Ashtangasamgraha 8

English (machine translation) 8

Language: English

8.33 — 247 parts

8.1

Now we shall explain the chapter on the Rules for Guarding Food; so said Ātreya and the other great seers. / So said Ātreya and the other great seers. / So said Ātreya and the other great seers. / So said Ātreya and the other great seers. / So said Ātreya and the other great seers. / So said Ātreya and the other great seers.

8.2

Lords and wealthy men, and kings especially, generally have more enemies than friends. / Hence, dispatched by them, attendants close at hand administer poison in food, drinks, and the like, / and women [do so], dispatched by their spies, out of a desire for good fortune. / Therefore, the king should retain a royal physician who is well-born, affectionate, trustworthy, orthodox, blameless in conduct, skillful, courteous, discreet, pure, unpretentious, unwearied, free from vices, humble, unangered, not rash, adept at understanding the meaning of speech, thoroughly learned in the eight branches of Āyurveda according to the traditional teaching, well-provided with security, equipped with antidotes and other formulations at hand, and knowledgeable in suitability. / Him he should honor with wealth and respect at the proper time, as a pupil honors a teacher, as a son honors a father. / Even unpalatable words of his he should regard as proper counsel. / For even a noble lordly elephant, if unrestrained by a goad, is not praised by the people. / Therefore, regarding food and conduct, he should place himself under his authority. / Indeed, even life that has been acquired stands by itself only through the power of proper measures.
Therein, whatever doṣa—one or more—is in excess during semen, menstrual fluid, uterus, [conception] time, and the mother's diet and conduct, by that, until death, one's innate constitution is born, just as a worm born in a poisonous creeper is born from its poison, or as a poisonous creature like a scorpion or a venomous serpent is born with its own poison.
Fasting [is prescribed] first, except in vāta; there one should employ emesis, / through asceticism, good conduct, mental composure, knowledge, generosity, compassion, and the like.

8.3

Moreover, kings have many dependents; / and there are rapidly acting conditions such as colic, loss of consciousness, and the like. / Moreover, sick persons—especially kings—are in a condition that must be examined at every moment. / For they are attended by negligence, intolerant of pain, naturally inclined to what is unwholesome, and have attendants who mostly speak harmful pleasantries; therefore, the king should have a residence built for the physician close to the royal palace. / For thus he has direct observation over all equipment used for the sovereign's body.
And his body is restored by those very qualities; / and consequently he is not suddenly afflicted by the opposites of those qualities. / But in that state, when the doṣa is impaired and predominant, the embryo is formed; / at its very formation it perishes, / or becomes deformed.
By wines, dry foods, excessive food, hemorrhoids, and confusion in oleation, / then purgation gradually, pleasing to the heart, with wines and fruit juices.
Unctuous, cool, near water, mostly with unctuous grass, crops, and tender trees, white, and abundant in clear water properties [is earth] with a predominance of water quality. / Having diverse colors, light, sparse flowers, and scattered pale tree shoots [is earth] with a predominance of fire quality. / Rough, the color of an ass or ash, mostly with rough, slender, hollowed trees and shoots with little sap [is earth] with a predominance of wind quality. / Soft, level, with chasms, water of unmanifest taste, large mountains and trees, and dark [is earth] with a predominance of ether quality. / There, [plants] grown in soils predominant in the qualities of water and earth are commended for purgatives and nourishing therapies. / In those predominant in fire, wind, and ether qualities, [they are commended] for emetics. / In those endowed with all qualities, [they are commended] for dual-acting therapies. / In those predominant in ether quality, [they are commended] for pacifying therapies. / Thus they are most potent.
Ajalomī, golomī, bhūtakeśī, vacā, and latā.

8.4

Standing in front [of him], he should feed the king food that is well-prepared, thoroughly examined, purified, first offered to the fires and other [deities], gazed upon by a peacock, sprinkled with sprinkling waters, while he has tied medicines and gems to his hand.

Those [entities] beginning with vāta are of two kinds: natural and unnatural.

Among them, the natural ones are the causal agents of the sevenfold constitution, having their origin simultaneously with the body.

Because they sustain the body, they are called bodily tissues.

They are the root causes of the unnatural [factors] termed doṣas.

In one about to die, they deviate from their natural state.

And even when all [three] are present in the body, the designation of constitution is made according to the predominant one.

Having destroyed the digestive fire, it displaces the bodily tissue downward by that very means.

And pacifying medicine alone [is prescribed] for one who is dry and weak.

The branches and leaves of these [plants] that have recently sprouted should be gathered during the rainy and spring seasons;

roots in the summer or in the dewy season from those whose leaves have fallen or sprouted;

bark, tubers, and latex in the autumn;

heartwoods in the winter;

flowers and fruits according to the season.

[Also] the one called vajrā, vayasthā, śṛṅgī, and mohanavallī.

8.5

And while he is eating, one should beat kettledrums smeared with antidotes.

They descend to their natural states.

Under the influence of time and other factors, they support or vitiate the body through the combination of increase and decrease in their own measure.

Likewise, the superior vital essence situated in the heart, measuring eight drops, is the support of the fluid vital essence consisting of nutritive juice that is subject to decrease and increase.

It leads to diarrhea; its sign of what is to come [is]:

Fasting, as well as clear vegetable broths, meat broths, kāmbalikā soups, and seasoned buttermilk drinks.

In this way, they remain unvitiated and fuller in their taste and potency.

From the donkey, horse, dog, porcupine, camel, bear, monitor lizard, mongoose, and hedgehog;

8.6

In this regard, poisoned food, when poured, becomes unpourable;

it cooks slowly;

and once cooked, it immediately becomes cold, stiff, and as though stale;

it loses its normal color, smell, and taste;

it becomes excessively moist;

and it becomes covered with circular patches.

Tympanites and indigestion, and therein, through vāta, it is slimy.

Dry, varied pastries, fruits, bath rubbing;

And taking them, one should place them in containers of suitable qualities, suspended in hanging loops in rooms with doors to the east or north, in windless spots or spots with good ventilation, where daily offerings of flowers and worship are made, inaccessible to fire, water, moisture, smoke, dust, mice, and quadrupeds, properly covered.

In this group, one should cook ghee with the skin, bile, teeth, and claws.

8.7

Dishes of cooked vegetables quickly dry up.

Decoctions show smokiness, duskiness, or the appearance or complete non-appearance of reduced, exaggerated, or unnatural reflections;

the appearance of a mass of foam, parting, elevated streaks of various types, threads, and bubbles.

Especially in those rich in salt, there is a garland of foam; in the middle of broth, a blue streak;

in milk, a coppery [streak];

in wine and water, a black [streak];

in yogurt, a dusky [streak];

in buttermilk, a blue-yellow [streak];

in whey, a pigeon-colored [streak];

in sour fermented grain liquid, a black [streak];

in liquid medicine, a reddish-brown [streak];

in ghee, a tawny [streak];

in honey, a greenish [streak];

in oil, a reddish [streak];

and the smell of muscle fat.

He has little wealth, strength, life, or sleep, a weak voice, and a body covered with visible blood vessels;

he is unfortunate, eats very excessively, speaks excessively, is an unbeliever, and has cracked hair, hands, and feet.

Dry, frothy, clear, or knotted, again and again.

Immediate sprinkling of cold water on the face right after eating.

If that is not obtained, [substances] not exceeding one year [in age];

but pippalī, viḍaṅga, jaggery, honey, and ghee [should be] old.

These should be used in anointing, and their powder in fumigation.

8.8

Ripening occurs in unripe fruits;

putrefaction in ripe ones;

sudden wilting and an appearance of being boiled in fresh wooden ladles;

duskiness or discoloration in dry ones;

softness in hard ones;

hardness in soft ones;

wilting, loss of smell, and splitting of petal tips in a garland;

discolored patches and shedding of threads, hairs, and fringes on bedsheets and blankets;

a coating of mud and dirt on items made of metal and jewels;

and loss of unctuousness, color, weight, luster, complexion, and touch.

He travels across dry, barren, uneven rivers, in the sky, and on mountain peaks.

With a dry mouth, prolapsed rectum, horripilation, and groaning aloud;

Slightly warm, especially with cough and cardiac palpitation;

One should obtain milk from a cow with a grown calf, and the feces and urine of healthy [animals];

from those possessing youth and strength, the bodily tissues, feathers, horns, hooves, and so forth.

A paste of these in application, and a decoction in sprinkling;

this formulation brings seizures, insanity, and epilepsy to pacification.

8.9

The poisoner, on the other hand, terrified and anxious from suspicion of his own guilt,

sweating and trembling,

with a dry and pale mouth,

looks around everywhere with agitation and confusion;

especially at the place where the poison was applied by him.

