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FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS
137
hena.
stand this we must try and grasp a new idea of anatomy. The five The Jaina believe that sinews are wrapped round the Sangbones of the human frame like a bandage, and that on the tightness of this wrapping the strength of the body depends. Sin has affected this bandage in five particular ways: firstly (Rişabhanārāča sarghena), owing to the general depravity of the age, the peg that fastened the bandage tightly to the human frame and prevented its getting unwound has dropped out, and got permanently lost, so that there is no security against loss of bodily strength. As the world has grown steadily wickeder, the bandage has passed through successive stages of becoming loose (Nārāča saighena) and so greatly weakening the body; dropping half off (Ardhanārāča sanghena); slipping right off (Kilikā sanghena), so as to leave only the two little nails that fastened the bones before they were bandaged ; until at last we reach the present epoch, when not only has the bandage entirely disappeared (Sevārtta sanghena), but also the nails that held the bones, and so the human frame, having lost the strength the bandage formerly gave, as well as the cohesion due to the nails, now only keeps together in a weakened condition owing to sockets, &c.'!
Sin also results in various deformities in the human body. The five A good figure is held to be a reward of past merit, and the various failures to reach the perfect physical standard are the fruits of sin. As the upper portion of a banyan tree is famous for its beauty, whilst nearer the ground it looks ugly enough, so it often happens that, though the head and trunk of a man are perfectly formed, his legs are short and spindly; this failure of upper and lower to correspond (Nyagrodhaparimandala saristhāna) is the fruit of sin. So is the reverse (Sādi saisthāna), when the head and trunk are miserably thin and badly developed, while the legs are strong and vigorous. Or the head and legs may be normal, but the torso ill-formed (Kubjaka saisthāna). The result of sin may be to make a man a dwarf (Vāmana sainsthāna); and
