A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c25.614

Language: English

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The subjects are: the ten chief sirās (mūlasirā) which, coming from the heart, transport ojas; they divide several times into branches with a thickness of two aṅgula, one aṅgula, half an aṅgula, a yava, and half a yava respectively, until their number amounts to seven hundred (6.2);273 four hundred of them are found in the extremities; sixteen of these should not be used in phlebotomy;274 136 sirās are present in the trunk; thirty-two of these should not be used in phlebotomy; 164 sirās are in the part above (the trunk); fifty of these should be spared in phlebotomy275 (6.3); one hundred sirās are present in each leg; the sirā called jālandharā and three internal ones should be avoided in bloodletting (6.4);276 the pelvic region (śroṇi) possesses thirty-two sirās; eight of these should be spared: two in each groin and two in each kaṭītaruṇa;277 the sides of the chest have sixteen sirās; the two running upwards should be spared;278 twenty-four are present in the back; two sirās on each side of the backbone should be spared;279 the abdomen has twenty-four sirās as well; four of them should not be cut: two above the penis and two on the sides of the romarāji;280 forty sirās are found in the anterior part of the chest; fourteen are to be avoided in bloodletting: two in the cardiac region, two in each stanamūla and stanarohita, one in each apastambha and apālāpa281 (6.5);

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twenty-four sirās are present in the neck;282 a group of four and a group of eight which are marmans, and two in the kṛkāṭikās and vidhuras, should be avoided, thus making a total of sixteen;283 the region of the jaw possesses sixteen sirās;284 the region of the articulation, should be spared;285 the tongue has sixteen sirās;286 four of these should be spared: two which carry taste,287 and two which carry speech;288 twenty-four sirās are found in the nasal region;289 two of these, which carry smell,290 should not be touched,291 as well as one in the palate;292 fifty-six sirās are present in the eyes; six of these should not be touched by the knife: the two in each eye which are associated with the opening (unmeṣa) and closing (nimeṣa) of the eyes, and the one in each eye at the outer corner;293 among the sixty sirās in the forehead four which run along the hair-line (keśāntānugata), the two in the āvartas and the one in the stapanī are to be spared; 294 among the sixteen sirās in the ears the two which transport sound should not be cut; 295 the region of the temples also possesses sixteen sirās; 296 the two at the joints of the temple should be spared; 297 eight sirās should not be cut among the twelve present on the head: one in each of the two utkṣepas, one in each one of the (five) sīmantas, and one in the adhipati; 298 not to be touched by the knife are, moreover, those sirās which are very small, crooked, forming a tangled mass, knotty, or located near to joints (6.6);

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299 one quarter of the total number of sirās, i.e., a number of 175, transport blood mixed with vāta; equal numbers carry blood mixed with pitta, blood mixed with kapha, and pure blood; thus, the doṣas support the body (6.7); 300 the characteristics of these four types of sirās and of the mixed types (6.8); 301 the twenty-four vessels called dhamanī; similes illustrating their function; 302 the dhamanīs surround the navel like the spokes of a wheel the nave; 303 the prāṇas have their particular seatin the umbilical region, 304 where the internal fire is located too (6.9); ten dhamanīs run upwards, ten downwards, and four obliquely (6.10); 305 those running upwards, which depart from the heart, divide into thirty branches; vāta, pitta, kapha, blood and rasa are transported by two of these each; eight branches carry sound, form, taste and smell; two branches are connected with speaking, making inarticulate sounds (ghoṣa), sleeping, and waking up respectively; two branches transport tears; two branches carry milk in women and seed in men (6.11); 306 those running downwards, which are connected with the pakvāśaya, 307 also divide into thirty branches; ten of these transport, like those running upwards, vāta, etc.; two branches transport food, 308 two water, two urine; two branches carry semen and two release it; four similar vessels carry and release ārtava in women; two branches, connected with the large bowel, help to expel faeces; the remaining eight transport sweat (6.12);

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309 the branches which run obliquely divide many times, as already described (6.13); 310 the channels (srotas) are nine in number in males: the ears, eyes, nostrils, mouth, anus and urethra; females have three additional ones: the breasts and the vagina; thirteen more groups of channels in the interior of the body, which are seats of life (jīvitāyatana), transport prāṇa, water, food, dhātus, and malas (6.14); 311 heart and mahāsrotas 312 are the roots of the prāṇa-carrying channels; the factors leading to corruption of these channels; signs resulting from this corruption; its treatment is like that of śvāsa (6.15); 313 palate and kloman are the roots of the water-carrying channels; 314 the causes and signs of their corruption, to be treated like tṛṣṇā (6.16); āmāśaya and the left side of the chest are the roots of the food-carrying channels; 315 everything concerning their corruption is to be found in the mātrāśitīya chapter (Sū.11) 316 (6.17); 317 the roots of the rasa-carrying channels are the heart and the ten dhamanīs; 318 the roots of the blood-carrying channels are liver and spleen, 319 those of the channels carrying muscular tissue are the snāvas and the skin, 320 those of the channels carrying fatty tissue (medas) are the kidneys and the muscles; 321 the roots of the channels carrying bony tissue consist of the buttocks (jaghana) and the fatty tissue (medas), 322 those of the channels carrying bone marrow consist of the joints (parvan) and bones;

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323 the roots of the channels carrying seed (śukra) are the breasts, the testicles and the bone marrow, 324 those of the channels carrying urine are the bladder and the groins (vaṅkṣaṇa), 325 those of the channels carrying faeces are the pakvāśaya and large bowel (sthūlāntra), 326 those of the channels carrying perspiration consist of fatty tissue and the pores of the hairs;³²⁷ all these channels may become corrupted by unhealthy dietary habits and patterns of behaviour;³²⁸ the symptoms arising are those of decrease and increase, discussed, together with therapeutic measures, in the doṣādivijñānīya chapter (Sū. 19)³²⁹ (6.18); the disorders arising when channels are pierced; their dangerous nature compels the physician to treat patients only after warning them about the risks; after extraction of a foreign body that has pierced a channel, the treatment required is the same as that of a fresh wound (6.19);³³⁰ sirās and dhamanīs are particular types of channels; others hold that these three form different structures; they have in common that they are located near to each other, perform similar, though diverse functions;

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and are of a subtle nature (6.20);³³¹ others again are of the opinion that srotas, sirā, dhamanī, rasavāhinī, nāḍī, path, ayana, mārga, śarīracchidra, saṃvṛtā-saṃvṛta, sthāna, āśaya, kṣaya and niketa are names for visible and unvisible structures consisting of spaces (avakāśa) within the bodily constituents (dhātu) (6.21);³³² these spaces, when excited, make the bodily elements, whether fixed or in movement, excited; excited bodily elements bring about excitation of the channels; (excited) channels (cause excitation of) other channels, (excited) bodily elements (excitation of other) bodily elements; corruption of all these (constituents) is brought about by corrupted doṣas;³³³ their corruption usually results from a disorder of the fire (agnidoṣa); for this reason, the life span, health, strength, nutritional state (upacaya), colour of the skin, and (the condition of) ojas, are based on this (fire); associated (pratibaddha) with this (digestive fire) are rañjaka (pitta), etc., the fires of the (mahā)bhūtas, and the fires of the bodily elements; food, digested by that (digestive fire), leads to immortality;

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when remaining undigested, it becomes poison (6.22);³³⁴ the kind of pitta called pācaka is identical with the (digestive) fire, as has been stated already;³³⁵ other authorities claim that the inner heat (antarūṣman), generated by the concerted action (saṃnipāta) of doṣas, dhātus and malas, constitutes the fire, with a seat and action as taught (6.23);³³⁶ the internal fire cooks the mass of food, which is brought to the koṣṭha by the prāṇa, divided into smaller parts by fluids, and made soft by fatty substances; this fire is kindled by the samāna (6.24);³³⁷ the food, which contains all the tastes at first, becomes, when being digested, sweet, and becomes frothy; then, partially digested (vidagdha) and having become sour, it moves on from the āmāśaya and excites pitta; having reached the pakvāśaya and becomes pungent, it excites vāta (6.25);³³⁸ subsequently, the fires of the five mahābhūtas cook those parts of the food, which belong to each of them; after completion of this process, these parts nourish those constituents of the body which derive from each of the mahābhūtas (6.26);³³⁹ after completion of the digestive process, the food consists of a pure part (sāra), called rasa, and an impure part (mala), called kiṭṭa;³⁴⁰ the channels transport rasa and kiṭṭa, not yet separated from each other (avicchinnasaṃtāna), to the bodily elements, thus replenishing them;

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each type of channel carries the substance proper to it, i.e., the rasa-transporting channels bring rasa to the rasadhātu; the part that remains nourishes the blood; then, the muscular tissues are replenished by their own channels, etc.;³⁴¹ thus, the dhātus maintain their proper measure, dependent on age and bodily build (6.27); the rasa derived from the food, dispersed by the vyāna, and cooked by the fires of the bodily elements, loses its characteristics (svātmabhāvavicyuti), thus changing into blood, etc.; in this way, it bestows ūrjas on the body and nourishes the bodily elements and impurities (6.28); the clear part of the kiṭṭa of the food becomes urine, the dense part becomes faeces; the pure part of rasa becomes blood, the impure part phlegm and lasīkā; the pure part of blood changes into muscular tissue, kaṇḍarās and sirās, the impure part into bile; the pure part of muscular tissue changes into medas, skin and vasā, the impure part into the impurities of ears, eyes, nose, mouth, pores of the skin, and generative organs; the pure part of fatty tissue (medas) changes into bones, snāyus and joints, the impure part into sweat; the pure part of bony tissue changes into bone marrow, the impure part into the hairs of head and body and the nails; the pure part of bone marrow changes into seed, the impure part into the secretions from the eyes and the fatty substance (sneha) of the layers of the skin; the pure part of seed changes into ojas;

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because of its great purity, seed does not contain impure matter; some authorities assert that seed, on account of this purity, is not transformed; others again hold that the pure part of seed develops into an embryo (6.29);³⁴² vāta distributes all the products derived from the food throughout the body (6.30); another theory claims that the rasa derived from the food nourishes directly each of the bodily elements, without the process of transformation of each element into the next one of the series (6.31);³⁴³ the four types of digestive fire are: sama, viṣama, tīkṣṇa and manda; increase of a tīkṣṇa fire leads to the type called atyagni; the characteristic features of a sluggish (manda) fire and the disorders it produces; the importance of maintaining a proper digestive fire;³⁴⁴ the means to achieve this aim are discussed in the chapter called doṣopakramaṇīya (Sū.21) and that on the treatment of grahaṇīroga (6.32).