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XIII) Vāyu, Pitta and Kapha
337 forth. But there are serious objections against such an interpretation. For, as we have shown above, there are many passages where these doșas are described as secretions and waste-products, which in their normal proportions sustain and build the body and in undue proportions produce diseases and may ultimately break up the system. These passages could not be satisfactorily explained upon the above interpretation. Moreover, there are many passages which describe pitta and kapha as entities having a particular colour and material consistency, and it is also said that there are particular places in the body where they collect, and this would be impossible upon the interpretation that they are not real entities, but hypothetical, having only a methodological value as being no more than convenient symbols for a collective grasp of different symptoms?.
The attribution of a certain number of specific qualities to the doșas is due to a belief that the qualities of effects are due to the qualities of causes. So, from the diverse qualities of our bodies considered as effects, the causes were also considered as having those qualities from which those of the effects were derived. Thus, in connection with the description of the qualities of vāta, Caraka says that on account of the qualities of rauksya the bodies of those having congenital vāta tendency are rough, lean and small, and
1 The secretory character of these doșas is amply indicated by such passages as those which regard vāta, pitta and sleşman as requiring some space in the stomach for digesting the food materials, e.g. ekam punar vāta-pitta-śleşmanām (ibid. III. 2. 3); sleşma hi snigdha-ślakşna-mydu-madhura-sāra-sändra-mandastimita-guru-sita-vijjalācchaḥ śleşman is smooth, pleasing, soft, sweet, substantial, compact, inert, benumbed, heavy, cold, moist and transparent-ibid. III. 8. 14. 7. 5); pittam uşņam tikşnam dravam visram amlam katukam ca (pitta is hot, sharp and liquid, and possesses bad odour, and is acid and pungent and bitter-ibid. III. 8. 14.7.6); vātas tu rūkşa-laghu-cala-bahu-sīghra-sta-paruşa-visadah (vāta is rough, light, moving, manifold, quick; cold, coarse and scattering-ibid. III. 8. 14. 7. 7).
It must, however, be noted that the translation I have given of some of these words cannot be regarded as satisfactory; for in the translation I could only give one sense of a word, which in the original Sanskrit has been used in a variety of senses which the word has. Thus, for example, I have translated rūkņa as “rough.” But it also means "slim," "lean," "having insomnia," or (of a voice) "broken," and so forth. There is no English synonym which would have so many senses. Mahāmahopādhyāya Kaviraj Gananātha Sen, of Calcutta, tries to divide the dosas into two classes, invisible (sūksma) and visible (sthūla)—Siddhānta-nidāna, pp. 9-11. But though such a distinction can doubtless be made, it has not been so distinguished in the medical literature, as it is of little value from the medical point of view; it also does not help us to understand the real nature of the dosas. The nature and the functions of the doșas do not depend in the least on their visibility or invisibility, nor can the visible dosa be regarded as always the product of the invisible one.
DII
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