Hindu Medicine c8.120

c8.120

The wind “apāna,” “breathing downward,” resides in the abdomen (pakvādhāna, the “receptacle of ‘cooked’ food”). In due time it effects the relief of the bowels. It expels downward faeces, urine, semen, the foetus and menstrual discharge. When incensed, it causes dreaded diseases, affecting the bladder (vasti) and the anus (or abdomen: guda). Affections of the semen, however, and urinary diseases originate, when both vyāna and apāna become incensed. If both grow infuriated simultaneously, they will certainly rend the body asunder.