Ashtangasamgraha 19

English (machine translation) 19

Language: English

19.1

Now we shall explain the chapter on the knowledge of the doṣas and so forth.
Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and others:
For the body has the doṣas, bodily tissues, and waste products as its root.
Therefore, we shall teach their characteristics.
Vāyu supports it by expiration, inspiration, enthusiasm, bodily movements, sharpness of the senses, initiation of urges, and the like.
Pitta [supports it] by digestion, body heat, desire, hunger, thirst, luster, clarity, vision, intellect, valor, softness, and the like.
Śleṣman [supports it] by firmness, unctuousness, stability of joints, virility, forbearance, wisdom, fortitude, strength, absence of greed, and the like.
Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and others.
Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and others.

19.2

Rasa [supports it] by contentment, nourishment, and enriching blood.
Blood [supports it] by sustaining life, clarifying the complexion, and nourishing the flesh.
Flesh [supports it] by covering the body, [forming] waste products, and nourishing fat.
Fat [supports it] by unctuousness of eyes and limbs, oiliness, firmness, and nourishing the bones.
Bone [supports it] by holding the body upright and nourishing the marrow.
Marrow [supports it] by unctuousness, strength, filling the bones, and nourishing semen.
Semen [supports it] by exhilaration, strength, and generating offspring.
Feces [supports it] by support and upholding vāyu and the digestive fire.
Urine [supports it] by draining moisture from food.
Sweat [supports it] by retaining moisture, unctuousness of skin, and hair.
For [disorders] arising from unctuousness, drying medicines [are used]; for those arising from dryness, unctuous treatments.
Among these, for [disorders] arising from āma, when [the patient] has undergone fasting and has eaten light food, [one should administer] bhadradāru, nāgara, marica, prativiṣā, viḍaṅga, and indrayava with warm water;
or nāgara, devadāru, pathyā, and varṣābhū;
or pañcakola, ajājī, nidigdhikā, mustā, pāṭhā, and rajanī;
or a urine suppository, or navāyasa [cūrṇa].
One whose stool is heavy and loose, however, should take buttermilk with the three pungents, sauvarcala salt, and honey,
or should regularly use jaggery with harītakī.

19.3

Aggravated vāyu torments [the body] with emaciation, blackness, trembling and twitching of the limbs, desire for heat, loss of consciousness and sleep, destruction of strength and the sense organs, bone pain, drying of marrow, retention of waste products, tympanites, intestinal rumbling, delusion, wretchedness, fear, grief, delirium, and the like.
Pitta [torments the body] with yellow skin, languor, weakness of the senses, slipping away of vital essence, desire for cold, burning sensation, bitter taste in the mouth, thirst, fainting, reduced sleep, anger, and the like.
Śleṣman [torments the body] with whiteness, coldness, obesity, sluggishness, heaviness, lassitude of the limbs, obstruction of the channels, fainting, drowsiness, sleep, dyspnea, cough, excessive salivation, nausea, impaired digestion, loosening of the joints, and the like.
Or the three pungents, barley alkali, and iron powder;
or bibhītaka paste with rice water;
or guggulu with cow's urine;
or harītakī;
or dry ginger with an equal quantity of jaggery, followed by a decoction of punarnavā;
or one should administer fresh ginger with an equal quantity of jaggery, beginning with an increase of half a pala up to an optimal dose of five palas.
This administration for a month relieves swelling, emaciation, hemorrhoids, dyspnea, cough, salivation, catarrh, indigestion, impaired digestion, abdominal swelling, abdominal enlargement, urinary disorders, anemia, jaundice, and mental disorders;
or on a diet of rice and milk, one should drink fresh ginger juice.

19.4

Increased rasa [torments the body] with excessive salivation, anorexia, bad taste in the mouth, nausea, obstruction of bodily channels, aversion to sweet, body aches, and other [disorders] mostly similar to kapha disorders.
Blood [torments the body] with skin diseases, erysipelas, boils, menorrhagia, burning sensation in the eyes, mouth, penis, and anus, abdominal swellings, abscesses, spleen disorders, facial discoloration, jaundice, loss of digestive fire, entering darkness, redness of limbs and eyes, vāta-blood, bleeding disorders, and other [disorders] mostly similar to pitta disorders.
Flesh [torments the body] with goiter, cervical lymphadenitis, tumors, cystic swellings, diseases of the palate, tongue, and throat, heaviness and enlargement of the buttocks, neck, lips, arms, abdomen, thighs, and shanks, and [disorders] mostly similar to kapha and blood disorders.
Fat [torments the body] with premonitory symptoms of urinary disorders, complications of obesity, and other [disorders] mostly similar to kapha, blood, and flesh disorders.
Bone [torments the body] with extra bones and extra teeth.
Marrow [torments the body] with redness and heaviness of eyes and limbs, and boils with thick bases at the joints.
Excess of semen [torments the body] with excessive desire for women and generation of seminal calculi.
Excess of feces [torments the body] with abdominal colic, intestinal rumbling, and heaviness.
Excess of urine [torments the body] with pricking pain in the bladder and distension.
Sweat [torments the body] with itching and foul odor.
Other waste products such as rheum from the eyes [torment the body] with abundance, fluidity, itching, and heaviness.
Milk prepared with trikaṭu, eraṇḍa, and śyāmā roots;
or with dry ginger and muruṅgī roots;
or with varṣābhū, mayūraka, and pañcakola;
or with kumbha, nikumbha, the three pungents, and agnika; or one should live on she-camel's milk; or on a diet of milk, one should drink cow's urine or buffalo's urine with milk.
When kapha [is aggravated], however, [one should use an application] with harītakī, nāgara, rasāñjana, and red ochre.

19.5

Diminished vāyu torments [the body] with excessive salivation, loss of appetite, nausea, clouded consciousness, diminished speech and movement, lack of horripilation, lassitude of limbs, irregularity of digestive fire, and the like.
Pitta [torments the body] with stiffness, coldness, irregular pricking pain, loss of appetite, indigestion, roughness of limbs, trembling, heaviness, and whiteness of the nails and eyes, and the like.
Śleṣman [torments the body] with giddiness, cramps, sleeplessness, body aches, sensation of scalding, pricking pain, burning heat, eruptions, trembling, sensation of smoking, looseness of joints, palpitations, and emptiness of the seat of kapha, and the like.
According to the procedure prescribed for hemorrhoids, one should take butter made from curd prepared with citraka.
That [butter] containing citraka root inside, boiled with citraka paste and buttermilk, is equal to the preceding [remedy].
A paste of kuṣṭha, misī, pippalī, candana, and utpala relieves pain.
With mustā, agaru, and candana, mixed with honey, it relieves pain, burning sensation, and redness.
With rock salt, agaru, the three aromatics, the three pungents, red ochre, kuṣṭha, tagara, and śaileya, it dispels pain, swelling, burning sensation, and redness.

19.6

Chyle is recognized [as depleted] by intolerance to sound, palpitation, trembling, emaciation, pain, a feeling of emptiness, throbbing, and aching, and by exhaustion and thirst even with slight exertion;

blood, by dryness of the skin, craving for sour and cold things, and laxity of the veins;

flesh, by wasting of the buttocks, cheeks, and other parts, piercing pain, dryness, exhaustion of the eyes, cracking of the joints, and laxity of the arteries;

fat, by enlargement of the spleen, numbness of the waist, emptiness of the joints, dryness of the body, emaciation, exhaustion, wasting, and a craving for fatty meat, as well as the symptoms mentioned for depletion of flesh;

bone, by falling out of the teeth, nails, body hair, and hair of the head, dryness, roughness, laxity of the joints, piercing pain in the bones, and craving for meat clinging to bone;

marrow, by porosity of the bones, sharp shooting pain, debility, giddiness, and seeing darkness;

semen, by exhaustion, debility, dryness of the mouth, blurred vision, body aches, pallor, fatigue, impotence, piercing pain in the scrotum, burning sensation in the penis, and delayed ejaculation or ejaculation with blood;

feces, by air moving with sound horizontally and upward in the belly, twisting in the intestines, pain in the flanks and cardiac region, and by scantiness;

urine, by sharp shooting pain in the bladder, dryness of the mouth, difficult, scanty, and discolored urination, or urination accompanied by blood;

sweat, by stiffness of the hair follicles, falling of body hair, cracking of the skin, numbness, roughness, and absence of sweating.

19.7

And other waste products also [are recognized as depleted] in their respective passages of excretion by dryness, emptiness, and lightness;

and one should detect their increase and depletion through the depletion and increase of opposite qualities.

Increase and depletion of waste products, however, [are determined] by excessive retention and evacuation.

Depletion of waste products distresses [the body] even more than their increase, because of unfamiliarity.

When it has become a lickable paste, one should throw in powder of the three pungents, the three aromatics, and barley-alkali, and half a prastha of honey.

These Daśamūla-harītakī pills destroy even severely increased swelling, abdominal enlargement, anorexia, indigestion, pallor disease, abdominal swelling, urinary disorder, dyspnea, cough, emaciation, āmavāta, acid-pitta, and disorders of urine and semen.

This powder-drenching removes pain, burning, tears, swelling, itching, burning ache, suppuration, moisture, and coating.

And at the time of eye-drop therapy, one should instill drops with that very compress soaked in sour fermented rice water.

19.8

Among those, vāta resides in the bone; pitta in blood and sweat;

and śleṣman in the rest.

Therefore their increase and depletion have the same cause.

However, this is not so for bone and vāta.

Indeed, almost all increase, being caused by over-nourishment, is followed by śleṣman,

and, due to its contrary nature, depletion [is followed] by vāta.

Therefore, one should treat diseases born of increase and depletion with fasting and bulk-nourishment [respectively];

but in the case of vāta, with bulk-nourishment and fasting [respectively];

and everywhere with opposite and similar substances, qualities, and actions that are not contradictory,

and with oil applications, poultices, and sprinklings that are pleasant to the touch.

Moreover:

19.9

Indeed, the bodily tissues, when repeated with similar foods and activities, or with those predominantly possessing similar qualities, attain increase;

but [they attain] decrease with opposite ones, or with those predominantly possessing opposite qualities.

For those bodily tissues that are heavy are built up by heavy ones through producing unity;

light ones, however, [are built up] by light ones; but through opposites that produce separateness, they are reduced.

Therefore, blood is nourished more especially by blood than by other substances, flesh by flesh, fat by fat, bone by cartilage, marrow by marrow, semen by semen, and the fetus by raw egg.

Where, however, there is an absence of foods and activities that have such a characteristic similarity [to the tissue], or where ingestion of those present is impossible due to incompatibility, disgust, aversion, or another reason,

there, the ingestion of foods and activities of a different nature that predominantly possess similar qualities is better.

And with them, one should make a poultice,

or with mustard, black salt, rock salt, and śārṅgeṣṭā,

or with baheda-fruit pulp alone.

This powder, applied just once at midnight with a blue water lily, dispels the irritation of the eyes immediately.

19.10

That is to say: in depletion of semen, the use of milk and clarified butter, and other sweet, unctuous, and cold substances;

and whatever action, through similar activity, causes the increase of a tissue, that very action should be pursued by one desiring its increase;

likewise, one desiring its decrease [should pursue] that which causes decrease through dissimilar activity.

Moreover:

Especially, [diseases] born of the increase of blood [should be treated] by blood-extraction, clarifying [measures], and bodily purgation;

those born of the increase of flesh, by purification, surgery, caustic alkali, and cautery;

those born of fat, by the therapeutic regimen for obesity and emaciation;

those born of depletion of chyle, with meat broth, wine, and milk;

those born of depletion of bone, with enemas combined with bitters and with milk enemas;

those born of the increase of feces, according to the regimen for diarrhea;

those born of depletion of feces, with barley, black gram, boiled half-cooked pulse, flesh of the midriff of goat and sheep, and the like;

those born of increase and depletion of urine, by the treatment for urinary disorders and dysuria;

those born of depletion of sweat, by oil massage, physical exercise, wine, sleep, a windless shelter, and sudation.

And here it is said:

19.11

Due to the sluggishness or extreme sharpness of those digestive fractions residing in the bodily tissues,

increase and depletion of the bodily tissues occur; and hear further:

19.12

Just as the flame of a forest fire, even in succession, reaches increase and decrease upon reaching this or that fuel,

likewise the succession of bodily tissues [does so].

Castor oil alone, taken before food with milk or meat soups, in the retention of stool and flatus;

and one should apply vāta-dispelling oil massage, sudation, and warm poultices;

and especially, when located in one limb, a paste of citron, agnimantha, dry ginger, deodar cedar, and hiṃsrā;

or with sālaparṇī, pṛśniparṇī, the two bṛhatīs, licorice, and areca nut;

likewise, with tagara, hrībera, śārṅgeṣṭā, udumbara, licorice, pippalī, the two bṛhatīs, and castor roots.

19.13

For a similar or distinct substance, fixed by its individual origin, quickly and abundantly arises for its own increase and decrease [respectively].

Or the bitter [formulation];

in fainting, restlessness, thirst, and burning, milk;

but that same [milk] combined with urine for one desiring laxation.

A decoction of abhayā, deodar cedar, licorice, kaṭukā, dantī, sandalwood, nicula, paṭola, mūrvā, dārvī, trāyamāṇā, upakulyā, and viśālā, taken with clarified butter, pacifies swelling, poison, erysipelas, fever, burning, thirst, internal heat, and triple-doṣa aggravation.

One should prepare oil massage and the like with cold-potency substances such as clarified butter, milk, latex-bearing trees, vetasa, mañjiṣṭhā, lotus stalk, and sandalwood.

19.14

A preceding bodily tissue, when increased or depleted, produces the subsequent one of the same kind. / The corrupted doṣas corrupt the bodily tissues by means of the tastes; both together corrupt the waste products.
And [one should administer] alkaline ashes, urine, buttermilk, āsavas, and ariṣṭas.
One prastha each of the fruits of bhallātaka, citraka, the three pungents, viḍaṅga, and bṛhatī should be boiled over a cow-dung fire in a droṇa of clear fermented sour gruel until reduced to one third, and then taken down.
When it has been strained and cooled, mixed with a vessel of curd-whey and an equal weight (tulā) of sugar candy, and poured into a strong jar smeared with a paste of citraka and māgadhikā, one should place it well concealed in the open air.
Taken after having stood for ten days, this bhallātakāriṣṭa quickly removes swelling, abdominal disease, piles, fistula-in-ano, impaired digestion, intestinal worms, kuṣṭha, urinary disorders, emaciation, and pregnancy stretch-marks.

19.15

Two below, seven in the head, and the sweat-bearing apertures: / these are the waste products' waste-orifices, and accordingly the diseases arise in them.
This aṣṭaśatariṣṭa is equal to the preceding one.
Old oil-cake, black sesame, bark of śigru, atisī, and sand, ground with urine and comfortably warm, should be applied as a plaster.
When located in a single limb, however, black variety [of plant], saralā, jaśṛṅgī, ajagandhā, aśvagandhā, and ekaīṣikā [are used].
Ginger, horse-gram, tarkārī, kuṣṭha, arjaka, citraka, water, and urines are for bathing;
caṇḍā and agaru are for anointing.
Oil or ghee prepared with rāsnā and other herbs should be used as an errhine.
With such substances one should perform tubular sudation.

19.16

Those caused by vāta will be explained there, in the Etiology of Vāta Diseases. / Pitta located in the skin produces boils and smallpox;
and in swelling situated in a single part, one should administer emesis and the other [therapies], as well as blood-letting, according to proximity.
And on this point there are [verses]:

19.17

in the blood, [pitta causes] erysipelas and burning; in the flesh, suppuration of flesh and sloughing; / in the fat, burning nodules, excessive sweating, vomiting, and thirst;
and treatments that destroy erysipelas, vāta-rakta, and poison should be performed in poison-born [diseases].
For when blood corrupted by vāta flows forth after being unctuated and sweated, it does not lead to provocation of vāta.
And for one who has been unctuated again, one should administer a ghee purgative combined with tilvaka or with a potion of decoction of tilvaka;
and when he is purified, one should administer an evacuating enema and an unctuous enema, as in vāta-caused catarrh.

19.18

in the bone, violent burning; in the marrow, yellow discoloration of the nails and eyes; / and seated in the semen, it produces foul-smelling, yellow-looking semen.
Food made of jaggery, flour-based food, curd with salt, slimy foods, sour wine, / parched grain, dried meat, eating incompatible foods together, and heavy, unwholesome, or heartburn-causing food, / and sleeping during the day—a patient suffering from swelling should avoid these, as well as sexual intercourse.
Taking oil from these, combined with boar's fat, one should cook it with a paste of bilva root and liquorice, along with milk.
With this one should perform errhines and oil-head-poulticing.
Or oil containing liquorice [paste] and milk, prepared with a decoction of all fragrant spices;
and he should inhale unctuous smoke.

19.19

Located in the veins, it causes irritability and delirium; in the tendons, thirst; / situated in the visceral cavity, intoxication, thirst, burning, and other pervasive types of consumption.
One should prepare milk with kāśmarya, madhuka, white water-lily, blue water-lily, large betel-nut, kuṣṭha, bṛhatī, tamāla, māṃsī, sārivā, prapauṇḍarīka, darbha root, and kaśeruka; this should be administered for nourishing eye-baths, errhines, and oil applications.

19.20

Kapha located in the skin causes stiffness and a white appearance; / seated in the blood, it produces anemia; situated in the flesh, tumors and lymphadenitis,
Then, having drawn off the oily substance, one cooks it with a paste of sandalwood, uśīra, sugar, and blue water-lily along with milk for a nourishing eye-bath.
Alternatively, one should cook milk thoroughly with the five roots, the vitality-promoting drugs, and cockerel meat;
then one should prepare the butter with ghana, anantā, sārivā, uśīra, and sandalwood, along with milk.

19.21

a feeling in the body as if wrapped in wet hide, and extreme heaviness; / situated in the fat, corpulence and urinary disorder; seated in the bone, stiffness of the bones;
and a collyrium for this purpose, in order to clarify the vision.

19.22

seated in the marrow, whiteness of the eyes; situated in the semen, excess accumulation of semen; / situated in the veins, constipation, extreme heaviness, and stiffness of the body;
Having taken this powder in equal part with sugar candy, mixed with half a part of liquorice, one part of rock salt, and one part of the head of a black snake burnt by internal combustion, one should make pills ground with celestial water.

19.23

seated in the tendons, pain in the joints; situated in the visceral cavity, enlargement of the abdomen, / anorexia, and indigestion, as well as the various [diseases] arising from kapha.
This concentrated extract, after remaining for a month, clarifies vision and relieves pain.

19.24

The [doṣas] seated in feces and urine will be explained in their respective places; / but doṣas located in their own sense-organs produce distress and impairment.
When it has turned dark blue and dried out, wick-pencils made with curd-whey and dried in the shade conquer vāta eye-diseases.
Māgadhikā, the roots and bark of the two kaṇṭakārīs, liquorice, sugar, rock salt, and copper dust, ground with goat's milk, should be smeared onto a copper vessel.
Taking it off every seventh day, one should grind it again in the same way and smear it on.
Pills prepared after seven intervals of seven nights are pre-eminent in curing vāta eye-disease, pain, redness, swelling, blurred vision, cataract, night blindness, burning pain, severe ophthalmia, and eye injury.

19.25

From physical exercise, from sharp heat, from indulgence in unwholesome things, / and because of the speed of vāta, the doṣas go from the visceral cavity to the extremities, bones, and vital spots.

19.26

Similarly, from these they go to the visceral cavity owing to the cleansing of the openings of the channels, / from increase, from liquefaction, from ripening, and from the suppression of vāta.

19.27

Remaining there, awaiting further causes, they may linger; / having gained strength from time and other factors, they become provoked even in other seats.

19.28

There, when they reside in another's seat and are weak, one should apply the treatment belonging to that [resident doṣa]; / but when they overpower the other through their own strength, one should apply their own treatment.
If it is not pacified by any means, cauterization above the eyebrows is prescribed as stated.

19.29

One should pacify the foreign doṣa, or having first counteracted the resident doṣa. / That which is the fiery essence of all the bodily tissues is called the supreme ojas; / it is gentle, watery in nature, pure, red, and slightly yellowish.
Or any one of the bitter [ghees].

19.30

That which is the essence of the embryo at the beginning, and which is the essence from the embryonic fluid, / which first resides in the developing heart:
or a decoction of liquorice and kaṭaṅkaṭerī.
A decoction of sandalwood, liquorice, lodhra, mañjiṣṭhā, and red ochre, mixed with honey, removes severe pain and burning.

19.31

Which is the fluid essence of the body, the unctuous substance, wherein vitality is established, / upon whose non-destruction there is no destruction, and by which embodied beings are nourished.
Irrigation with that, inundated with honey and water, removes pain; / and with that itself along with sugar in woman's breast milk or goat's milk, it removes burning sensation and redness.

19.32

Though residing in the heart, it is all-pervading, the supreme seat of life; / that vital essence diminishes through anger, hunger, anxious thought, grief, fatigue, and the like.
Then, tied in a poultice-bag, rubbed with breast milk or water, it quickly dispels pain, burning sensation, redness, and swelling. / Or with sandalwood, water lily, white lotus, spikenard, and the like, processed with milk; / and with them plastering of the head and face and sprinkling [are performed].

19.33

He fears constantly, is weak, broods, has afflicted sense faculties, / has a bad complexion, is depressed, rough, and emaciated when it is diminished.

19.34

Vitalising drugs, milk, meat broth, and the like are the remedy in that condition. / For when vital essence increases, there is the arising of satisfaction, nourishment, and strength of the body.
Again, after seven days, in this manner, one should make pills in seven periods of seven nights; / rubbed with breast milk, applied as a collyrium in pitta-diseases, they take away the pain.

19.35

Whatever food one dislikes, and whatever one desires that is not incompatible, / by giving up the former and consuming the latter, one can overcome their respective increase and depletion.

19.36

The doṣas, when increased and depleted, generally produce an inclination / for things that are dissimilar and similar [to themselves]; the unwise do not notice that.
And having strained it, having taken it down again when it coats the ladle, one should add rock candy in equal quantity, and two palas of honey and ghee. / This liquid extract is sweet, beneficial in all eye diseases.

19.37

According to their strength and their own nature, the increased doṣas display / their symptoms; when depleted, they abandon them; when in equilibrium, they perform their own function.
And nourishing eye treatment and pot-baking prescribed for corneal ulcer [apply] here.

19.38

The very doṣas that, when in equilibrium, bring about the growth of the body, become, when out of balance, its destruction; / therefore, through wholesome regimen alone, they must be preserved from depletion just as from excessive increase.
A feline eye-plaster [is prepared] with śārṅgeṣṭhā, kuṣṭha, tagara, muruṅgī, the three pungents, cardamom, and deodar.

19.38_1

Thus ends the nineteenth chapter.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit