The Compendium of Bheḷa 3
English (machine translation) 3
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Contents
3.1.1
Taken in equal measure, the six tastes sustain the body here; / taken otherwise, however, they produce disorders in embodied beings.
3.1.2
Dry, light, stable, and cold are the astringent and the bitter [tastes]; / sharp and hot are the sour and the salty; the pungent is also penetrating.
3.1.3
Cold, unctuous, heavy, strengthening, and slimy is the sweet taste; / wind is recorded as astringent, bitter, pungent, cold, and dry.
3.1.4
They declare bile to be dry, hot, sour, and pungent; / phlegm, however, is sweet, unctuous, cold, dull, stable, and heavy.
3.1.5
These they know as qualities co-born with tastes and doṣas; / among them, [they know] the astringent, pungent, and bitter as equal to the qualities of wind.
3.1.6
Likewise, they know [tastes] equal to the qualities of bile through the pungent, sour, and salty; / one should know the sweet, salty, and sour as tastes equal to phlegm.
3.1.7
Therefore, by repeatedly using these, phlegm increases in the body; / a heap placed together here attains twofold greatness.
3.1.8
Through similarity of qualities, the bodily constituents of men increase respectively; / and through tastes opposite to them when ingested, these undergo diminution.
3.1.9
Just as fire reaches appeasement upon encountering water, / [so wind,] dry through astringent, bitter, and pungent [tastes], increases with dry things;
3.1.10
wind is appeased by unctuous substances, and by others different from that; / hot bile increases with pungent, sour, and salty [tastes], [which are] hot;
3.1.11
it is appeased by cold things, and especially by the remainder of the qualities; / and unctuous phlegm also increases with unctuous things, through the sweet and others;
3.1.12
it is appeased by dry tastes: by the astringent, pungent, and bitter; / three by three increase each single one through single commonality,
3.1.13
and through difference of qualities, tastes destroy a doṣa in embodied beings. / Wind does not persist together with oil, because of [its] unctuousness and heat;
3.1.14
nor bile together with clarified butter, because of [its] coldness and sweetness; / nor unctuous and sweet phlegm together with honey,
3.1.15
because of [honey's] dryness and astringent character, remains stationary in the body; / and muscle fat and bone marrow arising from marshland animals
3.1.16
destroy wind like oil, because of their unctuous, hot, and heavy nature; / and the meat juices and marrow of herbivorous and scratching birds
3.1.17
destroy bile like clarified butter, because of their cold and sweet nature; / and whatever medicine here is astringent, bitter, and pungent
3.1.18
that is sweet, destroys phlegm in embodied beings through difference in qualities. / Now, one should not excessively consume long pepper or alkali,
3.1.19
and salt; when eaten in large quantities, these lead to morbid disturbance. / Having displaced phlegm, however, [long pepper] does not manage to draw it out;
3.1.20
long pepper is sweet in post-digestive effect, therefore one should not eat too much of it. / If taken in excess, it cooks the body because of its sharp, hot, and pungent nature.
3.1.21
And one should not desire to eat alkali and salt alone. / In proper measure, warm, unctuous, wholesome, and sweet food,
3.1.22
and whatever does not cause burning upon digestion—that one should consume when [the previous meal] is digested. / Unctuous [food] produces strength and complexion; warm [food] removes phlegm and wind;
3.1.23
and a proper measure does not cause burning and brings about wholesomeness. / Sweet [food] produces nourishment in a creature; non-burning [food] is soothing;
3.1.24
and food taken when [the previous meal] is digested is desirable, conferring long life upon men. / Neither talking nor laughing, neither hastily nor lingeringly,
3.1.25
one should eat, focused upon it, unctuous [food]; [thus] the nutrient fluid is produced in the body. / Just as in this world a kindled fire flares up upon dry wood,
3.1.26
so, when what is eaten is digested, the nutrient fluid and other [tissues] accumulate. / The rains sustain life exceedingly, and winter provides nourishment;
3.1.27
and summer cooks this, as if another transformative power. / Because of intense heat, pungent summer dries up all the bodily tissues;
3.1.28
cold produces firmness and steadfastness; [...] the rains [...] / [...] Thus said the venerable Ātreya. / The third chapter.
3.3.1
[...] in whom what is eaten is over-digested, / and whose strength and complexion decline even while eating foods—
3.3.2
and food eaten, even if small in amount and light, digests with difficulty, / and he does not obtain strength and complexion: he is said to have a weak digestive fire.
3.3.3
In whom what is eaten sometimes digests and sometimes does not digest, / whether heavy or light: he is said to have an irregular digestive fire.
3.3.4
In whom measured food digests, and what is eaten in excess does not digest: / one should know that man to have a balanced digestive fire, having balanced bile, phlegm, and wind.
3.3.5
A man of wind-bile constitution becomes sharp in digestive fire by constitution; / a wind-constitution [man] has an irregular digestive fire, and from phlegm a man has a slow digestive fire.
3.3.6
He whose digestive fire is deficient or excessive abandons the body quickly; / and he who has a balanced digestive fire and a balanced constitution attains long life.
3.3.7
With beef, buffalo meat, and pork, with land crabs, fish, and freshwater crabs, / with unctuous meats accompanied by sesamum paste, one should counter an excessive digestive fire by feeding.
3.3.8
One should eat pāyasa prepared in milk boiled down with monitor lizard; / one should drink curd with clarified butter, mixed with māṣa pulse soup,
3.3.9
likewise one should drink the fluid of turtle eggs mixed with sesamum paste; / and one should prepare jaggery mixed with oil, and whatever else is wholesome for that.
3.3.10
For one with an irregular digestive fire who has been unctuated, one should administer emesis and the rest; / and the treatment taught for the disorder of the grahaṇī is for one with a slow digestive fire.
3.3.11
Internal medicinal drinks, external application by plastering, / and surgical procedures: medicine is remembered as threefold.
3.3.12
Sweet, sour, and pungent: these are remembered as the three stages of digestion. / Pungent is of the digested [state], and the other two are of that which is undergoing digestion.
3.3.13
In this system they declare food and drink to be sweet and sour / in disorders born of wind; or when [the disorder] is not pacified by these,
3.3.14
the physician should then administer unctuous purgation to him when he has been unctuated, / or he should treat him with enemas, for wind resides in the lower part [of the body].
3.3.15
And likewise one should cause bitter and sweet food and drink to be given / in disorders born of bile; or if it is not pacified by that,
3.3.16
one should administer emesis and head-purgation to him when unctuated, / according to his strength, for phlegm is declared to belong to the upper part [of the body].
3.3.17
Feces, urine, and wind, and the six beginning with blood and muscle: / one should know these as the sustaining elements in the bodies of embodied beings.
3.3.18
Strength, age, and body are each remembered as threefold; / one should observe them through the division of superior, inferior, and middling.
3.3.19
Diet and conduct, when practiced gradually over time, / attain the state of natural constitution; this they call the characteristic of wholesomeness. / Thus said the venerable Ātreya. / In the Section on Specific Determination of Bhela, the third chapter. / / The fourth chapter. / Now we shall explain the ascertainment of the nature of diseases, so said the venerable Ātreya.
3.4.1
Having reflected, having inspected, and having questioned, the physician should examine the patient; / first comes the diagnosis of the disease, and after that the treatment.
3.4.2
Having looked at the form, complexion, and build before disease and when diseased, / the physician should examine both what is natural and what is morbid.
3.4.3
The regularity or irregularity of fever, or whether the body is smooth or rough— / having seen and touched, he should indeed ascertain coldness and heat with his hand;
3.4.4
the customary conduct of the parents, what is wholesome, the pregnancy cravings of the mother, / the time and transformation of the disease, discoloration of feces and urine,
3.4.5
the onset of premonitory symptoms, the body, digestive fire, age, and strength, / the constitution, the place of birth, and customary diet,
3.4.6
practice of physical exercise, wholesomeness, and proper and improper quantity in eating— / these and whatever else is of that kind he should learn through questions spoken.
3.4.7
Some sages here wish for one predominant doṣa; / because the disorder is not distinct, and that cause is undesirable.
3.4.8
The man who cannot tolerate dryness is remembered as wind-constitution; / one of bile [constitution] tolerates water; and from phlegm one cannot tolerate sweet and sour.
3.4.9
For this acquisition of qualities arises from nature and is produced simultaneously [at birth]; / one should know it indeed as constitution; I shall describe its characteristics.
3.4.10
The unmanifest, the great [intellect], and the five great elements: / the supreme original principles are seven, along with inherent nature and time.
3.4.11
From them beings arise, and to them alone they return; / the sense faculties, the objects of the senses, and the five intellects likewise.
3.4.12
When at the fertile period a woman resorts to dry foods, / and likewise here, when upward movement of wind [occurs], she engages excessively in activity,
3.4.13
then the blood situated in the womb, thus vitiated by wind, / when it enters into union with semen of the same kind,
3.4.14
then, by the semen and blood vitiated by wind, / the embryo arrives at a wind-constitution from its prior embodied state.
3.4.15
In the very same way, for a woman resorting at the fertile period to [foods] of phlegm or bile, / a phlegmatic or biliary constitution is born therefrom.
3.4.16
Short, swift, lean, small, talkative, fond of harsh things, / stiff-limbed, disjointed, having constancy [only] in a group among group members,
3.4.17
enduring of hardship, trusting, dry-skinned, unsteady, / having rough head-hair and body-hair, grasping quickly—thus is he remembered.
3.4.18
And in dreams he comes on a camel or travels in the sky; / he for whom very unctuous [substances] are wholesome—that man is of wind-constitution.
3.4.19
Loose-limbed, smelling of agallochum, fierce, swift, a big eater, / with wrinkles, premature graying, and baldness, quick in digestion, impatient,
3.4.20
round-eyed, irascible, weak, with weak sense organs, / not eating sours, eating cold things when cold, having few offspring, fond of cool things,
3.4.21
with excessive complexion, highly intelligent, seeing fire in dreams, / drying quickly when bathed—[such] a man is of biliary constitution.
3.4.22
Very unctuous, smooth- and compact-limbed, fortunate, pleasant to look upon, / of firm memory, slow to comprehend, devoted to steadfast loyalty,
3.4.23
fond of meat, warm, and pungent things, fond of women, generous, / forgiving, strong, fortunate, sensitive to cold, fond of eating,
3.4.24
slow to develop severe disease, of measured speech, eating little, / far-sighted, very energetic, resolute, and enduring hardship,
3.4.25
with abundant and firmly rooted body-hair, teeth, nails, and head-hair, / drying slowly when bathed, and seeing water in dreams,
3.4.26
and who tolerates dryness—that man is of phlegm-constitution. / One should recognize a combined constitution also by the combined signs.
3.4.27
A single [dosha-balanced] constitution is fortunate; a dual one is middling; / but that which consists of all three doshas is said to be the lowest. Thus said the venerable Ātreya. / Thus the fourth chapter in Bheḷa. / Fifth chapter. Now we shall explain the chapter on the appearance of the diseased, thus said the venerable Ātreya.
3.5.1
One man may have a severe disease [yet appear healthy] by bodily form and strength; / while another man may have a mild disease, but lack mental vigor and the like,
3.5.2
and thus appears as if severely diseased; the physician is bewildered in this matter. / If a small dose of medicine is administered there to the severely ill,
3.5.3
it does not burn up all the doshas because of its small power. / Fainting, vomiting, numbness, yawning, heaviness of the limbs,
3.5.4
thirst, and continuous fever—these occur for him. / Mustā, kuṣṭha, the two haridrās, pragraha, ativiṣā, āmayā,
3.5.5
bhallātaka, vayasthā, citraka, and suradāru— / with these combined with cow's urine one should administer a non-unctuous enema,
3.5.6
and it provides relief for both fully manifest and unmanifest [disorders]. / Āragvadha, saptaparṇa, madana, svādukaṇṭaka,
3.5.7
śārṅgeṣṭā, kaṭukā, pāṭhā, naktamāla, along with vatsaka— / for the purpose of āragvadha, the physician should administer a non-unctuous enema with these. / Sixth chapter. Now we shall explain the specific determination of seasons, thus said the venerable Ātreya.
3.6.1
Because of the distinction in the sun's movement and the revolution of the seasons, / the dhātus of men undergo decrease and increase respectively.
3.6.2
From the vapor of the earth, east wind, continuous thick cloud-shade, / and from drinking fresh water vitiated by the soil's turbidity,
3.6.3
and from the emaciation of summer, when vital breath has become weakened, / the digestive fire of embodied beings becomes mild during the rains.
3.6.4
Because the wind arising from constipation, cooled [thereby], is provoked, / therefore one should not resort during the rains to pungent, sour, and saline tastes.
3.6.5
One should eat aged śāli rice and ṣaṣṭika rice with mudga soup, / or barley and wheat, which are considered wholesome when the wind is expelled.
3.6.6
And paṭolas, buttermilk, light meat broths from dry-land animals, / well water, rainwater, prepared [water], and non-unctuous enemas one should employ.
3.6.7
Due to instability in the rainy season, water undergoes sour digestion; / therefore bile increases, as it also does through sour foods.
3.6.8
Having suddenly reached [intense heat] from the scorch of the sun after being acted upon by herbs, / the bile accumulated in the rainy season goes into provocation in autumn.
3.6.9
Therefore in autumn one should employ cool baths and ointments, / fan with palm leaves, and plunge into lakes.
3.6.10
And one should drink parched-grain flour with sugar and honey-water, / and eat aged śāli rice and ṣaṣṭika rice with mudga soup,
3.6.11
and sweet broths of dry-land animals prepared with ghee; / one should consume vidārī, sugarcane juice, grapes, and other things of that kind.
3.6.12
When the surge of bile has subsided, one should drink ghee in autumn; / thus his body is nourished, and the remaining doshas pass downwards.
3.6.13
Because of the dryness of the west wind and the coolness of the season, / the dhātus of men undergo roughness in early winter.
3.6.14
Therefore one should resort to various kinds of unctuous substances and bathing with warm water; / roughness and harshness are calmed by massage in this way.
3.6.15
Birds, aquatic [creatures], fish, combined with unctuous, sour, and saline substances, / and marshland meats, and others of that kind, one should consume.
3.6.16
For the west wind is pungent, and the coldness of water is intense; / the wind would excessively dry up the body because of dry food.
3.6.17
One should wear heavy coverings and resort to sunshine and fire; / for when dry, strength is taken away from the creature's body by heat.
3.6.18
The waters indeed become cold and sweet in early winter; / therefore phlegm accumulates on account of them and unctuous foods.
3.6.19
Because of the coldness of the season, it does not liquefy for that long; / therefore in late winter one should drink vāruṇī mixed with oil and jaggery,
3.6.20
and one should eat various meats according to their proper manner. / Thus phlegm accumulated here in embodied beings on account of the cold
3.6.21
arrives at liquefaction when touched by the sun's heat in spring; / for the sun reaches the middle quarter in spring.
3.6.22
As if mountains were burning, [the heat] provokes [phlegm] in the bodies of men; / then the phlegm, liquefied, smears over the heart.
3.6.23
Therefore vomiting and indigestion are seen at the end of late winter; / for that reason honey and mārdvīka are declared in spring to destroy phlegm. / Thus the sixth chapter in Bheḷa. / Thus ends the Section on Specific Determination in the Compendium of Bheḷa. / Section on the Body. / Second chapter. / […] remains; in the tenth month after birth, when the name and lineage are venerated, / in a young boy, as the dhātus grow, / even when the bones and marrow are full, semen is not yet produced.
Linked texts (1)
- Bheḷasaṃhitā — Bheḷa, Sanskrit