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314 Speculations in the Medical Schools [CH. rajas and tamas, and godly (deva), demonic (asura), and other characteristics. Caraka, referring to the question of the association of the soul with the material elements, says that this is due to the operation of the soul acting through the mind-organ (sattvakaraṇa). Cakrapāņi, in commenting on the above passage, says that the self (ātman) is inactive; activity is however attributed to the soul on account of the operative mind-organ which is associated with it. This, however, seems to be a compromise on the part of Cakrapāņi with the views of the traditional Sāmkhya philosophy, which holds the soul to be absolutely inactive; but the text of the Caraka-samhitā does not here say anything on the inactivity of the soul; for Caraka describes the soul as active (pravartate) as agent (karty) and as universal performer (višvakarman), and the sattva is described here only as an organ of the soul (sattva-karana).
In the first month, the foetus has a jelly-like form (kalala)”; in the second month, the material constituents of the body having undergone a chemical change (abhiprapacyamāna) due to the action of cold, heat and air (sitoşmānilaih), the foetus becomes hard (ghana). If it is the foetus of a male child, it is spherical (pinda); if it is of a female child, it is elliptical (peši); if it is of a hermaphrodite, it is like the half of a solid sphere (arbuda). In the third month five special eminences are scen, as also the slight differentiation of limbs. In the fourth month the differentiation of the limbs is much more definite and well manifested; and owing to the manifestation of the heart of the foetus the entity of consciousness becomes also inanifested, since the heart is the special seat of consciousness; so from the fourth month the foetus manifests a desire for the objects of the senses. In the fifth month the consciousness becomes more awakened; in the sixth intelligence begins to develop; in the seventh the division and differentiation of
1 Sattva-karano guna-grahaņāya pravartate-Caraka-samhitū, IV. 4. 8. Cakrapāņi rightly points out that guna here means material elements which possess qualities--guņavanti bhūtāni. The word guna is used in all these passages in the sense of material entity or bhūta, Though guna means a quality and gunin a substance, yet the view adopted here ignores the difference between qualities and substances, and guna, the ordinary word for quality, stands here for substance (guna-guninor abhedopacărăt-Cakrapāņi, ibid.).
2 Dalhana explains kalala as singhāna-prakhyam.
: On the meanings of the words peśī and arbuda there is a difference of opinion between Dalhaņa and Gayi. Thus Gayi says that pesi means quadrangular (catur-asra) and arbuda means the form of the bud of a silk cotton tree (śālmalimukulākāram).
