Ashtangasamgraha 4

English (machine translation) 4

Language: English

4.1

Now we shall explain the seasonal regimen. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others. / Thus spoke the great seers Ātreya and the others.

4.2

Time indeed is the Lord, without beginning or end, conforming to the accumulated actions [of living beings]. / Under its influence, the Sun and other [heavenly bodies] and the great elements such as space, transforming this way and that, assume the role of causes and conditions for the birth and death of living beings, and for the impairment or prosperity of the seasons, tastes, potencies, doṣas, bodily strength, and constitutions.
And in this context, if a woman should have pain in the bladder, flanks, pelvis, and vaginal orifice, along with the appearance of menstrual blood, / one should treat her, lying on a bed with a soft, comfortable, and cool spread, with her head slightly lowered, by means of cold poultices, affusions, and the like.
Also in diarrhea caused by āma, vomiting, poisoning, jaundice, and fevers;
with unctuous peyā, vegetable broths, meat broths, and the like, prepared with vāta-pacifying substances.
One should boil eight palas [of medicines] and half a tulā of goat's meat in water until a fourth part remains;
three times a day, swept clean and sprinkled, with fire kept ever nearby;

4.3

It is divided twelvefold according to the divisions of mātrā, kāṣṭhā, kalā, nāḍikā, muhūrta, yāma, day-and-night, fortnight, month, season, solstice, and year.
One should plaster all around below the navel with ghee washed a thousand times.
One should soak a tampon with very cold ghee prepared with madhuka and place it near the vagina.
One should irrigate with cow's milk, madhuka water, or a decoction of the nyagrodha group.
And one should insert into the vagina tampons soaked in their fresh juices, / or a tampon of ghee prepared from milk boiled with their shoots.
Kṣudraka, tamaka, chinna, mahān, and ūrdhva as the fifth;
with enemas when feces and flatus are obstructed; but with post-meal remedies when accompanied by pitta;
combined with pastes, jaggery, honey, ghee, and oil, pleasantly warm and mixed with salt;
with evil spirits destroyed by lamps burning with pestilence-destroying oils;

4.4

There, a blink of an eye is a mātrā; fifteen of them are a kāṣṭhā; thirty of them are a kalā; twenty of them with a tenth part are a nāḍikā; two nāḍikās are a muhūrta; four of them minus a quarter, when day and night are equal in the division of the zodiac, are a yāma; with four of those, a day and a night [are formed]; fifteen days and nights are a fortnight; two fortnights are a month, which ends with the bright fortnight; with two of those, beginning with Mārgaśīrṣa, in order, there are six seasons named hemanta, śiśira, spring, summer, rainy season, and autumn; among them, the three beginning with śiśira are the northern course of the sun and the period of absorption (ādāna); the remaining are the southern course and the period of release (visarga); these two, absorption and release, constitute a year.
Or simply with ghee derived from milk alone;
and one should make her lick the filaments of lotus, blue water-lily, and white water-lily, mixed with honey and sugar.
Vitiated, vitiating the channels that carry breath, water, and food,
A prastha prepared from ghee, which removes vāta-cough and stimulates the digestive fire;
And in whichever enema a paste is not prescribed, one should everywhere provide this very one in it;
Anointed with aged ghee, bathed with pleasantly warm water,

4.5

Between the two, the period of absorption is of the nature of fire. In that period indeed, the sun, occupying the course and nature of time, with its disk of intensely hot rays, and the winds, fierce and dry due to contact with it, drying up the soma-born quality, taking away the unctuousness of the world, having brought about dryness in the order of the seasons, and intensifying the dry tastes—bitter, astringent, and pungent—bring about debility in human beings.
Or a paste of the bark and sprouts of the nyagrodha group;
or one should make her drink the blood of a rabbit, blackbuck, or deer, along with honey;
or ṛddhi, vidārī, and jīvantī with milk;
or blue water-lily, sugar, burnt earth, sandalwood, and the like, or rice grains, roots of water-lily, unripe udumbara fruits, and shoots of nyagrodha with goat's milk.
One should cook a prastha of ghee with two śāṇas each [of the drugs] combined with pañcakola;
Combined with the three unctuous substances, it is proclaimed as an excellent evacuating enema that cures all vāta diseases.
With pāribhadraka, kaṭvaṅga, jambū, varaṇa, and kattṛṇa;

4.6

The period of release, however, is of the nature of the moon. In that period, when the power of the sun moving in the southern course is overcome by the clouds, wind, and rain of the time and course, and the moon is unchecked in strength, constantly replenishing [the world] with its cold rays, and the heat of the world is pacified by the celestial rains, the non-dry tastes—sour, salty, and sweet—increase in regular order, and human strength is built up.
Or milk boiled with the jīvanīya [group of herbs];
one should feed her very cool boiled red śāli rice along with milk boiled with balā, atibalā, śāli, ṣaṣṭika, sugar cane root, and kākolī, mixed with honey and sugar;
or with the meat broth of arid animals having cold potency;
and one should administer treatments for bleeding disorders, avoiding purification;
and gentle, pleasing stories.
Distension and splitting pain in the temples, there due to exertion and overeating;
which cures cough, asthma, heart and flank pain, disease of the grahaṇī, and abdominal swelling;
A prastha from meat broth, combined with half a prastha of goat meat broth, is to be cooked again until it equals a prastha;
With kākajaṅghā, mahāśvetā, kapittha, and latex-bearing trees;

4.7

And on this it is said:
In hemanta and śiśira strength is at its highest, at [the beginning of] release and [the end of] absorption; in autumn and spring it is medium; in the rainy season and summer it is low.
Or with tāmravallī, aśmantaka, śatāvarī, and payasyā;
or with the vidāryādi group;
or ghee prepared with the fresh juice of śvadaṃṣṭrā and milk;
or prepared with onion juice along with honey.
The two pāṭhās, devadāru, ṛddhi, svaguptā, agnika, and gokṣura;
It will be a digestive stimulant, a giver of muscle and strength, and it immediately restores strength to the eyes;
With the skins of leopard, tiger, snake, lion, and bear, mixed with ghee,

4.8

Directions and the sun are grey with smoke and dull with dust, their discs obscured by frost;
From the coldness of the wind, the north brings goosebumps.
Seizing the head and neck, and afflicting the chest and flanks;
and vidārī, one prastha of ghee cooked with a karṣa measure of each of those;
rāsnā, balā, chinnaruhā, aśvagandhā, punarnavā, āragvadha, devadāru,
with kuṣṭha and with ghee, this fumigation liberates from all seizing spirits.

4.9

Lodhra, priyaṅgu, punnāga, and lavalī are radiant with flowers;
elephants, goats, buffaloes, horses, crows, and boars are passionate.
There, one should employ dry and cold things.
And it produces an intense, violent attack of asthma that distresses life.
Abdominal swelling, anorexia, pain in the liver, spleen, head, heart, and flanks;
vacā, śatāhvā, hapuṣā, priyaṅgu, yaṣṭī, kaṇā, seeds of vatsaka, and mustā;
birch bark, ghee: this fumigation destroys all seizing spirits.

4.10

covered with sheets of snow, with fish and birds hidden away, / the rivers steaming and warm: such are the waters of wells at the arrival of winter. // First [he should prescribe] fasting; then a drink made from a decoction of durālabhā, amṛtā, uśīra, parpaṭaka, ghana, candana, ativiṣā, balā, kaṭvaṅga, and dhānyāka; / a gruel made of wild grains, śāli, or ṣaṣṭika rice, and food with soups of mung beans and the like; / but once the āma is conquered, unctuous and cold [substances] as before. // Lying down, he breathes with difficulty; seated, he finds relief. // In a droṇa of water, one should cook rāsnā, the ten roots, and śatāvarī, / measuring one pala [each], along with two kuḍavas of horse gram, jujube, and barley. // Mixed with honey, with oil, and with urine, this evacuating enema conquers [it], scraping and stimulating the digestive fire. // With śṛgālavinnā and mustā made into a paste, one should cook ghee; / mixed with the juice of the ten roots and milk, it is supreme in overcoming grahas.

4.11

Internal bodily heats, struck by the cold wind in winter and entering inside, / make the digestive fire powerful as its heat is gathered in the belly. // For the sake of purifying the womb and abdomen, and for making her forget her distress, / one should treat a woman who does not drink liquor with gruels of uddālaka and the like, mixed with sesame, combined with digestive substances, and free of fat and salt, for as many days as there are months [of pregnancy]. // With dried mouth, breathing repeatedly, trembling, he longs for warmth. // With equal parts of milk and one pala each of the jīvanīya [drugs], having examined it properly, // [it cures] abdominal swellings, urinary calculi, scrotal enlargement, assimilation disorders, and diseases arising from the rectum, as well as various conditions born of kapha and vāta. // In a decoction, one should cook ghee with ground sārivā, the three pungents, and citraka.

4.12

During the releasing period, [the digestive fire] of strong persons can naturally digest heavy [substances]; / for its proper employment, one should apply nourishing foods and drinks. // For through a residue of unformed embryo, harm would continually attach again and again; / therefore, one should treat [her] with sharp [substances], leaving no residue. // Thereafter, with drinks of unctuous substances, with enemas, and with foods that are digestive-fire-stimulating, digestive, vitality-promoting, nourishing, sweet, and vāta-relieving. // That tamaka [asthma] is manageable; or, when fresh and in a strong person, it can be curable. // It conquers the five kinds of cough, head-tremor, and pain in the vagina and groins, / diseases of the whole body and of a single limb, along with splenic disorders and upward-moving vāta. // The meat juice, along with the paste, is desired for strength, complexion, muscle, semen, digestive fire, eye disease, and headache. // With granthika and indrayava, it is constantly wholesome for an infant; / it removes all diseases and grahas, stimulates the digestive fire, and bestows strength and complexion.

4.13

Otherwise, without fuel, it would sink; or, due to extreme flare-up, / it would also cook his bodily tissues; then, from their depletion, the wind [increases]. // For that reason, vāyu, vitiated and taking hold of pitta and śleṣman, stands compressing the embryo's rasa-bearing vessel. // Then, when that vessel is covered over by the doṣas, like a water-channel by grass and leaves, because the rasa is not carried properly, the embryo, failing to attain growth, either subsides or withers away. // With the seeds of aśoka, kṣavaka, vermifuge, añjana, and padmaka, // combined with ghee and honey, the evacuating enema is wholesome for vātarakta, erysipelas, and voice loss. // One should cook ghee mixed with vacā, aśvagandhā, and surasā.

4.14

Companion to the fire, the cold [vāta] would become especially vitiated in the cold; / therefore, in winter, one should resort to unctuous, sweet, sour, and salty tastes. // And the belly does not grow: / they call that [condition] upaviṣṭaka. // But when every month, or every day, there is a discharge of menstrual fluid, and it is not very small, while the diminishing embryo twitches slightly only after a long time, / and the belly, though enlarged, decreases: / that is upaśuṣkaka and nāgodara. // Possessed of sweating and fainting, possessed of abdominal distension, with burning and obstruction in the bladder, // afflicted with cough, he should lick [it] and drink goat's milk afterward. // With sugar, honey, and ghee, well-cooled, accompanied by the jīvanīya [drugs], it destroys pitta disorders. // And one should employ whichever ghees have been stated in the science of spirits.

4.15

And the boiled meats of burrowing, aquatic, marshland, and predatory animals, / and freshly made liquors derived from molasses and flour. // Then, even after a host of years, the woman certainly gives birth. // With mouth dried, babbling, wretched, devoid of luster, senseless. // One should drink bhāṅgī and arkakṣīra, or that powder with a dose of ghee, / in a cough born of vāta accompanied by kapha, in asthma, hiccup, and impaired digestive fire. // Milk boiled with pastes of śrāvaṇī, mudgaparṇī, balā, svaguptā, and madhuyaṣṭī. // There, an auspicious vessel with unbroken grains of rice should be set down, accompanied by a fee.

4.16

Preparations of black gram, sugarcane, and milk, muscle fat, oil, fresh cooked rice; / exercise, unction with fragrant paste, oil-massage, sudation, smoking, eye-salve, and sunlight. // Agitated, enraged, like a rutting bull continually: // in cough born of vāta, he should lick karkaṭaśṛṅgī with oil. // With oil prepared with yaṣṭīmadhu, sugar candy, honey, and ghee, [administered] cold; // a white flower, an oblation, incense, dūrvā grass, and white mustard seeds.

4.17

Pleasantly warm water for cleansing rituals, underground chambers, / and a bed provided with a fire-pan, furnished with a patterned cloth and a woolen blanket. // Hurling his chest, with bound urine and feces, his voice shattered. // One should have him lick the powdered [ingredients] with aged jaggery and oil. // In abdominal swelling, diarrhea, dizziness, dysuria, wasting, and depletion of vital essence and strength; // seated, having taken the protective amulet, one should bind [it] around with it.

4.18

His body anointed with saffron, or with heavy agallochum, / covered with light and warm [garments], he should sleep at the proper time, perfumed with incense. // And he should drink kṛṣṇā with lukewarm water and rock salt. // Having cooked horse gram and bṛhatī in water, there should be ten prasṛtas of that juice; // prepared according to the rule, unconquered even by all spirits.

4.19

The winter wind kept off by embrace of the body of a plump woman. / In the dewy season, the cold is greater, born of clouds, wind, and rain. // Likewise, it promotes the growth of milk, tissue juices, and the unformed embryo; / and feeding with these very substances, such as ghee and the like; // providing for a well-nourished [woman] through constant avoidance of vehicles and conveyances, and through nourishing measures. // With the openings of his channels covered by śleṣman, afflicted by enraged wind. // Or he should drink jujube-marrow with liquor, curd, and whey, / or paste of pippalī fried in ghee with rock salt. // Of honey, oil, [the drug] named phala, alkaline water, and mustard oil. // Lakṣmaṇā, that named sahadevā, nāgadantī, and kaṭambharā.

4.20

And roughness arises from the dehydrating period (ādāna); therefore, the previous regimen should be followed even more intensely.
In spring, the wind is from the south and the sun has reddish rays.
Then one should give an unctuous enema (anuvāsana) prepared with the Vidāryādi group of drugs.
And one should stay in a windless place.
In pitta, one should drink milk prepared with a decoction of madhuka and vidārī.
Having pounded three fat hens and an āḍhaka of dehusked black gram in a mortar with milk and water, and having cooked the broth of either francolin or partridge with that liquid and with ghee, one should administer it to drink in order to nourish the fetus of an Upaviṣṭaka pregnancy and to plump up an Upaśuṣkaka pregnancy.
One should drink gruel prepared with goat's ghee, milk, and vitalizing drugs.
And, consuming milk and meat broth, [one should use] the medicated smokes mentioned for hiccup and dyspnea.
Kharanāsā, mṛgorvāru, mahāśvetā, and śatāvarī;

4.21

Trees with fresh sprouts, bark, and leaves; clear directions;
adorned with woodland rows of kiṃśuka, aśoka, mango, and other trees.
That should be taken in the morning followed by a drink of milk.
And one should eat with the broth of undeveloped fetuses [of animals].
And one should eat those very [items] fried right there.
And the meats of aquatic animals.
In kapha, however, one should drink clear surā liquor along with a side dish of wetland or aquatic meat for three nights, five nights, or seven nights.
One should feed those [patients] beneficial things with the broths of black gram and ātmaguptā, or with their pulses.
And the two pañcamūlas, each a pala in weight, and eight crushed, washed fruits;
In its absence, a strong linen thread, chanting this mantra:

4.22

Crowded with the sweet, indistinct chatter of flocks of cuckoos and bees;
Kapha accumulated during late winter (śiśira) is mobilized by the rays of the sun.
Then in the morning one should eat a ball the size of a bael fruit, followed by a drink of boiled and cooled goat's milk.
Or right here one should also place a vessel containing powder of jujube.
If there is no growth in this manner, one should purge with sharp drugs and cause [the placenta] to descend with substances that expel the afterbirth.
Hiccup is born of food (bhaktodbhavā), small (kṣudrā), doubled (yamalā), and great (mahatī).
With rāsnā, cumin, pṛthakparṇī, palāśa, śaṭī, and pauṣkara;
That milk, boiled with two āḍhakas of water until only the milk remains, filtered through a clean cloth;
For the protection of children, [this amulet] which is auspicious and fashioned by the ancient sages;

4.23

Afflicting the digestive fire at that time, it produces many diseases.
Therefore, in this [season], sharp emesis, medicated smoking, gargles, and nasal therapies [are indicated].
There, one should feed [her] boiled red śāli rice with the broth of any one of hawk, osprey, cow, fish, monitor lizard, peacock, rooster, or francolin, abundant with ghee, or with black gram soup rich in ghee.
Or one should make [her] drink roasted grain flour mixed with sesame, black gram, and unripe bael fruit together with milk.
Or grape wine (mārdvīka) taken with a relish of fattening meat.
And one should repeatedly massage her abdomen, groins, thighs, hips, flanks, and back with oil.
And one should gladden her again and again.
And one should attend to what was previously stated.
Moreover, for a woman who has reverse movement of vāta (udāvarta) and constipation, one should treat her with unctuous food and drink that pacify vāta.
Afflicted by food and drinks that are dry, sharp, rough, and unwholesome;
Which destroys pain in the hips, heart, flanks, and abdomen, as well as dyspnea and hiccup;
Combined with the pastes of ajwain and madana, neither too hot nor too cold, smeared with jaggery and rock salt;
Beings holding thunderbolts and lightning bolts, following masses of clouds;

4.24

One should resort to exercise, dry massage, honey, barley, wheat, and game animals;
and enjoy friends, pleasure gardens, and charming young women.
If that is not successful, one should extract the juice of the roots of vīraṇa, śāli, kuśa, kāśa, sugarcane, vetasa, and parivyādha, and of bhūtīka, anantā, kāśmarya, parūṣaka, madhūka, madhuka, and grapes, with milk and half as much water; and with that, combined with a paste of priyāla, bibhītaka marrow, and sesame seeds, slightly salty and warm, one should administer an evacuating enema (nirūha).
And when her constipation has ceased, after she has bathed and eaten, one should administer an unctuous enema (anuvāsana) in the evening with that very oil.
And that which subsides through wholesome food and drink is born of food (annajā).
One should drink thin gruel mixed with an equal part of sesame seeds, or a rice-milk porridge with rock salt,
or [gruel] with fish, rooster, or wild boar meat, accompanied by ghee and rock salt.
One who knows the procedure, destroying diseases caused by all combinations of doṣas, should administer an evacuating enema according to rule.
King Yama, the son of Vivasvat, and those who are his attendants;

4.25

Bathed, well-adorned, wearing garlands, smeared with sandalwood and aloe;
Arranged in various vessels, marked with mango and lotus blossoms;
Proceeding from the base of the collarbone, of little force and mild, that [hiccup];
Fruit and leaf of kaṇṭakārī, and young, dried radish;
The two kośātakīs, ikṣvāku fruit, jīmūta, and vatsaka;
Black, with iron nooses, stiff-eyed, and with furrowed brows;

4.26

And wholesome āsavas, ariṣṭas, śīdhu, mārdvīka, and mādhavī wines;
boiled nutgrass and ginger water, heartwood-infused water, or honey-water.
Then, due to agitation of the digestive tract, the confused apāna wind, causing colic in the abdomen, bladder, flanks, belly, and vagina, as well as retention of feces and urine, dislodges the young fetus in the form of blood.
That has been described before.
One should drink curd whey, sour fermented gruel, sour fruit juice, and madirā wine.
Prakīryā, udakīryā, kṣīriṇī, and the fruit of nīlinī;
King Varuṇa, the holder of the noose, born of the waters, whose abode is the ocean;

4.27

One should avoid heavy and cold foods, daytime sleep, and unctuous, sour, and sweet things.
In summer, the sun resembles a flax flower, burning with forest fires;
Severe pain arises, the fetus does not flutter, the uterine vessels do not appear, the vagina does not discharge, and her eyes droop; likewise, overcome with extreme restlessness, she suffers pain, moves abnormally, faints, becomes dizzy, weeps day and night, does not sleep, has foul breath, breathes with difficulty, lives with extreme suffering, and pants—one should recognize a woman of this description as carrying a dead fetus.
It increases when digestion is impending, and [also] when digestion takes place.
Likewise, with waters boiled with madana, kāśmarya, and madhuka,
or with pastes of madana fruit and licorice, flooded with the juices of vidārī and sugarcane;
Combined with their own paste and rock salt, they cleanse the large intestine.
They violently agitate the lord of rivers (the ocean), which possesses great waves.

4.28

The directions blaze and the earth as well; the south-west wind is pleasant;
Living beings seem fevered with wind, heat, and sweating;
And due to the variety of the abnormal wind's pressure, [the obstruction has] innumerable courses;
Having delirious speech, vomiting, diarrhea, rolling of the eyes, and yawning;
In dense śleṣman, one should apply [it] combined with bitter [drugs] for purgation;
Pragraha, khadira, kuṣṭha, śamī, piṇḍītaka, barley;
And those spirits of diverse forms who are ever his followers;

4.29

Turbid with tall elephants and buffaloes tormented by heat,
Their waters consumed by the heaps of coals that are the sun's rays;
Transverse, bent downwards;
And there are eight presentations;
They will be described right here later on;
When kapha is dense, [an enema] cold, dry, combined with bitter [drugs] [is given];
The group beginning with vaṭa, kiṃśuka, and lodhra are considered astringent;
May all these [spirits] look favorably upon this protective ritual;

4.30

Rivers whose banks have overgrown, trees devoid of shade,
With withered and aged leaves, marked by dried bark and creepers;
Paralyzing the body, speech, and stealing memory and consciousness;
Lāc, amṛtāphala, drākṣā, tvakkṣīrī, pippalī, white sugar;
Juice of triphalā with an addition of the ūṣakādi group is scraping;
With a paste and decoction of sweet [drugs], with meat juice and ghee, it is nourishing;
May the blessed Brahmā grant you well-being; may Nārada and Parvata grant you well-being;

4.31

Because the sun then intensely takes away the energy of the world,
One should therefore avoid exercise, sunlight, pungent, sour, salty, and hot [items];
For it, having rendered her breathless, would swiftly kill the mother;
Bending backward, wasting, [and] great hiccough sets in;
Root and fruit of nidigdhikā, seed of vaṭa, rasāñjana;
Combined with mākṣika, with milk, and with blood, [they] are recorded as slimy [enemas];
May prosperity, firmness, fame, good fortune, intellect, patience, and radiance grant you well-being;

4.32

Wine should not be consumed, or consumed only in very small amounts, or with very abundant water;
Otherwise it produces swelling, flaccidity, burning sensation, and stupor;
Or that which proceeds from the pakvāśaya or from the navel as before;
For patients with pitta-induced cough, electuaries with half-verses, combined with ghee and honey:
One should lick śṛṅgī followed by a drink of milk, or with ghee, sugar, and honey;
A second [remedy] with sandalwood and other drugs, accompanied by ghee and milk, destroys burning sensation;
May Rudra, Viśākha, Skanda, and the spear-bearing [deity] grant you well-being;

4.33

Placed in fresh earthen vessels, heart-pleasing, fragrant,
Pānakas along with manthas, rich in sugar, and cold;
Obstruction, however, is of three kinds:
At the head, at the shoulder, or at the hips;
In deep echoing resonance, one should cure the deep [abscess] among them;
One should avoid the first two, the last, and one that exhibits all signs and is paroxysmal;
With kapha, it is beneficial with abdā and pepper; with wind, it is beneficial with ghee;
It is likewise beneficial in tenesmus with the stalks of śālmalaka;
May the gods and yakṣas grant you well-being, and may no evil come upon you;

4.34

Sweet, cold, and liquid food; wild game animals and birds;
Śāli rice, milk, ghee, drākṣā, coconut water, and sugar;
Some say that ritual action with mantras and the like is prescribed by the Atharvaveda;
Others say that extraction of the foreign object [must be performed] by an extractor experienced in surgery;
For one whose body is wasted by diseases, or injured by the suppression of meals;
One should make him lick with honey the juice of dung of a cow or of a suckling calf;
In anal fissure, likewise with stalks born from śrīparṇī and kovidāra;
I have countered the words of the wicked and others that cause fear;

4.35

Breezes from palm-leaf fans, necklaces, garlands with white and blue lotuses,
Slender women wearing lotus-stalk bracelets, lovely women smeared with sandalwood;
Since the instrument must be applied by one who has tactile sensitivity amidst the vagina, liver, spleen, intestine, uterus, and other organs without injuring them, and pulling up, turning, tearing, cutting, splitting, pressing, and straightening must be performed with a single hand;
Like hiccough and dyspnea, for they indeed make their abode at the time of death;
With parched grain, musta, śaṭhī, rāsnā, dhātrī fruit, and bibhītaka,
An electuary with sugar, honey, and ghee relieves heart disease and cough;
Likewise with ākhukarṇikā combined with taṇḍulīyaka;
Free from distress, free from anxiety, live happily for a hundred years;

4.36

One should frequent lakes, stepped ponds, rivers, and cold groves
That are fragrant, and [wear] very light garments;
Without intervention, death is certain;
With treatment, there is doubt;
Likewise also for abdominal enlargement, urinary calculi, and the like;
Having powdered [them], having cooked [them] with milk, one should lick them with one-eighth part of honey;
Prepared with milk in excessive therapy, they should be accompanied by honey, collyrium, and ghee;
And another [is prepared] according to the procedure with the four [drugs] beginning with nyagrodha;
Pāyasa, mixed, prepared, guḍapūra, haridraka;

4.37

One should sleep during the day in a shower-house where water falls from mechanical devices,
And at night on an open roof spread with fragrant flowers;
Having combined [it] with honey, he should drink [it]; it dispels pitta cough;
Kāśmarya, badarī, mūrvā, likewise uśīra, and priyaṅgu;
Curd, kulmāṣa, niṣpāva, blood, boiled rice for spirits, milk;

4.38

With limbs moistened with camphor and sandalwood, with infrequent indulgence in sexual intercourse;
In the rainy season, the western wind [blows], [there is] the sprouting of all crops;
For a fetus presenting with one thigh, having extended the other thigh;
For one presenting at the buttock region, having checked the buttock region, having pushed [it] upward, having extended the two thighs;
For one presenting transversely like an iron bar, having pushed up the hind part, having brought the front part straight toward the birth canal;
For one whose head is turned to the side, having pressed the shoulder, having pushed [it] upward, having brought the head toward the birth canal;
For one presenting with both arms, having pressed the shoulders upward, having brought the base of the head;
With soups of mudga and the like, and with bitter vegetables, in proper measure, they are beneficial;
Two enemas should be given by the physician, cold, with honey and sugar,
With the milk of cow, goat, and buffalo, and also combined with vitalizing drugs;
Fragrance, a garland, fruit, gold, incense with guggulu and frankincense;

4.39

The sky is slightly turbid with masses of clouds blue like fractured sapphires, / and the flights of steps of long pleasure-ponds are submerged in floods of new water.

And [a fetus] which, unbent, [comes out] with one foot into the vagina and the second into the anus—
these two obstructed [presentations] are impossible to extract with the hand, and so one should apply the knife.

There should be rice and ṣaṣṭika grains when kapha is thin, with meat juice and the like; / sugar-water as a drink afterward, grape juice, sugarcane juice, or milk.

An enema [prepared] with freshly crushed [substances] is praised in cases of the intake of blood.

An offering should be made with auspicious things in all four directions of the dwelling.

4.40

Lotuses are opened by the fierce blows of falling torrents of rain, / rivers resemble oceans, and the earth has indistinct water and dry land.

And if its head is unbroken, [one pierces it] in the eye-sockets.

Likewise, when it is stuck at the shoulder, having cut the arm at the shoulder region, one tears open the abdomen inflated with vāta like an inflated leather bag, removes the intestines, and extracts it when it has become slackened;
when it is stuck at the pelvis, having split the pelvic bones, [one extracts it].

In pitta-cough, one should administer meat juice, milk, gruel, and soups.

And I shall speak of [enemas prepared] with prasṛta measures separately for those afflicted by [defective] procedure:

And at a furrow, a tree, and a well, with a lamp at twilight, at night,

4.41

Resounding with the deep thunder of clouds, peacocks, and frogs, / illuminated by the flashes of indragopa insects, fragments of rainbows, and lightning.

Having cut this or that part, he should extract it properly, guarding the woman with great care.

He should drink milk boiled with that, cooled, together with honey and sugar.

An enema churned with a churning stick destroys vāta and produces strength and complexion.

In a circle, either round or square, radiant with flowers,

4.42

All around with dark grass, radiant with mushrooms and kuṭaja flowers.

When the body is weakened by that extraction, and the digestive fire is dull and afflicted again,
when the foreign body is thus extracted, one should sprinkle her with warm water.

Having pounded śaṭhī, hrībera, bṛhatī, sugar, and dry ginger, / one should drink the juice strained through a cloth, mixed with ghee.

Two [prasṛtas] from the decoction of bilva and the rest, two from horse gram—it conquers vāta.

Facing east toward that [circle], reciting the sacred text, he should present the offering:

4.43

When the bodily humors such as the mobile one are corrupted by rain, vapors from the earth, and the acid ripening of water, / one who has performed the procedure of purifications should resort to enema treatment.

By that the vagina will become soft, and her pain will subside.

Likewise, one should drink medicated ghee prepared with the sweet group.

A prasṛta from ghee separately, an enema containing mustard paste, / combined with the five bitters, destroys catarrh, worms, cutaneous disease, and urinary disorders.

"Obeisance to Kumāraṅga!
Obeisance to the seven Mothers!
Obeisance to Skanda!
This is the mantra of possession.
And the invocation of the Mothers:
‘Hilihili nimāpaṭalini svāhā!’
With a handful of water consecrated seven times by this [mantra], he should sprinkle himself.
Thus the self-protection is accomplished."

4.44

Old śāli rice, wheat, and barley with prepared soups and meat juices, / unadulterated madirā, ariṣṭa, or mārdvīka liquor, or a small amount of water.

Then he should make [her] drink powder with unctuous substance, or paste, or a decoction.

One should drink it with sugar in the morning, or lick it combined with honey.

Five prasṛtas of decoction and one of oil: having churned them, / an evacuating enema combined with a paste of viḍaṅga and pippalī destroys worms.

Afterward he should recite this mantra joined with the assertion of truth:

4.45

Rainwater, boiled well-water, reservoir-water, or lake-water;
food on a day agitated by rain and wind destroys moisture and vāta.

Likewise, for the flow of the doṣas and the relief of pain,
one should cause the patient suffering from pitta-cough to drink, or lick with honey.

An enema of one prasṛta each, with a paste of kṛṣṇā, produces aphrodisiac effect.

"Whatever truth there is in the King of Dharma, and whatever truth there is in ascetics,

4.46

One should consume well-dried, light, unctuous, hot, sour, and salty [food], / mostly food and drink combined with honey and spiced, during the appearance of rain-clouds.

In the evening he should drink ariṣṭa liquor and well-prepared āsava liquor.

Sugar, jīvaka, mudgaparṇī, māṣaparṇī, durālabhā,
[measures of] prasṛta with ground mustard break retention of feces and abdominal distension.

whatever truth there is in agnihotra sacrifices, and whatever truth there is in Vedic scholars,

4.47

Free from crawling creatures, ground vapors, cold wind, and spray, / with a vehicle warmed by fire, and in a house free from stinging insects, mosquitoes, and rats.

Employed in drinks, food, and linctuses, it conquers pitta-cough.

Five prasṛtas, containing a paste of capalā, kauntī, and yaṣṭyāhva, / a lukewarm enema with ahan is considered best in dysuria.

by these covenants of truth, O truth-speaking Guhyakas,

4.48

Delighting in rubbing, massage, baths, incense, fragrances, and agaru, / adorned with variegated garlands and garments, he should ride on prime female elephants.

Milk prepared with vāta-relieving herbs is beneficial for food for ten days.

One suffering from kapha-cough should drink first from kindled deodar wood.

When exhausted by sharp therapies, an unctuous, sweet, cool, and gentle [regimen]
Summoned by me, gentle ones of gentle forms, receive [it]!

4.49

He should avoid river-water, barley-beverage, sleeping by day, excessively liquid substances, sexual intercourse, / frost, walking on foot, physical exercise, and the sun's rays.

One should administer purgation properly upward, downward, and in the head to one who has been oleated.

Softness should be brought about at the proper time by milk, ghee, and the like.

Show your true forms, and let the offering be accepted!

4.50

In autumn the sky has bright clouds, the earth is slightly marked with mud, / radiant with kāśa flowers, saptāhva, and white water lilies, and abounding in śāli rice.

After four months, that woman gradually attains ease.

With foods of barley, mudga, and horse gram—hot, dry, and predominantly pungent.

By their own groups of drugs, they cure their respective diseases.

Aulā, Nīlā, Khalā, Kālā, Nakulā, causing seizure—

4.51

The sun casts sharp rays due to the dispersal of the masses of clouds; / the quarters of the sky are tawny, extremely clear, and crowded with rows of krauñca birds.
Six parts of a decoction of balā root, an equal amount of milk, one part of a decoction of barley, kola jujube, horse gram, and daśamūla, and fourteen parts of oil—combining all that together and adding finely ground kākolī, kṣīrakākolī, jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, mudgaparṇī, māṣaparṇī, medā, mahāmedā, kṣīraśuklā, madhuka, devadāru, mañjiṣṭhā, sandalwood, sārivā, tagara, kuṣṭha, śatāvarī, aśvagandhā, punarnavā, dill, triphalā, tejapatra, resin, sarala pine, śaileya lichen, cardamom, vacā, agallochum, kālānusārī, and rock salt, boiling it slowly over a gentle fire, one should store it carefully preserved in a good vessel. This king of oils, esteemed by the venerable Dhanvantari, is to be employed in drinking, errhines, massages, and enemas for kings, royal dignitaries, puerperal women, the emaciated, children, the elderly, the delicate, those suffering from colic, those seized by great grahas, those whose bodies are wasted by chronic diseases, those whose vital spots have been pierced, who have fallen, who have been struck, whose bones are fractured or joints dislocated, and those afflicted with mental distress from divine visitation or curses. / By it, strength, virility, memory, intellect, wisdom, digestive fire, potency, and vital essence are increased; paraplegia, convulsions, facial paralysis, and other diverse vāta disorders, as well as abdominal swellings, hiccups, dyspnea, and cough subside. / And when used daily, after six months intestinal hernia is alleviated, and a barren woman obtains an excellent son as desired.
And here they say:
With meat broth of desert animals, fats, and oils of sesame, mustard, and neem,
one should administer enemas combined with appropriate medicinal drugs after careful consideration.
Kṛtamālā and Akṣataśiras—these are the mothers of the grahas.

4.52

With the impacts from the shoulders of geese and fish lurking inside lotuses, / the clear lakes have ripples and waves.
Then at the time of delivery, one should quickly incise and extract the child.
With the roots of pauṣkara, amyāka, and paṭola, combined with turmeric,
those who are corpulent and men suffering from skin diseases and urinary disorders are to be purified.
Resembling Death, with a blazing lance, adorned with a net of tinkling bells,

4.53

For those whose bodies are accustomed to the cold of the rainy season, when suddenly / heated by the rays of the sun, the pitta that was previously accumulated then becomes aggravated.
Aśmantaka, black sesame, tāmravallī, śatāvarī,
pippalī, pippalī root, ginger, bibhītaka—
one should administer [them] to those who need purification and whose lifespan is bound to the doṣas.
With a banner, a rooster, an umbrella, holding a bell and peacock feathers, crested,

4.54

The drinking of bitter clarified butter, purgation, and frequent bloodletting are commended, / and cold, light food and drink that are astringent, sweet, and bitter.
Anantā, sārivā, rāsnā, padmā, and liquorice,
guḍūcī, pippalī, bhārgī, and galls of karkaṭaśṛṅgī—
Kumāra gives fragrance, incense, and a garland to you.

4.55

Śāli rice, ṣaṣṭika rice, wheat, barley, green gram, white sugar, honey, / snake gourd, āmalaka, grapes, and the meat of wild animals for those with great appetite.
Pṛśniparṇī, balā, sigru, śvadaṃṣṭrā, madhuparṇikā,
combined with the root-bark of nidigdhikā and black pepper,
all the wet-nurses of Kumāra have assembled on Gandhamādana.

4.56

Heated by day by the rays of the sun and cooled by night by the rays of the moon, / the water is purified of poison by Agastya [Canopus].
These seven formulations, completed in half-verses, [are to be taken] with milk:
viśālā, pippalī root, trivṛt, and honeyed liquids.
Go to the dwelling of Kumāra there; release the child!

4.57

Stainless, pure, matured by time, like nectar to drink, / amidst rows of bees hovering at the flapping of flocks of swans' wings;
from wood-apple, bilva, bṛhatī, paṭola, sugar cane, and nidigdhikā,
one should lick black pepper with honey, and with honey alone joṅgaka.
May the heroic lord of Kumāras, your son, be consecrated!

4.58

and one should bathe in lakes frequented by fine lotuses, / wearing light and clean garments, garlanded, and anointed with cool sandal and uśīra.
[…] with sārivā, anantā, payasyā, and liquorice;
with horse dung that destroys cough, and with black surasā,
of the yakṣas, rākṣasas, serpents, gandharvas, and asuras as well.

4.59

One should enjoy the moon's rays at nightfall, resting in an upper storey. / Overeating, curd, exposure to the sun, alkali, muscle fat, oil, and eastern winds,
or else with liquorice, ginger, and devadāru;
pippalī, ginger, mustā, harītakī, āmalaka, and sugar candy—
Skanda commands you: "Go to Gandhamādana!"

4.60

strong liquor, day-sleep, and frost are to be avoided. / One should constantly practice [consuming] all tastes, with an excess of the specific ones season by season.
Viḍaṅga, rock salt, asafoetida, kuṣṭha, three pungents, and realgar.
Fallen from his place, he would quickly become expelled from the assembly.

4.61

The seven days at the end and the beginning of seasons is known as the seasonal junction; / there the preceding regimen is to be abandoned, and the subsequent one followed gradually.
Jaggery, alkali, black pepper, pippalī, and pomegranate overcome dyspnea and cough, / measured respectively as two palas, half an akṣa, a karṣa, half an akṣa, and a pala.
With flowers, varied foodstuffs, and with red cooked rice offerings,

4.62

For diseases born of unwholesomeness arise from abrupt abandonment or habituation. / In such seasons this is the regimen for the health of embodied beings.
Appetizing, digestive, good for the voice, overcoming chronic rhinitis, dyspnea, and cough,
one hundred and eight offerings, or else from the sandalwood tree;

4.63

Under different conditions, a regimen based on knowledge of contrary factors is prescribed. / The three characteristics of a season known as the month, the zodiacal sign, and its natural manifestation—
having ground [them], one should drink [them] with warm water, combined with asafoetida and rock salt; / likewise mustā, śaṭhī, dried ginger, ginger, ativiṣā, and harītakī.
May they offer worship to the god of fire, the receiver of offerings to gods and ancestors!

4.64

one should adopt the seasonal regimen according to the later [characteristic], because of its strength.
Or else dīpyaka, trivṛt, viśālā, mustā, and pauṣkara;
the fire that knows a thousand things, the consumer, the all-devourer.

4.64_1

Thus ends the fourth chapter.

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit