The elements above referred to are the subtle elements and not the gross ones. The doctrine of the elements as described by Siddhars first originated in India; and the Greek philosophers got their ideas about the elements from only the Orients. It is clearly laid down in ancient treatises that the earth is derived from water; water from fire, fire from air, and air from ether (sky)-vide Upanished; and so these elements supposed to be originals are not in themselves really elements; but they are twice compounded and each changeable into others. So the Siddhars assert that none of the so called elements which enter into the composition of all living bodies is by itself pure; and that the only purest and original one in this world is the Soul and the rest are all only compounds.
The only conclusion therefore is that one of these five elements is the primordial ether out of which the other elements have their origin. The ancients of Europe had also similar belief as evinced from the saying, that "Chaos of auntients" was a confused mixture of elements from which the Creator produced the Universe and that the Cosmos arose from chaos and gave birth to different natural bodies. Van Halmont likewise believed that the vapour of water was confused mass of elements from which all material substances could be procured.
The three physical elements of the external world, viz., air (wind), heat (fire) and water are selected in Medical Science as they form the three fundamental principles on which the constitution of human beings has been based. A detailed account of these three elements known as humours as they enter into the body is given separately under ‘Humoural Pathology’.
Humoural Pathology
Humoural Pathology explains that all diseases are caused by the mixture of the three cardinal humours viz., Wind, Bile and Phlegm, and that the relative proportion of these humours are responsible for a person’s physical and mental qualities and dispositions. The three humours under references are called in Tamil ‘Muppini’ and in Ayurveda ‘Tridosha’. They are the three fundamental principles and essential factors in the composition and constitution of the human body. These three humours viz., Wind, Bile and Phlegm represent respectively the air, the fire and the water of the five elements which form the connecting link between Microcosm or man and Macrocosm or world.
The external air corresponds to the internal Vayu; the external Heat corresponds to the internal Pitta; and the external water corresponds to the internal Phlegm (Kapha). Man is thus linked with the external world; and any change in the elementary condition of the external world has its corresponding change in the human organism; and it is upon this interchange of influences that the Tridosha theory and the doctrine of Humoural Pathology are based.
According to the Siddhars’ Science, the three humours in their normal order occupy respectively the lower, middle and upper parts of the body and maintain their integrity-the Vayu in the regions of the pelvis and the rectum; the Pittam in the region of the stomach and the internal viscera and the Phlegm in the region of the breath, throat and head. It is also said that the characteristics of the three humours in the constitution of man is either hereditary or atavic. In scientific parlance, Vayu comprehends all the phenomena which come under the functions of the central and the sympathetic nervous system; Pitta, the functions of thermogenesis or heat-production, metabolism within its limits, the process of digestion, colouration of blood, excretion and secretion etc., and Kapha, the regulation of the heat and the formation of the various preservative glands. Thus we see that the Indian medical science is based on morbific diathesis; and that human dispositions are inseparable from the three humours. In fact, there is no substance in the universe which does not own its formation to humours in large or small degree.
The Siddhars’ Materia Medica also is based on Humoural Pathology. It asserts that all substances of the animal, the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms contain one or more of these three humours in their composition; and that therefore diet should play an important role in the maintenance of these humours in men and women in preventing diseases or aliments; and that the patient should seek the advice of a physician in the matter of diet in the course of treatment.