Ashtangasamgraha 2

English (machine translation) 2

Language: English

2.1

Now, therefore, we shall explain the chapter on the initiation of the student. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others. / Thus indeed spoke the great sages, Ātreya and the others.

2.2

Devoted to his teacher, diligent, highly endowed with the sharp faculties of intellect and memory, / having a straight mouth, nose, and eyes, and a thin, glossy luster of nails;

among barks, tilvaka;
among milks, snuhī;
among fruits, harītakī are foremost.

Trivṛt indeed has a two-fold root: reddish and blackish.
There, the reddish one is astringent-sweet, pungent in post-digestive effect, dry, alleviates śleṣman and pitta, and, due to distinct processing, further pacifies all diseases.
Because it purges gently, it is recommended for children, the elderly, delicate persons, and those of soft bowels; and it is denoted by the word 'trivṛt'.

For an eater of food, food is wholesome;
for one accustomed to both, both.

2.3

chaste, having overcome the pairs of opposites, resolute, of good conduct, steadfast, / having resided [with the teacher] for six months, capable, possessed of modesty, purity, and noble lineage.

From that very fact, from an abundance of semen a male [is born]; from an abundance of menstrual fluid, a female; from their equality, a hermaphrodite.
When semen and menstrual fluid are divided into pieces by vāta, offspring are produced according to the divisions;
and when deranged, beings of distorted forms and non-human wombs [are born].

By emesis, sudation, water at the proper time, astringent decoctions, and light meals;

2.4

The pupil is to be taught until he has reached the end of the treatises, their meanings, and practical procedures. / [He should not study] during unseasonal lightning and thunder, an earthquake, or the appearance of Rāhu;

likewise, horripilation, nausea, drowsiness, bodily debility, excessive salivation, distress in the heart, exhaustion, and thirst.
Gradually, however, in a woman with an evident embryo, there is heaviness only in the belly, sunken eyes and voice, disheveling of the pubic hair, sleep, yawning, fainting, vomiting, loss of appetite, swelling of the feet, craving for sour things, and cravings for various diverse objects.
Immediately following that is the manifestation of fever.

And on this it is said:

Its pacification is ghee, just as water is for a burning house.

Then, having dried the bark properly, one should store it well-concealed.

2.5

on the fifteenth day of the lunar fortnight without the moon, or in the absence of the teacher, he should study; / not with overly broken words, not too softly, and not with an excessively high or low pitch.

Therefore, after that, menstrual fluid is no longer seen.
Then, blocked below and accumulating layer upon layer, they call it the placenta (aparā);
others call it the fetal membrane (jarāyu); when the blood stays, a line of hair appears.
There is unevenness in various limbs, and there are various shifting pains.
Therefore, one should especially administer it prepared with its appropriate medicine.
With decoctions of milk, honey, grape, sugarcane, and juice of kāśmarya, ghee, and sweet substances, together with sugar, in diseases arising from pitta;
with decoctions of urine, honey, grape, ariṣṭa, pīlu juice, triphalā, and pañcakola, mixed with powder of vyoṣa, in diseases arising from kapha.

2.6

Wearing inferior and modest attire, he should attend upon the preceptor like a king; / he should lie down only after he has slept, and rise before him.

Therefore, there is plumpness of the cheeks and breasts, and blackness of the lips and nipples.
Resting in the breasts alone, colored by kapha, and having attained the state of breast milk, it is nourished again in a woman who has given birth by the nutritional fluid of food.
A loosening, as it were, of the joints, debility of the thighs, and stiffness of the lower back.
By virtue of unctuousness, ghee is equal to vāta; by virtue of combination and processing, to kapha.

And on this it is said:

2.7

He should not speak [his preceptor's] name alone, nor make gestures mockingly, even if he speaks incorrectly; / he should be loyal, not haughty, unshakeable, truthful, and pleasant to behold.

In the second month, it is a compact mass, a muscle-like lump, or an arbuda tumor; from these, respectively, arise male, female, and hermaphrodite.
In the third month, it sprouts fivefold:
namely, two lower limbs, two arms, and the head.
Simultaneously with the sprouting of the lower limbs and so forth, all body parts, limbs, and sense faculties arise together, except for those that are born at a time after birth, such as the teeth and the like.
Gradually, however, they become clearly differentiated.
This is the normal course;
otherwise, it is abnormal.
And the bones, especially those situated in the sides, seem as if being split.
Triphalā, picumanda bark, madhuka, the two bṛhatīs, / equal parts of masūra lentils: the decoction taken with ghee destroys fever and cough; / combined with honey and trijāta, it is an electuary that forms an agreeable purgative.

2.8

Learned in many scriptures, aware of the proper time, knowing the texts, versed in the science of wealth [and meaning], / and who treats helpless sick persons like sons.

When there is a mixture of specific characteristics, however, the intermediate conditions derive from whichever is predominant.
Churning in the shoulders, piercing pain in the arms, pressure in the shoulder-joints.
With powders of kṛṣṇā, aṃśumatī, ativiṣā, kaṭukā, sevya, and candana, / licked with honey and ghee, one is well purged, / [when] afflicted by the fever of combined doṣas, stiffness, thirst, and burning sensation.

2.9

Permitted by the teacher, he attains the title of physician; / but he who knows only the treatise, yet is unskilled in practical procedures,

impotence, timidity, lack of confidence, bewilderment, instability, heaviness in the lower body, loose bodily build, flaccidity, softness, the part of the ovum belonging to the uterus, and other similar factors are female-producing factors;
the opposite of these are male-producing; mixed ones are hermaphrodite-producing.
pricking pain in the temples, pain in the head, and tastelessness in the mouth.
Ghee immediately destroys chronic fever, cough, halīmaka,
loss of appetite, irregular digestive fire, and newly arisen consumption.
Uniting it and having steamed it by the puṭapāka method, one should consume it.
[One recognizes pain] in the heart by biting of the tongue and lips, dyspnea, clenching of the fists, and upward gaze;
in the abdomen by retention of feces and urine, vomiting, distention, rumbling in the intestines, biting the breast, twisting, bending backward of the spine, and elevation of the belly;
in the bladder and groin by retention of urine, thirst, fainting, trembling, looking in all directions, cramps, stiffness of hands and feet, hunching over, and pulling of the hair; and everywhere by excessive crying beyond nature and grimacing of the face.

2.10

he becomes bewildered on reaching a patient, just as a coward on reaching a battle. / He, on the other hand, who performs an operation out of boldness, devoid of the science,

And from then on, it throbs and develops a desire for the objects of the five senses.
dry and reddish skin, mouth, eyes, nails, urine, and feces.
In decoction and milk, one should cook ghee that destroys fever, with the paste / of pippalī, mustā, mṛdvīkā, candana, utpala, and nāgara.
One should drink powder [of these] as a refreshing drink (tarpaṇa) with fruit juice, honey, and roasted barley meal.

2.11

He incurs censure among the good and suffers death from the king.
In etiology, symptom, pacification, and non-recurrence of diseases—
Therefore, longing arises in her through them.
And so they call a woman with two hearts 'the woman with longing' [dauhṛdinī].
Others, however, say that the period of pregnancy longings begins from three fortnights and lasts up to the fifth month.
Dryness of the throat and lips, thirst, dry vomiting and cough, depression;
And having boiled a decoction of the two pañcamūlas, one should cook ghee,
Along with milk, and pasted grapes, medā, āmalaka, and pauṣkara;
In tender men, [this is] a harmless purgation.
Then, having unctuously and mildly purged her, one should treat her with enema therapies,
And with vāta-alleviating inunctions, sudations, poultices, and massages.
One should make the infant lick the powder of sarala, rāsnā, ajamodā, and devadāru with ghee,
Or ghee cooked with precisely such ingredients together with sugar.

2.12

He whose knowledge is fourfold is the best physician, worthy of a king;
Weapon, treatises, and water, for the activity of merits and faults,
For, from the denial of pregnancy longings, vāta, being provoked and moving inside the body, may cause the destruction or deformity of the embryo.
But she who has obtained her pregnancy cravings gives birth to a son who is vigorous and long-lived.
Giddiness, delirium, desire for warmth, and bending down occur in vāta-fever;
Relieving consumption, cough, pain in the head, flanks, and heart, and burning in the shoulders;
Licked with half its total amount of honey, ghee, or jaggery.
Breast milk having a bitter after-taste should be purified with mudga, māṣa, and palāśa, and the pair of kākolīs,
Or with priyaṅgu, dhātakī flowers, padmaka, devadāru, and honey;
Having an astringent after-taste, with ghee containing asafoetida and rock salt;
Frothy, separated, and floating, with milk and ghee boiled with bilva and agnimantha,
Or with sūpyaparṇī, kākolī, bṛhatī, and avalguja fruits.

