Note to “Doṣas by the Numbers”

In my recent publication “Doṣas by the Numbers: Buddhist Contributions to the Origins of the Tridoṣa-theory in Early Indian Medical Literature with Comparisons to early Greek Theories of the Humours” , I cited Suśrutasaṃhitā, Sūtrasthāna 1.24 (2) as follows, based on the vulgate edition of :

śārīrās tv annapānamūlā vātapittakaphaśoṇitasannipātavaiṣamyanimittāḥ

But bodily (unbalances) that have their roots in food and drink result from an imbalance of wind, bile, phlegm, blood, and their simultaneous corruption.

On the website of the Suśruta Project, there is another version of the passage based on a ninth-century manuscript from Nepal:

śārīrās tv annamūlā vātapittakaphaśoṇitavaiṣamyanimittāḥ

But bodily (imbalances) that have their roots in food result from an imbalance of wind, bile, phlegm, blood

The Nepalese version provides a shorter version, where pāṇa, “drink,” and sannipāta, “simultaneous corruption,” are not present. This harmonizes with Suśrutasaṃhitā Sū.21.3-4, where four doṣas are mentioned. Not only is the Nepal version the most acceptable reading, but it is more apparent that Suśruta offers a version of the doṣas that includes four pathogenic agents rather that three or five. A number with blood as the fourth is a version which pointed out is very old. Moreover, the connection with digested food and the fourth doṣa as blood (śoṇita) bring this formulation of four pathogenic agents closer to the formulations of the four humors of in early Greco-Roman medicine (e.g., ).

References