The Compendium of Bheḷa 1.9

Medicine with its four limbs indeed renders the patient free from disease; / it unites the physician with fame, and also gives him wealth.

Therefore, I shall declare the excellence that brings about success / of the combination of medicaments, of the physician, of the patient, and of the attendant.

Just as a handful of dust thrown against the wind perishes, / so indeed [the disease] goes to destruction without [difficulty] from an action performed by a physician.

Just as rain is lost in a flowing river, / in a chasm, and on dry land, so are ill-applied treatments [wasted].

Just as an archer, skilled and righteous, holding a sword in hand, / produces agitation among enemies, protects his own, and slays his foes,

so the healer, reinforced by the limbs and by medicaments, / protects himself from ill repute and subdues the disease.

“One succeeds when treating,” such is the teaching of Ātreya; / “even when not treating,” so declared Bhadraśaunaka.

Because [a treatment] provided with a qualified patient, substance, physician, and attendant / is seen to fail, yet in the reverse case it is not without result,

therefore, success is not invariable in four-limbed therapeutics. / But Ātreya does not concur with this view of Śaunaka.

For in one who treats, success is endowed with complexion, energy, and strength, / and there is no multiplicity of diseases; but never so in one who does not treat.

He would become discolored, weak, and afflicted with diseases, / or impaired, like a patient treated by ignorant [practitioners].

That which, being seen, does not lead to attainment is not success, it is failure; / therefore, an intelligent physician should seek the success belonging to the knowledgeable.

Therein, first understand from me the limb that is medicament: / space, wind, fire, water, and earth is the fifth here.

One should contemplate all [these] as increasingly possessing qualities, according to their order; / and those qualities of the elements among them that indicate distinct states,

exist in substances only through mutual combination. / The characteristic of space is porosity, and dryness is wind-natured;

heat is of fire, coolness of water, and roughness is an earthy quality. / In whichever substance this characteristic is prominent,

that substance is considered to be of the nature of that element. / Where there is porosity and lightness, that medicament is of the nature of space;

roughness, distinctness, and dryness are of the nature of wind; / unctuousness, moistness, coolness, and softness are water-born;

sliminess, heaviness, solid form, stability, and smell are earthy. / A substance endowed with these elemental qualities is of the nature of that [element].

Therein, endowed with all qualities of the nature of the five elements, / [… taste, smell, and …]

[… cold and hot water … / readiness of equipment, and collection of roots, bark, and fruits;]

fragrance of roots and other parts, possession of pleasant touch, / neither deficient nor excessive, and possessing [proper] form, is praised.

In dry land, declivities, sandy places, and stony grounds, / that which is hollow, not deeply rooted, and grows obliquely is censured.

That by which the purpose of medicine is instantly achieved, and not obstructed— / that medicament is to be known as the first limb in therapeutics.

The attendant should be the second; his qualities one by one are: / strong, dexterous, skilled, pleasing in speech, not disgusted,

courageous, accommodating, affectionate, possessing varied conversation, / intelligent, attentive, and conforming to the treatise,

and he should not overly impede during all medicinal operations. / An attendant who endures hardship is praised in accordance with [these] qualities.

And the third limb is the patient; he is praised if truthful in speech, / possessing good bodily signs, self-controlled, grateful, and cheerful,

receptive to medicine, and he does not conceal diseases, / firmly devoted, not envious, and one who does not despair,

and compliant in every respect, not transgressing the treatment. / Endowed with these qualities, one should know the patient to be curable.

The physician, however, is the fourth limb, well-versed in the meaning of the aphorisms, / free from disease, experienced in treatment, and skilled in accomplishing what must be done,

practical, bold, forbearing, resourceful, / wise, skilled in reasoning, endowed with energy, nobility, and strength,

unpretentious, vigilant, constantly self-restrained in the senses, / spirited, knowledgeable in medicaments, and aware of application according to place and time.

The physician should be the fourth limb, endowed with such qualities. / Medicament, attendant, physician, and indeed the patient—

through the union of their mutual qualities, these become bringers of success; / and these very [limbs], due to deficiency of qualities, become promoters of that person's disease.

Therefore, success in therapeutics is sought in the four limbs, / just as vessel, fuel, and fire are the causes of cooking for a cook,

or the ground, army, and weapons are [causes] for victory to a victor; / likewise, the limbs beginning with the patient are designated as causes of success.

Just as clay, rod, wheel, cord, and the like, without a potter, / do not produce beneficial effects, so the three limbs [produce none] without the physician; / therefore, one should know that the physician is the principal cause in therapeutics. Thus said the venerable Ātreya. Thus the ninth chapter in Bheḷa. / Chapter ten. Now we shall explain the chapter on disorders of āma; thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.