Ashtangasamgraha 48

English (machine translation) 48

Language: English

48.1

Now we shall explain the chapter named 'The Therapeutic Use of Poison'; thus said Ātreya and the other great seers: / Counter-poison should be employed against poison when it is not subdued by mantras and therapies, / after the fifth stage of poisoning has passed and before the seventh is exceeded, / with pure intent, [yet] without proclaiming it to anyone or to the ruler.

48.2

Bearing perfected mantras, having bound the earth from the very beginning— / for poison never falls into an uncontrollable state for one who has the aid of mantras.

48.3

Inanimate poison is generally equal in qualities to śleṣman, stable, and moves upward; / while animate poison is generally endowed with the qualities of pitta and moves downward.

48.4

Thus, being opposite in qualities, they destroy each other; / therefore, against those bitten [by animate creatures], one should apply plant-root poison in drinks and pastes.

48.5

And a skilled physician should cause one who has ingested poison to be bitten by snakes; / for there is nothing equal to poison as a neutralizer of poison.

48.6

In low, medium, and high doses of four, six, and eight barleycorns [respectively], / one should administer the dose of root-poison as appropriate.

48.7

For one bitten by insects, two barleycorns [are given]; for [stings by] scorpions, however, merely a sesame seed; / but when the poison has settled into one's blood, or as a potion for one bitten by a spider, it is not desired.

48.8

Poison administered to one containing poison is nectar, but to one free of poison it is poison itself; / so too in a weak person, or [when given] in excessive strength, or when impaired in its administration.

48.9

When there is doubt as to whether poison is present or absent, one should employ harmless antivenoms; / for an antivenom administered to one without poison becomes a disease.

48.10

Likewise, even in one who has poison, [harm arises] from passing the appropriate time for action; / therefore, the physician should carefully ascertain the actual presence of poison.

48.11

Sāktuka, mustaka, śṛṅgī, vālaka, that named sarṣapa, / and vatsanābha are effective poisons [if] unctuous, dense, and heavy; / under no circumstances should any other be employed, especially kālakūṭa.

48.12

Once sharp poison has been administered, ghee should immediately be drunk / with bhārṅgī, curds, soot, sārivā, and taṇḍulīyaka;

48.13

or combined with chimney-soot, mañjiṣṭhā, and that called yaṣṭi; / or one should lick powdered bark of arjuna with honey and ghee.

48.14

Poison drunk together with milk, honey, and ghee destroys poison.

48.15

Poison [combined] with sinduvāra and tagara restores the dead to life.

48.16

Poison with śirīṣa flowers and tagara removes rat poison. / Devadāru, nata, māṃsī, drāmilī, bākucī, poison, / and kuṣṭha, through drinking and plastering, subdue all poisons.

48.17

Realgar, antimony, cardamom, sinduvāra, that named amara, / with red arsenic, saffron, and poison, blown [into the nose], awakens the unconscious.

48.18

When burning sensation arises from poison, a paste made with roasted flour, milk, and ghee is beneficial.

48.19

When an enraged serpent emits smoke from its mouth, / having tied meat to the tip of a stick, one should cause it to bite [the victim] many times.

48.20

For one who has ingested poison and cannot be cured by other antivenoms, / the physician, knowing the strength or weakness of the poison, should make him drink meat powder.

48.21

Even in other diseases, when the remaining therapeutic means are exhausted, / and always for one seeking rejuvenation, one may employ poison.

48.22

In one whose body has been treated with ghee, who is purified, eats wholesome food, / and is of sattvic temperament, it should be administered at sunrise in winter and spring;

48.23

even in summer in an urgent disease, but never during the rainy season or on a cloudy day.

48.24

Not in one prone to anger, nor in one afflicted by pitta, nor in an impotent person, a king, or a brāhmaṇa; / nor in those afflicted by hunger, thirst, fatigue, heat, travel, or another disease; / nor in pregnant women, children, the elderly, unctuous-deprived persons, or on vital points.

48.25

Even when habituated to poison, one should diligently avoid things to be avoided: / pungent, sour, oil, salt, daytime sleep, sunlight, and fire; / especially dry food, and always the danger of indigestion.

48.26

In one eating dry food, poison produces visual confusion, earache, and other diseases born of wind; / but from indigestion, it produces death itself.

48.27

Poison mixed with a sufficient amount of cow's urine should be dried in the sun for three days; / this indeed is nourishing, and is praised at the beginning of [administering] poison.

48.28

One should drink it with whey in vātajvara; with milk in paittika; / combined with urine in kaphaja; and with triphalā water in that born of all [three].

48.29

Poison combined with lodhra, sandalwood, vacā, sugar, ghee, honey, / and milk is supreme in removing chronic fever.

48.30

A sweet bolus prepared with nikumbha, kumbha, triphalā, ghee, honey, and poison / destroys chronic fever, prameha, and skin diseases; / poison combined with the broth of peacock and grey partridge overcomes intermittent fever.

48.31

Poison, yaṣṭyāhva, rāsnā, sevya, and the tuber of utpala, / drunk with rice-water, are a medicine for bleeding disorder.

48.32

Poison, rasāñjana, bhārṅgī, vṛścikālī, and mahāsahā / form an application for painful, suppurating, and malignant ulcers.

48.33

Sugar, poison, and young shoots of the milk-exuding trees liquefied with honey, / when licked, relieve asthma and hiccough; while combined with poison, / honey, uśīra, madhu, yavakṣāra, turmeric, and kuṭaja bark destroy vomiting.

48.34

With vijayā, pippalīmūla, the two types of pippalī, citraka, / puṣkarāhva, śaṭhī, grapes, yavānī, kṣāra, and dīpyaka;

48.35

with sugar, yaṣṭī, the two bṛhatīs, and rock salt, one pala each, / along with half a pala of poison, one should cook a prastha of ghee; having digested food, one should drink that.

48.36

It restrains hemorrhoids, prameha, abdominal swellings, ocular pterygium, cataracts, parasitic worms, anemia, / constriction of the throat, demonic seizures, insanity, and dermatological diseases.

48.37

Poison, pathyā, citraka, dantī, grapes, and turmeric with viṣā destroy dysuria; / śilājatu, poison, and cow's urine remove upward peristalsis and urinary calculi.

48.38

Cow's urine, alkali, rock salt, poison, and pāṣāṇabheda— / this, drunk together, shatters urinary calculi like a thunderbolt.

48.39

Pippalī with its root, cow's urine, and poison likewise remove colic; / so do poison, dravantī, madhuka, grapes, rāsnā, śaṭhī, and pippalī.

48.40

Castor oil, triphalā, cow's urine, citraka, and poison, / drunk together with ghee, dispels swelling of the scrotum caused by vāta.

48.41

Triphalā, svarjikākṣāra, and poison split open abdominal swelling; / poison, viḍaṅga, anise, and milk destroy abdominal swelling and spleen enlargement.

48.42

With milk, poison cures enlargement of the spleen and abdomen; [and with] dill, it destroys worms.

48.43

Poison drunk with a decoction of the root of kākamācī removes kuṣṭha.

48.44

From kākamācī, bark of rājavṛkṣa, trāyantī, and the fruit of bākucī, / and with the destroyer of spleen [diseases] and gajapippalī, poison [taken] with their decoction conquers kuṣṭha.

48.45

The seeds of bākucī and aiḍagaja, the two alkalis, and poison, / ground with water along with rock salt, makes an external application destroying kuṣṭha.

48.46

With citraka, arka roots, hastipippalī, bākucī, and poison / ground with cow's urine; or mutually with realgar, milky sap of snuk, and poison:

48.47

With somarājī, eḍagaja, fruit of karañja, and rock salt; / with the three pungents, svarjikākṣāra, barley-alkali, and the two turmerics; / accompanied by soot from the house, made into a paste with he-goat urine; / [or with] bhallātaka, citraka, śamyāka, and poison ground with cow's urine: / [such] a plaster removes vicarcikā, ringworm, śatāru, and kiṭibha. / Leaves, bark, and root of śamyāka, poison, and buttermilk have the same property.

48.48

With poison, bhallātaka, citraka, guñjā, and nīmba fruit, / a plaster ground with sour gruel overcomes leukoderma and severe puṇḍarīka.

48.49

Tagara, kuṣṭha, rasāñjana, citraka, spṛkkā, patra, and elavāluka / ground with water of khadira and left standing for three nights, one should drink.

48.50

A person with leukoderma, having drunk [this] mixed with poison, should then prick with a thorn / the blisters born from the leukoderma, and then apply plasters suitable for kuṣṭha.

48.51

Or else, with roots of karavīra and arka, bākucī, and poison / ground with he-goat urine, together with citraka, gajapippalī, and bhallātaka;

48.52

lac, surāhvā, madder, kuṣṭha, padmaka, sārivā, / guñjā fruit, kurabaka, lāṅgalī, vajrakanda,

48.53

vārāhīkanda, āsphotā, saptāhvā, girikarṇikā, / roots of arka and aśvamāra, nāgapuṣpa, nata, and the two turmerics,

48.54

dantī, poison, along with ativiṣā, pippalī, and black peppercorns: / with these, one should cook sesame oil or mustard oil as an inunction for leukoderma; / it is the foremost agent for restoring normal skin color, just like the word of a trustworthy authority.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit