Ashtangasamgraha 26

English (machine translation) 26

Language: English

26.1

Now, therefore, we shall explain the chapter named "The Procedure of Sudation." / Thus said the great sages Ātreya and the others. / Thus said the great sages Ātreya and the others.

Fire-sudation is of four kinds, differentiated into thermal, poultice, liquid, and vapor. / Among them, thermal sudation is to be applied with the hands, bell-metal plates, heated iron or plows, sand, cloth, small pots, and the like, and directly by fire. / And one should apply over his wound a compress smeared with hundred-times-washed ghee, / and cure the moist wound by wound-management.

26.3

Poultice sudation, however, is [performed] with the powders of all aromatic substances, grains, mustard, ferment, vacā, devadāru, rāsnā, castor root, madhuka, śatāhvā, wine dregs, and other vāta-pacifying substances, along with grits of barley and wheat, and mincemeat of marshland blood, bile, heads, feet, and flesh; / likewise, when vāyu is associated with śleṣman, with surasā and the like; / and when associated with pitta, with padmaka and the like; / separately or combined; / with those named sālvala, thoroughly unctuous, pleasantly warm, rich in milk, vinegar, fermented grain water, salt, and curd whey, having plastered repeatedly, the limb should be tied with hot-potency, non-foul, soft-haired animal skins, or in their absence, with thick vāta-pacifying leaves, sheep's wool, or silk; kept on during the day, one should release it at night to avoid burning distress; / what was bound at night, [one should release] by day; / or according to the strength of the doṣas and time. / Likewise, oil prepared with sweet, vāta-pacifying medicaments as an errhine.

26.4

Liquid sudation, however, is of two kinds: / affusion and tub-bath. / There, by boiling vāta-alleviating substances such as śigru, varaṇa, āmrātaka, mūlaka, sarṣapa, surasā, arjaka, vāsā, bamboo, aśmantaka, aśoka, śirīṣa, arka, karañja, eraṇḍa, broken leaves of mālatī, pūtīka, daśamūla, and so forth, along with whey, water, surā, milk, śukta, and the previously mentioned substances, either separately or together according to the doṣa, and filling jars, sprinklers, or tubes, one should affuse the patient—whether massaged with oil processed with vāta-alleviating substances or unmassaged, seated or lying on a reed mat, in one part of the body or over the entire body, covered with a cloth. / One should immerse him in a large cauldron, vat, or tub filled with that same water. / Rubbing [is done] with that very [powder], along with powder of madhuka. / Covering [is done] with a cotton compress soaked in it. / Tube sudation [is performed] with tender leaves of eraṇḍa boiled with milk, and the nasal administration and head-massage as taught for harelip.

26.5

Vapor sudation is again divided into eight types: / bolus, bed, tube, solid stone, jar, pit, cottage, and jentāka. / There, taking fire-glowing clay sherds, stones, clods of earth, or iron balls with tongs, one should plunge them into water or sour liquid; with these wrapped in a damp woolen cloth, one should foment a limb that has an excess of śleṣman and fat, is painful, or has a tumor. / Or with dust, sand, dung of cattle and the like, chaff of grain, straw, or minced meat boiled with sour liquid, wrapped as before. / Or with moist dung of cattle and the like made into a bolus, or with boluses of poultice ingredients, porridge, or meat in vāta diseases; this is bolus sudation. / That itself is called composite sudation. / An ointment [is made of] ghee cooked with pattaṅga, yaṣṭī, and chinnaruhā. / Rubbing [is done] with honey, madhuka, lodhra, and resin of sarja. / And the treatment is like that of a pitta abscess.

26.6

Having thoroughly steamed the appropriate sudation substances in a covered vessel, spreading them out on a mat placed on a bed in a windless shelter, covered above with one of woolen cloth, silk, or vāta-alleviating leaves, one should foment the person well-covered with deer-skins, wool blankets, and the like; this is bed sudation. / In the case of [an ailment] born of kapha, having drained the blood with leeches or rough leaves and the like, one should rub [the area] with vyoṣa, pāṭhā, barley alkali, and svarjikā alkali mixed with honey; / or with kuṣṭha, tagara, dantī, śyāmā, biḍa salt, yellow orpiment, and viḍaṅga. / And one should administer sudation, nasal drops, smoke, and gargles that destroy kapha.

26.7

Having steamed [the substances] in the mouth of a pot as before, fitting another pot on its mouth / having a side-hole of the dimension of the base-opening of a pipe, and smearing it [to seal it], with a pipe fitted to that side-hole—made of reed-grass, hollow bamboo, split bamboo, a reed-mat, or leaves of karañja, shaped like an elephant's trunk, one vyāma or one and a half vyāmas in length, with the channels of the base and tip measuring one fourth and one eighth of its length respectively, with any apertures covered all around with vāta-alleviating leaves, bent twice or thrice—one should bring the steam to the person comfortably seated, whose body is well anointed and covered. / For the steam, travelling tortuously, has its fierce force checked and, without burning the skin, comfortably foments; this is tube sudation. / And rubbing [is performed] with the substances mentioned for kapha-born [ailments]. / The oil mentioned for water-tumors is the healing agent.

26.8

Having heated all over a solid and flat rock surface or a piece of ground measuring a man's length or more with a fire ignited with vāta-alleviating wood, removing the fire, sprinkling it with hot water, sour liquid, and the like, and spreading a covering as prescribed, one should foment [the patient] as in bed sudation; this is solid-stone sudation. / If it is deep-seated or excessively enlarged, one should burn it with alkali or with fire. Oil cooked with turmeric, lodhra, madhuka, mālatī, hareṇu, and tagara is the healing agent.

26.9

Having boiled the sudation substances in a jar as before, one should sit close to it and take in the vapor in that manner. / Or, having buried that [jar] in the ground, placing above it a seat or a bed with a cover that is not too thick and with blankets, woolen rugs, and hemp covers hanging down all around, while the person stationed there takes in the vapor, one should gently plunge fire-glowing iron balls and stones into the jar; this is jar sudation.

26.10

In a pit dug beneath the bed to twice its width, filled with either vāta-alleviating wood or dried cow-dung, burned and freed of smoke, one should foment the person resting on a well-spread bed; this is pit sudation. / And one should rub [the area] with powders of priyaṅgu, jambu seeds, pomegranate bark, triphalā, rasāñjana, rock salt, dry ginger, and mustā, mixed with honey and ghee. / A decoction of the milky-sap trees is used for holding in the mouth. / Aṇu oil is used for nasal administration.

26.11

Having constructed a cottage that is neither too high nor too wide, circular, without gaps, its walls thickly smeared with a poultice paste, surrounded on all sides by an array of portable stoves filled with smokeless, glowing coals of khadira wood, and having placed a bed in its center, one should foment the person stationed there; this is cottage sudation. / And nasal therapies and the like should be unctuous.

26.12

Now, one wishing to perform a jentāka sudation should examine the ground:
in an eastern or northern direction, on an auspicious plot of land endowed with good qualities,
or in an area of black soil,
or in [an area of] golden-colored soil, on the bank of any body of water such as a ditch, pond, and the like,
on the southern or western [bank], at an auspicious bathing place, on an even and well-proportioned plot of land;
stepping back seven or eight cubits from the water, one should construct a domed building facing east or facing north, oriented towards the water,
at the most sixteen cubits in height and breadth,
completely circular all around, finished with mud plaster, with numerous windows.
And inside this domed building, one should construct all around the wall, right up to the door, a circular platform one cubit in width and height.
And in the middle of this domed building, leaving a forearm’s length [free], one should construct a clay stove-pillar two men tall, shaped like a baking-pan, with many tiny perforations, and equipped with a lid.
And filling it with wood of khadira or aśvakarṇa, one should kindle [the fire].
When one knows that the wood is thoroughly burned, free from smoke, that the entire fire-house is heated through by the fire, and endowed with heat suitable for sudation—
then one should lead into it the patient, whose body has been anointed with a vāta-pacifying oil and covered with a cloth.
One should instruct him: "O gentle one, enter for your welfare and health.
And having entered, having climbed onto this platform, you should lie comfortably on one flank or the other.
And even when seized with sweating and fainting, you must not leave this platform in a hurry before your breath [returns].
For slipping down from this space on the platform and failing to find the door, overcome by sweating and fainting, you would immediately lose your life.
Therefore, on no account should you leave this platform.
When you know yourself to be free of congestion, your sweat and slime thoroughly flowed out, all your bodily channels cleared, your body made light, and obstruction, stiffness, numbness, pain, and heaviness gone—
then you should make your way to the door by following along the platform.
And having come out, even though excessively sweated, you should not suddenly plunge into cold water, in order to protect your eyes.
When thoroughly sweated, his heat and exhaustion having subsided after a muhūrta, sprinkled properly with comfortably warm water, he should eat." Thus ends jentāka-sveda.
Rubbing [the gums] is done with pippalī, rock salt, tuttha, lodhra, pataṅga, srotaja, mustā, and triphalā.
And he should constantly inhale unctuous smoke, partake of an unctuous and sweet diet, and be dedicated to bloodletting.
One should boil a prastha of oil with one pala each of candana, padmaka, madhuka, vidārī, kaśeruka, blue water lily, raisins, jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, and sugar, along with milk and twice the amount of meat broth.
Applied as a nasal drop and gargle, this is exceedingly strengthening to the teeth, eyes, and hearing.

26.13

Among these, one should particularly apply heat and steam sudation in [excess of] kapha,
a poultice in vāta,
and when mixed somewhat with pitta, liquid [sudation] in either [condition].
And having cauterized unarrested blood, one should treat it like a wound.

26.14

Non-fire [sudation], on the other hand, is [performed] when vāta is obstructed by fat and kapha, by means of a windless room, heavy coverings, abundant drinking of wine, exercise, hunger, sunshine, wrestling, walking, carrying loads, anger, and fear;
and a poultice when combined with pitta, by the very method previously mentioned, devoid of fire.
And here there are [verses]:
Rubbing [the teeth] is done with the powder of mūṣākūrpa and pāṭalī bark.
And he should always make use of tooth-cleansing and the like,
and perform what has been prescribed for tooth sensitivity.

26.15

In a windless room, lubricated internally and externally, his food digested, he should undergo sudation,
[measured as] medium, inferior, or most inferior according to the disease, the patient, the region, and the season.

26.16

One afflicted with kapha [undergoes] dry [sudation]; an unctuous person, dry; and in kapha-vāta, dry and unctuous.
When vāta has gone to the stomach, and kapha is located in the colon,
or filling [the ear/tooth] with saptaccharda or arka milk,
[or with] mustard oil or karañja oil.

26.17

preceded by dryness or preceded by unction, according to the seat [of the doṣa].
[Sudation should be] slight on the groins, very slight on the eyes, scrotum, and heart, or not at all.
Or powder of kunduruṣka;
and oil prepared with these very [drugs] is a gargle.
When the flesh at the root is firm and deep-seated, bloodletting is [done] when it is painful;
and when [the tooth] is broken, cracked, discolored, numb, mobile, and painful,

26.18

Having covered the eyes with lotuses, water lilies, and the like, or with a paste of roasted flour barley,
[sudation should be cooled] with cold garlands of pearls, lotuses, white water lilies, blue water lilies, or vessels [filled with cold water].
Pressing [the tooth] with a tooth extractor, one should strike it out with a mallet or a stone,
but not an upper tooth.

26.19

And while one is being sweated, one should touch the heart frequently with hands wet with water.
When cold and colic have ceased, when sweating is complete, and softness of the limbs has arisen,
he should be gently massaged, bathed, and then follow the regimen of unction.

26.20

Aggravation of pitta and blood, thirst, fainting, weakness of the voice and limbs, dizziness,
pain in the joints, fever, and the appearance of dusky or red patches,

26.21

and vomiting arise from excessive sudation; there, the remedy is astringent [stambhana] treatment.
And in those afflicted by poison, caustic alkali, fire, diarrhea, vomiting, or urinary disorder,

26.22

Sudation is heavy, sharp, and hot; astringent treatment is generally the opposite.
And a medicine that is liquid, stable, flowing, unctuous, dry, or subtle,
and cold regimen especially [should be used].

26.23

Sudation [is said to be heavy, sharp, hot...], whereas astringent treatment is smooth, dry, subtle, flowing, and liquid;
generally bitter, astringent, and sweet in summary.
And rubbing [is done] with these very [drugs] along with honey;
oil prepared with the sweet group is a nasal drop;
rubbing with tejovatī, the three pungents, the two kinds of turmeric, kuṣṭha, pāṭhā, kaṭurohiṇī, lodhra, samaṅgā, and mustā cures itching, swelling, pain, and bleeding in all diseases of the gums;
likewise, a medicinal pill [prepared] with these very drugs—the three pungents, barley alkali, realgar, rock salt, and dārvī bark—cures all mouth diseases.

26.24

He may be restrained [stambhita] when strength is regained, through the subsiding of the specified illness,
by stiffness, contraction of skin and ligaments, tremors, and rigidity of the heart, speech, and jaw.
Then comfortably warm ghee scum or oil is used as a gargle;
rubbing [the teeth] is done with black pepper, kuṣṭha, madhuka, priyaṅgu, lac, pataṅga, red ochre, rasāñjana, dry ginger, and rock salt, combined with honey and ghee scum;
oil cooked with pṛthakparṇī, viḍaṅga, vidārī, madhuka, payasyā, and suradāru is used as a gargle and nasal drop;
or ghee prepared with the sweet group itself, and bloodletting again and again.

26.25

One should declare a person excessively arrested by dusky feet, lips, skin, and hands.
One should not administer sudation to those who are extremely obese, unctuous-depleted, weak, or prone to fainting,
or to those who require astringing, the emaciated, the wasted, the exhausted, or those suffering from alcohol disorders,

26.26

nor to those suffering from visual impairment, abdominal disease, erysipelas, leprosy, wasting, or gout,
nor to those who have drunk milk, curds, unctuous substances, or honey, or who have undergone purgation.
Rubbing [should be performed] with vṛścikālī, kuṣṭha, kaṭukā, and barley-ash.
And one should prevent that [inflammation] from suppurating by means of dry, cooling measures applied internally and externally.
When suppurated, however, incision [is indicated]; when deep-seated, cauterization.
A gargle consists of a decoction of triphalā, jasmine, and ariṣṭa.
Nasal medication is ghee scum prepared with licorice.

26.27

nor to those afflicted with prolapsed or burned rectum, exhaustion, anger, grief, or fear,
nor to those suffering from hunger, thirst, jaundice, anemia, urinary disorders, or afflicted by pitta.
A decoction of those very [herbs] serves as a gargle,
or of milk-trees, kiṃśuka, and āmalaka.
Nasal medication is oil prepared with red ochre, blue water lily, madhūka, sārivā, sandalwood, prapauṇḍarīka, sugar, anantā, lodhra, and agaru.

26.28

nor to a pregnant woman, a menstruating woman, or a newly delivered woman, or [only] mildly in an acute emergency;
[it is indicated] in dyspnea, cough, catarrh, hiccup, flatulence, and constipation,
in hoarseness, vāta disorders, hemiplegia, and apastambha.
However, having grasped what is enlarged with a hook or forceps and cut it with a round-tipped knife, one should rub it with sharp substances.
A mouth-gargle is made with pungent and sharp substances, or oil dusted with barley-ash.

26.29

In aching of limbs, stiffness of the waist, flanks, back, belly, and jaw,
enlargement of the scrotum, leg cramps, tetanus, and vātakaṇṭaka.
A powder of lodhra, pataṅga, mañjiṣṭhā, and licorice is used for rubbing.
Nasal medication is oil cooked with kākolī, licorice, and sugar.

26.30

In dysuria, tumors, glandular swellings, suppression of semen, and gout,
in tremors, swelling, numbness, stiffness, yawning, and heaviness of limbs.
[A sinus that is] crooked, deep-seated, or has multiple tracts should be filled with jaggery, honey, or beeswax.
Then one should hold a gargle of decoction of milk-trees,
or with oil prepared from them.

26.31

And in pains of the ears, nape of the neck, head, trunk, shanks, feet, and thighs,
one should apply sudation appropriately according to the classification of those medicines.

26.32

Once sweated, one should eat wholesome food in accordance with the doṣas and disease.
On that day, one whose whole body has been sweated should strictly avoid physical exercise.

26.33

Sudation produces kindling of the digestive fire, softness, clarity of the skin, appetite for food, and purity of the bodily channels;
it removes stiffness and drowsiness, and quickly restores movement to immobilized joints.
One should practice medicated smoking, bloodletting, and nasal medication,
and attend to the management of the sinus.

26.34

Moistened by oleation, whether situated in the trunk, in the bodily tissues, adhering to the bodily channels, or stationed in the extremities and bones,
those doṣas, liquefied by sudations and brought to the trunk, are thoroughly eliminated by the purifications.
In [conditions] born of pitta, when scarified and blood has flowed, one should perform rubbing, gargling, and nasal medication with sweet substances;
likewise in kapha-born ones, with sharp substances.

26.34_1

Thus ends the twenty-sixth chapter.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit