The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c6.123

c6.123

These chief elements form the differentiated substances of the organism which, in their turn, are the "elements" (dhātu) of this organism and are seven in number: the organic juice (rasa) which is the chyle, the blood (rakta) which is the chyle coloured in red, the flesh (māṃsa), fat (medas), bones (asthi), the marrow (majjā) and the sperm (śukra), all of which, starting from rasa derive one from the other². The rasa is therefore the primordial substance of the organism and certain authors took it to be the essence of water which generates everything.³ Besides, in all things there is a rasa, a "taste", the liquid element which constitutes simultaneously the substratum and the sign of the properties, of the virtues of this thing.⁴