The Compendium of Bheḷa 6.2

Some physicians declare intermittent fever to be of the nature of wind; / some say it arises from the conjunction of all three doshas (sannipāta), while others say it is born of pitta.

Others declare it born of phlegm; others, born of spirits; / other astrologers say it is due to afflictions of one's birth-star.

Such are the diverse opinions of the authors of treatises; / however, I shall state with reasons that it arises from sannipāta.

For wind situated in the colon, and likewise having entered the bones and marrow, / being provoked, quickly provokes phlegm and pitta.

Great, having a deep origin and seat in the triad of channels, / it may produce a fever occurring every other day, with an interval of one day, or a quartan fever.

On the first day it corrupts marrow, bone, and fat; / when the second day arrives, it corrupts flesh and blood.

Then on the third day it corrupts phlegm and wind; / having then approached pitta, it corrupts it on the fourth [day].

This fever in the bodies of living beings is terrible and relates to Maheśvara; / therefore, a discerning person should strive for its pacification.

Arising from a deep seat, corrupted by a mixture of tissues, / therefore, that called quartan is considered the most difficult to cure.

This dreadful intermittent fever causes living beings to waste away; / therefore, one should conduct its treatment with the management of wasting (śoṣa).

With ghee prepared with a decoction of triphalā, the intelligent physician / should unctuate him according to rule, or properly with vāsā-ghee.

One should purge him downwards according to the strength and weakness of the disease; / when the doṣas reside in the stomach, the physician should induce vomiting.

And he should administer non-unctuous enemas, as well as unctuous enemas. / This celebrated Mahāpañcagavya is the supreme medicated ghee.

It delivers one from quartan fever, just as a master of mantras [delivers one]; / and swelling, jaundice, enlarged spleen, along with fistula-in-ano,

abdominal enlargements, as well as abdominal swellings, and it eliminates jaundice.

One should have him drink dung-juice, milk, urine, curds, and ghee; / that Pañcagavya pacifies swelling, pallor, and fever.

Taking a hundred [palas] of vāsā, with roots, leaves, and branches, / one should boil it in a droṇa of water until reduced to an eighth part.

With a paste of vāsā flowers, one should cook an āḍhaka of ghee; / when it is prepared, one should have him drink it properly, combined with a fourth part of honey.

Cough, dyspnea, jaundice, tertian and quartan [fevers], / internal hemorrhage, and phthisis, vāsā-ghee restrains.

Dry ginger, rock salt, cavya, pippalī, alkali, and citraka— / with pala portions of these, one should cook a prastha of ghee.

Combining it with a prastha of milk, one should cook it slowly over a gentle fire; / by this, abdominal swellings are pacified, as well as skin diseases and abdominal enlargements.

And it is to be drunk in intermittent fever by those with enlarged spleen, swelling, and urinary disease; / in colic, in the disease of jaundice, and among kindlers of the duodenal digestive fire,

and whatever upward movements of wind [occur], it is the supreme medicine for all of them. / The three pungents, citraka, hiṃsrā, vidaṅga, harītakī,

vibhītaka, āmalaka, and bark of cirabilva— / these ten in equal parts, smooth and each equal to an akṣa;

with these, one should cook a prastha of ghee properly in six times [as much] milk; / the duodenal digestive fire is kindled thereby, and wind-born abdominal swelling is pacified.

It is also the pacifier of hemorrhoids, and esteemed in inflammation of the anus; / this ghee indeed would be the best in upward movement of wind (udāvarta).

Roots of darbha and vetasa, sandalwood, licorice, balā, / phenilā, padmaka, uśīra, and both the lotus and water-lily,

and kiṃśuka—these should be parts measuring five palas individually; / it should be boiled in a droṇa of water until reduced to a fourth part.

Jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, medā, lodhra, and lāmajjaka, / kāleyaka with priyaka, and one should add saffron filaments,

tripuṇḍarīka, lodhra, padmaka, lotus filaments, / surabhi, crocus, madder, and madayantikā,

and mātṛpatra in equal parts; crocus should be two parts, / and madder four parts; sauvīra equal to the unctuous substance;

with that decoction, half ground to a paste, one should cook a prastha of oil; / this massage oil is the destroyer of intermittent fever.

Declared as Mahāpadmaka, this removes all fevers; / it swiftly restrains fever arising from wind and bile.

Trāyamāṇā, jayā, vīrā, nākulī, gandhanākulī, / kāyasthā, vayaḥsthā, cumin, along with guggulu,

chatrā, atichatrā, jaṭilā, sūkarī, and karkaṭī, / cāraṭī, pūtanā, keśī, vacā, kaṭukarohiṇī,

mahāpuruṣadantā, vṛścikālī, kaṭambharā, / and sthirā—having ground these to a paste, [ghee] prepared with them destroys quartan fever.

Named Mahāpaiśācika, this ghee removes fevers; / it eliminates possession by spirits, epilepsy, and forms of insanity.

With these very groups of medicines, the physician should make a poultice, / and he should fumigate the fevered person; thus he becomes well.

Oblations, pacification rites, burnt offerings, benedictions, / baths, and fasting pacify quartan fever.

And revering the creator of this disease, the infallible lord of spirits, / one should approach the bull-bannered [god] in the cremation ground.

With bindings and propitiations arising from demonology, / and with burnt offerings and distributions of oblations, one should destroy intermittent fever. / Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya. / Thus the second chapter in the therapeutics of Bheḷa. // // Chapter three. // Now we shall explain the treatment of internal hemorrhage; thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.