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Speculations in the Medical Schools [CH. we hear of a lotus with nine gates (nava-dvāram) and covered with the three guņas'. This is a very familiar word in later Sanskrit literature, as referring to the nine doors of the senses, and the comparison of the heart with a lotus is also very common. But one of the most interesting points about the passage is that it seems to be a direct reference to the guna theory, which received its elaborate exposition at the hands of the later Sámkhya writers: it is probably the earliest reference to that theory. As we have stated above, the real functions of the prāņa, etc. were not properly understood; prāna was considered as vital power or life and it was believed to be beyond injury and fear. It was as immortal as the earth and the sky, the day and the night, the sun and the moon, the Brāhmaṇas and the Kşattriyas, truth and falsehood, the past and the future. A prayer is made to prāna and apāna for protection from death (prāṇāpānau mịtyor mā pātam svāhā)? In A.V. 111. 6.8 manas and citta are separately mentioned and Sāyana explains manas as meaning antahkarana, or inner organ, and citta as a particular state of the manas (mano-vrttivišesena), as thought". Here also the heart is the seat of consciousness. Thus in a prayer in III. 26. 6 it is said, “O Mitra and Varuna, take away the thinking power (citta) from the heart (hrt) of this woman and, making her incapable of judgment, bring her under my controls." The ojas with which we are familiar in later medical works of Caraka and others is mentioned in A.V. II. 18, where
sīrśanyāh prāņāh. Again a reference to the seven senses is found in A.V. X. 2. 6: kah sapta khāni vitatarda sīrşani. In A.V. xv. 15. 16. 17 seven kinds of prāna, apana and vyāna are described. These seem to serve cosmic functions. The seven prānas are agni, āditya, candramāh, pavamāna, āpah, pašavaḥ and prajā. The seven apānas are paurnamāsi, aştaka, amāvāsyā, śruddhā, dikşā, j'ajña and dakșiņā. The seven kinds of vyāna are bhūmi, antarikşam, dyauh, nakșatrāņi, tuvu), artavāḥ and samvatsarāḥ.
pundarikam nava-dvāram tribhir gineblir ātrtam
tasmin yad yaksam utmunvat tud rai Brahma-zido viduḥ. (Those who know Brahman know that being to be the self which resides in the lotus flower of nine gates covered by the three gunus. A.V. X. 8. 43.) The nādis idū, pingalā and suşumņā, which figure so much in the later Tantric works, do not appear in the Atharva-V'eda. No reference to prūnāyāma appears in the Athuria-V'eda,
A.V. 11. 15.
3 Ibid. 11. 16. 1. Prüņa and apānu are asked in another passage to enter a man as bulls enter a cow-shed. Sāyaṇa calls prāņa, apāna" śarīras-dhāraka" (A.V. III. II. 5). They are also asked not to leave the body, but to bear the limbs till old age (111. 11. 6).
• Manas and citta are also separately counted in A.V. III. 6. 8.
5 The word citrinaḥ is sometimes used to mean men of the same ways of thinking (cittinah samāna-citta-y'uktāk-Sāyaṇa. A.V. III. 13. 5).
