The Compendium of Caraka 1.13: trayodaśo 'adhyāyaḥ /

Now we shall explain the chapter on unction.

Thus spoke the revered Ātreya.

To Punarvasu, who was seated together with Sāṃkhya philosophers who had enumerated the principles to be enumerated,
Vahniveśa asked his doubt for the welfare of the world:

"From what sources do the unctuous substances arise? How many are they, and what are their individual qualities?
What are the times and post-prandial drinks for which? How many and what are the preparations?

How many are the dosages, of what measurement, and which is prescribed in which cases?
Which unctuous substance is wholesome for whom, and what is the maximum duration for oleation?

Who should be oleated, and who should not? What is the sign of being oleated, unoleated, and excessively oleated?
What is wholesome and unwholesome before drinking, while it is drunk, and after it is digested?

Who has a soft or hard central tract? What are the complications and what are the successful treatments?
What conduct is recommended for pure unctuous substance and for that used in evacuation?

In whom are the preparations to be applied, and by what procedure, O Lord?
O you of boundless knowledge, I wish to know the lore of unction!"

Then Punarvasu, the dispeller of his doubt, replied:
"O gentle one, the source of unctuous substances is twofold: vegetable and animal.

Sesame, priyāla, abhiṣuka, bibhītaka, citrā, abhayā, castor, madhūka, mustard,
safflower, bilva, āruka, radish, linseed, nikocaka, akṣoḍa, karañja, and śigru—

these are termed vegetable sources of unctuous substances; likewise the animal ones are fish, wild animals, and birds;
of these, curd, milk, ghee, meat, muscle fat, and marrow are prescribed among unctuous substances.

Among all varieties of oils, sesame oil is distinguished;
for strength and oleation it is foremost, while castor oil is foremost for purgation.
(Castor oil is pungent, hot, heavy, and alleviates vāta and śleṣman;
combined with astringent, sweet, and bitter substances, it also destroys pitta.) //1

Ghee, oil, muscle fat, and marrow are considered the best of all unctuous substances; / and among these, ghee is indeed the foremost, because it conforms to processing.

Ghee alleviates pitta and vāta; is beneficial for chyle, semen, and ojas; / cools, softens, and clears the voice and complexion.

Oil destroys vāta, does not increase śleṣman, increases strength, / is wholesome for the skin, hot, makes stable, and cleanses the female genital tract.

In pierced, broken, struck, and prolapsed conditions, pain in the female genital tract, ears, and head, / for the increase of virility, oleation, and in [excessive] exercise, muscle fat is recommended.

Marrow increases strength, semen, chyle, śleṣman, medas, and marrow; / it specifically imparts strength to the bones, and is beneficial for oleation.

Ghee should be drunk in autumn, and muscle fat and marrow in mādhava; / oil [should be drunk] in prāvṛṣ; a person should drink unctuous substance when it is neither excessively hot nor cold.

One dominated by vāta and pitta should drink at night, and also during hot weather; / one dominated by śleṣman should drink by day, during cold weather, and when the sun is clear.

Drunk in excessive heat or by day by one dominated by vāta and pitta, / it may provoke fainting, thirst, insanity, or jaundice.

Drinking an unctuous substance in the cold, at night, or if dominated by śleṣman, / a person incurs abdominal distension, loss of appetite, colic, or pallor.

Hot water is to be drunk after ghee; vegetable soup is praised after oil; / for muscle fat and marrow, thin gruel [is recommended]; or hot water for all.

Boiled rice, thick gruel, meat broth, meat, milk, curd, / barley gruel, pulse soup, pot-herbs, vegetable soup, kāmbalika, khaḍa,

barley meal, sesame paste, wine, linctuses, / foods to be chewed, anointing, enema, and urethral/vaginal enemas,

mouth gargle, ear oil, nasal drops, ear drops, and eye satiation— / these are the twenty-four preparations of unctuous substances.

However, that unctuous substance which is drunk pure they do not call a preparation; / that is considered by physicians as the primary method of oleation.

Combined with tastes singly or in combinations of the six, / an unctuous substance reaches sixty-three variations, and single [unmixed] makes one [more].

Thus these are the sixty-four preparations of unctuous substances; / they should be administered by the knowledgeable physician considering habituation, season, disease, and the person.

It takes a whole day and night, a whole day, and half a day / respectively to digest: the maximum, medium, and small doses of an unctuous substance.

Thus three doses of unctuous substances have been declared in terms of quantity; / I shall explain their applications according to individual persons.

Men who are accustomed to abundant unctuous substances, who endure hunger and thirst, / whose digestive fire has maximum strength, and who are superior in strength,

those with abdominal lumps, snakebites, afflicted with erysipelas, / the insane, those with dysuria, and those with hard stool—

these should drink the maximum dose; hear the benefits of drinking it: / properly administered, this quickly pacifies disorders.

