The three fundamental principles of Vayu,,Pittam and Kaphah: — The actions of living matter vary and so may be reduced to^ three categories. They are either— (i), functions which affect the material conipositJDn of the body and determine its mass, which is the baUnce of the processes of waste on one hand and t^hose of assimilation on the other. Or (2), they are functions which subserve the process of reproduction which is essentially the detach- ment of a part endowed with the powers of developing into an independent whole, or (3), they are functions in virtues of which one part of the body is able to exert a direct influence on another, and^ the body, by its parts as a whole, becomes a source of molar motion. The first may be termed Sustentative, the second Generative, and the third Correlative functions. The above is the sum and substance of the works which a living matter has to perform. But setting apart the processes of reproduction as a subject for future discussion, we shall now try to examine what the other two functions are as understood by Oriental thinkers. In the Mahfibhiratam the Prdna vayu is described as a force, akin to electricity. It is some- what like a flash of lightning (1). This fact aHonce shows the errors of confounding Prana vdyzi with an effete material — with gases generated during the processes of digestion. Shushruta describes it as a force, (2) which sets the whole organism into motion. Self-evolved, it acts as the principal
(i) (
Indic characters)
MahSbMratam. ShAnti Pa^va S. 39.
(2) Fo'ce may be defined as ihat which tends to produce motion in a body at lesi, or to produce change of motion in a body which is movjng. — Daschanel,