Likewise, with his upper garment slipping down, he hides himself behind pillars, walls, and the like;

with a faltering gait, miserable, ashamed, laughing out of place, even when questioned he gives an incoherent reply;

or wishing to speak, he becomes confused;

he cracks his knuckles,

touches his neck,

scratches his head,

licks his lips,

yawns,

scratches the ground,

hurries in his actions,

behaves in reverse,

and does not stay in his own place.

Accompanied by blood, extremely foul-smelling, and accompanied by thirst, fainting, sweating, and burning sensation.

Or milk drunk with dry ginger, yogurt, and coriander, or with an equal part of water.

Expressed juice, paste, decoction, cold infusion, and hot infusion;

these are successively more potent than the subsequent ones.

Ground with the bile of a monitor lizard, mongoose, cat, and hare,

one should employ them in nasal drops, anointing, and sprinklings, as destroyers of seizure afflictions.

8.10

Moreover, because of haste under a king's command, or due to some other offense, those of unstable mind act in just this way.

Therefore, one should also test [the food] on fire and the like.

Now, when fire comes into contact with poisoned food, it swirls in a single whorl, has dry, dim flames, possesses flames of multiple colors like Indra's bow, and crackles fiercely.

Its smoke smells of a corpse and causes fainting, excessive salivation, horripilation, headache, chronic rhinitis, and troubled vision.

Adorned with beloved garlands and ointments, well-behaved, pure, affectionate toward dependents, / endowed with wealth, courage, intellect, and strength, he becomes a refuge in fears even to his enemies.

[The stool is] slimy, thready, white, unctuous, immature, and accompanied by kapha.

And unctuous food prepared with dry ginger, curd, and pomegranate, / warm and with salt, is beneficial here, as is unctuous purgation.

A paste, however, is ground with a stone, teeth, or the like.

Powder is ground dry and sifted through a fine woven cloth.

It is not different from a paste because of not discarding the whole substance and because of its use when moistened.

A decoction is an extract.

Oil cooked with this along with the stool of an ass, camel, and boar, / [and with it] ground with goat's urine, is commended in nasal drops and the like.

8.11

There, with nalada, kuṣṭha, and lāmajjaka dissolved in honey, one should apply nasal therapy and collyrium.

Or one should inhale smoke prepared with apāmārga, viḍaṅga, the two varieties of balā, citraka, meṣaśṛṅgī, flowers of sumanā, kṣāraka, dādrākṣā, ghee, and jaggery.

Asleep, he sees karṇikāra trees, palāśa trees, directions ablaze, meteors, lightning, suns, and fires.

He is sleepy, indolent, averse to food, and [passes stool] little by little with tenesmus.

Or tailvaka ghee should be administered, and [a disease] which is advanced and situated in the abode of śleṣman.

Then, having placed [the vessel] on the fire, sitting comfortably on a large seat, looking continuously in all directions, stirring with a ladle, one should cook it over a gentle fire approaching evenly on all sides.

Having taken it down and strained it, one should apply it when it is of appropriate temperature to the touch.

One should grind mañjiṣṭhā, the two niśās, and kṛṣṇā with goat's urine;
made into a wick dried in the shade, it is dissolved in fish bile for collyrium.

8.12

Fire may also become like this through the addition of unctuous substances and salt.

Therefore, one should test it by means of birds.

In that regard, crows develop feeble voices from eating poisoned food.

Flies do not alight upon poisoned food;

and if they alight, they perish.

Upon its merely being seen, the eyes of the cakora bird become discolored.

The voice of the cuckoo undergoes alteration.

The gait of the swan falters.

The bhṛṅgarāja bird chirps.

The krauñca bird becomes intoxicated.

The rooster cries out.

The parrot and the śārikā shriek.

The cāmīkara bird vomits.

The kāraṇḍava bird goes elsewhere.

The jīvañjīvaka bird dies

or faints.

The mongoose gets horripilation.

The monkey discharges feces.

The spotted deer weeps.

The peacock becomes joyful,

and merely by its sight, the poison diminishes in strength.

And even when done, he thinks it undone; endowed with every soul and every characteristic.

He should drink a churned beverage or barley gruel made with puffed rice along with honey and sugar;
he should eat śāli and ṣaṣṭika rice with condiments made from gudga and animals of arid regions.

A wick prepared with the two haridrās is a collyrium for the eyes, as before;
so too vayasthā, asafoetida, kaṭukā, ṣaḍgranthā, and rock salt.

8.13

Furthermore, the steam of food corrupted by poison rises up resembling the neck of a peacock.

By its vapor, too, fainting and the like occur just as from the smoke.

Their treatment is just the same as that.

Poisoned food touched with the hand causes burning, swelling, numbness, and falling out of the nails.

Its paste is made of śyāmā, indragopa, soma, and utpala.

Having little speech, anger, drinking, food, and exertion; endowed with long life and wealth; farsighted, generous, / faithful, profound, liberal, patient, noble, drowsy, dilatory, and grateful.

Then vāta would be purged quickly, hot, liquid, and floating.

Or grape juice, sugarcane juice, guḍūcī water, and also milk / kept overnight with mung beans, uśīra, kaṇā, and coriander.

A cold infusion is [the substance] crushed, macerated in hot water, and filtered.

Mañjiṣṭhā, śveta, kaṭabhī, varā, śvetādrikarṇikā.

8.14

When it is being eaten, however, it causes tingling of the lips, burning inside the mouth, heaviness at the root of the tongue, lockjaw, sensitivity of the teeth, salivation, and loss of the perception of taste.

In that condition, the treatment stated for smoke and that stated for the tooth-stick [is to be performed].

When it has reached the stomach, it causes sweating, intoxication, fainting, vomiting, discoloration, flatulence, horripilation, burning, loss of appetite, obstruction of vision and heart, and a covering of the limbs with spots.

In dream he sees bodies of water with lotuses and flocks of birds, and rain clouds.

Diarrhea is, in brief, of two kinds: with āma and without āma.

A decoction drunk with honey or cold restrains [it].

Surāhva, the three pungents, and ghee in cow's urine with four times that amount of them.

8.15

In that case, one should promptly give emesis with fruits of madanaphala, alābu, bimbī, and kośātakī, mixed with curd and honey, / or with water of niṣpāva.

Then, when the body is oleated, one should purge it.

The powder of the three fruits, the three pungents, nāgapuṣpa, madhuka, barhiṇaparṇī, and the two bṛhatīs, combined with the bile fluid of any one of a lion, tiger, wolf, hyena, leopard, cat, jackal, deer, or monitor lizard, taken with honey—this antidote named Jīvana is the supreme medicine for all poisons.

When that is digested, one should feed him soft boiled rice with mung bean soup, slightly salted and with ghee, supported by milk or ghee prepared with śyāmā, the three pungents, and ativiṣā.

And one should plaster him with madhuka, śirīṣa, and sandalwood.

Endowed with all qualities is the constitution of balanced doṣas.

Among them, the first three are constantly afflicted because their constitution is dominated by a doṣa,
and especially the dual constitutions;
for in them, producing disorders of mixed qualities, the designation of health is just like [that in] hunger, thirst, and the like.

Therefore, by means of a procedure of contrary qualities stated in the chapter on the management of doṣas, one should treat them;
and the last with [a regimen] consisting of all tastes equally, by habitual use, and according to what is prescribed for the season.

In those with foul-smelling stool, borborygmi, constipation, pain, and excessive salivation,
one should drink it cold with emblic myrobalan juice or with mung bean cotyledon water.

There is no fixed rule of dosage; having considered the disease, bowels, strength, age, / place, and time, it should be administered, and likewise the pharmaceutical preparation.

It destroys all seizure spirits quickly, especially the demonic seizure spirits.

8.16

When [the poison] has entered the large intestine, it produces thirst, burning sensation, fainting, diarrhea, rumbling in the bowels, lethargy, sensory impairment, loss of strength, emaciation, pallor, and abdominal enlargement.

There, purgation should be administered with ghee mixed with nīlinī fruit, and one should give [the patient] Dūṣīviṣāri to drink with curd mixed with honey.

When poison is applied to a toothbrush twig, however, there is shedding of its brush-bristles, the odor of medicine, dryness, and swelling of the palate, teeth, tongue, and lips. There, having scarified, one should rub [the area] with powders of dhātakī flowers, jambu seeds, and harītakī mixed with honey, or with a paste of saptacchada.

A mouth gargle should be made with the juice of pomegranate, karamarda, fragrant mango, kola, and badara, mixed with honey.

By this, tongue scrapers, mouthwashes, and gargles are explained.

One should know them by those very cleansing procedures, etc., that have arisen from them as stated.

Or the pulp of kola seeds, antimony, popped rice, and the dust of blue lotuses.

However, it will be taught in such a way that all physicians will understand:

The medium dose of a plant extract is four palas;

Of a paste or powder, a karṣa; [and] three palas of a liquid for stirring them.

With these very drugs an antidote is prepared using he-goat's urine.

8.17

When [poison] is applied as a collyrium, there are tears, eye discharge, coating, redness, pain, visual distortion, and blindness.

There, drinking ghee should be employed.

One should impregnate pippalī fruits seven times with boiled milk.

Then ghee cooked with that paste is an eye-rejuvenator.

Or a collyrium may be made with the flowers of kapittha, meṣaśṛṅgī, and bhallātaka, or with the resin of varaṇa. One should impregnate the powder of bṛhatī, śirīṣa seeds, prapauṇḍarīka, and nāgabalā seven times with honey;

And that collyrium, mixed with antimony and gold powder, should be applied.

When [poison] is applied as snuff or smoking, there is headache, discharge of kapha, bleeding from the orifices, and sensory impairment.

There, one should administer in snuff and drink ghee prepared with milk over a paste of ativiṣā, śvetā, kākamācī, and madayantikā.

When [poison] is applied as an unction, there is burning of the skin, sweating, suppuration, blisters, and cracking.

There, for one sprinkled with cold water, an unction should be made with candana, tagara, uśīra, kuṣṭha, veṇupatrikā, amṛtā, somavallī, śvetā, padmaka, and kāleyaka.

These very same [substances], with kapittha juice and cow's urine, are a drink.

Roots of girikarṇikā, śvetā, priyaṅgu, sārivā, madhuka, sarpasugandhā, amṛtā, urvāru, and kataka ground with a decoction of śelu make an unguent.

By this, massage pastes, rubbings, sprinklings, unguents, ornaments, vehicles, beddings, garments, armor, sandals, shoes, and footstools are explained.

For those various distinctive dispositions are seen in men, determined by caste and the like.

For another person, [the disorder] may arise from consuming things that destroy the digestive fire.

One should drink the dust of śāli rice and red ochre with cold water,

Or candana, drākṣā, māṃsī, uśīra, ambu, and red ochre ground together.

Described as possessing qualities like the former, it produces success even at the king's gate.

8.18

Specifically, in a disorder caused by ornaments, a warm poultice should be made with pastes of aśvagandhā, apāmārga, kiṇihī, khadira, and śirīṣa mixed with cow's bile.

In one caused by a footstool, a paste of śleṣmātaka, sarpasugandhā, and mango mixed with honey [should be used].

When [poison] is applied to an umbrella, there is appearance of pain and blisters that suppurate quickly and resemble ripe jambu fruits.

There, a warm poultice over the whole body [is applied] with pastes of madhuka, pāṭalā, kaśeruka, lodhra, añjana, kuṣṭha, sarpasugandhā, khadira, and śirīṣa.

By this, chowries and fans are explained.

The body also conforms to mental temperaments and the like;

Mental temperaments and the like also conform to the body.

That diarrhea, because of rapid evacuation, is swift-acting by nature.

Madhūka, madhuka, drākṣā, lotus, āmalaka, mustā,

Seed from karañja, flower from śirīṣa, and fruit and bark from the kapittha tree—

8.19

When [poison] is applied as a head-rubbing, there is headache, formation of nodules, and falling out of hair.

There, an unction should be made with black earth well-impregnated with powders of śyāmā, pālindī, and taṇḍulīyaka, ghee, and bear's bile.

Or sprinkling should be done with cow dung, mālatī, or the juice of any [plant such as] mūṣikakarṇī, or chimney soot, or bark of śleṣmātaka, pāṭalā, śirīṣa, madhuka, and the two haridrās, stirred into goat's milk.

By this, head-bath water, combs, garlands, and turbans are explained.

That possession [of temperament], however, is produced by the latent impression of practice in the immediately preceding birth.

Therefore, one should examine the constitution of a person in accordance with gods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell-beings, and their respective distinctions.

Or suddenly bound at one moment, suddenly loose at another.

Madhuka or ātmaguptā, or cold with dhātrī juice;

Having thoroughly impregnated it with he-goat's urine, one should make pills with cow's bile.

8.20

When [poison] is applied as ear-drops, there is swelling, earache, suppuration, and auditory impairment.

There, fresh juice of bahupatrā mixed with ghee and honey should be dropped in, or thoroughly cooled juice of somavalka.

When [poison] is applied as a face ointment, there is darkening of the face, thorny eruptions, and the disorders born of unction.

There, an unguent of madhuka, payasyā, bandhujīva, bhañjī, punarnavā, and candana with ghee [is prescribed];

Honey and ghee are a drink.

From smelling a poisoned flower, there is headache, tearful eyes, and loss of smell.

There, the method just stated and that described for vapor [should be applied].

Among them, up to sixteen years of age is a child;

Up to sixty is middle age;

Beyond that is old age.

Among them too, a child is of three kinds: by living on breast milk, on [solid] food, or on both.

In that [childhood] there is increase in bodily dimensions and an excess of śleṣman.

Therefore, a child has unctuousness, softness, tenderness, mildness of anger, and charm.

One should make a weak person fast, accompanied by lukewarm water.

In cooking medicated fat, when the measure is stated, it should be increased fourfold;

The liquid for the paste and the fat should be employed, as Śaunaka further teaches.

They cure those struck by poisoned arrows or bitten by proud snakes through collyriums, snuffs, and unguents.

8.21

And on this matter there are [the following verses]:

One should provide water for washing fruits, roots, bark, and so forth,
and likewise, without sloth, one should do the same for cooking pots and side dishes.

In that [middle age], there is an excess of pitta.
Therefore, there is a blazing digestive fire, excellence and maturity of intellect, and perseverance.
There, youth lasts up to thirty years, and up to forty years there is complete fullness of all bodily tissues, senses, strength, potency, virility, memory, speech, discernment, and humility; beyond this, there is gradual decline.

Its premonitory symptom is debility, delayed digestion, and acid eructation.
Or gruel made with triphalā, pippalī, and cavya, along with karañja leaves.
One should employ a fourth, a sixth, or an eighth part of the paste.
Fumigation performed with bamboo bark, cat feces, husk, vacā, hair, slough of a snake,
elephant tooth, horn, hiṅgu, and marica in equal parts
is supreme for destroying possession by Skanda, unmegha, piśācas, rākṣasas, and gods.

8.22

Having caused him to smell things to be smelled, and having touched those [ointments] to be touched,
and then having added the additive, waiting for just one nāḍikā—

In that [old age], there is an excess of vāta; thereby there are loose core constituents, flesh, joints, and bones, roughness of the skin, stooping of the body, tremor, cough, dyspnea, emission of phlegm and nasal mucus, and depletion of bodily tissues.

Distension of the abdomen, vomiting, ringing in the ears, and rumbling in the intestines;
food that destroys kapha and is pleasing to the heart, along with soups flavored with sweet basil and bhūstṛṇa.
And a medicine whose preparation is not explicitly defined, one should turn into a paste.
Then, combining it together and placing it on the fire, one should prepare it like a decoction.
With sugar, garlic, triphalā, uśīra, tiktā, vacā, tuttha, yaṣṭī, balā, red sandalwood, cardamoms, and padmaka—

8.23

Then, having ascertained the purity of both the vessel and the water,
the king should properly take his meal.

Childhood, growth, radiance, intellect, skin, semen, vision, hearing, [the organs of sense],
the mind, and all the faculties gradually slip away in [successive] decades.

Fainting, headache, constipation, and swelling of the hands and feet.
One should overcome vomiting with the fresh juice of kapittha mixed with honey.
That is the time for taking it down [from the fire].
Medicated ghee prepared with aged ghee and the remaining urine parts, known as 'Bhūtarāva,' when drunk, is supreme for destroying grahas.

8.24

Through habitual exposure to sharp poison, slow poison is intensely consumed;
therefore, a skilled physician should bind sharp poison to his hand.

Moreover, due to particular karmas, there are men who live less or more than a hundred years.
Having ascertained the measure of their lifespan by the specific constitutions as described, one should divide age into three stages.

Pain in the flanks, thighs, groin, and neck, and frequent cholera-like vomiting and diarrhea.
Likewise viḍaṅga, triphalā, kṛmighna, and paripelava.
Subsidence of foam indicates [the perfection] of medicated ghee, but its emergence indicates [that of medicated] oil;
for a linctus, it is stringiness, sinking in water, and not spreading.
With pāṭalī, hiṅgu, white mustard, siṃhī, the two kinds of turmeric, and latārohiṇī;

8.25

Bearing poison is auspicious, destroys evil spirits, and enhances affection.
Moreover, medicine should be stored in covered pots, reed baskets, and wooden chests.

At the passing of each century, the lifespan of men decreases by one year,
due to the abundance of demerit, whatever measure is prescribed at that time.

When [the food] is digested and being digested, flatulence [occurs]; once eaten, he enjoys well-being.
That [disorder] caused by disagreeable objects subsides through agreeable treatments.
With aṅkola, kośātakī, śigru, nimba, ambuda, and indrāhvaya.

8.26

A pharmacy well-concealed in the east or north is desirable,
elevated, in an auspicious cardinal quarter and region, with many windows, and spacious.

[Strength is] innate, temporal, and acquired.
There, innate is the natural [strength] of body and mind.
Temporal is that born of the division of seasons and born of age.
Acquired, however, arises from food and conduct, and is born from invigorating formulations.
These factors, moreover, are promoting of it.
Namely:
Birth in a region of strong people and at such a time; pleasant temporal circumstances; excellence of seed, field, qualities, body, diet, and mental temper; innate nature; youth; exercise; and joy.

[The stool is passed] with delay, with difficulty, liquid or dry, thin, undigested, with sound and foam.
And the remaining [symptoms] are according to each [doṣa], and likewise the diseases caused by them.
Six of those [seeds] make a mustard seed.
Eight of those make a grain of rice.
Two of those make a dhānyamāṣa.
Two of those make a barleycorn.
Beyond this, by a fourfold increase, an aṇḍikā, māṣaka, śāṇa, karṣa, pala, kuḍava, prastha, āḍhaka, droṇa, and vaha are reckoned.
A dharaṇa, however, is a tenth part of a pala.
Synonyms for a māṣaka are hema and dhānaka.
Synonyms for two śāṇas are draṅkṣaṇa, kola, and vaṭaka.
For a karṣa: suvarṇa, akṣa, picu, biḍālapadaka, pāṇitala, tinduka, kavalagraha, and ṣoḍaśikā.
For two karṣas: śukti and aṣṭamikā.
For a pala: muṣṭi, prakuñca, caturthikā, bilva, and āmra.
For two palas: prasṛta and aṣṭamāna.
For a kuḍava: añjali.
For two kuḍavas: mānikā.
For an āḍhaka: pātra and kaṃsa.
For a droṇa: nalvaṇa, armaṇa, unmāna, ghaṭa, kumbha, and kalaśa.
For two droṇas: śūrpa.
A tulā, moreover, is one hundred palas; twenty of those are a bhāra.
And on this matter there is [the following]:
Ghee prepared with bilva and śabhā made into a paste, together with the group of urines.

8.27

The kitchen should be very clean, attended by trustworthy persons,
with its door guarded by good door-keepers, having compartments, and fitted with a good canopy.

Moreover:
A physician should not be deluded merely by seeing the body, [thinking,] 'This man is strong because of corpulence or because of possessing a large frame,' or 'This man is of little strength because of emaciation or possessing a small frame.'
For both cases are seen otherwise in an elephant and a lion.

Through pitta, one expels blue or yellowish liquid.
For it is indeed more prone to causing pain in the trunk and the great vital points.

8.28

With well-washed, sturdy pots and the like, and thoroughly purified water and fuel,
skilled cooks there should be expert in their work and vigilant.

He who is contrary to that, however, is devoid of core tissue;
he who is middling possesses middling qualities.

Through śleṣman, food is digested with difficulty; vomiting and anorexia [occur].
Depletion of bodily tissues occurs in excessive vomiting due to the excitation of vāta.
During the days, the physician should employ offerings, oblations, and so forth.

8.29

With hair and nails trimmed, ancestral [servants], uninvolved in affairs against the king; / their overseer should be a brāhmaṇa, well-born and thoroughly examined.
Four finger-breadths in length separately are the forefoot, sole, and heel; their breadths are six, five, and four finger-breadths; fourteen [finger-breadths] indeed is the length of the foot, and fourteen indeed its circumference; / likewise the two ankles and the middle of the shank; / four finger-breadths is the height of the foot; / eighteen [finger-breadths] is the length of the shank and the thigh; / four finger-breadths is the knee; / thirty finger-breadths is the circumference of the thigh; / six in length.
He considers the heart congested, and the abdomen sluggish and heavy.
He should employ the regimen stated for excessive emesis, consisting of astringing and nourishing [therapies].
Whatever appeals to whomsoever at any time, that he should bring to them then.

8.30

Equitable, devoted, pure, and obedient to the physician; / all those in close attendance on the king are recommended to be always of this kind.
Sixteen [finger-breadths] is the breadth of the waist, fifty its circumference; / ten finger-breadths is the head of the bladder; / twelve finger-breadths is the abdomen; / ten in breadth and twelve in length are the flanks; / twelve in height is the sacrum; / eighteen in height is the back; / twelve is the space between the breasts; / two finger-breadths is the nipple's perimeter; / twenty-four finger-breadths broad and twelve high is the chest; / two finger-breadths is the heart; / eight each are the shoulders and the armpits; / six each the clavicles; / sixteen each the forearms; / fifteen each the hands below the wrist; / twelve finger-breadths the hands; / therein also, five finger-breadths is the middle finger; / half a finger-breadth less than that are the index and ring fingers; / three and a half finger-breadths are the little finger and the thumb; / four finger-breadths in height and twenty-two in circumference is the neck; / twelve in height and twenty-four in circumference is the face.
Discharge of heavy feces that are broken and mixed with āma and śleṣman.
Dhānvantara or tryūṣaṇa according to the doṣas and the body.
And all foodstuffs for everyone: this is the general rule.

8.31

Free from mutual conflict and factions, beneficial to the king; / the single qualified physician should watch over them with [attentive] mind.
Four finger-breadths each are the chin, lips, nose, interocular space, ears, and forehead; / a third of a finger-breadth broad is the margin of the nostrils; / two finger-breadths long and the width of the thumb's middle is the eye; / therein, one-third of the white is the black; / one-ninth of the black, measuring the size of a lentil grain, is the pupil; / six finger-breadths in height and thirty-two in circumference is the head.
The entire body again is eighty-four finger-breadths; / that which is equal in length and breadth is declared harmonious; / therein, the aforementioned measurement is desirable; deficient or excessive is undesirable; / likewise short or tall, fair or dark, hairy or hairless, corpulent or emaciated.
In cardiac disease born of vāta, one should drink oil with whey, sauvīra, or buttermilk, / agreeably warm, with biḍa salt; it also conquers abdominal swelling, constipation, and pain.
[The cooking of oil is] mild when the residue is like paste, and smooth when it resembles wax.
In the northern direction, even there, he should offer a bali oblation to the deity.

8.32

Intently engaged in protecting the king's body and attendants:
having slender bones, teeth, nails, finger joints, and hair; / having long fingers, thighs, arms, exhalations, glances, eyes, and tongue; / having broad mouth, lower lip, tongue, forehead, ears, upper back, and chest, and little penis, neck, and hair; / having glossy skin, hair, nails, eyes, and voice; / having firm sense organs, skin, nails, hair, and flanks; / having deep navel, joints, and voice; / having hidden collarbones, spinal column, and tooth roots; / having red palate, lips, nails, and corners of the eyes, and copper-colored tongue, palms, and soles; / having black hair, brows, eyelashes, and pupils; / having extremely white sclera and teeth, noble character, and elevated chest, neck, forehead, abdomen, mouth, nails, and feet; / having lowly set ears, breasts, and nose tip, and a firm gait; / having thick shoulders, neck, teeth, fingers, and skin, and an affectionate disposition; / having thin nails, waist, and tongue; / having rounded buttocks, neck, and nails; / having even back, teeth, forehead, and glance; / likewise evenly tapering thighs; / a right-turning navel; / well-spaced breasts and brows; / tortoise-shaped nails and feet; / a straight face and nasal bridge; / prominent jaws and dignified dress; / a smooth palate and tongue; / lips and physique that are neither too corpulent nor too emaciated; / a pulsating heart, temples, and neck; / a warm palate, feet, abdomen, and breath; / ears inclined backward and hairy; / slightly drooping eyebrows; a forehead that is wrinkled, with well-joined joints and crescent-shaped; a parasol-like head; / hair not having multiple hairs from a single root and soft; veins, bones, and joints that are firm and hidden; / vāta, urine, feces, and genitals conforming to normal constitution; / laughter and weeping conforming to natural behavior; / and a body that dries in downward order after bathing and being anointed, which is desirable: and here it is said:
Those also would be disorders of the duodenum, but an even balance is the cause of health.
Bilva, rāsnā, barley, jujube, devadāru, and punarnavā.
Burnt beyond this, it is useless; raw, however, it causes weakness of digestive fire.
Mild [cooking] is for nasal therapy, coarse for massage, and smooth for drinking and enemas.
An oblation with garments and ornaments for a gandharva on the path of cattle.

Commentaries (1)

Śaśilekhā — Indu, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Aṣṭāṅgasaṃgraha — Vāgbhaṭa, Sanskrit

Ashtangasamgraha 8

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