अथातः सर्वभूतचिन्ताशारीरं व्याख्यास्यामः ||१||
यथोवाच भगवान् धन्वन्तरिः ||२||
Meaning of the śloka
Now the Sharirasthana chapter concerned with reflection on all beings, or on the fundamental elements underlying embodied beings, will be explained, as taught by the revered Dhanvantari.
The commentary explains why Sharirasthana follows Nidanasthana. After learning the causes and signs of diseases, a physician has occasion to treat them, but treatment requires knowledge of the particular bodily site that supports disease. Sharirasthana therefore begins by considering the bhutas regarded as causes of the entire body. Sarvabhuta may mean all living beings, both stationary and mobile, or the mahAbhUtas beginning with earth. Their cinta is an inquiry into their causes, defining characteristics, and effects. The commentary also derives the compound chapter title grammatically. Gayi preserves the variant reading 'sarvabhutacintanama shariram.'
Key terms
shArIrasthAna (Sharirasthana)
The section concerned with the body and the principles underlying embodiment.
sarvabhUta (sarvabhuta)
Either all stationary and mobile beings or all fundamental elements, according to the commentary.
cintA (cinta)
Systematic consideration of causes, characteristics, and effects.
adhiShThAna (adhishthana)
The bodily site or substrate relevant to treatment.
सर्वभूतानां कारणमकारणं सत्त्वरजस्तमोलक्षणमष्टरूपमखिलस्य जगतः सम्भवहेतुरव्यक्तं नाम |
तदेकं बहूनां क्षेत्रज्ञानामधिष्ठानं समुद्र इवौदकानां भावानाम् ||३||
Meaning of the śloka
Avyakta, the unmanifest, is described as the cause of all beings while itself having no prior cause. It is characterized by sattva, rajas, and tamas, has eight forms, and is the source from which the entire world becomes manifest. Though one, it provides the common field for many kShetrajnas, as the ocean does for things belonging to water.
The commentary identifies avyakta with mUlaprakRti, primordial nature. It is called uncaused because it is not an effect or transformation of anything else, and its nature consists of sattva, rajas, and tamas. One interpretation of its eight forms counts avyakta, mahat, ahaMkAra, and the five tanmAtras. Other authorities instead count avyakta, mahat, ahaMkAra, and the five mahAbhUtas; another view gives the eight qualities dharma, knowledge, detachment, power, and their opposites; still another gives mind, intellect, ego, and the great elements. Calling avyakta both the cause of all beings and the source of the world's manifestation is not considered repetitive: the first expresses identity between cause and effect, while the second identifies the cause of manifestation. Gayi instead reads the second phrase simply as an explanation of avyakta's material-cause role. Avyakta, prakRti, pradhAna, and mUlaprakRti are treated as synonyms. It is one in the sense of having no separable parts, yet it is the bodily field for many kShetrajnas or embodied agents. The ocean comparison may refer to rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds derived from water, or, in another interpretation, to aquatic living and nonliving things such as fish and lotuses.
Key terms
avyakta
The unmanifest primordial principle regarded here as the source of manifestation.
mUlaprakRti (mulaprakriti)
Primordial nature, used as a synonym for avyakta.
sattva-rajas-tamas
The three qualities said to characterize primordial nature.
kShetraj~ja (kshetrajna)
The conscious knower or embodied agent associated with a bodily field.
aShTarUpa (ashtarupa)
Having eight forms, for which the commentary preserves several enumerations.
From avyakta arises mahat, bearing the same threefold character, and from mahat arises ahaMkAra, likewise characterized. AhaMkAra is threefold: vaikArika, taijasa, and bhUtAdi. From vaikArika ahaMkAra, assisted by taijasa, arise the eleven faculties: hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell, speech, hands, the reproductive faculty, elimination, feet, and mind. The first five are faculties of cognition, the next five are faculties of action, and mind participates in both. From bhUtAdi ahaMkAra, assisted by taijasa, arise the five subtle potentials: sound, touch, form, taste, and smell. Their manifest particulars are sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, and from these arise space, air, fire, water, and earth. In this way the twenty-four tattvas are set out.
