The Compendium of Caraka 1.14: caturdaśa 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall explain the chapter on sudation.

Thus declared the venerable Ātreya.

Hereafter, sudations will be spoken of, which, when properly applied, / pacify diseases curable by sudation that are caused by vāta and kapha.

When vāta is overcome by sudation applied preceded by oleation, / feces, urine, and semen do not get obstructed in any way.

For even dry pieces of wood are bent properly / by the applications of oleation and sudation; what then of living people?

Having regard for disease, season, and the patient, neither excessively hot nor excessively gentle, / supplied with proper substances, devised according to bodily site, sudation is considered effective.

In severe disease, cold season, and body of great strength, great sudation is beneficial; / weak sudation in a weak [person], and moderate [sudation] in a moderate one.

In vāta-śleṣman, or in vāta, or in kapha, sudation is desired / arranged as unctuous-dry, unctuous, and dry respectively.

When vāta has entered the stomach, or kapha resides in the large intestine, / sudation preceded by dry [treatment] is beneficial, as is that preceded by unctuous [treatment] respectively.

One should sweat the testicles, heart, and eyes gently, or not at all; / moderately on the groins; the remaining bodily limbs as desired.

Having covered the two eyes with very clean rags, or with a ball of wheat [dough], / or with leaves of lotus and blue water-lily, one should be sweated.

One should touch the heart of the person undergoing sudation with cool pearl garlands, or with cold vessels, / or with hands damp with water or holding lotuses.

Upon cessation of cold and colic, checking of stiffness and heaviness, / [and] when softness and sweat have appeared, cessation from sudation is prescribed.

Provocation of pitta, fainting, bodily exhaustion, thirst, / burning sensation, weakness of voice and limbs are the signs of one excessively sweated. / The summer regimen in its entirety, which was stated in the chapter 'On Food Intake' [Tasyāśitīya], / sweet, unctuous, and cold, should be administered to one excessively sweated.

For those habitual to astringent [taste] and alcohol, a pregnant woman, those with raktapitta, / those of pitta constitution, those with diarrhea, the un-unctuous, those with madhumeha, / those with inflamed or fallen testicles, those suffering from disorders of poison and alcohol, / the fatigued, the unconscious, the obese, those with pittameha,

and the thirsty, the hungry, the angry, also the grieving, / those with jaundice, those with abdominal disease, the injured, those with gout [āḍyaroga],

the weak, the excessively emaciated, and those whose ojas is depleted, / and those with timira, the physician should not apply sudation.

In coryza, cough, hiccup, dyspnea, heaviness [of the body], / pain in the ears, neck, and head, hoarseness of voice, constriction of the throat,

facial paralysis, monoplegia, hemiplegia, paralysis of one side, stooping [vināmaka], / tympanites and constipation of the bowels, retention of urine, excessive yawning,

spasm in the flanks, back, waist, and belly, and in sciatica, / dysuria, enlargement of the scrotum, body aches,

pain and stiffness in feet, knees, thighs, and shanks, and also in swelling, / in khallī [cramps], in āma, in cold, in trembling, in vātakaṇṭaka,

in contracture, extension, colic, stiffness, heaviness, and numbness, / [and] in disorders of all limbs, sudation is declared beneficial.

With sesame seeds, black gram, horse gram, sour gruels, ghee, oil, meat, and boiled rice, / milk puddings, kṛśarā, and meats, one should employ bolus sudation [piṇḍasveda].

With the dung of cow, donkey, camel, pig, and horse, with barley along with its husk, / sand, dust, stones, dried dung, and pouches of iron,

one should sweat those suffering from kapha; with the former [substances] one should treat those suffering from vāta. / These substances are also commended appropriately for bed sudations [prastara].

In underground cellars, in jentāka rooms, and in heated inner chambers, / heated with smokeless charcoal, well-anointed, one sweats comfortably.

Meat of domestic, wetland, and aquatic animals, milk, a goat's head, / pig's fat, bile, and blood, along with unctuous sesame and rice—

boiling these thoroughly, one should employ tube sudation [nāḍīsveda], / the best physician knowing the division of place and time and relying on reasoned correlation.

With vāruṇa, amṛtā, eraṇḍa, śigru, radish, mustard, / leaves of vāsā, bamboo, karañja, arka, and aśmantaka,

śobhāñjanaka, saireya, mālatī, surasā, and arjaka, / having boiled water with their leaves, one should employ tube sudation [nāḍīsveda].

With bhūtīka and the pañcamūla, with wine, whey, / urines, and sour liquids combined with unctuous substances, one should employ tube sudation [nāḍīsveda].

These very decoctions are to be used in a water-tub; / for the purpose of sudation, one should also prepare tubs of ghee, milk, and oil.

With pieces of wheat, powders of barley combined with sour liquids, / unctuous substances, yeast, and salt, a poultice [upanāha] is commended.

With fragrant substances, wine yeast, jīvantī, dill, / flaxseed, combined with kuṣṭha and oil, one should apply a poultice.

And one should bind it with skins that have hair and are free from foul odor, / having hot potency; but in their absence, with silk or woolen cloths.

What was tied at night one should release by day; what was applied by day one should release at night, / to avoid internal burning; but in cold [weather], it may remain longer.

Saṅkara, prastara, nāḍī, pariṣeka, avagāhana, / jentāka, aśmaghana, karṣū, kuṭī, bhū, kumbhī,

kūpa, and holāka—these thirteen cause sweating; / I shall explain them properly, all in sequence.

There, sweating by means of the aforesaid boluses, separated by cloth or not separated by cloth, should be known as saṅkarasveda.

One should know prastarasveda as the sweating of a person who has had his whole body well anointed and lies down upon a bed of awned or pod grains or pulse porridge, or of veśavāra, milk pudding, kṛśarā, boiled paste [utkārikā], and the like, covered with a layer of silk or wool, or covered with leaves of castor, eranda, or arka.

Moreover, of the sudation substances—roots, fruits, leaves, sprouts, and the like, or flesh, heads, feet, and the like of wild animals or birds of hot nature, combined as appropriate with sour liquids, salt, and unctuous substances, or urine, milk, and the like—boiled in a pot that does not let the steam escape, one whose body is anointed with unctuous substances prepared with vāta-alleviating drugs should direct the steam through a pipe made of either reeds, hollow bamboo, karañja, or arka leaves, shaped like an elephant's trunk, a fathom long or half a fathom long, with a channel having a circumference of one-fourth of a fathom at the base and one-eighth at the tip, its apertures wrapped all around with vāta-alleviating leaves, bent two or three times; for steam that travels non-linearly, its fierce speed broken, produces sweat comfortably without burning the skin: this is nāḍīsveda.

Furthermore, having filled pots, sprinkling vessels, or conduits with comfortably warm decoctions of roots and the like that alleviate vāta or predominantly vāta, one should pour them over the body of a person which has been anointed with suitable prepared unctuous substances and covered with a cloth: this is pariṣeka.

Avagāha, however, is immersion in a tub of vāta-alleviating decoctions, milk, oil, ghee, meat soup, or warm water, exactly as described.

Now, one wishing to construct a jentāka should examine the ground: in an auspicious, praiseworthy tract of land to the east or to the north, having black sweet soil or golden soil, on the southern or western bank of any water reservoir such as an enclosed lake or lotus pond, at an easily accessible bathing place, on an even, well-demarcated plot of ground, having stepped back seven or eight cubits from the water, one should construct a circular pavilion facing east or facing north, looking toward the bathing place, at most sixteen cubits in height and width, completely circular all around, finished with mud work, and with numerous windows. Inside this circular pavilion, all along the wall up to the door, one should construct a raised bench one cubit in width and height; and in the center of this circular pavilion, one should make a clay oven-column with many small holes and a lid, four cubits in measure, the height of a man, shaped like a roasting oven. One should fill it with wood of khadira or āśvakarṇa and ignite it. When he knows that the wood is well burned, free from smoke, and that the whole sweat house is thoroughly heated by the fire and endowed with heat suitable for sudation, then he should cause this person, whose body is anointed with vāta-alleviating substances and covered with a cloth, to enter, and should instruct him: “Gentle sir, enter for welfare and for health; having entered and climbed onto this bench, you should lie down comfortably, turning from one side to the other. Even if overtaken by fainting from the sweating, you must not abandon this bench until your life breath departs; for slipping down from the space of this bench and failing to find the door because you are overwhelmed by fainting from the sweating, you might instantly lose your life. Therefore, you must under no circumstances abandon this bench. When you perceive yourself free from moistness, your sticky sweat fully flowed out, freed in all channels, become light, and relieved of obstruction, stiffness, numbness, pain, and heaviness, then, feeling along that bench, you should proceed to the door; and having exited, you should not suddenly touch cold water, in order to protect your eyes. But after an hour, when heat and fatigue have departed, being sprinkled according to the proper method with comfortably warm water, you should eat.” This is jentākasveda.

