The Compendium of Kāśyapa 8.13

Now begins the thirteenth chapter, "Treatment of Kukkuṇaka". / Now, therefore, we shall explain the treatment of kukkuṇaka.

Thus spoke the venerable Kaśyapa.

When the mother of a child indulges in sweet things, / fish, meat, milk, leafy vegetables, butter, and yogurt,

surā, āsava, flour-based foods, sesame paste, and sour fermented gruel, / and partakes frequently of all things that cause channel congestion,

and, repeatedly sleeping by day after eating, wakes up sluggish, / her provoked humours, spreading far, become established [in the body].

Because her channels are obstructed by the humour, her breast milk then becomes vitiated. / When the child drinks that which is known to have corrupted humours,

from the indulgence in salty and sour tastes by both mother and child here, / because of that dietary fault, in that child who is not eating solid food,

owing to penetration, convulsive movement, and guarding against heat and beings, / an eye disease arises, originating from kapha and blood.

Blood flows constantly [from the eye], and, miserable, he does not spit. / In distress, he rubs his nose and reaches for his ear.

He rubs his forehead, the corners of his eyes, and his nose; / and he frequently scratches his eyes exceedingly with his hand.

He cannot bear light, and his tears flow; / and there is swelling of his eyelids: one should recognise that as kukkuṇaka.

I shall explain its best treatment properly: / one should induce emesis in his wet-nurse and properly digest [the humours].

After she has vomited and been purged, and both her breasts have been milked dry, / one should give her all meals as appropriate.

She should consume wholesome food and drinks, avoiding the opposite; / she should be pure, dressed in clean garments, free from distress, and untainted.

Then, having everted and wiped the child's eyelid, / and having drained the vitiated blood, the wise [physician] should perform bloodletting.

Castor root, rohiṣa grass, tvakkṣīrī, and varuṇa— / having made a decoction of these, one should irrigate the child.

One should press the leaves of phaṇijjhaka and surasā, / along with yaṣṭīmadhuka, with the supernatant scum of jātiprasannā [wine];

this [serves as] an eye-drop for him, or [made] with autumn water. / The expert in procedure should apply this for three days, or even two days.

Leaves of nekarāja, bilva, and ācchavanā, / ground with the scum off the top of surā wine, is regarded as the best eye-drop.

Having boiled jujubes, or [using] a paste [of them] mixed with yaṣṭīmadhuka, / an application to the face in eye disease is praised by Kaśyapa.

Nekarājī, indigo, surasā, white mustard seeds, / and turmeric—one should prepare a paste of all these in [equal] parts.

One should make this paste, which destroys disease in eye ailments; / it swiftly relieves pain and eye disease.

Taking turmeric bark and long pepper in [equal] parts, / with the scum of excellent prasannā wine, one should make a collyrium stick.

By this, pillikā and smeariness of the eyes are pacified. / Then one should prepare an unsurpassed eye-drop for him: / prapauṇḍarīka, lodhra, turmeric, sugar, [and] honey.

Irrigation with warm water would be best, one should employ it; / in all eye diseases, this formulation is praised.

Approved by the masters, it is best; and one should apply it at night: / leaves of āṭarūṣaka, madhūka, and rock salt,

leaves of puṇḍarīka, and blue water-lilies; / irrigation combined with lukewarm water would be beneficial.

In ophthalmia caused by kapha, this is proven, O king! / In a decoction of amṛtā, [with] kuṣṭha and jaggery,

dissolved and ground with water, is an irrigation for those suffering from eye disease. / The irrigations that were mentioned by me for children during dentition

should be employed in those afflicted with eye disease. / Having ground rock salt along with conch shell in bovine honey,

it should be smeared for seven nights on a black antimony collyrium [stone]; / having ground it and made a pill, one should dry it in the shade.

Under the asterism of Puṣya, all those pills resembling leaves are perfected: / two parts of pṛśniparṇī and the same of aṃśumatī,

and three [parts] of large areca nut, but one part of bṛhatī, / and of iron dust and copper-iron dust.

Having ground [these] with goat's milk, one should dry [the mixture] made into pills; / one should fumigate them with goat dung pellets and leaves of the śamī tree.

Likewise, both wet and dry, [they are applied] in eye diseases of children. / And the foremost rasāñjana and turmeric bark,

ground with prasannā wine into a collyrium—one should make a collyrium stick of this. / Long pepper and fresh ginger, one should grind in equal parts

with the scum of surā; then one should make a collyrium stick for pillikā. / Or, if one observes excessive eye pain in the child,

and the eyes appear stiffened, one should perform this procedure there: / long pepper, fresh ginger, leaves of surasā,

leaves of kālamālaka, and kuṭheraka; / having ground that well with the scum of surā, one should make a collyrium stick.

It will destroy pillikā and ocular discharge without delay. / Then one should grind [leaves] of wood-apple, bilva, and khadira;

[mixed in] a vessel of goat's milk, [it makes] an excellent eye-drop. / Leaves of wood-apple, aṭajī, and surasā,

ground with goat's milk, the physician should use as an eye-drop. / One should grind madhuka, parvatīyā, and turmeric in equal amounts;

with goat's milk, one should make that into an unsurpassed eye-drop. / In the supernatant scum of clarified butter, scum of surā, aindrī, and sandalwood,

ground with water, one should make a collyrium stick. / And one should grind padmaka, blue water-lily, and madhuka;

[this makes] an application to the face in eye disease, with goat's milk [and] sugar. / Fresh ginger, madder, and cotton seeds,

ground with water, make an excellent facial paste. / Triphalā, collyrium, and rasāñjana,

in equal parts with honey, one should quickly prepare into a rasakriyā [extract]. / Long pepper, fresh ginger, black pepper, and collyrium,

triphalā, the central whorl of a conch shell, rock salt, [and] copper dust— / these parts ground equally and made into pills in the shade,

having dried [them], one should administer [them] in manifold afflictions: / mixed with water in cataract; but with mārkava [juice] in kothaka;

ground with the juice of a decoction [of it] with grape and kṣudraka water— / this pill named kokilā is celebrated in eye diseases.

It should be administered by the best physicians to children who eat wholesome food. / The sap of naktamāla prepared with the scum of medicated ghee,

along with breast milk, is beneficial in cataract and itching. / Yellow ochre, lac, rock salt, and black pepper,

with sugar and the three pungents, one should indeed prepare into a pill; / this pill is named lohitikā by the wise.

It should be employed in acute swelling of the eye by one desiring swift relief. / Long peppers, triphalā, sweet flag, and kaṭukarohiṇī—

these should be six equal parts, and copper dust the seventh. / These should be ground with water and repeatedly heated in the sun;

one should make pills of them and dry them in the shade.

Dry, ground with ghee and goat's milk, one should give it in kothaka; / in cataract, with pāśava juice; but in rāji [streaks], it should be given with madhuka.

In kothaka arising in vital parts, in all [forms], and in all ophthalmias, / combined with rock salt and mixed with water, it destroys itching.

One should present a decoction of the leaves of dvīpiśatru; / with this, while lukewarm, one should irrigate the diseased eye.

One should grind sarala, madhuka, and devadāru; / with this paste, one should smear the face in cases of pain.

Rasāñjana and emerald-stone combined with honey / one should employ as an eye-drop that destroys eye disease.

Sugar, fresh ginger, breast milk, and ox-bile, / rasāñjana together with madhuka—the physician should make an eye-drop [of these].

Turmeric and the central whorl of a conch shell one should grind with water; / with a dose of milk, one should prepare a beneficial eye-drop.

One should cook mountain turmeric in the heat of the sun; / and having ground it upon copper plates, one should moisten it with essential juice.

Cooled, thoroughly strained, and mixed with breast milk, / one should apply it as an eye drop, which destroys eye diseases.

Let there be one part of clarified butter and two parts of honey: / applied as an ointment at that time, the child is freed from eye disease.

Having ground turmeric, columella of the conch, bhadramusta, kāḍhaka, / vyāghranakha, and madhuka in equal parts,

one should first make a small cake with them and seeds of śirīṣa. / Cooked in a copper vessel with oil in the heat of the sun,

on the twelfth day, carefully placed in a draft-free place free of dust, / the oil and that cake are then put in a stone vessel.

One should then fill the diseased eyes with this oil. / It quickly destroys the disease in humans if the application is commended.

Harītakī, āmalakī, turmeric, and mountain-born [substances], / and madhuka, all in equal parts, one should grind with water.

This foremost eye drop is beneficial for pacifying diseases; / this eye drop is beneficial both for the elderly and for infants.

One should throw in a karṣa of fresh pieces of turmeric; / in a copper vessel, one should give a measured āḍhaka of its extract.

Cooked over a gentle fire until one-tenth remains, / cooled and thoroughly strained, it is a foremost beneficial eye drop.

Then, one should wear a bit [of turmeric] for eye diseases on the eyes, / or on the neck or head; thus one is freed from the disease.

Having scraped fresh roots of ālaṅkataka, vāstuka, / and barley, one should make prickles [with them] upon the head.

Eye disease and head disease are all pacified by this. / Having balā, atibalā, and trivṛt, a pregnant woman,

placing them in the hollow of her left hand, should squeeze them in an unprecedented manner. / Mixed with honey, one should smear that juice on her throat.

Long pepper, ginger, yellow orpiment, realgar, / rasāñjana, emerald, and buds of the jasmine flower,

with an eighth part of jaggery added here, ground with honey: / this is the inspissated extract called Kalyāṇikā, which cures all diseases.

One should make equal parts of black pepper and ginger; / having ground them with sour yogurt, one should smear it on a copper plate.

Having smeared it for seven nights, one should then grind it with yogurt. / Then thin wicks should be made; one should apply it as a protective collyrium.

The physician should carry out treatment for the child using a medicament that is mild at first, free of harm, given in proper dose, / and suited to his region and family.

For some may be inclined to pungency, while others are inclined to sweetness; / approaching him with mild [measures], one should employ sharp [measures] only in small amounts.

Thus, to the king of the earth, who knew the waters, the great sage
declared all the entire medicament for children.

Lodhra ground together with yaṣṭīmadhuka,
fried in ghee, tied up in a cloth,

wiped warm with a decoction of guḍūcī, / destroys all disorders affecting the eyes.

Thus spoke the venerable Kaśyapa.

Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, "Treatment of Kukkuṇaka", in the Compendium of Elder Kaśyapa.