[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Medicine](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med) › [Early and ascribed compendia](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita) › [Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt) › 1 # Ashtangasamgraha 1 English (machine translation) 1 - **Language:** English ### [1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.1) By whom all innate diseases such as passion, together with their roots, were swiftly eliminated from the entire world— to that peerless physician, and to the ancestors and elders who know the scriptural lore of medicine, I bow with my head. Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. Thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. ### [1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.2) Now, therefore, we shall explain the chapter named "The Desire for Long Life"; thus spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. By the power of their merit, from the assemblage of all qualities of earth and the other elements, grains and medicinal herbs arose endowed with inconceivable tastes, potencies, and so forth. Because they had conquered their senses, using these \[herbs and grains\] at the proper time and in proper measure, and through their practice of virtues such as truth, rectitude, and non-cruelty, they possessed radiance equal to the gods; were endowed with form, physique, proper proportion, clarity, fleshiness, compactness, mental vigor, and excellence of bodily tissues; and became long-lived and free from illness. The doṣa brings about fever; therefore, one should perform fasting. ### [1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.3) By one who desires long life, the means to achieve virtue, wealth, and pleasure, supreme respect should be paid to the teachings of Āyurveda. For then the two, having reached full virility, produce an offspring endowed with virility. A fetus conceived by a man under twenty-five in a woman under sixteen may perish right in the womb, or have a short life, weak strength, health, and resources, or have impaired senses. Likewise during the first three nights of the menstrual period, and when semen or menstrual fluid is vitiated. Health is the foundation of strength; the course of treatment is for the purpose of health. And the striking together of two stones at the base of the ear. ### [1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.4) The eternal nectar of Āyurveda, comprehensive in scope, Brahmā gave to Dakṣa; he to the Aśvins; they, in turn, to Śatakratu. And that \[semen\], like ghee in milk or jaggery in sugarcane juice, rests unexuded in the body relying on the semen-bearing membrane, pervading all the limbs, and especially in the marrow, testicles, and breasts. Excited by joy, however, it is drawn together by friction through the entrance of the mind, and issues forth from limb to limb. That semen which is mild, unctuous, heavy, white, smelling of honey, sweet, slimy, copious, thick, and possessing the color of ghee, oil, or honey is fit for conception. He, accompanied by Bhadrakālī who was emanated by the Goddess, surrounded by endless followers who had issued from every pore of his skin—having diverse unnatural forms and terrifying words, actions, and bodies—making the earth and sky resound with a roar like thousands of clouds at the dissolution of the four yugas, encircled by an interior of flames, producing an uproar that caused the cosmic upheaval of the great elements, having slain the Dānavas and destroyed the sacrifice of the horse sacrifice, with folded hands informed Śiva: "O God of gods, you have been appeased, being praised by the gods headed by Brahmā, and by the Father and Creator of the world. What shall I do now?" To that Wrath the Trident-bearer commanded: "Because, unconquerable even by the thirty \[gods\], O My Wrath, you consumed Dakṣa and Dakṣa's oblation while he intended to obstruct My vow, as well as the army of Daityas, therefore you become fever, the afflictress of this world with all its stationary beings. For you are the foremost and preeminent among all created diseases; in birth and death you are great delusion consisting of darkness, causing the forgetting of the previous birth; and because you burn during errors \[of regimen\], your nature is torment. In both \[causes\], therefore, be constant as fever." He, thus favored by Umā's lord, wanders all over the earth under various names. Namely: pākala among elephants, abhitāpa among horses, alarka among dogs, indramada among aquatic creatures, jyotis among medicinal plants, cūrṇaka among grains, nīlikā among waters, ūṣara in the soil, and fever among human beings. Health, hunger, thirst, appetite, digestion, strength, and vital essence are generated. And one should recite the mantra at the base of the right ear. ### [1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.5) When men were being afflicted by diseases that cause obstacles to virtue, wealth, desire, and liberation, placing Punarvasu at their head, From excessive indulgence or during the non-menstrual period, that very \[menstrual fluid\] obtains the names asṛgdara, pradara, and the disorder named raktayoni. In curing that, one should look to the treatment of bleeding disorders and the prevention of diseases of the female genital organs. And from its heat, bleeding disorder \[arises\]. And at that very sacrifice, for those who, overcome with anger and fear, fled in all directions, by physical agitations such as jumping and leaping, abdominal swellings, abscesses, scrotal enlargements, abdominal enlargements, and so forth arose; from the consumption of sacrificial oblations, urinary disorders, skin diseases, hemorrhoids, swellings, diarrhea, and so forth arose; from fear, terror, grief, and contact with impurities, insanity, epilepsy, seizures by spirits, and so forth arose; and from excessive indulgence with Rohiṇī and the anger of Prajāpati caused by non-cohabitation with his remaining daughters, consumption arose for the king of stars, and together with it, cough, dyspnea, and so forth arose. For even that does not persist without fever; thus the entire group of diseases is preceded by fever or designated by the word fever. With nausea, excessive salivation, aversion to food, cough, and cholera-like diarrhea. Taking dried long peppers, rubbing them with curd, ghee, honey, and meat-paste, drying them again, filling a new, dust-free jar up to the neck, one should deposit it well hidden. "You are the self indeed, named son; so live for a hundred autumns!" ### [1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.6) Dhanvantari, Bharadvāja, Nimi, Kāśyapa, and Kaśyapa, of great fortune and noble soul, and likewise Lambāyana and others, For that \[blood\], increasing and staying inside—whether with semen or without semen, or devoid of life—in a woman resorting to vāta-increasing foods, showing signs of pregnancy, becomes an abdominal swelling. There one should look to the treatment of abdominal swelling. Here, disease (roga) is that which causes pain (rujati). Its comprehension is through etiology, premonitory symptoms, symptoms, therapeutic exploratory tests, and pathogenesis. One should perform emesis for one who is fit for emesis; otherwise, it would cause harm. Especially in phlegm-fever, abdominal swelling, coryza, and internal abscesses, repeatedly until bile comes up. By that, he vomits well. May the constellations, the directions, the night, and the day protect you! ### [1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.7) They approached Śatakratu, the lord of the immortals who grants refuge. / As soon as he saw them, the thousand-eyed one spoke according to the tradition: Now, its \[cause\] is indulging in unwholesome diet and regimen. Synonyms for nidāna are hetu, nimitta, āyatana, kāraka, kartṛ, kāraṇa, pratyaya, samutthāna, mūla, and yoni. And one should suspend this \[amulet\] around the neck. And one should sprinkle the navel with kuṣṭha oil. ### [1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.8) The Veda that protects life, the Upaveda of the Atharvaveda, / with \[its eight branches of\] internal medicine, pediatrics, demonology, diseases above the clavicle, surgery, toxicology, rejuvenation, and virility, Because of which fools say of a woman without a fetus that she is pregnant. Then, when bleeding starts contrary to that or spontaneously, the ignorant, not seeing the body of the fetus, say that it has been seized by a spirit; because the theft of vital essence by demons is possible, but not the theft of a body, due to lack of desire or lack of capacity. For the manifestation of activity occurs through desire and capacity; and no one's abduction of a body by non-humans is ever seen. For that is the unmanifest symptom of a disease that is about to arise, because of its minuteness. Having drunk \[it\], one should vomit with warm water, honey-water, or salt water. ### [1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.9) the holy \[knowledge\] divided into eight branches which the grandfather \[Brahmā\] comprehended. / Having received that sacred text and having expounded it to one another, Other terms for it are liṅga, ākṛti, lakṣaṇa, cihna, saṃsthāna, and vyañjana. Thin gruel, scum, sugarcane juice, wine, or those stated in the pharmaceutics \[section\]. And having raised the palate, one should cover it from above with an oil-pad. ### [1.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.10) the supreme sages came to the human world, full of joy. / Then, for the preservation of Āyurveda, they composed treatises. For that is designated as homologation to disease. Contrary to that is unhomologation. By this, region and season are explained. Whether emesis has been performed or not, a fever-patient should observe fasting. Similarly, a powder of any one among brāhmī, balā, anantā, or śatāvarī. ### [1.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.11) Having made Agniveśa, Hārīta, Bheḍa, Māṇḍavya, Suśruta, / Karāla, and others their disciples, they respectfully instructed them. Just as \[cooking cannot take place\] on a fire covered with ashes, so food is not digested when \[the digestive fire is covered\] with raw residue. Or butter produced from that milk, prepared with a decoction of the group of six \[drugs\] beginning with fruit, when the digestive fire is overpowered by kapha and when the body is wasting away. Likewise, through the purification of the chest and throat, lightness and desire \[for food\] arise for him. ### [1.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.12) Then they too, being of fine intellect, composed their respective treatises; and having completed them, / they recited them to their teachers and to the assembly of sages. Especially the man, with sweet drug preparations containing ghee and milk; / the woman with sesame oil and pitta-increasing meats. For thus semen and menstrual fluid are nourished by identical qualities. There, as to the classification: eight kinds of fever, three kinds of bleeding disorder, five kinds of cough, and so forth. Vikalpa is the apportioned determination of the parts of the combined doṣas. Prādhānya is the predominance of diseases depending on the distinction between primary and secondary, or on the comparative and superlative degree of the doṣas. Balābalaviśeṣa is the distinction between strength and weakness through the determination of the entirety or the parts of the causes and so forth. Kālaviśeṣa is the specific time of provocation of the doṣas determined by the season, day and night, and meal-times. By this much alone the meaning of etiology has been stated in brief. In detail, however, it will be taught for each respective disease. One afflicted with thirst should drink warm water little by little in vātakapha fever. Moreover: ### [1.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.13) Praised by them, these treatises attained established status on earth. / Each single one among them, however, is not comprehensive in the cure of all diseases. There, \[semen that is\] thin, dry, frothy, reddish, scanty, interrupted, painful, and ejaculated after a long time is caused by vāta; \[that which is\] slightly yellow, non-slimy, slightly dark-blue, or burning, as it were, is discharged by pitta; \[that which is\] associated with marrow, abundant, viscous, and sinks slightly in water is caused by śleṣman; \[that which has\] the smell of a corpse and is copious is caused by blood; \[that which has\] become nodular is caused by vāta and śleṣman; \[that which\] resembles foul pus is caused by pitta and śleṣman; \[that which is\] depleted is caused by vāta and pitta. That has been stated along with its cure previously. \[That which has\] the odor of urine and feces is caused by the combination of all three doṣas. And having stimulated the digestive fire and softened the bodily channels, one should purify \[them\]. On the third or fourth day, breast milk begins to flow in women. ### [1.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.14) In engaging with every treatise, however, the life span of a man is exhausted / merely through study, because the very same subject has been stated repeatedly Its symptom and name are as before. Among them, semen with the smell of a corpse, nodular, resembling pus, or depleted is difficult to cure; semen and menstrual fluid smelling of urine and feces, however, are incurable, as are menstrual fluid with the smell of a corpse, nodular, or resembling pus. There, one should cure the first three disorders of semen and menstrual fluid with the cure for the respective doṣa, and both by the treatment of diseases of the genitals. It removes sleep, stiffness, and tastelessness, and sustains the vital breaths. On the second \[day\], ghee prepared with lakṣmaṇā, and on the third \[day\] as well. ### [1.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.15) by the treatise-makers, with some variation here and there; / and because, intent upon conveying the meaning, they were not careful in their expression. An evacuating enema prepared with bilva and vidārī, combined with milk; an oily enema of oil prepared with madhuka and bhadradāru; a urethral enema of oil prepared with milk and the juice of freshwater crab. In the pitta type: drinking of ghee prepared with kāṇḍekṣu, śvadaṃṣṭrā, and guḍūcī, with a paste-additive of mūrvā and madhūka; purgation with trivṛt powder along with ghee; an evacuating enema prepared with payasyā and śrīparṇī, combined with milk; an oily enema and a urethral enema of oil prepared with madhuka and mudgaparṇī. In the kapha type: drinking of ghee prepared with a decoction of pāṣāṇabheda, aśmantaka, and āmalaka, with a paste-additive of pippalī and madhuka powders; emesis with a decoction of madanaphala; purgation with dantī and viḍaṅga powders licked with oil; an evacuating enema concentrated with a decoction of rājavṛkṣa and madanaphala; an oily enema and a urethral enema of oil prepared with madhuka and pippalī. Or one should administer that linctus in foods and drinks; and one should prepare foods and drinks with the decoctions of those very \[drugs\]. ### [1.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.16) Therefore, having collected generally from all the treatises, the Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha \[is composed\], / free from displaced expansions, objections, repetitions, and the like. Or milk prepared with kāśmarya and kṣudrasahā. / One should place in the vagina a paste of madhuka and sṛgālavinnā with milk and ghee, or a paste of priyaṅgu and sesame. / A decoction of sarala and mudgaparṇī is the wash. / In \[a disorder\] caused by pitta, one should drink, with sugar, a decoction of the two kākolīs and vidārī root, a decoction of utpala and padmaka, or a decoction of madhūka flowers and kāśmarya fruits. / Or a decoction of white sandalwood with honey. / Or a paste of dhava and dhātakī with ghee, or a paste of madhuka, madhurasā, and raisins. / Cassia fistula and gavākṣī with milk is the purgative. / One should place a paste of sandalwood and payasyā in the vagina. / A decoction of gaurikā and ariṣṭa is the wash. / In \[a disorder\] caused by śleṣman, one should drink a decoction of kuṭaja, kaṭukā, and aśvagandhā. / Or a decoction of sprouts of latex-bearing trees with honey; or one should lick a powder of these very \[drugs\] with honey and ghee. / Emesis is by means of a decoction of madanaphala. / And one should place that very paste into the vagina. / A decoction of lodhra and tinduka, or the urine of a goat or ram, is the wash. However, from the combination of all \[causes\]—namely from eating before the previous meal is digested, eating equal amounts of wholesome and unwholesome foods, irregular eating, incompatible eating, promiscuous eating, defective water, unfermented wine, immature curds, barley groats, barley wine, oil cake, raw radish, mustard, dried vegetables, dried meat, emaciated meat, breadfruit, unripe fruit, eating earth; dietary changes; seasonal disturbances; smelling unwholesome medicinal plants; ingestion of poison, boils caused by poison, and artificial poison; unseasonal weather, overcast days; affliction by planets, planetary possession; easterly winds, clinging to mountains; improper use of rasāyana, oleation, sudation, purgation, and the like; practice of sinful deeds and the ripening of past deeds; and in women, from abnormal delivery and improper treatment of those who have delivered—sannipāta arises. When pitta is provoked, in one who has burning distress, heat, confusion, and diarrhea: ### [1.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.17) Composed exclusively of the triad of foundational pillars—etiology, symptoms, and therapeutics— / it illumines passages whose core meaning is deeply hidden. In \[the case of\] semen with nodules, \[one should drink a decoction of\] pāṣāṇabhid or with ashes of palāśa. / In \[the case of\] purulent semen, with \[the group of drugs beginning with\] parūṣaka and nyagrodha. / In \[the case of\] semen \[accompanied by\] urine and feces, severely disordered by vāyu, with hiṅgu, uśīra, and citraka; or \[ghee\] prepared with citraka, vitunnaka, priyaṅgu, hiṅgu, samaṅgā, and lotus stalk, with an addition of cardamom and mocā powder. / Likewise, in \[the case of\] nodular menstrual fluid, a decoction of pāṭhā, trikaṇṭaka, and vṛkṣaka. / In \[the case of\] putrid and purulent menstrual fluid, one should drink a decoction of sandalwood. / And here, a paste and a decoction of triphalā are used for insertion and washing. And here there are \[verses\]: Prepared with ghanā, sandalwood, dried ginger, ambu, parpaṭa, and uśīra. For one who is delicate, endowed with a naturally agreeable fragrance, whose kapha and pitta are provoked, and who is averse to medicine, vomits easily in that manner. ### [1.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.18) Largely dispelling contradictions between one's own and other treatises, / a composition suitable for the age will be made systematically. And into the vagina, according to each \[doṣa\], with pastes and tampons. / Thus, once their semen and menstrual fluid are purified, the two should follow the procedure previously stated. Entering the channels rapidly, the doṣas cause disorders in the body. There is no heat without pitta; there is no fever without heat. In this very manner, in the absence of fruits, one should prepare the flowers and young unripe fruits of madana. / Thus the rule regarding the fruit has been stated. And with them, one should surround the maternity room on all sides. / And one should scatter mustard seeds and broken grains of flax inside and outside. / And an oblation evening and morning. ### [1.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.19) Constantly useful, difficult to understand, all-pervading by nature, / wherein internal medicine especially has been compiled. Others say sixteen nights. / Some say even a month for a woman whose vagina, uterus, and menstrual fluid are purified. / Likewise, others say that there is also \[a woman\] whose menstrual fluid is not seen. A disease arisen under the asterism leads to distress or death. Bathing, inunction, poultices, and over-saturation, and fasting. Especially, however, jīmūtaka in fever, dyspnea, hiccup, and the like. Likewise, a brāhmaṇa knowing the Atharvaveda should perform the propitiatory rite for ten days. / He should recite the Māyūrī, the Mahāmāyūrī, and the Āryāratnaketudhāriṇī at both twilights. ### [1.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.20) Not even a single measure here is devoid of traditional authority. / The contents and the arrangement of the text are the same; the order is otherwise for the sake of conciseness. One should know a woman with relaxed eyes and abdomen, desiring a man, to be in her fertile period. In the Bharaṇīs after five days; but in the Kṛttikās after seven days. One should not drink medicine, for that would indeed produce even more āma. In the case of fruits, \[it should be given in\] milk gruel. / In the case of hairy ones, in the cream of milk. / In the case of hairless ones, in curds or curd whey. / In the case of greenish-pale ones, in milk or sour curds. / One should drink the dry powder of ripe, dried jīmūtaka fruits combined with its decoction with milk in vātapitta. And \[it should be worn\] on the neck and at the head of the boy together with the mother. / Likewise the Āryāparṇaśabarī and the Āryāparājitā inscribed with gorocanā. ### [1.21](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.21) Vāyu, pitta, and kapha: these are the three doṣas in brief. / Each of them is threefold, through the distinctions of increase, decrease, and equilibrium. When the fertile period has passed, the vagina does not receive semen thereafter. Or from the eleventh day, in Mṛga for six or nine nights. In \[a condition\] characterized by urticaria, rhinitis, dyspnea, and pain in the shanks, joints, and bones, / consisting of vāta and śleṣman, sudation is commended; he should administer it. Powder or paste of jīmūtaka with cold water in \[a condition\] caused by pitta; / that very \[powder or paste\] with hot \[water\] in \[a condition\] caused by vātakapha or caused by kapha. And one should keep a fire of broken grain, thorns, and tinduka wood burning night and day. / Likewise affectionate women and friends. / And that house should be kept filled with cheerful people. ### [1.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.22) Even increase and decrease are threefold, as superior, middling, and slight. / Disordered or non-disordered, they destroy or sustain the body. Slightly black and foul-smelling, vāyu expels \[menstrual fluid\] from the mouth of the vagina. Fever having arisen under Punarvasu, however, departs after thirteen \[days\]. One should strictly observe in every respect the regimen of conduct prescribed for oleation. Or ghee prepared as before. ### [1.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.23) Although they pervade the entire body, they dwell below, in the middle of, and above the heart and navel \[respectively\]. They are located at the end, middle, and beginning of life, day-and-night, and digestion, in that order. One should eat a small quantity of barley gruel prepared with milk from an earthen cup, an earthern vessel, or the palm of the hand, for the purpose of emaciation; and one should avoid sharp, hot, sour, and salty \[foods\]. In Puṣya and Āśleṣā, death occurs, and \[it occurs\] even after a long time in Maghā. There should be digestive agents for the wastes, according to the stage or sequentially. Milk boiled with the young shoots of that \[plant\] devoid of flowers and fruits is \[given\] in kapha-fever when pitta is aggravated. ### [1.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.24) Through them, the digestive fire becomes irregular, sharp, and sluggish; through their equality, it is balanced. The alimentary tract is harsh, soft, and moderate \[respectively\]; through their equality, it is also moderate. For at that time, of whatever kind \[the woman\] sees or contemplates, such a child she bears. In the former Phālgunī, death occurs, and in the other two, on the eighth day. Indeed, in those cases that pacification which does not cause emaciation is not desired as beneficial. Or one desiring emesis should drink the fresh juice of ikṣvāku fruits boiled with three parts of milk when kapha is located in the chest, in coryza, or in loss of voice. Or when it is dried and the seeds removed, one should pour milk into it; the curd formed therein is \[used\] in kapha cough, dyspnea, and vomiting. ### [1.25](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.25) By them residing in the semen and menstrual fluid at the beginning of conception, as with poison in a poisonous insect, three separate constitutional types arise: inferior, middling, and superior. \[It is\] for seven nights after the appearance of the menstrual flower. Then, one desiring a son should unite on the eighth, tenth, or twelfth night; one desiring a daughter, on the fifth, seventh, or ninth. Among these \[nights\], later and later there is an increase in the child's lifespan, health, sovereignty, good fortune, strength, complexion, and faculties; thereafter, however, there is only a progressive decrease of lifespan and the rest. With Hasta, relief occurs on the seventh, or in Citrā on the eighth. And in fasting, one should consider knowledge of the twofold therapeutic approach. Or buttermilk cooked with that, together with honey and rock salt; or one should eat that flesh together with jaggery and roasted meat. And from drinking from a breast that is not squeezed out and excessively filled with milk, cough, dyspnea, fever, and vomiting arise due to over-unctuousness. ### [1.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.26) The constitution with balanced bodily tissues is best among all; those born of two doṣas are censured. There, wind is dry, light, cold, rough, subtle, and moving. Therefore, on those \[nights\] in order, the birth of a son and of a daughter occurs. For this very reason, one desiring a son should not approach a woman whose menstrual flow has not ceased, even on later days. If, however, due to diet, there should be an excess of semen on odd \[nights\] and a deficiency on even \[nights\], then a male is born with a female appearance, weak, or deficient in limbs; and a female is born with a male appearance, weak, or deficient in limbs. On the eleventh and thirteenth \[nights\], however, a hermaphrodite is born. In Viśākhā, one should predict death in fortnights, \[or\] on the twenty-second day. From the beginning, with \[gruels\] prepared with appropriate medicines, starting with rice water, or a barley mash mixed with the fresh juice of that fruit in kapha-fever, cough, throat diseases, and anorexia; or ikṣvāku paste with meat broth in vāta-kapha abdominal swellings and persistent fevers. Galactagogues, however, are alcoholic drinks other than śīdhu, meat of marsh animals, liquid foods mostly sweet, sour, and salty, milk-yielding medicinal plants, drinking milk, absence of fatigue, and cheerfulness of mind. ### [1.27](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.27) Pitta is slightly unctuous, sharp, hot, light, foul-smelling, spreading, and liquid. \[Kapha is\] unctuous, cold, heavy, sluggish, smooth, slimy, and stable. For a Śūdra woman, however, it is done without mantras. And of whatever kind of son she may desire, the woman should be told: 'Meditate on the regions whose people have that form, complexion, and conduct.' And she should adopt the diet, conduct, regimen, and attire of those regions. In Jyeṣṭhā, death occurs on the fifth \[day\], or after the twelfth there is recovery. His digestive fire is kindled by them, like fire by fuel. And having ground tumbī seeds equal \[in weight\] to the ghee, and each of half that quantity of jīmūta, mahājālinī, vatsaka, and kṛtavedhana, one should add trikaṭu equal to the decoction. Putting it on the fire again, one should prepare an electuary; having licked it, one should drink a pramathyā potion as an after-drink. And on this it is said: ### [1.28](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.28) Combination of two and combination of all three arise from the decrease or vitiation of two or three of them; they are described as sixfold and tenfold through permutations of predominance and the like. And the woman, thus disposed, having her limbs anointed, with a diet dominated by sesame oil and black gram, should first mount the bed with her left foot, to the right of the man. There, he should recite the mantra: 'You are lifespan, you are foundation everywhere, may Dhātṛ establish you, may Vidhātṛ establish you, be endowed with sacred splendour! May Brahmā, Bṛhaspati, Viṣṇu, Soma, Sūrya, and the Aśvins, Bhaga, and Mitrāvaruṇa give me a heroic son!' In Pūrvāṣāḍhā, \[death occurs\] on the ninth; in the others, after a month. \[Medicines\] that promote the downward movement of vāta, urine, feces, and the doṣas. His kinsmen should keep vigil, bearing the greatest joy. ### [1.29](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.29) Chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and semen are the bodily tissues; these are the seven bodily elements subject to vitiation; the waste products are urine, feces, sweat, and others as well. And when \[the union\] is completed, one should suddenly sprinkle her with cold water. From the day of Jyeṣṭhā, in Dhaniṣṭhā \[death occurs\], or in the Vāruṇa asterism on the twelfth. Due to the absence of food, for vitality, for easy movement, and for lightness. One should administer electuaries with their decoctions, mixed with the powder of any one of the jīvanīya group, together with honey and sugar, when kapha is accompanied by pitta. The woman who has delivered should perform the bath ceremony, and the father \[should give\] the name of the child. ### [1.30](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.30) The diseases that arise when the doṣas reside in chyle and the other tissues are figuratively said to be born from them, as in the case of a burn from ghee. Likewise also the man. And she should not lie face downward. For in that case a male child with female behaviour or a female child with male behaviour is born. Nor should he unite with her lying face down or on her side. In a woman lying face down, vāta is strong and oppresses the vagina. In one lying on her right side, kapha, oppressed and displaced, obstructs the uterus. In one lying on her left side, likewise, pitta scorches the blood and semen. Therefore, lying on her back, she should receive the seed. For thus the doṣas remain only in their proper places. In the Uttarā asterisms, relief occurs after three weeks, and in Revatī. One should treat all fevers, except that arising from alcohol, wearing on their limbs red arsenic, orpiment, gorocanā, agallochum, and sandalwood. ### [1.31](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.31) Nourishing, sustaining life, plastering, lubricating, supporting, filling, / and generating offspring are known to be the functions of the bodily tissues, respectively. Others say \[the rutting period lasts\] twelve nights. Even there, some say on even-numbered days; others say every day. Likewise, one who desires sour should drink it with rock salt and with pomegranate. Unaugmented, having internal heat brought to an end, established without enemies. ### [1.32](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.32) These bodily tissues and food constantly support the body; the increase of all of them is through homologous things, and decrease through opposite things. Having pressed out \[the juice of\] any one among lakṣmaṇā, banyan shoots, sahadevā, and viśvadevā in milk, one should herself pour three or four drops into her right nostril with a cotton swab; into the left if she desires a daughter; and she must not spit these out. Likewise, of white bṛhatī pulled up under the asterism Puṣya, one should administer the juice from the root-paste through the nose. And likewise, one should administer through the nose an utpala leaf, a kumuda leaf, lakṣmaṇā root, and eight banyan shoots. One suffering from pain in the bladder, flanks, and head, \[should drink gruel\] prepared with vyāghrī and gokṣura. Having saturated kuṭaja fruit powder with arka milk for seven days, one should drink it with a decoction of jīvaka; or one should prepare the kuṭaja fruit powder for emesis with a decoction of any one among madanaphala, jīmūtaka, ikṣvāku, and jīvantī root, or with water containing any one among mustard, madhūka, and salt, or with kṛsarā gruel. And here it is said: An auspicious \[child\] is born within, neither defective nor unsuitable. ### [1.33](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.33) Sweet, sour, saline, bitter, pungent, and astringent: these are the six tastes residing in a substance, and each preceding one brings greater strength than the subsequent. Likewise, having smelled the vapor of cooking rice flour and white-stalked apāmārga, jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, the central stalk of śaṅkhapuṣpī, sahacara, nagnajit, and agnijihvā, or eight banyan shoots, a woman standing on the threshold should administer that juice through the nose as before. \[One should administer\] a sour gruel cooked \[with drugs\] that kindle the digestive fire and digest \[undigested matter\] to one suffering from fever with diarrhea. Using this guiding method, the wise physician should also design other \[prescriptions\]. Consisting of an uneven number of syllables, not harsh, clear in meaning, charming, easy to pronounce, ending in a long syllable, and possessing the name of a blessing. ### [1.34](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.34) Among them, the first three destroy vāta; the three beginning with bitter destroy kapha; astringent, bitter, and sweet pacify pitta; the others produce it. Then she should wear on her head and right hand the ten herbs called fetus-stabilizers, and she should drink milk or ghee prepared with these. With these very \[herbs\] she should bathe at each Puṣya constellation and always anoint herself. Likewise, the constant use of all life-giving herbs through various preparations—these are the fetus-stabilizers. One afflicted with kapha \[should drink gruel\] cooked with barley and the great pañcamūla. The knowledgeable physician should place the head of the infant toward the east or north. ### [1.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.35) Substance is threefold: pacifying, vitiating, and beneficial for health. Among them, potency is held to be twofold from the prominence of the qualities of hot and cold. And one should approach her again after a month. \[One should give\] gruel fried with ghee, which directs waste products and doṣas downwards. Protected from wind and exposed to wind, attended by elderly women and physicians. ### [1.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.36) The post-digestive effect of a substance is threefold, consisting of sweet, sour, and pungent. Heavy, slow, cold, unctuous, smooth, dense, soft, and stable; likewise, fair complexion arises from the use of sweet things such as milk and the mother's water sports; dark complexion arises from food of sesame and burning things; sallow complexion arises from mixed things; and variation of complexion arises from conformity to region and family. When the abdomen is constipated, painful, and has cutting pains, one should drink \[it\]. Clean, washed, blown by the wind, devoid of wrinkles, and soft. ### [1.37](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.37) together with subtle and clear, are the twenty qualities, along with their opposites. The sensory objects, diffusiveness, and relaxing capacity are further qualities. Darkness arises from contact with earth and wind; sallowness arises when all bodily tissues are in equilibrium. One afflicted with absence of sweat, \[excessive\] sleep, and thirst, \[should drink gruel\] with sugar, āmalaka, and dried ginger. An inauspicious crow, and an auspicious \[crow\] accompanied by trivṛtā in fumigation; one should constantly fumigate with vacā, ghee, kuṣṭha, śrīveṣṭa, and mustard. ### [1.38](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.38) A diffusive \[substance\] spreads through the entire body before undergoing digestion; a relaxing \[substance\], loosening the bodily tissues, relaxes the connections of the joints. And previous practice. Destroys thirst, vomiting, severe burning, and fever, when combined with honey. For in him, fright and suppression of urges arise. ### [1.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.39) Some, however, describe them as excess of mobility and sharpness. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are declared to be the three great qualities. In women who constantly consume ghee, milk, and the like, are joyful, and are of kapha constitution, menstrual fluid remains for a long time; in opposite women, it is otherwise. In \[fever\] arising from alcohol, in chronic drinkers, and when kapha has reached the seat of pitta, one should wipe the inside of the mouth to remove saliva and impart relish. ### [1.40](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.40) Deficient, erroneous, and excessive conjunction of time, sense objects, and action, as well as their proper conjunction, should be known as the sole causes of disease and health. Verily the embryo, and the seed, the field, and the purified seed. When blood has flowed upward, they do not prescribe gruel in those cases; and one should wear the ten \[herbs\] beginning with aindrī, as well as jīvaka and ṛṣabhaka. ### [1.41](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.41) Disease is imbalance of the doṣas; health is balance of the doṣas. And diseases are considered twofold by division into innate and exogenous. Because success arises from rites for procuring male offspring, one should administer it before manifestation \[of pregnancy\]. With madhūka, badara, honey, and sugar candy; conferring lifespan, intellect, memory, and health, and protecting from demons. ### [1.42](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.42) Their substrate is also twofold through the division into body and mind; and rajas and tamas are declared to be the two doṣas of the mind. Good sons are considered by those who have sons to be deliverers from debt. One should drink finely powdered \[substances\], and then when the refreshing drink is digested; plump, it causes stiffness of the neck, with upward-turned gaze, moving upward. ### [1.43](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.43) And one should examine the patient through inspection, palpation, and interrogation, and disease through etiology, premonitory symptoms, symptoms, therapeutic exploratory tests, and pathogenesis. Thus he runs and acts through the practice of a previous birth. With saltless broths, or with soups made from mudga or quail. One should not drink the breast milk of a pregnant woman, for it causes pārigarbhika. ### [1.44](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.44) Habitat (deśa) is stated here to be twofold, distinguished as land and body. / The arid land (jāṅgala) is rich in vāta, whereas the marshy land (ānūpa) has an excess of kapha. / It does not affect the embryo in any way, so one should not worry about it. / Then, when the doṣas are matured, fasting and the like are recommended, / cooked with roots of the bṛhatī group or with the two sthirās, along with sugar. ### [1.45](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.45) The moderate land (sādhāraṇa) has equal waste products; thus one should designate the land habitat as threefold. / Time, bringing about the application of medicine, is considered as moments and the like, as well as the stage of disease. / Bitter \[taste\] is especially to be applied in pitta, and pungent in kapha. / In the \[prescribed\] month, one should lead \[the child\] out, properly adorned, to bow to the gods. ### [1.46](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.46) Medicine is succinctly twofold: purification and pacification. / For the bodily doṣas, the supreme remedy in respective order is: / Because of the retention of wastes in acute fever, an astringent decoction causes irregular fevers. / Having smeared an area of two cubits, having offered oblations in the four quarters, ### [1.47](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.47) Enema, purgation, and emesis; and likewise oil, ghee, and honey. / Discretion, courage, and knowledge of the self and the like are the supreme medicine for mental doṣas. / Wastes bound by astringents neither move downward nor are digested. / Undecaying, immeasurable, and worshipped by all beings, ### [1.48](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.48) Further, following this, the summary of chapters of this treatise will be spoken: / 'Desire for Longevity', 'Instruction of the Student', 'Daily Regimen', 'Seasonal Regimen', 'Non-occurrence of Diseases', / Because of bound raw matter (āma), kapha, and vāta, also colic, abdominal distension, and the like. / Protect the child like a mother; may Brahmā grant assent to that! ### [1.49](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.49) 'Knowledge of Liquids and Food', 'Protection of Food', 'Incompatible Food', 'Foods and Drinks', / 'Eater of Measured Quantities', 'Knowledge of Medicines', 'Summary of Foremost Purifications and the Rest', / For one who has eaten light food, in some cases it is to be applied, but not when raw matter (āma) is prominent. / One should subsequently rub the hips and the like, providing support and reliance. ### [1.50](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.50) 'Great Decoctions', 'Various Substances and the Rest', 'Classification of Tastes', / 'Knowledge of Doṣas and the Rest', 'Classifications of Them', 'Treatments of Them', 'Remedies for Diseases', / Or when the doṣa is excessively accumulated, causing drowsiness and torpor, / Consuming food for a long time, the child does not experience illness. ### [1.51](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.51) 'Selection of Physicians', 'Oleation', 'Sudation', 'Purification', 'Decoction Enemas', 'Nasal Therapy', / 'Smoking, Mouth Gargles, Eye Pouring, Eye Satiation, Instruments, and Leeches', / When fever is mild, the body light, and the wastes mobilized: / In the sixth, seventh, or eighth month, on an auspicious day, when \[the child\] is free from disease, / at the onset of cold weather, one should pierce the ears while calming \[the child\] seated on the wet-nurse's lap. ### [1.52](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.52) 'Venesection Procedure', 'Extraction of Foreign Bodies', 'Surgeries, Alkaline Treatments, and Cauterization'. / These forty chapters are the Sūtrasthāna. The Śārīrasthāna is spoken of: / Parpaṭa combined with mustā, or with ginger, or with dusparśā. / Holding the needle with the right hand and the earlobe with the other, ### [1.53](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.53) 'Desire for a Son', 'Descent of the Embryo', 'Regimen for Pregnancy', 'Complications of Delivery', / 'Vessels, Vulnerable Points, and Constitutions', 'Diseases of Malformed Organs and Deeds', / Likewise, one should drink bhūnimba, guḍūcī, mustā, and ginger. / In an area covered merely by a thin membrane and illuminated by the rays of the sun, ### [1.54](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.54) Along with 'Messenger', there are twelve chapters. The etiology of all diseases: / Of fevers, bleeding disorders, dyspnea, consumption, and the rest; intoxication, hemorrhoids, and diarrhea; / Destroyers of fever, loss of appetite, thirst, bad taste in the mouth, and indigestion. / One should pierce in the naturally formed hole, at once, straight through, with dexterity. ### [1.55](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.55) Of retention of urine, urinary disorders, abscesses and the rest, abdominal diseases, / of anemia, skin diseases, those afflicted by wind, and gout, there are sixteen \[chapters\]. / Along with great medicine, they overcome acute diarrhea and fever. ### [1.56](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.56) Therapeutics: of fevers, bleeding disorders and coughs, dyspnea and consumption, / emesis, alcoholism, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, two on urinary disorders, / Or pippalī root, guḍūcī, and dried ginger. / Accompanied by swelling, burning sensation, irritation, neck stiffness, and convulsions; / for these, one should quickly perform treatment appropriate to the disease according to classification. ### [1.57](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.57) On abscess, abdominal swelling, enlargement of the abdomen, anemia, swelling, erysipelas, / skin disease, leukoderma, vāta diseases, and gout, the treatment is given: / Kaliṅga, mustā, kaṭukā, and mustā and parpaṭaka. / One should insert a thread smeared with unctuous substance and threaded into the needle, / and one should sprinkle thick \[tissue\] with raw oil, and likewise with an awl. ### [1.58](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.58) There are twenty-four chapters. Following this is the Kalpasiddhisthāna: / The recipe of emesis and purgation, their successful application, preparation of enemas, / Or vṛṣa, gāṅgeyī, ginger, and durālabhā. / A wick after three days; then, when healed, one should expand it gradually, / the ear having been fomented, rubbed, and anointed again with nourishing substances. ### [1.59](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.59) And the recipes of successful enemas, the successful application of evacuating and unctuous enemas, / and eighth, the preparation of substances; following this is the highest Uttarasthāna: / Abhayā, pippalī root, śamyāka, kaṭukā, and mustā. / And one should constantly apply the ointments prescribed for diseases of the earlobe. ### [1.60](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.60) On care of children, diagnosis and counteracting of afflictions by evil spirits, / on bathing, individual afflictions, demonic spirits, two on insanity and loss of memory, / Paṭola, sārivā, mustā, pāṭhā, and kaṭukarohiṇī. / One should insert into the ear jewels set in gold. ### [1.61](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.61) Two each on conditions affecting eyelids and fornices, on diseases affecting vision, darkness, and cataract, / on general ophthalmia and inflammation of the eye, and on ears, nose, and mouth, / Kirātatikta, amṛtā, sandalwood, and ginger. / Not at all on the outer side of the outer canthi, for certain complications would arise from that. ### [1.62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.62) On the head, on wounds, likewise two each; on sudden fractures, fistula-in-ano, / on glandular swellings and the like, minor diseases, and two separately on diseases of the genitals; / These five are considered pacifiers of the five \[fevers\] beginning with continuous fever. / When great swelling has arisen, having removed the wick immediately, then: ### [1.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.63) Two on poison, snake, insect; two on spiders, rat / poison, and the employment of poison; likewise a chapter on rejuvenation therapy; / The two sārivās, pāṭhā, trāyantī, and kaṭurohiṇī. / And one may pierce again when it is well healed, but because of too-hasty widening, ### [1.64](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.64) The fiftieth, completing the eight branches, is dedicated to virility therapy. / One hundred and fifty chapters are declared across the six sections. / Sandalwood, uśīra, coriander, mustā, guḍūcī, and ginger. / The physician, by the procedure of plastic surgery stated for the counteraction of ear diseases, ### [1.64\_1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1.64_1) Thus ends the first chapter. ## Commentaries (1) - [Śaśilekhā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha!indu.1.1) — Indu, Sanskrit ## Linked texts (1) - [Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha.1.1) — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.1) · Pramāṇa