Ashtangasamgraha 35

English (machine translation) 35

Language: English

35.1

Now, therefore, we shall explain the chapter named ‘The Procedure for Leeches’; / thus said Ātreya and the other great sages; / thus said Ātreya and the other great sages.

For extracting blood from kings, the wealthy, the timid, the delicate, children, the elderly, and women, one should employ leeches. / And one should administer purgation. / And when knots [of swelling] have gone to the head in a person who has completed the restorative dietary regimen, one should purge the head with lac, the two turmerics, viḍaṅga, dried ginger, and pūtīdāru; and he should resort to medicinal smoke, mouth gargles, and mouth rinses.

35.3

Now, they are of two kinds: poisonous and non-poisonous. / Among them, those born in decomposed corpses, urine, or feces of poisonous water snakes, frogs, fish, and the like; which are red, white, extremely black, slender, thick, agitated, slimy; thick in the middle, hairy, or marked with variegated upright stripes like Indra's bow—are poisonous. / From their bite, there is the arising of burning sensation, swelling, suppuration, itching, pustules, erysipelas, fever, fainting, and leukoderma. / In that situation, one should perform treatment that removes poison, pitta, and blood. / Those born in broad, pure waters fragrant with lotuses, water lilies, and white water lilies, and in moss; which are moss-colored, greyish, marked with blue upright stripes, and round—are non-poisonous; / or with śyāmā, suradāru, samaṅgā, kośātakī, punarnavā, and mustard.

35.4

And the maximum length of all of them is eighteen finger-breadths. / Among them, one should use those of four, five, or six finger-breadths on humans; / the others on elephants and horses. / Among them, those that are delicate, thin-skinned, small-headed, and large in the lower body are female; / the opposite are male, and they are round in front in the shape of a half-moon. / There, in conditions with abundant doṣas and in long-standing diseases, males are to be employed; / females in the opposite cases. / But taking leeches by means of wet leather and other methods, one should keep them in a new jar containing fragrant mud in its interior. / One should give them the powder of water chestnuts, kaśeruka, water lily rhizomes, moss, lotus stalks, dried meat, soft clay, and lotus seeds, along with sweet, cold, and clear water for their food and drink. / In this way, to avoid decomposition from saliva and the like, after every three days, one should remove the previous food and drink and supply fresh. / And after five days, one should transfer them to another jar of the same kind. / But fainting occurs in them from bad blood, incomplete vomiting, or frequent application. / Recognizing them by their lack of movement and absence of desire for food when placed in a vessel filled with water, one should discard them. / But as for the others: when they have passed feces in water [mixed] with a paste of turmeric and mustard, and have been refreshed again in sour gruel, buttermilk, or water, one should apply them to the site of the bite, having gently roughened it comfortably with earth and cow-dung powder, while [the patient] is sitting or lying down comfortably. / If they do not attach, one should place a few drops of milk, clarified butter, fresh butter, or blood, or make small incisions. / And placing the mouth like a horse's hoof, with raised shoulders, they bite. / And when, breathing like an infant, they drink with waves of pulsating movements of the head, then one should cover them with a wet cloth / and sprinkle them repeatedly with a little water. / And just as a swan extracts milk from a mixture of milk and water, / so does the leech first extract the corrupted blood from the agitated blood. / And when there is pricking pain or itching at the site of its bite, then one should remove it in order to protect the pure blood. / And from greed, if it does not release the bite, one should apply honey or powdered salt to its mouth; / or with the minced meats of cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, camels, horses, elephants, or mice, seasoned like veśavāra and accompanied by fat and oil.

35.5

When it has fallen off, its body smeared with rice bran and its mouth anointed with oil and salt, one should gently squeeze it along the grain from the tail to the mouth, causing it to vomit thoroughly. / Then one should preserve it as before. / And one must not apply them again for seven nights. / But if the blood [at the bite] is not purified, one should cause it to flow by slightly rubbing the bite with honey or jaggery. / And once the blood has flowed, immediately wash the bite with cold water and cover it with a cloth pad soaked in clarified butter. / And once the blood has stopped, one should apply warm poultices of astringent, sweet, and cooling substances combined with clarified butter, in order to pacify the remainder of the agitated blood; / repeatedly fomented, one should rub it gently and repeatedly with the thumb or a bamboo node, / and apply treatment appropriately, as for swelling.

35.6

In that context, one should observe the proper application and other signs just as in venesection, / and apply counter-measures. / From the evacuation of vitiated blood, there is relief of swelling and alleviation of burning, redness, and pain. / One should not extract [blood] vitiated by raktapitta with a bottle-gourd or a cupping glass on account of the contact with fire; but one may extract that vitiated by vāta and kapha. / Likewise, [one should not extract blood vitiated] by kapha with a horn because it is clotted; / but one should extract that vitiated by vāta and pitta. / Then, having scarified the body part, one should suck [the blood] out with a horn whose edge is wrapped with a fine cloth layer; / similarly with a bottle-gourd or a cupping glass containing a burning wick inside. / And here are verses: / A warm paste should be applied consisting of amṛtā, neem seeds, bhārṅgī, śyonāka, bāṇa, tālapatrī, kṛṣṇagandhā, and agaru pounded with milk; / and various unctuous, sudorific, and poultice applications prescribed for diseases of vāta. / If it does not subside in this way, then venesection [should be performed].

35.7

Having firmly and evenly tied the limb above with a rope or cloth band, / one should perform scarification, avoiding ligaments, joints, bones, and vital spots. / And one should prepare a healing oil processed with rāsnā, sarala, uśīra, viḍaṅga, madhuka, and milk.

35.8

With incisions proceeding from the lower part towards the upper, / neither deep, dense, nor oblique, and never cutting incision upon incision. / When it has ripened and been split open, the regimen prescribed for a pitta ulcer [is to be observed].

35.9

One should remove [blood] located in one part by scarification; benumbed [blood] by horn and the like; / clotted [blood] by leeches; and generalized blood by venesection; / or with nāgara, viḍaṅga, elāvāluka, cavya, palāśa stalk, and citraka, / or with bhallāta, rock salt, ajagandhā, and mustard seeds.

35.10

Scarification should be used when [blood] is clustered, leeches when it is deep, / a bottle-gourd, cupping glass, or horn when it is located in the skin, and a vein [punctured] when blood is generalized; / or the seats of vāta and the rest [should be treated] respectively with horn, leeches, and bottle-gourd. / For what remains fills up again; / then, having cooled it, one should heal it once purified with pastes topped with alkali, honey, and jaggery.

35.11

If a swelling accompanied by pricking pain and itching should arise from provocation of vāta due to cold pastes and the like in one whose blood has flowed, one should sprinkle it with hot ghee. / This very regimen applies also to fat-born [conditions]. Moreover, one should repeatedly rub a fatty nodule smeared with sesame paste, covered by a twofold cloth, with a heated plowshare or a ladel coated with lac; / and applying a sharp instrument, one should cauterize the fat as before; / or having incised it when well-ripened and washed it with urine, one should plaster it with sesame seeds mixed with honey, rock salt, suvarcikā, kāñcanakṣīrī, and orpiment, heavily combined with kṣīrabaka.

35.11_1

Thus ends the thirty-fifth chapter.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit