Ashtangasamgraha 32

English (machine translation) 32

Language: English

32.1

Now we shall explain the chapter on the procedure for eye-drops (āścyotana) and collyrium (añjana).
Thus spoke the great seers headed by Ātreya.
Thus spoke the great seers headed by Ātreya.

Instillation of eye-drops is the primary therapy in all eye diseases.
And through various preparations of substances, it destroys redness, tearing, friction, pain, burning, pricking, piercing pain, suppuration, swelling, and itching.
When [symptoms] are latent, an application of paste to the eye and eyelashes, avoiding the eyelids, possesses the same virtues;
and that is called biḍālaka.

32.3

The improper time for both is the night.
The proper time is all daytime, or when pain arises.
For one lying down in a draft-free shelter, having cleansed the eye and placed a vessel near the outer corner of the eye, having opened [the eyelids] with the left hand, one should instill eight, ten, or twelve drops into the area of the inner canthus from a distance of two finger-breadths with the right hand using a cotton wick soaked by means of a mother-of-pearl ladle.
In this way, redness and other [reactions] do not arise from striking the eye by falling drops.
And after instillation, one should wipe it with a soft cloth;
and in vāta and kapha, one should foment it with another [cloth] soaked in hot water.
And the eye-drop for the two of them is lukewarm;
in pitta, blood, and poison, very cold.
And one should not administer it excessively sharp, hot, cold, excessive, deficient, or unfiltered.
Excessively sharp or hot produces burning, redness, suppuration, and weakness of vision;
excessively cold produces stiffness, tearing, friction, and throbbing pain;
excessively copious produces astringency of the lids, contraction, twitching, wide-opening, intolerance to draft, and friction;
a deficient measure does not pacify the disease;
unfiltered causes tearing, friction, and pains.
In that regard, dislocation of a joint is of six kinds: crushed, separated, depressed, displaced upward, displaced sideways, and twisted.

32.4

Medicine applied to the eye, having entered the eye-socket, joints, veins, the vascular junction of the head (śṛṅgāṭaka), the nose, and the channels of the mouth, expels the doṣa that has risen upward.

32.5

And when, by means of instillation of eye-drops in eye diseases arising from pitta, śleṣman, and blood, for one purified by cleansing therapies, the signs of ripeness are observed by thickness of eye rheum, sliminess, abatement of itching, swelling, fading, and cessation of redness;
then collyrium should be applied when the disease resides only in the eye;
not during the rise of a doṣa's bout;
and not when the doṣa has not been evacuated;
for there, because of agitation of the doṣa, there would be an increase of redness and the like, as well as suppuration of the eye and occurrence of visual blur.
In separation, there is slight swelling, constant pain, and deformity of the joint;
in depression, there is separation of the joint and severe pain;
in upward displacement, there is transcendence of both bones of the joint and pain;
in sideways displacement, there is lateral shifting of one bone and extreme pain;
and in twisting, there is asymmetry of the limb and pain from the movement to the side of the joint.

32.6

That collyrium is of four kinds: scarifying (lekhana), healing (ropaṇa), oleating (snehana), and soothing (prasādana).
There, scarifying is done with the five tastes beginning with sour, in pterygium (arma) on the sclera and the like.
Namely:
crab-like, crooked, cracked, spiralled, splintered bone, horse-ear shaped, flattened, torn, pulverized, completely broken off, residual, and entered into the marrow.

32.7

Healing [collyrium] is done with bitter and astringent [substances] along with unctuous elements in ophthalmia (abhiṣyanda).

32.8

Oleating [collyrium] is done with clarified butter, muscle-fat, and the like in vāta visual blur (timira) and the like.

32.9

Soothing [collyrium] is done with sweet and cold [substances] along with unctuous elements at the end of ophthalmia, when vision is damaged by a solar eclipse, lightning strike, falling of a thunderbolt, seeing spirits, fiends, or supernatural sights, and in the regimen for the healthy.
Swollen as if filled with bristles, wide, singly ruptured, cracked.

32.10

The very soothing collyrium in powder form, when applied to an eye tormented by sharp collyrium, obtains the designation 'counter-collyrium' (pratyañjana).
Alternatively, collyrium is sixfold according to the division of each taste;
or it is just twofold: sharp and mild.

32.11

The preparation, however, is threefold:
pill, concentrated decoction, and powder.
They are strong in the order mentioned; therefore, one should apply them respectively in severe, moderate, and mild diseases.
Among them, the dose of the pill is the size of a hareṇu pea for a sharp [formula];
of the concentrated decoction, the size of a viḍaṅga seed;
and twice that for a mild one.
The powder is two probes [in quantity];
for a mild one, three probes.

32.12

One should prepare a sweet [collyrium] in a gold vessel;
a sour one in silver;
a salty one in [a horn of] a ram's horn;
a bitter one in bronze;
a pungent one in a lapis lazuli or stone vessel;
an astringent one in a copper or iron vessel;
and a cold one in any of reed, plakṣa, lotus, crystal, conch shell, and the like.
In this way, its qualities do not deteriorate.
And the stone for grinding the wick should be very smooth, depressed in the center, not flaking, five fingers long, and three fingers wide.

32.13

The probes are five: made of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and the finger.
Among them, the first two are used for soothing and oleating collyrium;
the middle one for scraping;
the last two for healing.
Because of its softness, the finger is foremost here;
therefore, it alone should be used in a painful eye.
The others are ten fingers [long], thick as a royal bean,
very smooth, slender in the middle, bud-shaped at the two ends, and rounded like a pea.

32.14

Now, the collyrium should be applied at a time that is neither too cold nor too hot, free of clouds and wind, and at both twilights,
or continuously, or not at all.

32.15

And in the painful eye first, afterwards in the other;
otherwise, when it is constricted inside from the alarm of the collyrium, the medicine would not properly enter.
So likewise, in excessive cold and the like, there is an increase of the disorder due to the agitation of the respective doṣas.

32.16

And it must not be applied to those who are angry, frightened, anxious, grieving, exhausted, who have just eaten, who have just been purged, who have drunk medicinal smoke or liquor, who have received nasal therapy, who have stayed awake at night, who are suppressing natural urges, weeping, thirsty, feverish, vomiting, suffering, whose eyes are fatigued or injured, who are suffering from headache, who have just washed their heads, and when the sun has not risen.
In these, the heat rising upwards from the collyrium would cause irritation, lacrimation, pain, cloudiness, burning sensation, redness, rheum, pricking pain, difficult opening [of the eyes], swelling, corneal opacity, cataracts, and the like.

32.17

Now, while the patient is seated evenly and comfortably, [the physician,] sitting down, should lift the upper eyelid with the left thumb and lead the collyrium below the black part [of the eye] from the inner canthus to the outer canthus—neither too little nor excessive, neither too thin nor too thick, neither dry nor coarse, neither fast nor delayed, not with a crooked gaze, without shaking, without friction, and without excessive pressure.
With powder, however, one should move back and forth;
otherwise, redness, lacrimation, corneal opacity, and the like will arise.
Then, in order for the collyrium to spread, without opening the eye, he should slowly move the eyeball inside.
In this way, it follows the eye.
He should move the eyelids slightly,
but he should not suddenly open, squeeze, or wash [the eyes],
for fear of arresting the doṣas agitated by the steam.
Moreover:

32.18

When the eye is relieved, with the irritation from the medicine gone,
he should then wash it with water appropriate to the disease, the doṣa, and the season.

32.19

Then, holding the right eye at the upper eyelid
with the left thumb wrapped in a cloth, it should be slowly cleansed all around.

32.20

In the same manner, the left eye should be cleansed with the right thumb.
Otherwise, from the collyrium remaining on the eyelid, the doṣa would produce diseases.
And on this there are [verses]:

32.21

And at the end of a sharp collyrium, he should make him inhale medicinal smoke.
In one whose [eyes] after application of collyrium have itching, stiffness, and coating,
he should again apply a sharp collyrium or medicinal smoke.
This indeed is the symptom of an under-purged eye and its management.
From excessive purgation there arise burning, pricking pain, colic, stiffness, friction, lacrimation, severe awakening, astringent eyelids, headache, and weakness of vision.
There, a cold eye drop or a counter-collyrium [is indicated].
From proper purgation, there is alleviation of the disease according to each case,
easy opening and closing [of the eyelids], and tolerance to wind and sunlight.
And on this there are [verses]:
In healing and other [treatments] as well, one should likewise consider formulations and the like,
and in them one should counteract according to the arising of the doṣas.
One should draw out what is displaced downward and turn upward what has gone downward,
by pulling, pressing, elevating, contracting the skin, and bandaging.

32.21_1

Thus ends the thirty-second chapter.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit