The Compendium of Bheḷa 3.3

English (machine translation) 3.3

Language: English

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.

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.

Linked texts (1)

Bheḷasaṃhitā — Bheḷa, Sanskrit