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Jaina Blology
According to modern Biology, the three juices (1) bile (i. e. pitta53 of Jaina Biology) from the liver (yakrt )54 (2) Pancreatic juice from the pancreas and (3) the intestinal juice are mixed in the small intestine and complcte the digestive process begun in the mouth and stomach.55
The Liver (yakrt)56
Because of its contribution of the digestive juice, bile (pitta ), the liver is vitally important to digestion. Visuddhimagga states that the liver (yakanam) is placed near the right side between the two breasts like a twin lump of meat stuck on the side of a cooking pot57 ; "it is a twin slab of muscle having brownish shed of red colour, but not too red like the backs of white water lily petals" 58
It is described in the medical science as wedge-shaped reddish brown in colour, having two lobes which are divided into four.59 It is the largest gland in the body, occupying the entire upper part of the abdominal cavity, just below the diaphragm.60 "In addition to its function in producing bile the liver is important in the storage and interconversions of sugars, the synthesis of plasma proteins-and a host of reacttons of intermediary metabolism''. 61
The Absorption of Food :
Molecules of nutrients ( rasa ), after digestion, are absorbed into the body through the lining of the digestive tract by the āhāra paryāti62 and transformed into blood, etc. by sarira or dehaparyāpti63 as suggested by the reference to the action of pañcavāyus. Modern Biology explains that most of the absorption is done in the small intestine, particularly in the lower part of this region. Water is absorbed by the
53. Kalyānakaraka 3.4. 54. Biology, p. 302. 55. Kalyāņakāraka 3.4. 56. "Yakanan anto sarire dvinnan thanānam abbhantare dakkhiņapassan nissāya
hitan ../"etc., Visuddhimagga XI. 60 57. Ibid, VIII. 114. "Yakanan ti yamakamansapatalan ....etc. 58. Gray's Human Anatomy, P. 1512. 59. Biology, P. 303. 60. Ibid. 61. Lokaprakāģa I. 3.17. 62, Ibid. I. 3.19, 63. See metabolism and nutrition ; Kalyanakāraka 3.9
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