The Compendium of Bheḷa 6.5

Five gulmas are explained in full detail in the Etiology; / I shall state the gulma-nature among them, and their treatment separately.

Wind, provoked in the body, obstructing the channels on all sides, / invading, vitiates first bile and then phlegm;

then it vitiates blood, and runs through fat and flesh; / that, becoming solid as a mass, attains the nature of a gulma.

Just as a collection of corrupt men desirous of slaying living beings / [consisting of] elephants, horses, and chariots is deemed an army (gulma),

so in the body, the violent pulling together and blending / of chyle and other tissues is called a gulma; an agglomeration is called a gulma.

And just as an agglomeration, a dense thicket (gulma), of climbing and creeping vines / and shrubs [is formed], so also is a gulma in embodied beings.

Because wind lacks physical form, it cannot be directly perceived; / combining with bile and phlegm, wind attains the nature of a gulma.

Just as bees build up a lump made of beeswax, / so also wind accumulates those bodily tissues in the visceral organs.

The locations of that gulma indicate heaviness and lightness. / A gulma situated in the belly or urinary bladder is said to be dominated by wind.

It produces the symptoms of a wind-gulma by virtue of its location; / likewise, situated in the site of bile, it displays the symptoms of bile.

In the same manner, [it manifests] entirely in phlegm, in blood, and in a combined humoral disorder; / but in a combination of all [humors], its manifestation is by each showing its own symptom.

Here, an invading humor, being aggravated, corrupts the tissue residing in that site; / but the treatment is directed to the site, for there [the resident humor] is stronger.

If a wind-gulma is situated in the urinary bladder, it goes on to suppurate; / a bilious gulma goes on to suppurate in the region between the heart and the navel.

And in the heart, a phlegm-gulma goes on to suppurate if left untreated; / a gulma arising from a combined humoral disorder suppurates, as does one born of blood.

All gulmas combined with two humors are churning. / Therefore, one should apply all breaking treatments to them; / yet even when excessively unctuated, a gulma may attain increase.

From here on, I shall explain the treatment of a wind-gulma. / For wind is the sovereign of all living beings, the mighty lord of life-breath.

Harītakī, trikaṭuka, vacā, kaṭukarohiṇī, / sauvarcala salt, yavakṣāra, viḍaṅga, and citraka—

with an akṣa measure of these, one should cook a prastha of ghee. / Having strained it when prepared, one should administer it to drink according to [the patient's] strength.

This ten-ingredient [ghee] destroys wind-gulma, worms, cough, dyspnea, and spleen [disease], / destroying diseases just as the vajra destroys the asuras.

The two pañcamūlas, suṣavī, aśvagandhā, punarnavā, / kālā, chinnaruhā, rāsnā, bhārṅgī, gokṣuraka, balā,

śaṭī, puṣkaramūla, and the palāśa named gandha— / one should cook two-pala portions of these in a droṇa of water.

Taking a prastha each separately of jujubes, kuluttha, / and black gram along with barley, one should throw them into that very decoction.

When that is reduced to one-fourth, one should cook a prastha of ghee [with it], / with an equal amount of curd and the like: vinegar, āranāla, tuṣodaka,

pomegranate juice, āmrātaka juice, and citron juice, / and four times as much curd; and into the paste of these, one should throw:

kāravī, tryūṣaṇa, dantī, the three salts, / hiṃsrā, rāsnā, vacā, yavānī, amlavetasa,

viḍaṅga, pomegranate, asafoetida, nīlikā, trivṛt, / the two alkalis, ajamodā, pāṭhā, pāṣāṇabheda,

ūṣaka, vṛṣaka, bhārṅgī, śvadaṃṣṭrā, hapuṣā, / seeds of cucumber and ervāru, śatavīryā, upakuñcikā,

ajājī, citraka, mūrvā, tumburu, gajapippalī, / coriander, and surasā—one should add [each] measured as an akṣa.

Cooked with this paste, one should administer this excellent ghee to drink. / Except for blood-gulma, this destroys all gulmas.

In hemiplegia, paralysis, sciatica, and disease of the spleen, / in heart disease, digestive disorder, and severe wind-gulma,

this ghee known by the name Dādhika possesses great qualities: / it destroys insanity, abdominal colic, and epilepsy.

One should throw in barley alkali, rock salt, hastipippalī, / pippalī, ginger, and black pepper—

of these six, let there be six separate portions of a pala each; / from half-pala portions of these, one should prepare a decoction.

With the ingredients to be ground in half-pala amounts, one should cook a prastha of ghee; / the decoction should be equal to the unctuous substance, and milk should be twice that amount.

This ghee, known as Ṣaṭpala, is a destroyer of gulma, / and likewise spleen [enlargement], piles, and digestive disorder.

It pulls away cystic bladder-masses and scrotal enlargements simply by being drunk. / Having unctuated the patient suffering from wind-gulma with any one of these unctuous preparations, / the physician should systematically cleanse him with an unctuous purgative.

One should cook ghee, roasted barley flour, citraka, rock salt, vacā, / and pippalī with milk, and take it down when well prepared.

Then one should drink a biḍālapadaka dose with hot water, / or with ghee, or milk, or wine with hot water.

This expels wind-gulma and whatever gulma colics there are; / it destroys [wind-gulma] accompanied by spleen [disease], upward movement of wind, and phlegm-gulma.

Ginger, devadāru, vāsā, kaṭukarohiṇī, / citraka, pippalī-root, pippalī, hastipippalī,

kuṣṭha, sarpagandhā, the five salts, / the two alkalis, trivṛt, dantī, dravantī, and upakuñcikā—

taking half-pala portions of these, and a pala of each of the salts, / having stirred the powders into half a prastha of curd, one should cook it.

And one should add a prastha each of muscle fat, oil, and ghee; / and when the blazing fire has subsided, one should then take it down.

Then one should drink a biḍālapadaka dose with hot water, / or with ghee, or milk, or wine, or again with sour liquid.

This medicament named Kṣārāgada destroys wind-gulma, / spleen [disease], piles, colic, scrotal enlargement, upward movement of wind, and bladder cystic mass,

worms, digestive disorders, poisons, apata-traka caused by wind, / bites of snakes and mice, and knotty swellings afflicted by disease.

A gulma arising from wind and phlegm, as well as one of a combined humoral nature, / it forcefully destroys, just as wind [scatters] torn clouds; / and a barren woman obtains offspring, and it destroys artificial poisons, / as well as epilepsies and insanities. || Sixth Chapter