes, ears, minds, but vital breaths (*prâṇâḥ*), for the breath (*prâṇa*) is all of them."³ As regards the number also of the organs, no agreement exists. It is frequently mentioned that man, like Prajâpati in his character as the moon,⁴ consists of sixteen parts. This is the case in the narrative of Chând. 6. 7.⁵ How little what was intended by the sixteen parts was understood is shown by Śatap. Br. X. 4. 1. 17, where the sixteen syllables of the words *loman, tvac, asṛij, medas, mâṃsam, snâvan, asthi, majjâ* (hair, skin, blood, sap, flesh, sinew, bones, marrow) do duty as such. In Pras'na 6 the sixteen parts are enumerated as (1) *prâṇa*, (2) *s'raddhâ*, faith, (3–7) the five elements, (8) *indriyam*, the organs of sense considered as one, (9) *manas*, (10) *annam*, food, (11) *vîryam*, strength, (12) *tapas*, (13) *mantrâḥ*, (14) *karman*, (15) *lokâḥ*, (16) *nâman*. The same are to be understood in S'vet. 5. 14, according to the commentary. It is perhaps on this sixteenfold enumeration of the parts of a man that the later summary of the organs as the ten indriyas with manas and the five prāṇas depends. By the “seven prāṇas” of Muṇḍ. 2. 18 should be understood, as in S'atap. Br. VI. 4. 2. 5 and elsewhere, the seven openings in the head; these with the two lower are described in S'vet. 3. 18 and later¹ as the nine gates of the city of the body. Adding the navel and Brahma-randhram² the number becomes eleven.³ An older verse⁴ describes the head as a drinking bowl with the opening at the side, on whose edges (the seven openings in the head) seven ṛishis (the seven organs of sense) dwell, who are identical with the seven guardians of the universe. A modification of this verse⁵ names speech as the eighth, and therefore by the seventh ṛishi (after ears, eyes, nostrils) vāc must again be understood as the organ of taste, and to this the explanation that follows⁶ refers.