౩౦. పంచేంద్రియార్థవిప్రతిపత్త్యధ్యాయః

Meaning of the commentary

The five senses are hearing and the others, and their objects are sound and the other corresponding fields. Vipratipatti means contrary or distorted apprehension arising through deficient or excessive contact. Specifying five excludes the organs of action and mind as separate items. The organs of action are already included under the body. Mind is inherently included with the senses because the senses cannot apprehend their objects in its absence.

Meaning of the commentary

The preceding chapter described external arishta known through messengers and related signs. This chapter briefly presents internal arishta in three bases. The body is the living five-element organism. Shila is a mental disposition; others define it as a mind possessing composure. Prakriti is the individual's innate condition. A reversal in any of these three is considered a sign of death. Others construe the line as alteration of the natural constitution of the two, body and disposition. The commentary then gives six dimensions of prakriti. Species-related nature includes characteristic limbs, speech and mental tendencies in humans and other species. Family-related nature includes traits traditionally associated with particular lineages. Place-related nature concerns bodily, verbal and mental traits associated with regions. Time-related nature varies with processes affecting strength and with disease factors. Age-related nature includes qualities associated with childhood and later stages. Individual nature consists of bodily, verbal and mental features particular to each person. Some add a seventh constitution based on prognostic signs that indicate long, short or intermediate lifespan. Others understand prakriti as constituted by sattva, rajas and tamas, or by vata, pitta and kapha. Vikriti means reversal or alteration of that natural state.

Meaning of the commentary

The many sounds include conversation, recitation, song and musical instruments, while divine beings include siddhas, kinnaras and gandharvas. The word sound applies separately to the ocean, city and clouds. City sound means the voices of those living in a city. Some read musical instruments in place of city, and others read wind. The abnormality can also be failure to recognise real ocean and related sounds or taking them as something else. Village sounds are the voices of village beings and forest sounds those of forest beings; reversal means hearing each as the other. Hostile voices are those of enemies and friendly voices those of friends. Sudden hearing loss is specified as occurring without a recognised hearing disease.

Meaning of the commentary

This passage illustrates contrary tactile apprehension in the patient. Cold eruptions are attributed to kapha, for which numbness and related sensations are considered usual, while burning is considered an altered or contrary feature. A blow includes one delivered by a club or similar object, and cutting of a limb is caused by an instrument or comparable means.

Meaning of the commentary

The verse describes a contradictory or abnormal apprehension of visible form perceived by the patient. Pamshu means dust and avakirna means covered or pervaded. Rajayah are lines or streaks, including blue, red and other colors.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage describes an abnormal manifestation connected with taste or bodily quality in the patient. The person has first bathed and then been anointed, so the pleasantly scented body is externally clean. If blue flies nevertheless settle on it, the commentary explains this through the historical doctrine that the body has become excessively sweet because the person's allotted time has ripened, making even the clean body attractive to flies. It classifies this arishta as indicating a prognosis within one year.

Meaning of the commentary

This verse describes an abnormal odor associated with the patient. The omitted qualification supplied by the commentary is that the excessive fragrance arises without applying any fragrant substance. This too is classified as an arishta indicating a prognosis within one year.

Meaning of the commentary

After describing disturbances of the five sensory objects perceived by others in relation to a patient, the text turns to disturbances perceived by the patient. Taste receives particular attention because rasa is regarded as primary as the basis of the body. Viparita means reversal, illustrated by sweet being experienced as sour and sour as sweet. The prescribed order is the sequence beginning with eating sweet taste first. The opposite response is also adverse: incorrectly used tastes unexpectedly produce balance of doshas and digestive fire. Failure to recognize taste is included as well. The commentary classifies these signs as arishta indicating a prognosis within one month.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage concerns abnormalities of smell perception. Shanta dipa means an extinguished lamp. The stated person is otherwise free from illness, including pinasa and similar disorders that could account for impaired smell.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage concerns touch and mental apprehension. The pairs include distressing opposites such as hot and cold; the inclusive wording adds touch-perceived qualities such as unctuousness and related viryas. Conditions of time include windy, windless and rainy states, and directions begin with east. This last type is mental touch or apprehension. Touch is described as twofold: contact grasped by the tactile sense and contact grasped by mind. Other entities are substance, quality and action. Reversal of hot and cold is assigned a one-month prognosis, while reversed perception of directions is assigned three months.

Meaning of the commentary

Jyotimshi means stars and similar lights. 'Moon-like lustre' qualifies the sun. In a cloudless sky the person sees a rainbow or lightning; another sign is black cloud joined with lightning in a clear sky. Seeing those cloudless-sky phenomena is assigned a two- or three-month prognosis. The embodied wind is interpreted as shaped like a deity, though others say human-shaped. Nihara is early-morning haze; the earth appears covered by smoke or mist despite absence of eye disease. Ashtapada is a lined grid for a four-part game. Arundhati is Vasistha's wife, Dhruva a star, and Akashaganga a fine river-like band of dense stars. Adarsha is a round bronze mirror. Some interpret the moonlight and sunlight shadows as the chayapurusha. Anyasattvaja means a shadow arising from another living kind. Bhuta may mean divine classes or living beings generally. The peacock-neck fire is a brightly burning smokeless khadira coal perceived as blue and smoke-like. The commentary organizes the passage as abnormal apprehension of five forms associated with sky, wind, earth, fire and water, followed by distorted earth-vision, failure to see celestial objects, absence of form, deficient form, distorted form and false perception of fire.

Meaning of the commentary

Thus ends the thirtieth chapter in the Sutrasthana of the Nibandhasangraha commentary on Sushruta, composed by Shri Dalhana.