Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/54

 of Homa sacrifice (i) in the Ayurveda. Stripped of its allegory the myth may be exp^iined quite in a pathological lin^ It means that when the t*itrika Shakti, the process of destructive metabolism (Pita, father or Shiva in Hindu mythology being the god of destruction or disintegration) of the body is not properly served by the factors, which noun'sh its constructive metabolism (Father of the Matrika Shakti), the excrements and excretory process of the body are arrested (b^r the wrathful deity), and the heat generated in consequence is fever. Fever, then, is a disease of defective digestion and excretion. Whenever this Pit rika Shakti,. is disturbed or not properly served there is fever, and heat is one of its essential effects.

With a precision and love of details, which mark the best days of Brahmanic literature, Sushruta lays down rules of diet and conduct to be observed by the enceinte, from month to month, during the whole period of gestation, and gives medicinal recipes for the development of a partiall}^ atrophied child in the womb.

A perusal of the Chapter on Marma Shiriram world leave no doubt for the conclusion that anatomical ktpsP/, ledge was cultivated by surgeons and soldiers alike, la jr.. knowledge about the locations of the vulnerable joints, iir nerves, or vein anastomoses where a blow or a little pressure may enable him to make short work of his man could not but be dearly prized by the soldiery at a time when the fate of a war was often decided by the success of a single champion, and we have reasons to belieVe that a scientific system of wrestling was formulated in the light of the Sushruta Samhita, and practised by the gentry of ancient India much like ( I) Charaka SamhitS.