It is a dose that pulls out the doṣas, traverses all channels, / promotes strength, and rejuvenates the body, senses, and mind.

Those afflicted with aruṣkā, eruptions, boils, itching, and pemphigus, / those suffering from kuṣṭha, urinary disorders, and vātarakta,

those who do not eat excessively, and those who have a soft bowel— / they should drink the medium dose, as should those of medium strength.

This dose has slight side effects, does not greatly sap strength, / brings about oleation easily, and is employed for the purpose of purification.

Those who are elderly, children, delicate, accustomed to comfort, / those for whom an empty central tract is harmful, and those of dull digestive fire,

and those whose fever, diarrhoea, and cough are of long standing / should drink the small dose of unctuous substance, as should those of inferior strength.

This dose is easy to manage in terms of dietary restrictions, is oleating, nourishing, / aphrodisiac, strength-giving, free from distress, and may be continued for a long time.

Those of vātapitta constitution, those suffering from vātapitta disorders, / those desiring eyesight, the wounded, the emaciated, the elderly, children, and the weak,

those desiring longevity, those seeking strength, complexion, and voice, / those desiring nourishment, offspring, and delicacy,

those seeking radiance, ojas, memory, intellect, digestive fire, and strength of intellect and senses, / and those suffering from burning, weapons, poison, and fire should drink ghee.

Those with increased śleṣman and medas, with flabby and thick neck and abdomen, / afflicted with vāta diseases, and those of vāta constitution,

and those persons who desire strength, slimness, lightness, firmness, stability of limbs, / and an unctuous, smooth, and thin skin,

those with parasites in the bowel, a hard bowel, afflicted with sinus tracts, / and those habituated to oil should drink oil in the cold season.

Those who endure wind and sun, the ununctuous, those emaciated by load-carrying and travel on foot, / whose semen and blood are dried up, whose kapha and medas are depleted,

who have severe pain in the bones, joints, veins, ligaments, vulnerable points, and central tract, / whose strong vāta stays blocking the channels,

whose strength of digestive fire is great, and men habituated to muscle fat— / for those of them who are to be oleated, the drinking of muscle fat is prescribed.

Those with blazing digestive fire, who endure hardship, voracious eaters, habitual users of unctuous substances, / afflicted with vāta, and having a hard bowel, when requiring oleation, should take marrow.

For whatever conditions each unctuous substance is wholesome has been declared; / the maximum and minimum durations of oleation are seven nights and three nights.

Those to be sudated, those to be purified, the ununctuous, those with vāta disorders, / those addicted to exercise, wine, and women, and thinkers should be oleated.

Those for whom drying is to be prescribed without purification, / having excessively increased kapha and medas—for them oleation is not commended.

Those with excessive secretions in the mouth and anus, those with persistently dull digestive fire, / those seized by thirst and fainting, pregnant women, those with dryness of palate,

those with food aversion, those vomiting, those afflicted with abdominal enlargement, āma, and garaviṣa, / the weak, those who have severely fainted, those exhausted by unctuous substances, those suffering from intoxication,

those undergoing nasal therapy or enema therapy should not be oleated; / from drinking unctuous substances, very terrible diseases arise in them.

Feces knotted and ununctuous, vāta not moving downwards, the digestive fire / dull, roughness, and dryness of the body are the signs of the unoleated.

Downward movement of vāta, blazing digestive fire, unctuous and unformed feces, / softness, and unctuousness in the body arise in those properly oleated.

Pallor, heaviness, sluggishness, undigested condition of feces, / drowsiness, anorexia, and nausea would be the sign of the excessively oleated.

Food that is liquid, warm, non-obstructive, in proper quantity, / not excessively unctuous, and unmixed should be eaten by one wishing to drink an unctuous substance tomorrow.

One should drink a pacifying unctuous substance with appetite at mealtime; / for the sake of purification, however, a person should drink when the evening food has digested.

One should use warm water, observe celibacy, sleep at night, / and not suppress arising urges of feces, urine, flatus, and eructation.

One should avoid physical exercise, speaking loudly, anger, grief, cold, and sunlight, / and resort to a bed and seat sheltered from the wind.

A person having drunk an unctuous substance, and likewise while using an unctuous substance, [should observe this]; / for severe diseases arise from improper management of an unctuous substance.

A person of soft central tract becomes oleated in three nights by consuming pure [unctuous substance]; / but a person of hard central tract becomes oleated in seven nights.

Jaggery, sugarcane juice, curd whey, milk, unchurned curd, / pāyasa, kṛśarā, ghee, the juice of kāśmarya and triphalā,

Grape juice, pīlu juice, or even hot water, / or having drunk fresh liquor, one of soft central tract is purged.

These never purge one of hard central tract; / the digestive seat of one of hard central tract possesses excessively predominant vāta.

The digestive seat of one of soft central tract has excited pitta, little kapha, and sluggish vāta; / therefore that person is considered easily purgative.

In one whose digestive seat has excited pitta and whose strength of digestive fire is great, / the unctuous substance drunk turns to ash rapidly by the radiance of the fire.

That powerful fire of oleation, having consumed that dose of unctuous substance, diminishing vitality, / produces an extreme thirst accompanied by secondary complications.

Even very heavy food is not adequate to pacify one full of unctuous substance; / if he does not obtain very cold water, he is burned / just as a venomous serpent in the midst of dry grass [is burned] by the fire of its own poison.

If thirst should occur while the unctuous substance is undigested, the physician should induce vomiting; / then, having drunk cold water and eaten dry food, he should vomit.

One should not [give] pure ghee in [excited] pitta, particularly when accompanied by āma; / for it stains the entire body, destroys consciousness, and kills.

Drowsiness with nausea, distension, fever, stiffness, loss of consciousness, / dermatoses, itching, pallor, swelling, hemorrhoids, anorexia, thirst,

Abdominal disease, disorders of the digestive tract, sensation of being covered with a wet cloth, inhibition of speech, / colic, and disorders of āma arise from the mishandling of an unctuous substance.

In that case, emesis is commended, sudation, waiting for time [to pass], / and mild purging according to the strength of each disease after understanding it.

The administration of buttermilk and ariṣṭa, consumption of dry drinks and food, / urines, and triphalā are the medicine for complications of an unctuous substance.

An unctuous substance administered at the improper time, unwholesome, not in [proper] dose, / excessively used, and because of improper care, undergoes complications.

A person should drink a purgative after resting three nights from the unctuous substance, / having eaten boiled rice with meat soup that is unctuous, liquid, and warm for three days.

Having eaten likewise after resting one day, he should drink an emetic; / but in an unctuous substance intended for non-purification, the conduct should be like that of one purged.

For those people who aversion to unctuous substances, who are habituated to unctuous substances, who have soft central tracts, / who cannot endure hardship, and who are habituated to liquor, a preparation is preferred.

Meat broths of quail, partridge, peacock, swan, boar, rooster, / cow, goat, ram, and fish would be beneficial in oleation.

Barley, jujube, and horse gram, unctuous substances with jaggery and sugar, / pomegranate, curd with the three pungents—this is the collection of combinations of meat broths.

Sesame seeds eaten beforehand with unctuous substance and treacle produce oleation, / as do kṛśarā preparations with abundant unctuous substance and sesame kāmbalikā preparations.

A dry person should drink treacle, ginger, and oil together with surā liquor, / and when it has digested, he should eat food with roasted meats.

Drinking oil with the clear supernatant of surā liquor, or muscle fat, or marrow, / or milk with treacle, a vāta person becomes oleated.

Drinking fresh-milked warm milk combined with an unctuous substance and with sugar, / or drinking the cream of curd with treacle, a person becomes oleated.

The drink of five handfuls, pāyasa mixed with black gram, / cooked with milk, containing abundant unctuous substance, would oleate a person without delay.

The drink of five handfuls made with handfuls of ghee, oil, muscle fat, marrow, and rice / should be drunk by one desiring oleation. / (Or unctuous boar broth combined with ghee and salt, / drunk twice daily with care, would oleate a person without delay. //1//)

One suffering from dermatosis, swelling, or urinary anomaly should not employ / meat of domestic, marshy, or aquatic animals, jaggery, curd, milk, or sesame seeds in oleation.

One should oleate them appropriately with non-provoking unctuous substances cooked / with pippalī, with harītakī, or even with triphalā.

The physician should cook an unctuous substance with soups of grape and amalaka, and with sour curd, / containing the three pungents inside; having drunk it, a person becomes oleated.

Broths of barley, jujube, and horse gram, alkali, surā liquor, curd, / milk, and ghee: that cooked oleating excellent ghee [is prepared].

Having cooked oil, marrow, muscle fat, and ghee with juices of jujube and triphalā, / one should administer it in disorders of the female genital tract and semen.

Just as a cloth holds water, and just as excess flows away, / so an unctuous substance is digested according to the digestive fire, and excess flows out.

Or just as water poured in haste without wetting a lump of earth / flows away, so an unctuous substance taken hurriedly slips out.

Unctuous substances combined with salt oleate a person without delay; / for that is non-obstructive, not dry, subtle, hot, and quickly diffusing.

One should administer oleation first, and immediately thereafter sudation; / for one endowed with oleation and sudation, [one should administer] the next purification.

Here is a verse:

Unctuous substances, the entire procedure of oleation, successful management of complications along with remedies / have been declared according to the questions by the venerable son of Candrabhāgā.

Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, called the Chapter on Oleation, in the Section on Principles of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka. //13