[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Medicine](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med) › [Early and ascribed compendia](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita) › [Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt) › 48 # Ashtangasamgraha 48 English (machine translation) 48 - **Language:** English ### [48.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.12) Once sharp poison has been administered, ghee should immediately be drunk / with bhārṅgī, curds, soot, sārivā, and taṇḍulīyaka; ### [48.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.14) Poison drunk together with milk, honey, and ghee destroys poison. ### [48.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.15) Poison \[combined\] with sinduvāra and tagara restores the dead to life. ### [48.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.17) Realgar, antimony, cardamom, sinduvāra, that named amara, / with red arsenic, saffron, and poison, blown \[into the nose\], awakens the unconscious. ### [48.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.18) When burning sensation arises from poison, a paste made with roasted flour, milk, and ghee is beneficial. ### [48.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.23) even in summer in an urgent disease, but never during the rainy season or on a cloudy day. ### [48.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.29) Poison combined with lodhra, sandalwood, vacā, sugar, ghee, honey, / and milk is supreme in removing chronic fever. ### [48.30](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.31) Poison, yaṣṭyāhva, rāsnā, sevya, and the tuber of utpala, / drunk with rice-water, are a medicine for bleeding disorder. ### [48.32](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.32) Poison, rasāñjana, bhārṅgī, vṛścikālī, and mahāsahā / form an application for painful, suppurating, and malignant ulcers. ### [48.33](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.34) With vijayā, pippalīmūla, the two types of pippalī, citraka, / puṣkarāhva, śaṭhī, grapes, yavānī, kṣāra, and dīpyaka; ### [48.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.38) Cow's urine, alkali, rock salt, poison, and pāṣāṇabheda— / this, drunk together, shatters urinary calculi like a thunderbolt. ### [48.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.41) Triphalā, svarjikākṣāra, and poison split open abdominal swelling; / poison, viḍaṅga, anise, and milk destroy abdominal swelling and spleen enlargement. ### [48.42](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.42) With milk, poison cures enlargement of the spleen and abdomen; \[and with\] dill, it destroys worms. ### [48.43](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.43) Poison drunk with a decoction of the root of kākamācī removes kuṣṭha. ### [48.44](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.48) With poison, bhallātaka, citraka, guñjā, and nīmba fruit, / a plaster ground with sour gruel overcomes leukoderma and severe puṇḍarīka. ### [48.49](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.52) lac, surāhvā, madder, kuṣṭha, padmaka, sārivā, / guñjā fruit, kurabaka, lāṅgalī, vajrakanda, ### [48.53](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.53) vārāhīkanda, āsphotā, saptāhvā, girikarṇikā, / roots of arka and aśvamāra, nāgapuṣpa, nata, and the two turmerics, ### [48.54](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.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. ### [48.55](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.55) A plaster of vīrā, lāṅgalikī, dantī, poison, and pāṣāṇabheda / should be applied to women with obstructed labor to release the fetus. ### [48.56](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.56) The fresh juice of citron, vacā, juice of brāhmī, and ghee / a barren woman drinking along with poison is surrounded by excellent sons. ### [48.57](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.57) \[One whose\] semen is lost \[should take\] milk, grapes, kapikacchu, vacā, and poison. ### [48.58](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.58) Poison, ghee, sugar, and honey make an eye-salve that removes timira; / and poison alone, made into a paste with goat milk and fumigated with ghee, ### [48.59](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.59) or poison repeatedly macerated with the juices of āmalakī fruit, / used as an eye-salve along with conch shell, dispels advanced timira. ### [48.60](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.60) Poison and indrāyudha rubbed in breast milk make an eye-salve that cures kāca; / poison rubbed in citron juice likewise, combined with sugar; / poison, pippalī, and the two turmerics make an eye-salve that cures kāca. ### [48.61](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.61) Poison combined with pippalī and macerated in cow's urine cures pterygium of the white of the eye. ### [48.62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.62) Cuttlefish bone, quartz, ruby, calx of conch shell, / and carapace of a tortoise in equal parts, and red arsenic half their part; ### [48.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.63) halved again are black pepper, rock salt, and iron dust; / one should add these in increasing order, and poison equal to the iron; / this extract, with honey, removes white spots, blepharitis, pterygium, and kāca. ### [48.64](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.64) One should repeatedly sprinkle the eyes with cold water once an eye-salve of poison has been applied. ### [48.65](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.65) With garlic bulb, black pepper, poison, mustard, and rock salt / ground in the juice of surasā, after the pilla eye has first been scraped, ### [48.66](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.66) one should fill it with ghee, and then have \[the patient\] drink ghee itself. / Ghee cooked with extract of madhūka, madhuka, poison, milk, and water / is an excellent restorative nourishment in long-standing night blindness. ### [48.67](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.67) An errhine pacifying headache is apāmārga, sugar, and poison; / or ghee, licorice, and sugar, accompanied by poison. ### [48.68](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.68) Dried ginger, harītakī, poison, pāṭhā, and dravantī overcome foul-smelling nose. ### [48.69](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.69) Mustard oil with poison used as an errhine removes premature graying and scalp scabs. ### [48.70](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.70) Poison combined with svarjikākṣāra, rock salt, and vinegar is supreme; / filling the ears with it eradicates severe earache. ### [48.71](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.71) Oil prepared with puṇḍarīka, madder, poison, and rock salt / destroys diseases of the mouth when used as a gargle. ### [48.72](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.72) Devadāru, poison, ghee, cow's urine, and kaṇṭakārikā / drunk destroy faltering of speech, so said Kāśyapa. ### [48.73](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.73) From poison administered by an enemy, or from slow artificial poison, / from spider, snake, host of rats, or from old age, / from premature death, or from the evil of seizing spirits: / there is no fear for a person who eats poison. ### [48.73\_1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.73_1) | Thus ends the forty-eighth chapter. ### [48.73\_2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48.73_2) Thus the branch of toxicology, the sixth branch, is complete. ## Commentaries (1) - [Śaśilekhā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha!indu.159.1) — Indu, Sanskrit ## Linked texts (1) - [Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha.48.1) — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.astangasamgraha~en-mt.48) · Pramāṇa