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326 Speculations in the Medical Schools (CH. they exceed the proper limit or become less than their proper measure, they pollute the body and may ultimately break it. But of all waste-products vāyu, pitta and kapha are regarded as being fundamentally the most important entities, and they sustain the work of the body by their mutual co-operation in proper measure, and destroy it by the disturbance of balance due to the rise or fall of one, two or all three of them.
As has already been said, the body is composed of certain constituents, such as rasa and rakta. The food and drink which we take go to nourish the different dhātus. Not all the food and drink that we take, however, can be absorbed into the system, and consequently certain waste-products are left. The question arises, what is it that sustains the system or breaks it? It has already been noticed that the due proportion of the dhātus is what constitutes the health of the body. This due proportion, however, must, as is easy to see, depend on the proper absorption of food and drink in such a way that each of the dhātus may have its due share and that only, neither less nor more. It is also necessary that there should be a due functioning of the causes of waste or accretion, working in a manner conducive to the preservation of the proper proportion of the constituents with reference to themselves and the entire system. Deficiency or excess of waste-products is therefore an invariable concomitant of all disturbances of the balance of dhātus, and hence the deficiency or excess of waste-products is regarded as the cause of all dhātu-vaisamya. So long as the waste-products are not in deficiency or excess, they are the agents which constitute the main working of the system and may themselves be therefore regarded as dhātus. It is when there is excess or deficiency of one or more of them that they oppose in various ways the general process of that working of the system and are to be regarded as doșas or polluting agents. There are various waste-products of the body; but of all these vāyu, pitta and kapha are regarded as the three most important, being at the root of all growth and decay of the body, its health and disease. Thus
1 Sārngadhara (IV.5) counts seven visible waste-products which are different from the three malas referred to here as vāyu, pitta and kapha. These are (1) the watery secretions from tongue, eyes and cheeks, (2) the colouring pitta, (3) the dirt of ears, tongue, teeth, armpits and penis, (4) the nails, (5) the dirt of the eyes, (6) the glossy appearance of the face, (7) the eruptions which come out in youth, and beards. Rādhamalla, in commenting on this, refers to Caraka-samhita, VI. 15. 29-30, in support of the above passage of Sārngadhara. Most of the malas are chidra-malas, or impurities of the openings.
