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(a) PACAKA PITTA That pitta which, being situated between the Amasaya and Pakvasaya, digests the food is called the Pacaka (lit. that which digests). It is a transparent and very strong

292 hot liquid, secreted into the duodenum being the digestion of food. Vagbhata the elder says 'Of the five Pittas that which is situated intermediately between the Amasaya and Pakvasaya has, though composed of the five Bhutas, the quality of Tejas is a very predominant degree. Due to the extreme heat, it is deprived of any cooling property. So it is devoid of the general viscid nature of a liquid and being helped by the associating Vayu etc. performs the functions of digestion and combustion and thus gets the appellation of 'fire'. It digests food and then divides it into a fine and waste part and from its own place it helps all other Pittas of the body. This internal fire is called the Pacaka Pitta (AS.1.20). This is in conformity with the general nature of Pitta which we have already described as being of the nature of an acid. An acid is a liquid, but a very strong acid has not least colling property of a liquid like water. It burns up anything. If a quantity of salt is put in water, it is dissolved. We can make a pulp of flour by adding water to it. But if we pour some acid on salt or on flour, there will be an immediate chemical reaction. The Pacaka Pitta is of the nature of a very strong acid. The special seat of the Pacaka Pitta is described as situate between the stomach and the intestines, i.e. in the dueodenum. There is another term in Ayrveda, the Agnyasaya or the receptacle for Agni or fire, situated to

293 the left of Nabhi. D.N.Roy(p.75) has taken this to mean the pancreas. The pancreatic juice is secreted into the duodenum where the bile also is poured from the gall bladder. These two together digest the food. The duodenum in the middle with the gall bladder on the right and the pancreas, on the left, together with the connecting ducts, may be looked upon as a single organ intimately concerned with the process of digestion. Its position is intermediate between the Amasaya (stomach) and the Pakvasaya (intestines). I have taken This region to be the seat of Pacaka Pitta. is said The functions of the Pacaka Pitta are 1. To digest the food 2. To reduce the food to a fine part - the Rasa or chyle, and a waste part the urine, faces and sweat. 3. To supplement the other four Pittas (but still remaining in its own position). Just as the sun, although situated in space and at 697 a great distance from the earth, preserves the animal and the vegetable kingdoms by supplying heat and radiation, so also the Pacaka Pitta, even though situated in the middle of the body, preserves the heat of all the Dhatu, of the body, including the other Pittas, by its own intense thermal properties and thus helps to preserve life. (b) RANJAKA PITTA When the Rasa goes to the liver and the spleen, it

294 begins to be digested by its own heat. That which imparts colour to it, in order that it may be turned into redcolour blood is called the Ranjaka Pitta (lit. that which colours). This pitta is situated in the liver and spleen and is bright red in colour. That the seat of Ranjaka Pitta is the liver, spleen and that it imparts red colour to Rasa is a firmly established fact in Ayrveda. But curiously enough, the two Vaghbhatas mention the Amasaya as the seat of Ranjaka Pitta. This view can never be supported if by Amasaya here is meant the stomach. The liver and the spleen are described in Ayrveda as the receptacles for blood. Like every other Dhatus, the blood throughout the body is always being digested by its own heat, producing a fine and a waste part. The waste part produced out of the digestion of blood contained in the liver and spleen specially nourishes the Ranjaka Pitta. The one and only function of the Ranjaka Pitta is to impart red colour to Rasa. (c) SADHAKA PITTA The Pitta which is situated in the heart and which by its special power drives away Tamas is called Sadhaka (lit. that which helps). It is the finest of all the Pittas. The Sadhaka Pitta is instrumental in the proper functioning of the intellect and memory and in the fulfilment of one's desires.

295 (d) ALOCAKA PITTA The Pitta that is situated in the pupil of the eye is called Alocaka (lit. that which gives vision). Its function is to keep up the normal vision of man. (We have already said that one of the seats of Pitta is the aqueous humour). (e) BHRAJAKA PITTA The Pitta which resides in the skin is called the Bhrajaka (lit. that which shines). It is called the Bhrajaka because it imparts a natural glow to the skin. The functions of the Bhrajaka pitta are - (1) to digest any unguent, any oily or other substances rubbed or anointed over the body. (ii) to irradiate the glow of ones complexion and to show up the colour of the skin. Unlike Vayu, Pitta has a definite shape. But like every Pancabhautiaka body, that is to say every form of matter, it may be present in a very fine (Sukshma) state as well as in a Mahat or comparatively gross state. All the five Pittas must possess the general properties of Pitta viz. hotness, liquidity and activeness. But I would say that each of them has its own definite Akriti or form, one form being different from the other. The Sadhaka and Alocaka, for example, are in a very fine state and so the distinctive qualities of Pitta in them may remain unmanifested or so very finely manifested that they may not be

296 ordinarily perceived. The Pacaka and Ranjaka on the other hand, are gross forms of Pitta. The Pacaka is a clear transparent liquid, it is a secretion having the properties of a strong acid. The Ranjaka is a red coloured, active liquid. The Pitta contained in every cell of the body must be necessarily be in a fine state (the cell itself being microscopic in size) but even then it must be of the nature of a strong, hot liquid. The same argument holds good for Kapha also.