Having heated a solid stone slab measuring the size of a person lying down / by means of ignited vāta-destroying wood,

and having swept away all the coals and sprinkled it with warm water, / one should then cover that stone slab with silken and woollen rugs.

Lying upon it with all his limbs well anointed, a man sweats comfortably, / well wrapped in furs of northern deer, silk, mantles, and the like.

Thus is described aśmaghanasveda. Trench sudation will now be explained. / An expert in site division should have a trench dug beneath the bed.

Then one should fill that trench with glowing, smokeless coals. / Lying on the bed above it, a man sweats comfortably.

Having made a cottage with solid walls, of moderate height and width, / circular in form, and without windows, one should smear it thoroughly with costus and other drugs.

In the middle of the cottage, the physician should prepare a well-spread bed / with mantles, skins, silk, painted rugs, blankets, and bolsters.

Surrounding it on all sides with portable braziers filled with burning coals, / one should climb in; anointed, he sweats comfortably.

The very same procedure as that of aśmaghanasveda / is taught to be performed on praiseworthy, windless, and level ground.

One should bury a pot filled with a vāta-alleviating decoction in the ground / up to one-half or one-third its height, and above it

place a bed or a seat that is not too thickly covered. / Then one should throw thoroughly heated iron balls

or stones into the pot; by that heat, a man sitting there sweats comfortably, / his limbs well covered and well anointed with vāta-destroying unctuous substances.

In a windless and praiseworthy place, one should make a pit the width of a bed / and twice that in depth, with its interior well smoothed.

When it is filled with burned dung of elephants, horses, cattle, donkeys, or camels, / a man who is well anointed, covered, and [lying] on a well-spread [bed], sweats comfortably.

One should ignite a heap of the aforesaid dung / according to the interior dimensions of the bed, and place the bed above it

when it is well burned and smokeless, prepared as described. / Lying there well covered and anointed, a man sweats comfortably.

This is called holākasveda, a comfortable method described by the great sage. / Thus are the thirteen kinds of sudation dependent on the property of fire.

Physical exercise, a warm chamber, heavy clothing, hunger, / abundant drinking, fear, anger, poultices, wrestling, and sunlight—

these ten make a man sweat without the property of fire. / Thus sudation is declared to be of two kinds: associated with the properties of fire and not [so associated].

Applied to a single limb or to the whole body, unctuous and also dry— / thus this threefold pair is proclaimed with respect to sudation.

One who has been oleated should be treated with sudation; having sweated, he should take wholesome food. / On that day, having sweated his body, a man should avoid physical exercise.

Here are the summary verses: / How sudation produces its effect, for whom it is beneficial, and of what kind;

signs of being sweated and excessively sweated, and the remedy for excessive sweating; / those unfit for sudation and those suitable for sudation, the substances for sudation, and the preparations;

the thirteen kinds of sudation, the ten kinds without fire, / and the six sudations in brief have been shown in this Chapter on Sudation. / Whatever is to be said in the section on sudation has been stated by the great sage; / it should be understood by the disciples, Punarvasu being the instructor.

Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, named Chapter on Sudation, in the Sūtrasthāna of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.