Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/113

Chap.I.] with the view to teach the Science of Surgery with all its allied branches of study to men.

In the present science (Ayurveda), the Purusha (self-conscious organic individual) is described as the resultant of the combination of the soul and the five primary material principles. All medical acts such as, surgical operations, administration of medicinal remedies and applications of alkaline substances, or (cauterisation, etc.), are restricted to the Purusha alone.*

Why is it so? The answer is, simply because the created world is composed of two distinct classes, such as the mobile and the immobile.† These two classes, in their turn, are further sub-divided for the purposes of the science of medicine into the two orders, Agneya hot and Saumya (cool. Hence the world is composed of five material principles, though characterised by the twofold virtues, Agneya (hot) and Saumya (cool).‡