The commentary presents this sequence to explain how a single avyakta can be the cause of beings with many properties. Mahat is identified with the principle of buddhi and is described as becoming manifest from avyakta when associated with the kShetrajna. It shares the nature of sattva, rajas, and tamas; ahaMkAra, the function of self-reference or appropriation, arises from mahat with that same threefold character. The names vaikArika, taijasa, and bhUtAdi are conventional labels of earlier teachers and correspond respectively to sattva, rajas, and tamas. The eleven faculties arise from the sattvic form with support from the rajasic form; the five cognitive faculties provide bases for cognition, the five active faculties for action, and mind belongs to both because neither group operates without mind. The commentary notes a doctrinal difference: Samkhya derives the faculties from ahaMkAra, whereas the medical tradition calls them elemental. The five tanmAtras arise from the tamasic form, again with rajasic support. They are subtle sound and the other qualities before their manifest character, inaccessible to the external senses and said to be knowable only by yogins. Their manifest particulars can be experienced as pleasant, painful, or delusive. The elements arise cumulatively: space has sound; air, sound and touch; fire, those plus form; water, those plus taste; and earth, all five including smell. Followers of Patanjali are said instead to derive the elements directly from sound and the other qualities.
Key terms
mahat
The great principle, identified in the commentary with buddhi or determinative intelligence.
aha~gkAra (ahamkara)
The principle whose function is self-reference or appropriation.
The objects of the cognitive faculties are sound, touch, form, taste, and smell. In their stated order, the domains of the active faculties are speaking, grasping, enjoyment or reproduction, elimination, and movement.
The commentary glosses viShaya as that which is apprehended or engaged. The word 'objects' is also to be connected with speech, grasping, enjoyment, elimination, and movement. Because the Sanskrit expressions are verbal-action formations, these mean respectively what is to be spoken, what is to be taken, what is to be enjoyed, what is to be discharged, and the place or range in which one moves.
Key terms
viShaya (vishaya)
An object or domain apprehended or acted upon by a faculty.
buddhIndriya (buddhindriya)
A faculty of cognition whose objects begin with sound.
karmendriya
A faculty of action associated with speaking, grasping, enjoyment, elimination, or movement.
Ananda (ananda)
Enjoyment or pleasure as the domain of the reproductive faculty in this sequence.
The commentary applies another distinction within the previously described group of twenty-four tattvas. PrakRtis are causes of further principles. Avyakta is read separately to show that it alone is purely a cause. The conjunction after tanmAtras is understood with the word prakRtis. Mahat, ahaMkAra, and the five tanmAtras are therefore causes of what follows but are also vikRtis because they are themselves effects. The remaining sixteen products are the eleven faculties and the five mahAbhUtas.
Key terms
prakRti (prakriti)
A principle that serves as a cause of subsequent products.
vikAra (vikara)
A derived product or effect.
vikRti (vikriti)
An effect; here mahat and the next six principles are effects as well as causes.
mahAbhUta (mahabhuta)
One of the five manifest great elements included among the sixteen products.
For each of these faculties, its own object is the adhibhUta aspect, and the faculty itself is the adhyAtma aspect. Their presiding divine aspects are: Brahma for buddhi, Ishvara for ahaMkAra, the Moon for mind, the directions for hearing, Vayu for touch, the Sun for sight, the waters for taste, Earth for smell, Agni for speech, Indra for the hands, Vishnu for the feet, Mitra for elimination, and Prajapati for the reproductive faculty.
The commentary says that buddhi, ahaMkAra, mind, the sensory faculties, and the active faculties are prominent among the twenty-four principles because they illuminate or disclose their objects. It therefore explains three aspects: what is disclosed, the faculty in which disclosure occurs, and the deity through whose favor it occurs. Each faculty's apprehended, intended, imagined, or acted-upon object is called adhibhUta; some commentators simply call each one's object its adhibhUta. The thirteen faculties themselves are adhyAtma, understood as belonging to one's own body or self, although another explanation applies the name adhyAtma directly to buddhi and the other faculties. Adhidaivata means the governing role of a deity. The commentary expands each triad: for example, buddhi is adhyAtma, what is to be known is adhibhUta, and Brahma is adhidaivata. It similarly pairs ahaMkAra with what is appropriated and Rudra, mind with what is thought and the Moon, hearing with what is heard and the directions, touch with what is touched and Vayu, sight with what is seen and the Sun, taste with what is tasted and Varuna, smell with what is smelled and Earth, speech with what is spoken and Agni, hands with what is grasped and Indra, feet with the destination and Vishnu, elimination with what is discharged and Mitra, and the reproductive faculty with what is enjoyed and Prajapati.
