Varma Research Foundation

NIH Theory of Pulse Diagnosis

NIH is a short for Naadi Incorporating Homunculus.

What is Homunculus:
Homunculus (Latin for "little human", plural: "homunculi"; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation (or image) of a human being. Historically it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully-formed human body. Currently, in scientific fields, a homunculus may refer to any scale model of the human body that, in some way, illustrates anatomical, physiological, psychological, or other abstract human characteristics or functions such as sensory system or motor system.

Here is a short animation of Homunculus, from University of Washington.

What is Naadi:
Varmam means impairment of vital-energy free flow throughout human body. In a normal human body, the vital energy is free flowing in the designated pathways. Whereas in the deseased human body, the vital energy is restricted to flow in its normal course. The normal or abnormal vital-energy can be felt best on the human wrist radial artery using three finger namely Vali, Azhal, Ayyam. This process of acquiring information about vital-energy is what we call as Naadi. The information acquired could be anatomical, physiological, psychological, or even spiritual. In literal Tamil meaning as a verb, Naadi is a process of searching or approching.

What is Vital-Energy:
In tamil, Vital energy is called in different names: Vaasi, Siva, Pranan etc. Vaasi is the subtler energy we acquired from environment: it could be food, thoughts, or even breath.

Naadi Incorporating Homunculus:
NIH Theory proposes that the vital-energy information acquired through Naadi could be represented in a Naadi Homunculus as shown in the following figure.

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