The Compendium of Bheḷa 1.25

The intelligent one named Suśrotā spoke to the son of Candrabhāga: / "Purgation should not be drunk by a healthy man who desires comfort.

The removal of unprovoked doṣas is not praised; / the dislodging of those that are settled leads to loss of life, in my opinion.

As the touch of wild beasts, fire, or weapons is to a healthy man, so is medicine; / therefore one should not make a healthy man drink [it], for it is administered for the sake of the constitution.

Because the alimentary tract is invisible, medicine drunk by a healthy man / does not invariably attain success; therefore one should not make a healthy man drink [it]."

Having heard this speech, Punarvasu replied: / "In this matter, a man should administer medicine according to the specific doṣa.

In [aggravated] vāta one should perform nourishment, in pitta purification, / in kapha emesis is good, and in sannipāta purgation.

Those dried up by wind and sunshine, and men devoted to hard work, / and those dried up by traveling on foot and in carriages—the physician should not cleanse them.

Sesame oil, black gram, sesame seeds, ghee, treacle, flour sweets, / goat meat, beef, then mutton, fish, meat-fermented infusion, curd—

For one who eats excessively, drinks excessively, and constantly sleeps by day, / terrible doṣas become aggravated; for them, purgation is good.

Moreover, medicine taken according to rule at the proper time by one who is unctuated and fomented, / in proper measure and light, never fails.

Indeed, one should not administer an excessive dose; one should drink a mild one even many times; / it should be given with a decoction; it succeeds well with decoctions.

For just as food at an unseasonable time becomes poison, and at the proper time becomes nectar, / so medicine at an unseasonable time becomes poison, and at the proper time becomes nectar.

Therefore, when the earth becomes sated and blossoming with flowers, / then, when the early rainy season has arrived, one should cause emesis and the like to be performed.

When the sun, moving through the middle, stirs up the bodily elements of men, / then, when spring has arrived, one should cause emesis and the like to be performed.

Then in the rainy season it should be given, when this season is pleasant; / for seasons of moderate cold and heat are praised for therapeutic procedures.

In winter it must be done differently, and in summer it is different; / in the rainy season also differently, and on a cloudy day differently again.

At that particular time it must indeed be done differently and differently; / what is wholesome and unwholesome for human beings changes differently.

When unctuous purgation is to be given, one should administer unction for three days; / unctuous purgation should be drunk when it is neither too cold nor too hot.

In the heat there is affliction by thirst, while in the cold it disappears; / now in summer, owing to the bodily elements of the embodied being being heated,

Excessive action and thirst occur; therefore one should not administer it then; / and in winter, due to its potency, the doṣas having attained harshness

Occur at an improper time for unction; then also one should not administer it; / for here hot medicine undergoes alteration due to the season.

This indeed becomes mild, but in summer it attains sharpness; / because through sexual intercourse, the semen-carrying channels, the bladder, thighs, sacrum, and so forth,

And his heart becomes weak, and wind is provoked; / therefore one should be celibate; otherwise, one suffers from paittika disorders:

Stomatitis, intoxication, fainting, delirium, digestive disturbance and bewilderment, / burning sensation, thirst, feverish heat, and yellowness of the mouth and eyes.

When vitiated by smoke, the disorders of pitta that are proclaimed are: / dizziness, fatigue, extreme stupefaction, intoxication, fainting, trembling,

And internal feverish heat are recorded when it is located in the plasma site; / the suppurating of open ulcers or of eruptive boils

One should know when pitta is located in the blood site, as well as discolouration; / when located in the muscle site, sweating and exhaustion arise.

When it has entered the fat tissue, one should know flooding and yellow urine; / when located in bone and marrow, emaciation and discolouration of nails and teeth;

When entered into semen, burning heat in the penis and scrotum, or impotence. / From fighting with a stronger person, from heavy loads, from compression, and also from fasting,

And from excessive sexual intercourse, fatigue of the mind arises; / from terror, agitation, opposition, and resorting to dry food and drink:

Aggravated by these and other such causes, wind / produces the disorders known as dyspnoea, cough, and constipation,

Colic, trembling, tympanites, piercing pain, and numbness, / cracking, shaking, roughness, twisting, and spasms,

Desiccation, blackness, discharge, and dislocation is considered supreme; / the diseases arising from vāta in the body are declared to be of two kinds:

Those that follow the alimentary tract are to be known there as affecting all the limbs, / and those that affect one half of the body are to be known as traversing all the limbs.

Those afflicted by colic, trembling, contraction, and stiffness of the limbs, / and seized by bone-rigidity, all have disease of all the limbs.

There, in the soles of the feet, big toes, calves, knees, thighs, and groins; / also by the anus, penis, waist, back, vagina, and uterus;

By the liver, spleen, shoulders, heart, flanks, chest, and between the arms; / by the neck, cheeks, jaws, temples, nose, eyes, and lips;

By the forehead, ears, and parting of the hair—each afflicted by wind, / aching and impaired, they are to be known as having disease of a single limb.

Thus this root of diseases has been properly declared; / furthermore, observe this seat with regard to each disease." / Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya. / Thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter in Bheḷa. // // Chapter twenty-six // Now we shall explain the chapter on the eight abdominal diseases; thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.