Key terms
adhibhUta (adhibhuta)
The external object or domain apprehended or acted upon by a faculty.
adhyAtma (adhyatma)
The faculty itself as located in or related to one's own embodied self.
adhidaivata
The deity regarded as presiding over a faculty.
upastha
The reproductive faculty in this classical enumeration.
This entire group of twenty-four principles, beginning with avyakta, is insentient. PuruSha, the twenty-fifth principle, becomes the conscious experiencer when joined with causes and their products. Although pradhAna itself is insentient, teachers say that it acts for the sake of puruSha's isolation or liberation, illustrating this with milk and similar examples.
The commentary reasons that because avyakta, the cause, is insentient, its products beginning with mahat are also insentient. PuruSha is the twenty-fifth principle and is joined with both the products beginning with mahat and their cause, mUlaprakRti. Teachers describe the activity of pradhAna or mUlaprakRti as serving puruSha's kaivalya, understood as liberation. To explain how something insentient can act toward an end, the commentary gives the analogy of milk, which without conscious knowledge supports the calf's growth. As another analogy, it refers to reproductive fluid functioning during consensual sexual union toward heightened pleasure. These examples illustrate the commentator's philosophical argument rather than a biological mechanism.
Key terms
puruSha (purusha)
The conscious principle, counted as the twenty-fifth tattva.
acetana (achetana)
Insentient or lacking consciousness.
pradhAna (pradhana)
Primordial nature or mUlaprakRti, treated as the insentient causal principle.
kaivalya
Isolation of puruSha from prakRti, understood here as liberation.
kAryakAraNa (karyakarana)
Effects and their causal basis with which puruSha is associated.
Prakriti and Purusha are both described as beginningless, endless, without a distinguishing mark, eternal, unsurpassed, and all-pervading. Prakriti, however, is one, unconscious, composed of the three gunas, the seed and producer of manifestation, and not impartial. Purushas are many and conscious; they lack the gunas, are neither seeds nor producers, and remain impartial.
The commentary identifies Prakriti with Avyakta and Purusha with Atman. Neither dissolves, and both stand beyond products beginning with mahat. Prakriti contains sattva, rajas, and tamas in equilibrium and holds all later transformations in seed form; Gayi alternatively explains this seed character as its being the support into which the elements, senses, subtle elements, ahankara, and mahat return at dissolution. When the equilibrium is disturbed in association with Purusha, Prakriti produces the moving and unmoving world through mahat, ahankara, and the subsequent sequence. It is not impartial because its gunas assume forms of pleasure, pain, and bewilderment. Purushas are many because simultaneous death is not observed. Purusha is explained as that which rests in the subtle city or linga-sharira; it has none of the three gunas, does not serve as the seed in cosmic dissolution, and is free from attraction, aversion, and dejection. A Samkhya verse is cited to characterize Purusha as witness, isolated, impartial, seer, and non-agent.
Key terms
prakRuti (prakriti)
Unmanifest primordial nature, composed of the three gunas and productive of transformations.
puruSha (purusha)
The conscious self or witness, distinguished here from productive Prakriti.
triguNA (triguna)
Composed of sattva, rajas, and tamas.
bIjadharmiNI (bijadharmini)
Having the character of a seed for later manifestations.
madhyastha
Impartial or neutral, a quality assigned to Purusha.
Because an effect resembles its cause, all the differentiated products are held to consist of sattva, rajas, and tamas. Some teachers say that Purushas also appear to possess these qualities because they are colored by them and seem to be made of them.
The products beginning with mahat resemble their cause, Prakriti. Some extend this description to Purusha when it is associated with those products. The commentary explains that Purusha appears marked by the gunas through reflection in mahat and related forms, as the moon reflected in moving pond water appears to move; Purusha is not actually constituted by the gunas. On account of this apparent coloring, persons are described as happy, distressed, or bewildered. Gayi parses the expression differently: mahat and the other products manifest the gunas, and Purusha appears colored through relation with them. His analogy is the sky appearing red through contact with the rays of the setting sun, although the sky itself does not change. The closing words, 'some say,' mark the entire preceding position as the view of a particular school rather than an uncontested conclusion.
Key terms
kAraNAnurUpa kArya (karananurupa karya)
An effect corresponding to or resembling its cause.
sattvarajastamas (sattva-rajas-tamas)
The three gunas attributed to Prakriti and its products.
tada~jjanatva (tad-anjanatva)
Apparent coloring or marking by those gunas.
tanmayatva
Apparent identification with or constitution by them.
ityeke (ity eke)
'Thus some say,' identifying the statement as one school’s view.
वैद्यके तु- स्वभावमीश्वरं कालं यदृच्छां नियतिं तथा |
परिणामं च मन्यन्ते प्रकृतिं पृथुदर्शिनः ||११||
Meaning of the śloka
In the medical tradition, broad-minded authorities regard svabhava, Ishvara, kala, yadriccha, niyati, and parinama as forms or accounts of Prakriti, the causes through which the world and its changes are explained.
The commentary presents six causal accounts admitted in Ayurveda: intrinsic nature, a governing Lord, time, chance or an unobserved accidental occurrence, destiny formed by prior merit and demerit, and transformation of the primordial principle. It supplies traditional examples for each from medical and allied texts. It then asks whether these six are synonyms for forms of Prakriti, distinct causes acting together, or causes each independently sufficient. Jejjata, excluding Ishvara, treats the others as names for aspects of the eightfold Prakriti. The commentator’s final analysis says that Prakriti constituted by the three gunas is the material cause: svabhava, niyati, kala, and yadriccha are included within its transformations, while Ishvara is the twenty-fifth Purusha who initiates disturbance in Prakriti. Gayi gives another interpretation: all six jointly cause the world, with transformed Prakriti as the material cause and the other five as instrumental causes. The passage therefore preserves several causal theories and does not reduce them to a single agreed position.
Key terms
svabhAva (svabhava)
Intrinsic nature or an inherent mode of causation.
Ishvara
A governing Lord, treated in one explanation as the Purusha that disturbs Prakriti.
kAla (kala)
Time as a cause of arising, maintenance, dissolution, and change.
yadRucchA (yadriccha)
Chance or the unobserved sudden occurrence of an event.
niyati
Destiny associated in the commentary with actions from a previous life.
pariNAma (parinama)
Transformation or development of the primordial principle.
The elements should be understood as arising in accordance with that causal basis and possessing its qualities. From those elements, the entire assemblage of moving and unmoving beings, characterized by the elements, becomes manifest. Their application to treatment has already been stated, because in clinical consideration nothing beyond elemental beings is taken as its subject. The text therefore recalls that the materials forming a person have the elements as their beginning, and says that the senses and their objects are likewise elemental in Ayurveda.
According to the commentator, the elements—space and the rest—are transformations of Prakriti bearing such specific properties as providing room, movement, heat, fluidity, and roughness, and they retain the gunas of their cause. Gayi preserves a variant reading, 'from that the elements were born,' and explains intrinsic nature and the other factors as instrumental causes while transformed Prakriti is the material cause. The elements generate the whole moving and stationary world with elemental characteristics. Their relevance to medicine lies in the claim that the person and therapeutic materials are composed of the five great elements; subtler principles beyond them are outside this passage's clinical scope. The cited account describes the reproductive substances and other materials from which a person arises as an element-based combination. The senses and their objects—sound, touch, form, taste, and smell—are also assigned predominantly to corresponding elements in this classical system.
Key terms
bhUtAni (bhutani)
The elements, beginning with space, from which the manifest world is described.
bhUtagrAma (bhutagrama)
The whole assemblage of moving and unmoving elemental beings.
pa~jcamahAbhUta (pancha-mahabhuta)
The five great elements used in this classical account of persons and therapeutic materials.
indriyArtha (indriyartha)
An object of a sense, listed as sound, touch, form, taste, or smell.
upAdAnakAraNa (upadana-karana)
Material cause, assigned by Gayi to transformed Prakriti.
A person apprehends each particular sense-object through its corresponding sense faculty. This relation is fixed because the sense and its object are said to arise from a like elemental source; one sense does not apprehend the object belonging to another.
Although every sense and sense-object is regarded as composed of all five elements, the element predominant in a given sense enables it to apprehend the quality in which that same element predominates. Thus the fire-predominant eye apprehends visible form, while the earth-predominant faculty of smell apprehends odor; the same reasoning applies to the remaining senses. The phrase 'from a like source' means that each pair shares a dominant elemental cause, illustrated by water moving toward water. The final phrase makes explicit that one sense does not take the object of another.
Key terms
indriya
A sense faculty that apprehends its corresponding object.
indriyArtha (indriyartha)
The particular object of a sense, such as form or odor.
tulyayonitva (tulya-yonitva)
Having a like elemental source or causal origin.
taijasa
Predominantly related to the fire element, as the eye and visible form are here described.
न चायुर्वेदशास्त्रेषूपदिश्यन्ते सर्वगताः क्षेत्रज्ञा नित्याश्च; असर्वगतेषु च क्षेत्रज्ञेषु नित्यपुरुषख्यापकान् हेतूनुदाहरन्ति; आयुर्वेदशास्त्रेष्वसर्वगताः क्षेत्रज्ञा नित्याश्च, तिर्यग्योनिमानुषदेवेषु सञ्चरन्ति धर्माधर्मनिमित्तं; त एतेऽनुमानग्राह्याः परमसूक्ष्माश्चेतनावन्तः शाश्वता लोहितरेतसोः सन्निपातेष्वभिव्यज्यन्ते, यतोऽभिहितं- ‘पञ्चमहाभूतशरीरिसमवायः पुरुषः’ (सू.१) इति; स एष कर्मपुरुषश्चिकित्साधिकृतः ||१६||
Meaning of the śloka
Ayurvedic texts do not teach embodied knowers, kshetrajnas, as all-pervading, though they regard them as eternal and give reasons for that permanence. They move through animal, human, and divine births according to dharma and adharma. These conscious, everlasting, extremely subtle selves are known by inference and become manifest when the female and male reproductive contributions unite. Hence a person is described as the conjunction of an embodied self with the five great elements; this is the karma-purusha to whom treatment applies.
The commentary distinguishes Ayurveda's account from Samkhya and related systems: because of the limiting condition of sattva, Ayurveda describes Purushas as localized rather than all-pervading, yet eternal. Their existence is inferred from experiences such as pleasure and pain, while their extreme subtlety explains why they are not directly perceived. A quotation from Bhoja presents the enduring self as moving from body to body under the influence of good and bad action. The commentary connects animal, human, and divine embodiments respectively, in broad terms, with adharma, a mixture of dharma and adharma, and dharma. At the conjunction of shukra and shonita, the subtle self is said to become manifest rather than newly created. The conjunction of this self with the five elements is called the six-constituent person. As karma-purusha, it experiences the fruits of action and is the subject eligible for the results of treatment.
Key terms
kShetraj~ja (kshetrajna)
The conscious knower or embodied self discussed in Ayurveda.
anumAnagrAhya (anumana-grahya)
Known through inference rather than direct perception.
lohitaretas (lohita-retas)
The female and male reproductive contributions whose conjunction is described here.
ShaDdhAtuka puruSha (shad-dhatuka purusha)
The person constituted by the subtle self together with the five great elements.
karmapuruSha (karma-purusha)
The embodied person who experiences action's results and is the subject of treatment.
The qualities of this karma-purusha are pleasure and pain, desire and aversion, effort, prana and apana, opening and closing of the eyes, understanding, mind, intention, reflection, memory, differentiated knowledge, determination, and apprehension of sensory objects.
These qualities are said to arise when mind, which connects body and self, is joined with the karma-purusha. The commentary defines pleasure as naturally agreeable experience and pain as naturally disagreeable experience; desire as longing, aversion as dislike, and effort as initiative in beginning an action. Prana is described as air moving in the mouth and apana as downward-moving air situated in the large intestine. Opening and closing refer to the eyes. Buddhi reaches a determination, whereas mind entertains doubt; sankalpa is an activity of mind, reflection examines an object through consideration for and against, memory recalls what was previously experienced, vijnana is knowledge of arts and sciences, adhyavasaya is the operation of buddhi, and sensory apprehension is awareness of sound and the other objects. Gayi alternatively defines pleasure and pain as liking and disliking, desire as longing for a cause of pleasure, aversion as mental resistance to a cause of pain, effort as the impulse that sets mind in motion, and sankalpa as attributing merits and faults to objects. The remaining definitions agree. These sixteen qualities are also called kalas.
Key terms
karmapuruSha (karma-purusha)
The embodied person to whom these sixteen qualities are attributed.
prANApAna (prana-apana)
Two forms of vital air, described here by oral and downward movement.
sa~gkalpa (sankalpa)
An activity of mind; Gayi explains it as construing merits and faults in objects.
vicAraNA (vicharana)
Reflective examination through considering alternatives.
adhyavasAya (adhyavasaya)
Determination or the operation of buddhi.
kalA (kala)
A collective name applied here to the sixteen listed qualities.
The text classifies qualities of mind according to the three gunas. Sattvika qualities include harmlessness, willingness to share, patience, truthfulness, dharma, belief, knowledge, discernment, intellectual retention, memory, steadiness, and acting without attachment. Rajasa qualities include abundant distress, restlessness or wandering, lack of steadiness, egoism, untruthfulness, lack of compassion, pretence, self-importance, elation, desire, and anger. Tamasa qualities include despondency, disbelief, inclination toward adharma, obstruction of understanding, ignorance, poor discernment, inactivity, and excessive sleepiness.
After describing qualities of the person, the commentary explains the remaining qualities of a mind influenced by sattva, rajas, and tamas. It defines harmlessness as refraining from cruel action; willingness to share as wishing to divide food with others; titiksha as patience or forbearance; truth as speech that is factual or beneficial to beings; and dharma as good conduct through body, speech, and mind. Astikya is acting with conviction that dharma, liberation, and another world exist. Jnana is knowledge of the self; buddhi concerns the matter presently before the mind; medha is the ability to retain texts; dhriti is understanding that regulates the mind; smriti recalls what was previously experienced; and anabhishanga is doing what is beneficial without expectation of reward. Among rajasa traits, adhriti is mental impatience, anritikatva is habitual false speech, lack of compassion is cruelty, dambha is deceptive conduct, and mana is the belief that one is superior. Gayi instead reads avrittikatva and explains it as a disposition of mind; he also reads 'a tendency to strike' in place of 'a tendency to wander,' and mada, intoxicated pride, in place of mana. Among tamasa traits, the commentary explains vishaditva here as dullness, adharmashilata as a disposition toward adharma, durmedhastva as defective understanding, and akarmashilata as lack of initiative in action.
Key terms
sAttvika (sattvika)
Qualities associated in this classification with clarity, knowledge, restraint, and beneficial conduct.
rAjasa (rajasa)
Qualities associated here with agitation, attachment, ego, and anger.
tAmasa (tamasa)
Qualities associated here with dullness, ignorance, inactivity, and sleepiness.
medhA (medha)
The capacity to understand and retain a text.
dhRuti (dhriti)
Understanding or resolve that regulates the mind.
anabhiSha~gga (anabhishanga)
Performing beneficial action without expectation of its fruit.
The text assigns bodily qualities to the five mahabhutas. Akasha is associated with sound, the faculty of hearing, all bodily spaces, and distinctness. Vayu is associated with touch, the faculty of touch, all activity, movement throughout the body, and lightness. Tejas is associated with visible form, sight, complexion, heat, radiance, transformation or digestion, impatience, sharpness, and courage. Ap is associated with taste, the faculty of taste, all bodily fluids, heaviness, coolness, unctuousness, and reproductive fluid. Prithivi is associated with smell, the faculty of smell, all solid or formed structures, and heaviness.
The commentary identifies the first group as qualities of akasha and explains the organ of sound as hearing. It interprets distinctness as the mutual separation of bodily structures such as vessels, ligaments, bones, and muscles by class and individual form. Gayi instead reads 'emptiness' and understands it as the hollowness of bodily structures. For vayu, the faculty of touch is the skin; all activity includes bending, extending, and other actions, while others include actions of body, speech, and mind; spandana means movement. For tejas, rupa means beauty or appearance, its sense faculty is the eye, color includes fair and other complexions, santapa is heat, radiance is luminosity, pakti is transformation of food by agni, amarsha is anger, sharpness is quick action, and courage is valor. For ap, all fluid substance means the collection of liquid constituents among doshas, dhatus, and wastes. For prithivi, all formed substance means whatever hardness occurs among those same bodily constituents.
Key terms
mahAbhUta (mahabhuta)
One of the five classical elemental principles used to classify bodily qualities.
AkAsha (akasha)
The elemental principle associated here with sound, hearing, spaces, and distinctness or emptiness.
vAyu (vayu)
The elemental principle associated here with touch, activity, movement, and lightness.
tejas
The elemental principle associated here with sight, heat, radiance, transformation, sharpness, and courage.
Ap (ap)
The elemental principle associated here with taste, fluids, coolness, heaviness, unctuousness, and reproductive fluid.
pRuthivI (prithivi)
The elemental principle associated here with smell, solid structures, and heaviness.
Within this classical scheme, akasha is predominantly sattva, vayu predominantly rajas, agni predominantly sattva and rajas, water predominantly sattva and tamas, and earth predominantly tamas.
The commentary explains these assignments through characteristic qualities: akasha is sattva-predominant because it reveals; vayu is rajas-predominant because it moves; and agni has both sattva and rajas because it both illuminates and moves. Water has sattva and tamas because it is clear and revealing while also heavy and covering. Earth is tamas-predominant because its covering quality is especially strong.
Key terms
sattva
The guna linked here with revelation, clarity, or illumination.
rajas
The guna linked here with movement and activity.
tamas
The guna linked here with heaviness and covering or obscuring.
AkAsha (akasha)
The classical element of space, described here as sattva-predominant.
pRuthivI (prithivi)
The classical element of earth, described here as tamas-predominant.
All five elemental principles should be understood as mutually interpenetrating. Although all are present together, the distinctive characteristic of each is considered most evident in the substance proper to it.
The commentary first explains mutual interpenetration as a progressive inclusion of qualities. Akasha, whose quality is sound, enters vayu, which has sound and touch; akasha and vayu enter tejas, which has sound, touch, and visible form; those three enter water, which also has taste; and those four enter earth, which also has smell. Thus space, air, fire, water, and earth stand in relations of entering and being entered. It then preserves another interpretation: every element is present in every other element in a subtle form. Earth exists atomically in space, and air accompanied by subtle water and fire moves there. Space pervades air; fire and water are present in air as inferred from its heating and cooling effects, and earth is there in minute form. Space and impelling air are present in fire; water is inferred in fire from their stated causal relation, and earth is present as smoke and related forms. Space is present in water by pervasion, air through waves and bubbles, fire because it is said to arise from water, and earth in minute form. The other four are likewise present in earth. Despite this mixture, a substance is named after the element whose defining characteristic is manifest most clearly in it.
Key terms
anyo~anyAnupraveSha (anyonya anupravesha)
The mutual entry or interpenetration of the five elemental principles.
lakShaNa (lakshana)
The defining characteristic by which an elemental substance is identified.
AkAsha (akasha)
Space, whose distinctive quality in the first explanation is sound.
tanmAtrA (tanmatra)
A subtle sensory principle implicit in the commentary's progression of sound, touch, form, taste, and smell.
The eight prakritis are avyakta, mahat, ahankara, and the five tanmatras. The sixteen modifications are the eleven faculties—hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell, speech, hands, reproductive faculty, excretion, feet, and mind—together with the five elements: space, air, fire, water, and earth. Kshetrajna is purusha, the knower of the field, meaning the gross and subtle body. Together these constitute twenty-five tattvas. The commentary identifies the independent or primary system with shalyatantra, and the dependent systems with shalakyatantra and Sankhya.
Key terms
prakRuti (prakriti)
One of eight foundational principles in the enumerated philosophical scheme.
vikAra (vikara)
One of sixteen derivative principles: eleven faculties and five elements.
kShetraj~ja (kshetrajna)
The knower of the field, identified by the commentary with purusha.
puruSha (purusha)
The conscious principle that knows the gross and subtle body in this account.
tattva
A fundamental principle; twenty-five are counted here.
tanmAtrA (tanmatra)
One of five subtle sensory principles included among the eight prakritis.
Adhikarana પુષ્પિકા · Śloka ૧
ઇતિ સુશ્રુતસંહિતાયાં શારીરસ્થાને સર્વભૂતચિન્તાશારીરં નામ પ્રથમોઽધ્યાયઃ ||૧||
View original
इति सुश्रुतसंहितायां शारीरस्थाने सर्वभूतचिन्ताशारीरं नाम प्रथमोऽध्यायः ||१||
Meaning of the śloka
Thus ends the first chapter of the Sharirasthana in the Sushruta Samhita, entitled 'The Sharira Chapter on Reflection upon All Beings.'
This marks the end of the first chapter of the Sharirasthana in Dalhana's commentary on Sushruta entitled Nibandhasangraha. The transmitted spelling of Dalhana's name is shown with a textual variation.
Key terms
shArIrasthAna (Sharirasthana)
The division of the Sushruta Samhita concerned with the embodied person and related doctrine.
sarvabhUtacintAshArIra (Sarvabhutacintasharira)
The title of the first chapter, concerning reflection upon all beings or elements.
nibandhasa~ggraha (Nibandhasangraha)
The title of Dalhana's commentary on the Sushruta Samhita.
Dalha(hla)Na (Dalhana)
The commentator's name, transmitted here with a spelling variation.