My daughter was watching a video at https://youtu.be/2_ktCNGYbrU, when she came up to me and pointed out a segment from it. It surprised me and her too when it was mentioned that the Greeks had a similar understanding as to why we fall ill. They too spoke about the dosas, though they included blood as one dosa besides the other three that the Siddhas had mentioned.
"Benjamin Jonson (an English playwright and poet) is best known for his "Comedies of the Humours." The theory of 4 humours said that bodies were composed of black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. And that illness resulted when the humours were out of balance." Does this ring a bell?
Checking out the net she points me to some interesting facts about these dosas from the perspective of the Greeks.
The Theory of the Four Humours was an important development in medical knowledge which originated in the works of Aristotle. Hippocrates is credited with developing the theory. It then became a mainstay of medical belief for two thousand years. The Greeks believed that the body was made up of four main components or Four Humours. These Four Humours needed to remain balanced in order for people to remain healthy. These could be connected to the four seasons of the year: Yellow Bile with summer, black bile with autumn, phlegm with winter and blood with spring. (Source: https://schoolshistory.org.uk/)
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s with the advent of germ theory, which was able to show that many diseases previously thought to be humoral were in fact caused by microbes. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism)
Dr. Pankaj Naram writes,
"Each individual is composed of a combination of the three types of doshas. These are further comprised of the five universal elements, namely, space, air, earth, fire, and water. Vata: A combination of air and space. Pitta: Made of fire with some water. Kapha: From water with a little earth. In Ayurvedic medicine, healers treat patients by balancing the three doshas, energies that maintain and protect a person’s entire system."
From https://www.britannica.com/science/Siddha-medicine, we learn that,
"According to the Siddha system, there are five elements that exist in nature: earth, water, fire, air, and ether, all of which form the original basis of all corporeal things. It is believed that there is an intimate connection between the macrocosm of the external world and the microcosm of the corporeal being. In the human body the element of earth is present in the bone, flesh, nerves, skin, and hair; the element of water is present in bile, blood, semen, glandular secretions, and sweat; the element of fire is present in hunger, thirst, sleep, beauty, and indolence; the element of air is present in contraction, expansion, and motion; and the element of ether is present in the interstices of the stomach, heart, neck, and head.""According to the theories of humoral pathology, all diseases are caused by the discordant mixture of vata, pitta, and kapha. Their proportions in the body govern a person’s physical and mental disposition. The elements form the connecting link between the microcosm (the human) and the macrocosm (the world). Thus, the external air corresponds to the internal vata, the external heat corresponds to the internal pitta, and the external water corresponds to the internal kapha. Under normal circumstances, according to Siddha theory, vata occupies regions related to the pelvis and the rectum, pitta occupies regions related to the stomach and the viscera, and kapha occupies regions related to breath, the throat, and the head. The presence and proportion of these humours within the system is indicated by the pulse, which is vital to correct diagnosis. Meditation on the elements, beginning with the “gross” and ending with the “subtle,” enabled the siddhars to gain mastery over the elements."
Agathiyar pointed out to me that the three dosas in me had gone haywire and resulted in me having acute lower backache that went right down to my toes in my right leg, many years back. He prescribed several Siddha herbal preparations be taken orally and ointments applied. He told me to take a break from practicing Yoga asanas and pranayama too. It is amazing how he keeps a tab and comes to correct things in our times of need.
He came as the word in the Nadi; he came in the granite stone statue of his at his temple at Agasthiyampalli; he came as the guru in flesh; he came as the breeze and the wind and the scent and aroma on our excursions to his abodes and jungles and caves. He came in the painting of his at a disciple's home and in the bronze statue at AVM; he came in others to put the messages across; he stood by us and with us. Today he comes as energies and vibrations and the silence that comes on in the midst of all the chaos and activity. What else could we ask for knowing that we do not deserve their patronage?
Seeing them interact in our daily lives, makes all the previous readings on the Siddhas in the books and text mere words. Experiencing them has overshadowed all the previous notions and ideas and knowledge we had of them accumulated from a myriad of sources. Experiences have become the guru to us. Just as a child learns that heat and fire burn from his or her experience with it, Goddess Ma told us once that the Siddha path was one of Padipinai or learning lessons from experiences. The lessons learned mold us into a Siddha. The heat experienced from the tapas and austerities performed mold us into Siddhas. Following the rituals and yoga that they practiced mold us into Siddhas. Mere learning of their texts though makes us knowledgeble but it cannot replace the experiences with them. Sadly the Siddhas are often associated only with performing Siddhis and Siddha medicine. As we read earlier, "Meditation on the elements, beginning with the “gross” and ending with the “subtle,” enabled the siddhars to gain mastery over the elements" there were much bigger achievements by them that are not spoken of. We took only those that we were capable of and let go of the impossible. Ramalinga Adigal came to prove that the impossible feats were possible if one was sincere and dedicated to the course. Yet we only settle to adopt the menu and diet he prescribed and adorn clothes just like him. We never ventured to procure the grace of the divine and bring on the transformation within. We are blessed that these masters have begun to work on us though we know pretty well that we do not deserve their attention. We are forever indebted to them.