2.13

Depending on the recipient, one should expand one's wisdom through vast learning.
For the treatise is like a lamp, and vision is extensive intellect.
In the fifth [month], the mind becomes more awake, and there is an accumulation of flesh and blood; in the sixth, hair of the head, body hair, nails, bones, sinews, etc. become manifest, and there is an accumulation of strength and complexion;
In the seventh, completeness of all limbs.
Suppuration of the nose and mouth, desire for cold, giddiness, fainting, intoxication, restlessness;
Having pounded two palas [of the drugs] to measure a karṣa each, one should throw them into a droṇa of strained water.
And it dispels many other diseases caused by kapha and vāta.
Or a decoction of triphalā, bhūnimba, kaṭukā, and mustā;
Or a decoction of jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, the two kākolīs, madhuka, kaṭphala, and karkaṭaśṛṅgī;
Or the group beginning with paṭola or padmaka with honey;
Or the group beginning with sārivā or nyagrodha.
And with precisely these substances one should prepare ghees, pitta-alleviating purgatives, and cold inunctions, poultices, and affusions.

2.14

With those two properly applied, the physician does not err when treating.
Who, well-dressed, goes on an auspicious omen only when called;
Thus the birth of the embryo then becomes fatal, because ojas is unestablished.
For while facing exit, experiencing turning around and the like, separation from ojas occurs.
And even if it breathes for a short time, that is caused by the continuation of the residual impression of ojas, like a severed limb.
For the mother, however, because her ojas is stable, when it is partially transferred into the chyle, there is only exhaustion.
Appearance of red urticarial eruptions, yellowness and greenness in the skin and the like;
Śaṭhī, puṣkaramūla, arka root, prativiṣā, vacā,
Black pepper, indrayava, cumin, pippalī, and elephant pippalī;
Milk with a coppery luster constricts the heart;
One should purify that with priyaṅgu, mustā, and śābara lodhra;
Having a sour after-taste, it causes acid gastritis;
That [is purified] with drākṣā, madhuka, payasyā, and śrīparṇī;
Having an acrid after-taste, it causes vomiting, diarrhea, cough, and dyspnea;
That [is purified] with kākolī, vidārī, and madhuparṇī;
Exceedingly hot, causing pain, burning, and fever, and acting as a purgative; that [is purified] with red sandalwood, blue water lily, and lotus.

2.15

Having arrived, he does not direct his mind anywhere other than to the patient's matter.
He properly examines the diseases, especially according to etiology and so forth.
Because of belonging to the southwest quarter [nairṛtabhāga], death of the embryo occurs there.
Therefore, to avert [untimely] delivery, the woman should be bathed, pure, celibate, and intent upon worshiping the deities;
And here one should make an offering of cooked rice with meat.
Even when that [due period] has passed by a single day, they say the delivery period extends up to a full year;
Beyond this, it becomes abnormal.
Naktamāla, the two pāṭhās, kaṭukā, śigru, and tejanī;
And parts of sesame oil and trivṛt powder, measured at eight palas each;
Or mixed with rock salt and madhuka, and with a paste of madana flowers and honey, one should smear the breast and the lips of the child;
Thereby it vomits easily.
The wet nurse, however, one should cause to vomit with sharp [emetics].
Then, when the post-purification dietary regimen is completed, one should make her drink a decoction of pañcamūla, ghana, vacā, and ativiṣā;
Or a decoction of tagara, suradāru, surendrayava, pṛthvīkā, and vṛścikālī;
Or the group beginning with āragvadha or mustā;
And one should practice dry, hot nasal therapies, fumigations, gargles, poultices, and affusions;
And one should provide wholesome food and drink.

2.16

And he does not publicly disclose her shameful news;
And without doing it hastily, not letting the time for action slip away for him;
On the left is female, in the center neuter.
And residing there, the embryo wakes when the mother wakes and sleeps when she sleeps,
Because the existence of the embryo is dependent on another.
From insemination onwards, its subsistence is through the moisture and heat of the uterus.
Excessive salivation, sweetness of the mouth, feeling of coating over the heart, dyspnea, and chronic rhinitis;
Paṭola, asafoetida, gojihvā, kebuka, madanā, and jhaṭā;
Having cooked with mild fire, he should eat it in measured dose without constraint.
Having a salty after-taste, it causes erysipelas, urticarial eruptions, and itching;
One should purify that with picumanda, paṭolī, and latex trees;
Stringy, it causes weakness, dyspnea, and cough;
That [is purified] with powder of pippalī and ginger with honey and ghee;
Heavy, causing languor, it causes coryza, nasal discharge, and milk-indigestion [kṣīrālasaka];
That [is purified] with paste of pāṭhā and vyoṣa, or powder of pañcakola flooded with honey and ghee.
And one should consult the chapter on treating the doṣas.

2.17

And who knows how to administer treatment—such a physician attains success. / He should not accept gifts from women when their overseer has turned away.
Then, flowing from the mother’s heart through the vessels, the nutrient fluid reaches the placenta;
thence, by degrees, the navel;
and then, being digested again in the foetus’s colon by its own bodily fire, it brings about nourishment of the bodily tissues and the rest owing to an abundance of clear essence; likewise, [there is] seeped moisture through the hair follicles, and the nutrient fluid itself turns into breast milk.
A prastha of ghee prepared with that stimulates the digestive fire and overcomes kapha and vāta;
it destroys disorders of assimilation and jaundice, and promotes the conception of a male child.
If, due to ignorance, continuous lack of observation, or negligence of the mother, the child drinks that [vitiated milk], he then develops diarrhoea that resembles water, is clear, broken, undigested, foul-smelling, of varied color and pain, and frothy;
and yellowness or whiteness of urine, abdominal distension, thirst, fever, vomiting, frequent yawning, dry belching, loss of taste, dizziness, aching of the limbs, flinging of limbs, groaning, ulceration of the nose, eyes, and mouth, visual disturbances, loss of voice, and other such ailments appear in him.
And that they call milk-indigestion (kṣīrālasaka) as an acute danger.

2.18

And with them he should avoid staying in secret and jesting; / [he should avoid] a patient who is despised by the king or good physicians, who hates them, or who is an enemy;
this is the natural state; / deviation from it is abnormal.
For those fever patients overpowered by chronic fever, it is like nectar.
[One may use] trivṛt with vyoṣa, trijātaka, mustā, kṛmighna, and āmalaka.
When there is an indicated combination [of doṣas], one should give for drinking a decoction of mustā, pāṭhā, ativiṣā, kuṣṭha, and kaṭukā;
or of rāsnā, ajamodā, priyaṅgu, and bhadradāru;
or of pāṭhā, tejovatī, punarnavā, and vṛścikālī;
or of bhūnimba, amṛtā, kuṭaja fruit, and sārivā;
or of the vacā or haridrā groups;
or of the great decoction beginning with pāṭhā;
or of leaves of jambū, āmra, tinduka, and kapittha;
or pieces of bilva;
and when secondary symptoms develop, one should counteract them according to the disease.

2.19

one who is fierce, afflicted by grief, timid, ungrateful, or imagining himself a physician; / one lacking attendants, agitated, unmanageable, or whose life-span has run out.
At the time of questioning, whatever gender of limb or external object the woman touches, one should predict a foetus of that gender.
Discomfort produced by what is prescribed by etiology, and relief by the opposite.
One should boil devadāru and haridrā, each one pala, in a droṇa of water; / in this decoction one should prepare a prastha of ghee with pastes measured in picu amounts;
[these] are commended in dysuria, fever, vomiting, cough, emaciation, dizziness, wasting, / burning heat, jaundice, weak digestive fire, and all poisons.
Especially arising from that cause are: fever, headache, thirst, dizziness, ophthalmia, infantile eye-disease, blepharitis, vomiting, cough, dyspnoea, diarrhoea, and erysipelas.

2.20

[A patient,] even though diseased, who wishes to live [should avoid] physicians devoid of the previously stated qualities / who sell treatments, for they are the precursors of death.
Or it remains in the belly for many years.
That is like nectar for fever patients suffering from fever arising from all [doṣas] enveloped by kapha.
A purgative accompanied by honey and grape juice in the rainy season.
For others, however, from the fourth [month].
For they, in extreme childhood, being severely distressed by the pain of dentition, do not possess fully complete strength of the bodily tissues.

2.21

The physician, the substances, the attendant, and the patient are declared to be the four limbs / of treatment; each one of these has four qualities.
Or the seed of both is in equal portion and directly facing; / and when the seed is corrupted in its parts, then a hermaphrodite of dual nature and dual seed is formed.
Sleeplessness, thirst, dizziness, horripilation, yawning, and excessive talkativeness from moving [vāta] accompanied by pitta.
For those suffering from constriction of the throat, glandular swellings, urinary disorders, piles, splenomegaly, epilepsy, and oedema, / those beset with upward movement of vāta, and those with sluggish digestive fire and worms in the belly,
[one should give] trivṛt with grape water and liquorice at the end of the rainy season.
And at that time, because of their incomplete potency, the teeth fall out again after an interval of time, and they rise again because the bodily tissues are being replenished; and precisely for this reason, elderly people do not grow teeth again.

2.22

A physician should be skilled, have received the meaning of the scriptures from an authority, have witnessed practice, and be pure; / medicine should have many formulations, many virtues, be endowed [with potency], and suitable.
During that intercourse, he emits only wind.
Coldness, rigidity, darkness [of vision], dizziness, and drowsiness are the signs of fever produced by śleṣman and vāta.
Fats prepared with raisin and balā destroy fever.
And in the early winter, one should drink the powder of svarṇakṣīrī with hot water.
Veins, however, do not regenerate; by this, those lost through disease are also mostly explained.

2.23

The attendant should be affectionate, pure, skilled, and intelligent; / the patient should be wealthy, obedient to the physician, capable of explaining, and endowed with mental fortitude.
In that case, the restorative treatment comprises aphrodisiac enemas, food, and heart-gladdening measures; / for these, imparting strength to the semen, replenish his channels.
Delusion, drowsiness, and a coated and bitter mouth are to be known as the signs of śleṣma-pitta fever.
For strength is fully capable of expelling doṣas and imparts supreme strength.
And by the śleṣman residing there, there is itching; because of it, the nipple is bitten; / whatever he gets hold of, that he brings to his mouth; / and vāta becomes aggravated in the roots of his teeth; / then that [vāta], mingled with kapha, residing in the bone and marrow, spreading in every direction together with pitta, vitiating the bodily tissues and waste products, produces various complications as described.

2.24

Since, if the physician is deficient in qualities, the limbs are useless even if endowed with qualities, / while he, if endowed with qualities, can sustain patients even if lacking the limbs.
Then it is called an āsekya; / and he obtains an erection from tasting semen.
Likewise, coldness, profound sleep, and wakefulness during the night.
Therefore, in chronic fever dominated by vāta, they are generally not beneficial, / as they produce pain, upward movement of vāta, and abdominal distension, and increase fever.
Having powdered svarṇakṣīrī, one should macerate it in cow’s urine for three days; / this formulation, suitable for all seasons, removes waste products and doṣas for oleated persons.
And here are [verses]:

2.25

Therefore, they know him alone as the foremost factor in therapeutics.

Disease is twofold: curable and incurable; but these two are again twofold.

His penis does not become erect at all.

Undertaking abnormal activities such as singing, dancing, and laughing.

One should administer emesis as previously stated for one fit for purification,
when the doṣa is located in the stomach, protecting the strength of a strong person.

Finely powdered, combined with nīlinī, kaṭukā, mustā, and the foremost [triphalā],
with meat juice, ghee, or hot water, it is commended at all times even for unctuous persons.

And during the eruption of teeth in children, indeed nothing remains untormented.

2.26

Easily curable and curable with difficulty; manageable and beyond treatment.

In a body capable of tolerating all medicines, of a young, self-controlled man.

Pain in the eyes, calves, flanks, head, joints, and bones, and dizziness.

With sugar and honey-water in a fever characterized by intense burning and thirst.

Half a karṣa of sauvarcala salt and half a pala of amlavetasa.

Having analyzed the place, season, and other factors, medicine should be applied there.

2.27

Not affecting vital spots, with minor causes, premonitory symptoms, and symptoms, free from complications,
with non-identical affected bodily tissue, region, season, and constitution, when the factors are fully equipped.

Seeing another engaged in sexual union, the desire for intercourse arises in him.

A parched, rough tongue, and heavy, loose bodily limbs and joints.

A bolus made with triphalā, śyāmā, trivṛt, pippalī, and kesara,
which removes abdominal swelling and flank pain, is effective; and when it is digested, rice with meat broth [should be taken].

Therefore, the medicine is indeed the same, but its dosage is smaller,
due to tenderness, smallness of body, and not consuming all kinds of food.

2.28

When the planets are favorable, having a single doṣa pathway, recent, and mild,
it is easily curable, curable by gentle means, and cured in a short time.

These eight unmixed types of eunuchs are declared according to the variety of past deeds.

The appearance of greyish-red urticarial rashes and circular lesions.

Likewise, grape and dhātrī juice, or harītakī with grapes,
or the juice of āmalaka fried in ghee, relieves fever.

Having prepared the powder, it should be infused for seven days in the juice of āmalaka;
that should be used in refreshing drinks, vegetable soups, meats, and seasoning mixtures.

Therefore, the wise person should immediately administer a gentle emesis to them.

2.29

Curable with difficulty is managed by difficult, extensive means, and over a long time,
intermingled with signs of incurability, and likewise curable by surgical instruments and the like.

Unctuousness of the mouth, loss of strength, hoarseness of voice, and delirium.

One should drink triphalā with ghee and honey, or with grape juice.

Ghee or milk prepared with a decoction of śyāmā and trivṛt [may also be taken].

One should administer purgation and other treatments suitable indeed for the wet-nurse.

2.30

Manageable by wholesome regimens due to a remainder of lifespan, usually on the opposite condition;
giving slight relief, it expands with a slight cause.

When it affects a portion of her [reproductive tissue], then [she produces] dead offspring;
whatever is born to her dies repeatedly.

One should call that sannipāta fever "abhinyāsa", in which the vital essence is drained.

One afflicted with fever should drink triphalā or trāyamāṇā with milk.

That decoction reduced to one quarter, strained and combined with a tulā of jaggery.

Taken with pāṭhā and honey, they are supreme removers of defects of breast milk.

2.31

The disease does not reach complete resolution on account of past actions determining lifespan;
like one falling, the patient is supported here by beneficial regimens as if by props.

Then she gives birth to a female having the general appearance of a woman, but not an actual woman, named vārtā;
they declare that to be a female disorder.

And due to diffusiveness and subtlety, it spreads into the external pathway.

One should drink hot milk as a post-potion, or fresh grape juice;
and for those who have been purged, a gradual dietary regimen beginning with thin gruel according to sequence [is prescribed].

Taken after a month has passed in a smeared container, it overcomes anemia, edema, and abdominal swelling.

Dense, however, with honey, kāśmarya, guḍūcī, and rice-water.

2.32

The other incurable condition transcends all treatments and is to be rejected;
therefore, it should indeed be neglected, being situated in total opposition.

When the doṣa is obstructed, the digestive fire destroyed, having all the symptoms completely manifested.

For even when ripe, a doṣa situated in the alimentary tract produces disorders.

With groats of barley steamed with a decoction of śyāmā and trivṛt in water,
fermented for six days in a vessel, one should drink the resulting sauvīraka.

Solidified, with padmaka, uśīra, phalinī, and white sandalwood.

2.33

Causing dizziness, delusion, and restlessness, showing fatal signs, and destroying the eyes.
Having first examined diseases in this manner, one should then commence treatment.

Whichever part of an organ experiences affliction in the seed or the seed-part, a deformity of that very part of the organ arises;
it does not arise in the absence of affliction.

Likewise, one should drink tuṣodaka produced by fermenting with water,
with pippalī, flowers of dhātakī, and fruits of dhātrī.

2.34

Otherwise, one would surely attain the loss of personal interest, knowledge, and fame.
Even the union of two curable [diseases] becomes incurable when they are strong.

Likewise, as with vāta, pitta also causes baldness, premature graying, absence of facial hair, and tawny discoloration of skin, nails, and hair.
Śleṣman, on the other hand, causes leprosy, vitiligo, presence of teeth [at birth], and the like.
The triad causes mixed disorders.

It causes burning in the skin or the alimentary tract, beforehand or afterward.
Rājavṛkṣa is exceedingly wholesome, mild, sweet, and cooling.

Dust of dried meat of quail and partridge, liquefied with honey.

2.35

Therefore, one should know the combination of curable and incurable as incurable alone.
An incurable does not attain curability, but a curable one becomes incurable.

When following vāta, it has abnormal, dry, and reddish eyes;
when following pitta, yellowish eyes;
when following śleṣman, white eyes;
when following blood, red eyes.

He would touch a sleeping black cobra with his fingertip.
Caturaṅgula should be employed especially because of its mildness and harmlessness.

Ghee prepared with vacā, both bṛhatīs, pāṭhā, kaṭukā, ativiṣā, and ghana,
as well as sweet herbs, is perfected for the eruption of teeth.

2.36

Diseases enter a different state due to medical errors and destiny. / Better indeed is snake venom, or flaming fire and iron.

Therefore, especially by means of agreeable and beneficial [measures], one should protect her from things that harm the fetus; and in whatever manner the fetus grows, in that very manner the woman suffers a loss of strength due to the non-consumption of heavy food and the drawing away of the nutrient fluid of her food.

Now, these are the factors that harm the fetus:

namely, sexual intercourse, physical exercise, emaciation, trauma, riding in extremely jolting vehicles, staying awake at night, sleeping by day, suppression of natural urges, indigestion, exposure to sunlight and fire, anger, grief, fear, terror, fasting, squatting or sitting on uneven and hard seats, looking at or listening to chasms, wells, waterfalls, and disagreeable things, and so forth;

in brief, all food and drink that is excessively heavy, hot, sharp, or dry, and violent activities.

When the cold has subsided, sour eructation, fainting, intoxication, and thirst arise.

At will, however, one may eliminate his waste products with milk or evacuating enemas.

One should place the burden of these qualified [measures] upon sand.

One whose limbs are afflicted by vāta-fever should drink an intermediate draught.

2.37

He should not accept meat or gifts from a person who is sick and wretched; / a foremost physician considers compassion for beings as the highest duty towards the sick.

And whatever else elderly women might say:

For one who constantly sleeps on her back, the cord attached to the navel encircles the neck of the fetus and causes disaster;

one who sleeps uncovered and wanders at night gives birth to an insane child;

one fond of quarreling, an epileptic;

one addicted to sexual intercourse, an ugly, shameless, or effeminate child;

one constantly grieving, a timid, emaciated, or short-lived child;

one harboring malicious thoughts, a tormentor of others, envious, or effeminate child;

a thieving woman, a child full of trouble, treacherous, or indolent;

an intolerant woman, a fierce or deceitful child;

one addicted to sleep, a somnolent, foolish, or low-fire child;

one addicted to liquor, a thirsty, poor-memoried, or unstable child;

one constantly eating iguana meat, a child with urinary calculus or one who urinates slowly;

one constantly eating boar's meat, a red-eyed, wheezing, or excessively coarse-haired child;

one constantly eating fish meat, a child who blinks slowly or has fixed eyes;

one constantly eating sweet things, a child with a urinary disorder, a mute, or an excessively obese child;

one constantly eating sour things, a child with a bleeding disorder or an eye and skin disease;

one constantly eating salty things, a child who quickly develops wrinkles, graying hair, or baldness;

one constantly eating bitter things, a child who suffers from wasting, weak, or emaciated;

one constantly eating pungent things, a weak child with little semen or childless;

one constantly eating astringent things, a dark-complexioned child with abdominal distension or upward movement of vāta.

And whatever etiology of a disease a pregnant woman resorts to, she gives birth to an offspring abounding in that very disorder.

By this, defects of the father's semen are also explained.

Milk is wholesome for one afflicted by pitta and vāta, even for one suffering from diarrhea.

Then, having extracted the marrow, one should place it in a clean vessel.

Dry ginger, black pepper, bhārṅgī, vṛścikālī, [and] śatāvarī.

2.38

He who proceeds having accomplished his purpose surpasses everything.

Especially a woman;

and one should treat her diseases with mild, sweet, cool, and comfortable medicines, food, and regimens;

and one should not administer emesis and the like to her,

nor bloodletting,

except that from the eighth month onward, [one may administer] an asthāpāna or an anuvāsana enema;

moreover, in disorders manageable by emesis and the like, one should approach her with mild measures that achieve that purpose, [and] one should treat a pregnant woman without causing agitation, as if [holding] a vessel full of oil.

And here are verses on the subject:

Here, that which arises from trauma is of four kinds, due to wounds, excisions, burns, and the like.

Celestial water revives him and quickly restrains his fever.

Easily in a child four years old up to twelve years old.

Massage along with drinking and inunction of these is beneficial for a child.

2.38_1

Thus ends the second chapter.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit