The Compendium of Bheḷa 6.6

[…] bile becomes excessively vitiated in the body; / severely corrupted, it corrupts blood and muscle tissue.

Then diverse kinds of skin diseases arise in the body; / I shall explain their signs and treatment in proper sequence.

Indeed, the corruption of skin, flesh, lymph, and blood / by the accumulated humors moving through them is termed kuṣṭha.

In one who consumes incompatible food, and through eating during indigestion or overeating, / and from suppressing the urges of vomiting, urine, and feces;

in one who, having excessively consumed meat of domestic, marshy, or aquatic animals, / leafy vegetables, fresh herbs, wine, or sour food, drinks milk;

or who, having eaten hot food, consumes honey and meat; / or who, having drunk wine and honey, consumes hot food;

And who engages in sexual intercourse when his food is incompletely digested, / and who, afflicted by heat and sunshine, suddenly plunges into water:

his suppressed bodily heat provokes wind, / and the deranged wind sets the accumulations of doshas in motion.

Those doshas, having entered the vessels, vitiate the blood; / and blocked by the blood and flesh, the three [doshas]—wind, bile, and phlegm—

rapidly generate the eighteen skin diseases in human beings. / In the [treatises on] etiology as well, the etiology of the sevenfold skin diseases has been taught.

Now I shall state the symptoms of those eighteen skin diseases. / The skin disease that has a reddish-brown appearance, is dusky, dry, painful,

feels as if covered with ants, and is rough, is caused by wind. / That which rises quickly, is corrupt, burns intensely,

is coppery, dusky, enraged, and accompanied by fever, is caused by bile. / Or when they have arisen, that which is motionless, thick, heavy,

pale, unctuous, and heavy, is a skin disease originating from phlegm. / That which is cracked, produces abundant discharge, is attended with burning, redness, and pain,

and causes the skin, body hair, nails, and flesh to split, is caused by all three doshas. / Hear from me also the premonitory symptoms of those about to manifest:

having observed them, an intelligent [physician] should apply treatment. / A sensation of heat, intense burning, sweating, dryness, discoloration,

numbness, horripilation, heaviness of the limbs, exhaustion, / redness, thirst, debility, burning pain, eruptions, and so forth.

From these the skin diseases arise; I will declare their symptoms. / That which sweats, resembles a guñjā berry, appears with pain,

is cracked, and has blue borders is called kākaṇa skin disease. / That which is covered with many circular patches resembling udumbara fruits,

either without discharge or discharging, one should know as audumbara. / That which has circular patches resembling bandhujīva flowers, elevated and burning,

accompanied by pain and sucking pain, one should know as maṇḍala skin disease. / A skin disease resembling the tongue of a blackbuck, one should recognize as ṛśyajihva.

That which resembles a white lotus petal they know as puṇḍarīka. / The skin disease resembling a bottle-gourd flower is declared to be sidhma.

Kapāla skin disease is black, rough, and marked with circular patches. / Carmakuṣṭha is thick, resembles elephant-hide, and is coarse.

Pāmā has blisters, burning heat, itching, and pain. / That which discharges copiously, is accompanied by itching and obstruction,

and, once arisen, persists, is proclaimed to be kiṭiba. / That which arises dusky and red, is excessively moist and discharging,

and is endowed with an accumulation of flesh, is to be known as vicarcikā. / The circular patches that are completely dry, rough, itchy, thick,

and have raised edges, are remembered as dadru skin disease. / That which is covered with wounds that are dark blue and reddish, coarse,

numerous, and discharging, they know as śatāruṣka. / That which has body hairs resembling the awn of rice, is white and red,

and pierced by reciprocal circular patches, one should identify as śvitra. / That which is vitiated by the vehemence of poison from fish, mice, or insects,

has itching, redness, and eruptions, or is dusky, is poison-born. / That which appears on the palms, the soles, the big toes, and the heels,

is cracked, and is attended with pain and burning, is remembered as vaipādika. / That which has the color of an udumbara fruit, appears with pain,

slimy discharge, redness, and discoloration, is called sthūlāru skin disease. / That which is surrounded by erysipelas, contracted, and accompanied by running discharge,

that is called ekakuṣṭha, which arises singly from erysipelas. / These eighteen skin diseases have been stated here according to their own characteristics.

Nine of them are incurable, and just so [nine] are treatable: / puṇḍarīka, then śvitra, ṛṣyajihva along with kākaṇa,

udumbara, śatāruṣka, and that remembered as carmakuṣṭha, / that which is called ekakuṣṭha, and the skin disease that is vaipādika—

these nine skin diseases are never cured. / Sidhma, vicarcikā, pāmā, dadru, and kiṭibha,

kapāla skin disease, sthūlāru, maṇḍala, and that which is poison-born— / these nine the wise declare to be curable skin diseases.

For nine of them are born of karma, and just nine are born of doshas. / Those born of karma are not cured, but the others are indeed cured.

A self-controlled person is freed from them when properly treated by a skilled [physician]. / Skin diseases arise from blood and arise from all three doshas;

therefore, bloodletting is prescribed for them at the very outset. / For a very minor skin disease, repeated scarification is considered proper;

or [extraction] of its blood with leeches, a bottle-gourd, or a horn is prescribed. / Hear now the disorders of blood residing separately in each tissue:

blood affected by wind is frothy, reddish-brown, dry, and thin; / blood accompanied by bile is remembered as dark blue, yellow, or black, and hot;

that consisting of phlegm is slimy, pale, unctuous, and stringy; / upon the appearance of all [these characteristics], one should know blood to be caused by all three doshas.

Blood resembling a cochineal insect is declared to be unvitiated. / For a man whose blood has been let and who has eaten a meal,

and who has been unctuated with prepared ghees, one should then perform purification: / emesis, purgation, and likewise head evacuation; / one should administer non-unctuous enemas, and should not give him an unctuous enema.

A patient with skin disease should always consume śāli rice, ṣaṣṭika rice, / meat of wild animals and birds, and preparations of barley food.

Meat of domestic, marshy, or aquatic animals, sugarcane, sesame, ghee, wine, / curd, milk, daytime sleeping, sour fruits, sexual intercourse,

radish, pastry preparations, muscle fat, and fresh herbs: / all this provokes phlegm, bile, and blood.

Foods of such kinds, channel-blocking foods, / and eating during indigestion or overeating, a patient with skin disease must always avoid.

For purposes of unctuation, a patient with skin disease should drink Dhānvantara ghee, / or Mahāpañcagavya, or oil of śirīṣa.

Or he should take the graduated pippalī regimen with honey, / or an ariṣṭa, abhayāriṣṭa, or gaṇḍīrāriṣṭa.

One should administer a crushed fistful of the heartwood of khadira with food, / and having boiled it for three days, he should drink it, bathe [in it], and apply it as an unction.

He should eat food prepared with it and use it as drinking water; / he should proceed thus for a fortnight, a month, a season, or even six months.

Khadira, when purified, destroys even very severe skin diseases, / just as the fire at the end of an eon, fully flared up in the cycle of the world, [destroys] the mountains.

Or powdered: five abhayās along with the three pungents, or together with jaggery; / one adhering to a wholesome diet should lick [it], and relief from skin disease will occur before long.

Or a person suffering from skin disease should drink haridrā or rasāñjana with cow's urine / as a course of treatment; he is thereby freed from the disease.

Drākṣā, haridrā, mañjiṣṭhā, triphalā, and devadāru, / nāgara, the two groups of five roots, mustā, and madhurasā,

saptaparṇa, apāmārga, picumanda, āṭarūṣaka, / viḍaṅga, citraka, dantī, pippalī, and marica—

taking equal parts of these, a person suffering from skin disease should drink a pala of the powder / mixed with cow's urine for a month; he is thereby freed from skin disease.

When it is digested, the man should drink camel's milk and live on a milk diet; / skin diseases that have produced worms, whose hair and nails have fallen off,

or even whose flesh is decomposed, camel's milk destroys. / These have been declared as the internal treatments that eradicate skin diseases.

I shall declare the external treatment in detail; hear it from me: / For a person whose blood has been let, one should apply pastes,

having rubbed [the lesions] with surgical instruments, or with leaves, or again with cow-dung; / then the skin lesions are to be smeared with pastes that destroy skin disease:

Svarjikā, kuṣṭha, tuttha, viḍaṅga, marica, / manaḥśilā, and lodhra: [this] paste destroys skin disease.

One should grind fruit of avalguja, dantī, śyonāka, gajapippalī, / the two citrakas, the two mustards, and the two haridrās;

having stirred this with citron juice, one should bury it [in the ground]; / after seven nights, it is the supreme paste for skin diseases.

It subdues dadru, kapālakuṣṭha, kiṭibha, vicarcikā, / sthūlāruṣkā, [eruptions] born of poison, and sidhma.

Karavīra, lāṅgalikī, dantī, hiṃsrā, śukānanā, / citraka, arka, the three pungents, triphalā, kaṭurohiṇī,

kośātakī, bhadramustā, bṛhatī, mustard, vacā, / seed of karañja, sudhā, svarṇakṣīrī, nidigdhikā,

picumanda, what is named jāti, pīlu, shoots of tilvaka, / seeds of sudhā and āmalaka, karṇikāra, avalguja, / […] bhallātaka. // Chapter Seven.