Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 156

The Sophisticated Stage 135 born from egg, e.g. fish, reptiles and birds; svedaja, born from moisture e.g. worms, flies, mosquitoes, etc.; and udbhijja, born from plant body. The boneless (anasthika) and bloodless beings, the germs, etc. belong to the asexual category. Suśruta and Nāgārjuna who made extensive study of the snakes have referred to six kinds of ants, six kinds of flies, five kinds of gnats, thirty kinds of scorpion and sixteen kinds of spiders. According to Caraka and Suśruta the essence of food produces semen and blood. The circulation of blood within the body is performed by the heart through different types of veins. A human body has seven hundred nerve-channels of which fourteen are most important. The movement of the body is caused by the winds which are of five kinds. The embryo in the womb is caused by the sperm of the semen through a series of chemical actions and reactions. The body begins to take its shape in the third month and it gets more or less complete in the fourth month. The major and connecting bones, veins, nails and hairs grow in the sixth month.
Scientific Enquiries: Diseases and Medicines
The Jain investigations in this field also began with a scientific spirit although, as had happened in the case of other sciences, the doctrine of Karma ultimately came to take the lead. Thus, for instance, we may refer to the legend of Umbaradatta which is found in the Vivāgasūya. This man was afflicted with all kinds of horrible diseases. Explaining the cause of his getting afflicted the text says that he was a doctor in his previous existence and as a doctor he had prescribed meat-diet to a patient, thus causing the killing of numerous living creatures. Hence he would be born again in worse incarnations like dog, etc., but finally he would be born as a merchant. Here the cause of his illness is ascribed to the deeds he performed in his previous lif
Still, the scientific spirit behind the diagnosis of diseases could not completely be stamped out. "As to the causes of diseases Thâņa 446a lists the following nine: a sedentary way of living (accāsaņā), bad food, too much sleep, too little sleep, constipation, anury, marching (addhāna-gamana), sitophobia, and addiction to sensual enjoyments (indiv'attha-vikovanayā). The subdivision (Thāna, 265a) into Vaiya,Pittiya, and Simbhiya-diseases and such in which different factors referred to in this connection takes a share, goes back to the allIndian system.". In Caraka, as we have seen above, five kinds of wind
libid, 151.