The Compendium of Bheḷa 6.15

From vāta, from pitta, from kapha, from a combination of the three, and from pairs [of doṣas], / five [types of] erysipelas are declared; I will state their characteristics.

He who constantly consumes astringent, pungent, and dry [substances]— / his aggravated vāyu, having established itself in the skin, blood, muscle,

and vessels, powerfully produces erysipelas. / He imagines an ant creeping [on his body], even when anointing […];

yawning, dryness of the palate, flank pain, spasms, fever, / and a terrible, reddish-colored and black swelling [occur].

Such is vāta-erysipelas; hear the procedure of its treatment: / one should extinguish it by pouring over milk,

and, after drinking tilvaka ghee, purgation with harītakī [is done]. / And one should provide non-burning foods for his meal.

One should cook milk, barley flour, and ghee here; / mixed with yaṣṭīmadhuka, this is an excellent application.

Cow's urine and milk, or juice of cow dung, / and pañcamūlī: water prepared with these is praised for sprinkling.

One should grind rāsnā and madhuka with curd-whey; / this poultice is praised in vāta-erysipelas for one who has been smeared with ghee.

Sprouts of milky trees, madhuka, and blue water lily, / prepared with milk and lukewarm, destroy vāta-erysipelas.

With all these very drugs ground with milk, one should apply a plaster; / pleasantly warm, in vāta-erysipelas, he thus becomes comfortable.

Or else they sprinkle with curd scum, or with oil, milk, and ghee, / pleasantly warm, in erysipelas arising from vāta.

For one eating pungent, sour, salty, alkaline, sharp, and hot things, / his pitta is aggravated, lodged in the vessels, muscle, and skin,

joined with blood, encompassing the body; / having first ignited a fever resembling a blazing flame of fire,

it produces severe, terrible erysipelas born of pitta. / Blisters arise on him as if fanned by fire;

and wherever blisters arise, there it breaks down; / it repeatedly discharges turmeric-yellow, green, and black covering.

This erysipelas born of pitta, fire-like, destroys the body. / There the physician should undertake treatment only after giving a guarded prognosis.

The physician should make him drink an unctuous purgative, / and should perform affusions with milk or sugarcane juice.

And he should repeatedly sprinkle with water cold as frost, / or with decoctions of milky trees, or decoctions of madhuka.

He should apply a poultice to him with ghee washed a hundred times, / and should plaster with pastes of madhuka and water lily ground with milk.

Mañjiṣṭhā, padmaka, padma, sandalwood, blue water lily, / madhūka, madhuka, drākṣā, lāmajjaka, kaseruka,

lotus stalks, vidārī, samudrāntā, śatāvarī, / sahasravīryā, nalada, balā, dantī, madhūlikā:

one should steep these equal parts in a droṇa of water; / with these decoctions and ground pastes, one should cook

ghee; anointing with it is beneficial in erysipelas born of pitta. / Likewise, [the bark] of nyagrodha, udumbara, aśvattha, plakṣa, and vetasa—

these five pastes ground with milk are praised for plastering. / When a person of kapha nature consumes food and drink that increase kapha,

the kapha of the embodied being, aggravated, settles in the blood; / then his kapha-erysipelas arises, accompanied by dull pain.

And blisters arise on him, along with pale swelling; / he has drowsiness, sleepiness, fever, cough, and stiffness of the head.

And erysipelas arising from kapha goes to suppuration after a long time. / One should perform emesis and purgation on him according to his strength.

Or he should drink Tilvaka ghee, or aged ghee. / Sarja, aśvakarṇa, mustā, sallakī, somavalkala,

the two karañjas, kapittha bark, śirīṣa, uśīra, sāribā, / shoots of milk-trees, kuṭaja bark, dhanañjaya,

dhava, palāśa, syonāka, khadira, vetasa, and asana— / one should prepare a decoction of these and sprinkle it comfortably warm.

One should apply an unguent with these [drugs] ground into pastes with goat's milk. / One should cook a prastha of oil with these decoctions and ground pastes;

by anointing with it, erysipelas due to kapha is pacified. / And one should poultice the erysipelas with warm pieces of beef,

and prepare an inunction for it with the marrow of arid-zone animals. / One should apply a meat poultice in [erysipelas] caused by kapha or vāta,

with arid-zone animals, cattle, peacocks, roosters, and goats. / When the three doṣas are aggravated and lodge in the skin and flesh,

mingled with the blood and active in regions of the body, / a dark-grey and black circular patch arises there.

Then it spreads with red borders, accompanied by pain; / fever, thirst, burning sensation, vomiting, fainting, and dizziness [arise].

And whatever is touched by it, the heat there does not subside; / and when the blood is burnt, the body becomes like a dried gourd.

[…] one should cause […] to be done there. / One should administer Sukumāra Balā oil or Śairīṣa oil, / or Dhānvantara ghee to drink in vāta-blood,

or the graduated pippalī regimen, or takrāsava, / or one afflicted with vāta-blood should resort to Khādira.

And one should continually administer non-unctuous enemata to him with Mustādya enema, / or one should administer […] enemata, or with honey-oil enemata.

Whatever treatment has been stated for erysipelas arising from vāta, / all of that should be done in vāta-blood when blood is predominant.

If blood is invaded in deep-seated vāta-blood, / one should treat it like vāta, with potion of unctuous substances and unctuous enemata.

The muscle fat and marrow of peacock, krauñca, and quail [are recommended]; / Balā oil is praised for drink, inunction, and enema.

The vāta-blood that has suppurated, whether due to wrong treatments or treatments, / one skilled in practice, having properly considered it, should perform excision there. / Thus said the venerable Ātreya. / Thus the fifteenth chapter in Bheḷa. / Sixteenth chapter: / Now we shall expound the treatment of hemorrhoids; thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.