The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.72

c9.72

The *Suśruta-saṃhitā* challenges an opinion current in its time, which took the *sirās*, the *dhamánis* (sic) and the *srotas* (conduits) to denote the one and the same thing. It, however, admits that their functions, even though distinct, are analogous.³ The main *dhamánis* are 24 in number and are born at the navel from where they spread, ten upwards, ten downwards and four horizontally.⁴ “Those which go upwards maintain the organism by carrying particular things: sound, touch, form, taste, smell, inhalation, exhalation, yawning, hunger, laughter, talking, crying, etc. They reach the heart and become three-fold, they are (then) thirty in number. Among them, ten carry two by two, the wind, the bile, the phlegm, the blood and the organic juice. By eight are seized the sounds, forms, tastes and smells. By two one talks, by two is uttered the loud cry, two are employed for sleep and two for awakening. And two carry tears, two which are located in the bosom carry the mother’s milk. It is these two which carry the sperm coming from its two “udders”.¹