Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/470

366 important factor (which the science of medicine has got to deal with). A substance or drug necessarily implies action and attributes with which it is intimately connected and of which it is the primary cause, or to put it more explicitly, these attributes have an inseparable inherence in and are intimately associated with the substance by way of cause and effect (Samavayi-Karanam).

Others, on the contrary, who do not endorse the above opinion, accord the highest importance to the attribute of taste (Rasa) of a drug or substance. Firstly because, it is so laid down in the Agamas (Vedas), which include the science of medicine (Ayurveda Shastram) as well, and inasmuch as such statements as "Food is primarily contingent on its tastes and on food depends life" occur therein. Secondly because, the essential importance of taste may be inferred from such injunctions or instructions of the professors of medicine as, "sweet, acid and saline tastes soothe or pacify the deranged bodily Vayu." Thirdly because, a drug or a substance is named after the nature of its taste, as a sweet drug, a saline subtance, etc. Fourthly because, its primary importance is based on the inspired utterances of the holy sages (Rishis) which form the sacred hymns and verses of the Vedas, and such passages as "sweets to be collected for the purposes of a religious sacrifice," etc, are to be