The Compendium of Kāśyapa 1.27: saptaviṃśatitamo'dhyāyaḥ

Now we shall explain the chapter on diseases.

Thus spoke the venerable Kaśyapa.

“There is only one disease, owing to the commonality of producing pain,” so says Pramati, descendant of Bhṛgu. “There are two diseases:

endogenous and exogenous,” so says Vāryovida. “There are three diseases: curable, manageable, and incurable,” so says

Kāṅkāyana. “There are four diseases: exogenous, and born of vāta, pitta, and kapha,” so says Kṛṣṇa Bhāradvāja.

“There are five diseases: exogenous, and born of vāta, pitta, kapha, and all three humours combined,” so says the royal sage Dāruvāha. “There are six diseases, owing to the six tastes of food and drink,” so says Ṛṣiṣat. “There are seven diseases, born of vāta and the others taken singly, in pairs, and all three combined,” so says Hiraṇyākṣa. “There are eight diseases, having as causes vāta and the others taken singly, in pairs, all three combined, and exogenous causes,” so says Nimi, king of Videha. “They are innumerable, due to variations of the humours being equal, decreased, or increased,” so says Vṛddhajīvaka. Having perceived this lack of finality, the venerable Kaśyapa said: “There are indeed only two diseases: endogenous and exogenous; and both have manifold varieties.”

In terms of etiology, constitution, seat, variation, and site,
diseases are to be known as innumerable, as also through the extension of treatments.

Their two seats are the body and the mind;
and for mental diseases one should perform therapy as for bodily ones.

Disequilibrium of the bodily tissues, pillar-humours, and self is that distress known as disease;
whereas equilibrium of the bodily tissues, pillar-humours, and self is comfort, and that is natural health.

“How may unimpaired bodily lifespan increase?”—
for this purpose the medicament is declared, and also for the pacification of disorders.

The nature of afflictions is twofold, caused by endogenous and exogenous factors:
nails, teeth, fire, water, slaughter, bondage, supernatural beings,

curses, and malevolent magic cause the exogenous; the endogenous have vāta and the other [humours] as their causes.
Now hear from me the seats of vāta, pitta, and kapha in the body.

Though they are omnipresent, their general seat and action [are as follows]:
below the navel, the bones, and the marrow are declared to be the seat of vāta.

The stomach, sweat, blood along with lymph,
fat, the head, chest, neck, joints, and arms are the resort of kapha.

The heart in particular is spoken of as the seat of kapha;
the stomach and the colon are, specifically, the seats of pitta and vāta respectively.

The exogenous affliction troubles first and subsequently affects the humours;
whereas the endogenous one accumulates first and, having increased, subsequently troubles.

Therefore, for exogenous diseases, therapy like that for endogenous ones is desired;
for endogenous ones, having observed the prodromal symptoms, purification is beneficial.

Attached to kapha in the heart, slightly dusky, reddish-yellow,
is that vital essence; a creature thrives with its increase and declines with its decline.

Sweet, unctuous, cooling, light, and beneficial substances
are said to promote vital essence; therefore one should feed children accordingly.

Growth is the cause of complexion, strength, vital essence, digestive fire, intellect, lifespan, and happiness.
Equilibrium of vāta and the others [leads to health]; disequilibrium brings about disorder.

Of those immeasurable disorders, by their specific characteristics
we shall proclaim the most manifest diseases in general terms.

Eighty are the diseases of vāta, forty are those of pitta,
and twenty are declared born of kapha; learn from me the diseases of vāta:

slipping of the foot, foot-pain, splitting of the nails, cracked heels,
numbness of the feet, vāta-gout, vāta in the ankle, stiffness from wind,

sciatica, calf cramps, knee looseness and knee pain,
stiffness of the thighs, weakness of the thighs, lameness, pain in the heels,

prolapse of the rectum, rectal pain, spasm of the testicles,
priapism, pelvic pain, groin distension, obstipation,

upward movement of wind, hunchback, dwarfism, stiffness of the sacrum,
stiffness of the back, flank pain, abdominal twisting, palpitations,

faintness of heart, piercing pain in the chest, rubbing and obstruction in the chest,
stiff neck, wasting of the arm, hoarseness, lockjaw,

loose teeth, cracking of the lips, muteness, arrest of speech,
astringent taste in the mouth, dry mouth, loss of smell, loss of taste,

deafness, hearing only loud sounds, earache, perception of soundlessness,
retraction and rigidity of the eyelids, blurred vision, eye ache,

deviation [of the eye], twitching of the eyebrow, temporal pain, headache,
cracking of the scalp, stick-like rigidity, convulsion, facial paralysis,

monoplegia, hemiplegia, fatigue, dizziness, excessive yawning,
delirium, tremor, languor, dryness, loss of sleep,

dusky or reddish complexion, instability,
hiccup, dyspnoea, despondency, infertility, impotence,

coryza, and alopecia—these consist predominantly of vāta.
In these, and in other unmentioned [conditions], the natural character of vāta is described:

coldness, roughness, lightness, movement, and its action;
clear, reddish, coarse, numb, contracted, bad taste,

aching, piercing pain, astringency, porosity, harshness, trembling,
prostration, horripilation, emaciation, twisting, dilation, drooping, tearing,

spasms, gnawing pain, fracture, and drying—that is the action of vāta;
there, treatment with sweet, sour, hot, and salty substances is desired.

Localised burning, scorching heat, dizziness, burning sensation, vomiting, smoking sensation, sour eructation,
internal burning, fever, excessive heat, excessive sweating, burning of the limbs,

burning of the skin, dissolution of blood, dissolution of flesh, sloughing of limbs,
suppuration of flesh, peeling of the skin, red eruptive vesicles, patches,

bleeding disorder, urticarial eruptions, herpes, yellowish-blue skin,
jaundice, bitter mouth, and the mouth having the smell of blood—

Insatiability, fetor of the mouth, loss of vital force, fainting into darkness, thirst, / suppuration of the penis, anus, throat, eyes, and mouth, turmeric-yellow urine and stool—

these are the principal disorders of pitta. Its own characteristic signs will [now] be declared:
lightness, sharpness, and heat; colours other than white and reddish-brown;

fetid smell, pungency, acidity, and slight unctuousness belong to pitta. / By burning sensation, heat, suppuration, excessive sweating, itching, rash, discharge, and the like,

one should recognise a person afflicted with a pitta disorder. This is its action; its treatment is: / astringent, bitter, and sweet [tastes], unction, purgation, and drying measures.

Damp stiffness, heaviness of the body, sleep, torpor, excessive satiety, / sweetness in the mouth, excessive salivation, vomiting of kapha, loss of strength,

nausea, excessive waste products, coating of the vessels and throat,

undigested matter, goitre, sluggishness of the digestive fire, urticarial rash, / and a whitish appearance of the limbs, as well as of urine and faeces—

these are proclaimed the principal [disorders] among the innumerable disorders born of kapha. / Unctuousness, coldness, heaviness, whiteness, and sweetness are the characteristic signs of kapha;

smoothness too, and when a disease arises, its actions are described as / unctuousness and the like, slowness of manifestation, obstruction, corpulence, numbness,

and indigestion. There, the knowledgeable [physician] should treat with astringent, pungent, and bitter [substances], / dry and hot, taking into account the dosage and time,

as well as therapies of oleation and sudation, and among them the five procedures. / Among all those that destroy vāta, however, the unctuous enema is supreme.

Purgation is best among those destroying pitta, and emesis among those destroying kapha. / Those for which the Therapeutics section has been proclaimed as their purpose,

those diseases I shall declare, for this does not end here: / the great disease [epilepsy], collapse, stiffness of the thighs—these are of one type each;

fever, wound, undigested disorder, sciatica, jaundice, vāta-blood, / and piles, as well as spasm—these diseases are of two types;

vāta-blood, vitiligo, and swellings are proclaimed to be of three types; / disorders of the assimilation-tract, eye disorders, ear diseases, diseases of the mouth,

forms of epilepsy, coryza, the causes of wasting, and intoxications— / these are indicated as fourfold, as well as fainting and varieties of impotence;

thirst, vomiting, dyspnoea, cough, abdominal lump, spleen disease, pain of anorexia, / hiccup, insanity, diseases of the head, heart diseases, and those named pallor—

these are declared to be fivefold; hear from me those that are sixfold: / upward movements of wind, diarrhoeas, and diseases together with erysipelas;

one should observe that the boils of those suffering from urinary disorders and skin diseases are seven each; / defects of semen, defects of breast milk, retention of urine, and abdominal enlargements—

these they state to be eight each; the seizing spirits are proclaimed as ten; / disorders of the female reproductive tract, parasitic infections, and urinary disorders are known as twenty each.

These have been declared in summary as the subject matter of the Therapeutics section. / Another disease that arises due to a previously arisen disease—

that they call a complication, as diarrhoea in a fever. / Some speak of their treatment as well as their origin,

saying: ‘First of complications’; Kaśyapa says: ‘No. / If a drink, food, or medicament is suitable for both,

one should employ that for pacification, so that both do not increase. / Or whichever disease the wise physician sees to be more severe by its characteristic signs,

that very one the best of physicians, desiring success, should treat first.’ / The very cause of pitta diseases is the cause of blood-born disorders;

vitiated blood afflicts the creature in many forms:

discoloration, high burning fever, diseases of the head and eyes, debility, foul odour, entering into darkness, / erysipelas, abscess, ranula, abdominal lump, urinary disorder with blood, menorrhagia, excessive sleep,

sluggishness of the digestive fire, putridity of the microchannels,
loss of voice, sweating, intoxication, vāta-blood,

thirst, anorexia, skin diseases, and eczema, / itching accompanied by rash, and boils with itching,

and various other diseases not mentioned. In these, purgation alone is wholesome from the beginning; / and here, as in erysipelas, they declare bloodletting and drying therapy to be efficacious.

However, drying therapy is not wholesome for a child, / nor excessive purification and bloodletting; / the treatment there is with unctuous, very cold, sweet, and non-burning food, ointments, and sprinklings.

Thus spoke the revered Kaśyapa.
Thus ends the twenty-seventh chapter, on Diseases.