Medicine often advances by asking an interesting question:
Can two different systems describe the same physiological phenomenon in different ways?
While studying Siddha physiology, I came across the concept of Dasavayu (the ten vital Vayus), which describes how different functional forces regulate respiration, circulation, digestion, elimination, movement, speech, and sensory activities.
Modern physiology explains many of these same involuntary functions through the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which consists of the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) divisions.
This raises an interesting educational perspective.
Rather than looking for direct anatomical equivalents, we can explore functional correlations.
For example:
• Pranan Vayu is primarily associated with respiration, which may be functionally compared with autonomic regulation of the airways.
• Apanan Vayu governs elimination and micturition, resembling parasympathetic control of the urinary bladder and distal bowel.
• Samanan Vayu is responsible for digestion and assimilation, comparable to autonomic regulation of gastrointestinal motility.
• Koorman is associated with lacrimation, while Kirukaran relates to salivation—both functions regulated through parasympathetic pathways.
Viewed this way, Dasavayu offers a physiological framework for understanding body functions, while modern neuroscience explains many of these functions through neural pathways, neurotransmitters, ganglia, and reflexes.
This does not mean the two systems are identical.
Instead, it highlights how different medical traditions may describe similar physiological processes using different conceptual models.
Such comparisons can encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, generate research questions, and help bridge traditional medical knowledge with contemporary neuroscience.
Science progresses by exploring ideas critically, not by assuming equivalence, but by testing meaningful hypotheses.
Do you think comparative physiology between traditional medicine and modern biomedical science can generate new research questions, or should these systems always be studied independently?
MBH/PS
