[Buddha-l] Re: Aama do.sa I

[Dan Lusthaus]

Stephen,

This could quickly get a bit too technical for this list, and I'm not sure
how many besides us are interested, so I will try to frame this in general
terms.

First, aama here does *not* mean "raw" -- as Bernie indicated, it is a
technical medical term. The current ayurvedic meaning derives from (but is
not exactly identical with) the way it is treated in the Caraka-samhita.

The problem here is not simply linguistic or something to be solved with a
dictionary, but contextual and historical, namely the question of what
exactly were the Buddhist medical theories of the day that are being drawn
on or alluded to. As I mentioned in a previous post, aside from some fairly
general Vinaya passages on the three do.sas, none of that literature is
extant, so Asanga is a valuable -- and, as far as I can tell, sole -- source
for this. Indian medicine changed over the centuries, and we know, from a
variety of indications, that from its earliest period medicine played a key
role in Buddhism. Lots of rules (such as when males and females could touch
each other, whether one could eat after noon, what one could eat, etc.) were
dispensible in the face of illness, and the monks and nuns typically carried
medical kits (or were permitted to carry them) along with their robes and
bowls. Medicine was one of the "five sciences" Buddhists studied. The only
pre-Asanga Indian text we have is the Caraka, which is typically dated to
somewhere around the 1st-3rd c CE, redacting materials, it is usually
claimed, that have earlier roots. The CS is a stratified text -- it is also
the first text to introduce pramana theory, so it is of interest to those
studying the later development of the logic tradition. The pramana sections
are one place that stratification is evident, as are certain medical
portions that show theoretical and practical advancements from other
portions.

As I also mentioned, it discusses some of the same things as does Asanga in
the Manobhumi, but there are always differences -- which is why if we could
recover some of the Buddhist medical literature of the period, all of this
would be a lot clearer. So, given the current state of the materials
available to us, the best we can do is check the CS.

So what is aama? CS devotes some attention to this in the Vimaanasthanaa
chapter. It is too lengthy to cite in full here, but I will provide some
excerpts (the translation of Sharma and Dash) to give some sense of its
usage, and then return to why I still think the Skt and Ch versions of this
passage is problematic.

---
[7] Improper quantity of food is again of two types -- deficient in quantity
and excessive in quantity.... [note the parallelism to Asanga's
treatment]... Food taken in excessive quantity aggravates all the three
do.sas. One who fills up his stomach with solid food and then takes liquid
food in excessive quantity, all the three do.sas, viz. vaata (samaana
vaayu), pitta, and kapha residing in the stomach get too much compressed and
simultaneously aggravated. These aggravated do.sas affect the undigested
food and get mixed up with it. Then they obstruct a part of the stomach and
instantaneously move through upward and downwart tracts separately to
produce the following diseases in the individual, taking food in excess:

Vaata produces colic pain, constipation, malaise, dryness of mouth,
fainting, giddiness, irregularity in the poser of digestion, rigidity of
sides, back and waist, and contraction and hardening of vessels.

Pitta causes fever, diarrhea, internal burning sensation, thirst,
intoxication, giddiness and delirium.

Kapha causes vomiting, anorexia, indigestion, cold fever, laziness and
heaviness in the body.

[8-9] In addition to the intake of food in excess, the following factors
also affect the body by vitiating the undigested food product [aamado.sa]:

1. Untimely intake of food and drinks which are heavy, ununctuous [sic],
cold, dry, despisable, constipative. irritant, unclean and mutually
contradictory;
2. intake of food and drinks when the individual is afflicted with passion,
anger, greed, confusion, envy, bashfulness, grief, indigestion, anxiety and
fear...

[10-11] Aamado.sa (vitiation of undigested food) is known to physicians as
of two types, viz. visuucikaa (choleric diarrhea) and alasaka (intestinal
torper [sic]). In visuucikaa, undigested food gets expelled through the
upper and lower tracks and it is accompanied with the symptoms already
described (in paragraph 7...).

[the commentary, which is from centuries later (post-Santaraksita), adds] In
addition to visuucikaa (choleric diarrhea) and alasaka (intestinal torpor),
there are two other conditions, viz., da.n.daalasaka (intestinal torpor
which brings about excessive rigidity of the body) and aamavi.sa (which
produces toxicity in the body) caused by the vitiation of the undigested
food. The latter two conditions... are included under alasaka... because in
these two conditions also, vitiated do.sas do not come out but get retained
inside the body as it happens in the case of alasaka.

[returning to the main text]

[12] Now we shall explain alasaka... If a weak individual, having low power
of digestion and excessive kapha in his body, suppresses the urge for
voiding flatus, uring and stool, and takes compact, heavy, ununctuous, cold
and dried food in excessive quantity, food and drinks get affected with
vaata. Simultaneously the passage gets obstructed by kapha due to excessive
adhesiveness of the food product. Because of the sluggishness caused by
these factors it is not possible for the undigested food product to come out
of the stomach. Therefore, all the symptoms of aamado.sa (described in
para-7) ***except vomiting and diarrhea*** [my emphasis] are manifested in
alasak.

The extremely vitiated do.sas move sidewards due to the obstruction of the
passage by undigested food or immature food product, and at times, make the
body of the patient rigid like a staff. ***This condition is known as
da.n.daalasaka and it is incurable.*** [my emphasis]

[continued in next message]