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INTRODUCTION
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this as the main factor leading to the premature death of a person (hetuḥ akṣīņāyușah kālakriyāyāḥ)”. Susruta’ and the Kāśypa3 Saṁhitās also echo the same tone.
Following the Buddhist tradition, Asanga mentions ahāra as the substratum of human lifet. Here also, he follows Caraka and the Suśrūta Saṁhitās. Curiously enough, Asanga also enumerates the various defects in food (āhāre adīnavāḥ) the seed of which also seems to have been taken from the Āyurvedic works.
Similarly, the detailed enumeration of the various parts of human body given by Asanga might have been taken from those found in the Ayurvedic works10. He also enumerates eight stages of the birth, growth and decay of the human life which may also be regarded 1. YBS, 1.15, lines 10-7. 2. Suśruta, 1.46, Vs. 460, 466, 467, 468, 474, 493, 500, 525, 526. 3. Kāśyapa Samhitā, p. 222 (Khilasthāna, Ch. V) vide also loc. cit.,
Vs. 4-64; Kalpasthāna, Ch. V; Bhojanakalpa), pp. 168-76, vs.
21-8; 31-4; 36, 38, 40, 64, 67, 95. 4. BİETTTER: 98:1 a 999acar 3ERT: 1 .., YBS, 1.46; vide
also, M. N., 1.320 sqr..; Narendra Deva, AK., I, p. 350 sq.. RAK,
III.38-41; AKB, III.38-41, pp. 151-4; AKV, III, pp. 74-80. 5. Caraka, p. 23, 31, 120, 121 and elsewhere. 6. Susruta, pp. 256, 262. 7. ŚBh., p. 42 sq. 8. Caraka (vide, above, f.n. 20); Suśruta, p. 257, vs. 474, p. 260,
vs. 500 sq., cp. also, Kāśyapa Samhitā, p. 223, vs. 21-51. 9. SBh., p.114, YBS, I. 55 (quotation). 10. YBS, 1.49.
