________________
xil] The Circulatory and the Nervous System 347 because they go (saraņāt sirāḥ) to the different parts of the bodyl. The ten dhamanīs spread out in manifold branches throughout the body. In the Caraka-samhitā srotas means properly the path through which the successive evolutionary products of the bodyconstituents (dhātus) or other kinds of secretion run and accumulate together with elements of their own types?. Cakrapāņi explains it thus: The transformation into blood takes place in connection with chyle (rasa). The coming together of rasa with blood at a different part of the body cannot take place without a path of transmission, called srotas. So the transformation of dhātus takes place through the function of this path of transmission. So for each kind of product there is a separate srotas. Vāyu, pitta and kapha may be said to go about through all the srotas, though there are, no doubt, special channels for each of the three3. Gangādhara, however, takes the srotas as being the apertures through which the dhātus and other waste-products flow4. In whatever way it may be looked at, the srotas is, according to Caraka, nothing but the duct of the dhamanis. Caraka opposes the view of those who think that the body is nothing but a collection of srotas, for the simple reason that the substances which pass through these srotas and the parts of the body where they are attached are certainly different from the srotas themselves. There are separate srotas for the flow of prāņu, water, food-juice, blood, flesh, fat, bony materials, marrow, semen, urine, excreta and sweat; vāta, pitta and śleşman, however, flow through the body and all the channels (sarva-srotāmsi ayana-bhūtāni). For the supply of materials for the suprasensual elements of the body, such as manas, etc., the whole of the living body serves as a channels. The heart is the root of all
dhmānād dhamanyah sravanāt srotānsi saranāt sirah. Caraka-samhitā, 1. 30. 11.
2 Ibid. 111. 5. 3. 3 Doșāņām tu sarva-sarīra-caratvena yathā-sthūla-sroto 'bhidhāne 'pi sartasrotāmsy eva gamanărtham vaksyante...vātādinām api pradhāna bhūtādhamanyah santy eva. Cakrapāņi's comment on ibid.
4 āhāra-pariņāma-raso hi srotasām chidra-rūpam panthānam vină gantum na saknoti, na ca srotaś chidra-pathena gamananı zinā tad-uttarottara-dhātutvena pariņamati, etc. Gangadhara's Jalpa-kalpa-taru on ibid.
5 Gangādhara, in commenting on this passage (Caraka-samhitā, l. 5. 7). "tadvad atīndriyāņām punah sattvādinām kevalam cetanāvac charīram ayana-bhitam adhisthāna-bhūtam ca," says, "mana ātmā śrotra-sparśana-nayana-rasanaghrūņa-huddhy-ahankārādinām kevalam cetanārat sajīvam sarira-sroto 'yanabhūtam adhisthāna-bhūtam ca." There are several passages in Caraka where we hear of mano-vaha currents (currents carrying manas); if manas, buddhi, ahankāra, etc. can all be carried in currents, they must be considered as having some material spatial existence. These manas, buddhi and ahankāra may be atindriya, but they are not on that account non-physical.
