The Compendium of Caraka 1.24: caturviṃśo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall expound the chapter on the proper regimen for blood.

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya:

Blood produced properly becomes pure in living beings / according to the regimen that has been set forth regarding place, season, and habituation.

For that purified blood endows living beings with strength, / complexion, happiness, and lifespan, for life follows blood.

By corrupted, abundant, sharp, and hot alcoholic drinks, and others of that kind; / likewise by foods excessively salty, alkaline, sour, and pungent;

by consuming horse gram, black gram, niṣpāva beans, and sesame oil; / by all kinds of round tubers, radishes, and leafy greens;

by consuming the meat of aquatic, marshland, burrowing, and predatory animals; / by curds, sour whey, vinegar, and fermented liquors such as surā and sauvīraka;

by eating incompatible, excessively decomposed, and putrid foods; / and by sleeping during the day after eating liquid, unctuous, and heavy foods;

by excessive eating, indulging in anger, exposure to sun and fire, / suppressing the urge to vomit, and failing to let blood at the proper time;

by fatigue, injury, excessive heat, indigestion, eating before the previous meal is digested, / and due to the nature of the autumn season, blood becomes vitiated.

Then various diseases born of blood arise: / stomatitis, redness of the eyes, foul smell in the nose and mouth,

abdominal lump, upakuśa, erysipelas, raktapitta, somnolence, / abscess, raktameha, menorrhagia, vātaśoṇita,

discoloration, loss of digestive fire, thirst, heaviness of the body, / fever, extreme weakness, loss of appetite, and headache;

burning sensation of food and drink, bitter and sour eructation, fatigue, / excessive anger, delusion of the intellect, salty taste in the mouth,

sweating, body odour, intoxication, trembling, loss of voice, / drowsiness, excessive sleep, and seeing darkness excessively,

itching, weeping ulcers, urticarial patches, carbuncles, kuṣṭha, carmadala, and so forth: / all these disorders should be known as seated in the blood.

Diseases which, though properly treatable, do not respond to treatments / with cold, hot, unctuous, dry, and other therapies, one should recognise as born of blood.

In blood diseases, one should employ the treatment that pacifies raktapitta: / purgation, fasting, and bloodletting.

According to the measure of strength and doṣas, or until the blood is purified, / or having observed the receptacle [of the blood], one should bleed the person's blood.

From vāta, it is reddish, clear, frothy, and thin; / from pitta, blood is yellowish-black, and on account of heat coagulates slowly;

vitiated by kapha, it is slightly pale, unctuous, thread-like, and thick; / combined signs appear from combination; from all three, it has the signs of sannipāta.

Having the colour of heated gold, an indragopa insect, / resembling a lotus or red lac, and the colour of a guñjā berry—know such blood to be pure.

When blood has been removed, food and drink that is neither too hot nor too cold, light, and digestive-fire-stimulating is beneficial, / for at that time the body has unsteady blood, and the digestive fire especially must be protected.

They praise a person with purified blood as having clear complexion and sense organs, / desiring sense objects, having unimpeded force of digestion, endowed with ease, contentment, and strength.

When the vitiated morbid humours, individually or together, / obstruct the channels carrying blood, chyle, and consciousness

in a person accustomed to impure food, whose self is enveloped in rajas and delusion, / and become lodged there, then diseases arise.

The wise physician should understand these to be intoxication, fainting, and saṃnyāsa, / each having greater strength than the preceding one in their causes, signs, and relief.

When wind reaches the weakened seat of the mind, / agitating the mind of a living being, it then deludes his consciousness.

Likewise pitta, and likewise kapha, agitating the mind of men, / throws consciousness into confusion; and the distinction here will be explained.

One who speaks disjointedly, excessively, or rapidly, whose actions are unsteady and stumbling, / should be known as afflicted by wind-intoxication, having a rough, greyish, or reddish appearance. / One whose speech is angry and harsh, who loves fighting and quarrel, / should be known as afflicted by pitta-intoxication, having a red, yellow, or dark appearance.

One who speaks very little and incoherently, accompanied by stupor and laziness, / should be known as afflicted by kapha-intoxication, pale and intent on brooding.

All these symptoms occur in intoxication caused by sannipāta. / Intoxication arises quickly and subsides quickly, having the appearance of alcoholic intoxication.

And that which is declared as caused by wine, by poison, or by blood— / none of all these intoxications occur without the triad of wind, pitta, and kapha.

Seeing the sky as blue, black, or reddish, / he enters darkness and awakens quickly;

with trembling, body-aches, severe pain in the heart, / emaciation, and a greyish or reddish complexion, in fainting arising from wind.

Seeing the sky as red, green, or yellow, / he enters darkness and awakens sweating;

with thirst, burning fever, agitated eyes that are red and yellow, / loose stools, and a yellowish appearance, in fainting arising from pitta.

Seeing the sky resembling clouds or enveloped in dense darkness, / he enters darkness and awakens after a long time;

with heavy limbs as if covered by wet leather, / with excessive salivation and nausea, in fainting arising from kapha.

Having all appearances from sannipāta, coming on like epilepsy, / it fells the living being swiftly, without repulsive movements.

When the doshas have completed their bouts in the bodily beings, / intoxication and fainting subside on their own; saṃnyāsa does not [subside] without medicines.

Paralysing the movements of speech, body, and mind, the impurities of supreme strength, / lodging in the seats of vital breath, cast down the powerless living being into saṃnyāsa.

That man cast into saṃnyāsa, become like a log, resembling one dead, / is swiftly separated from his vital breaths unless immediate-acting therapies are applied.

Just as a wise man would quickly seize a vessel sinking in dangerous waters / before it reaches the bottom, so should he seize one afflicted by saṃnyāsa.

Collyriums, nasal drops, medicinal smokes, blowings [into the nose], / pricking with needles, cautery, and squeezing under the fingernails are recommended,

and pulling out the hair of the head and body, biting with teeth, / and rubbing with cowhage are beneficial for awakening him.

He should repeatedly pour into his mouth / various sharp wines that have matured, combined with abundant pungents,

likewise citron juice combined with dry ginger; / likewise he should give sauvarcala salt mixed with wine, sour gruels, and kāñjika,

combined with asafoetida and black pepper, until consciousness is awakened. / When his consciousness is awakened, he should treat him with light foods,

and with astonishing things, reminders, agreeable news, / loud songs and instrumental sounds, and diverse sights.

With laxatives, emetics, medicinal smokes, collyriums, mouth rinses, / blood-letting, exercise, and dry-rubbings,

the wise physician should treat the recurrence once consciousness is restored; / for his mind must be protected from the cause of dissolution.

For those prepared with unction and sudation, according to the doṣa and according to strength, / he should carry out the five procedures in fainting and intoxications.

The use of the twenty-eight-ingredient medicine, and likewise of bitter ghee, / is commended, or likewise of the great ṣaṭpala ghee;

or the use of triphalā with ghee, honey, and sugar, / or the use of śilājatu, or the use of milk;

or the use of long pepper, or of citraka with milk, / or rasāyana preparations, or aged jar-ghee is praised.

From blood-letting, and from the study of the scriptures, and association with the virtuous and resolute, / intoxication and fainting subside in embodied beings.

Here are two verses:—

Pure and impure blood, its causes, / diseases born of blood vitiation, and the remedy in those diseases,

and the causes, signs, and medicine for intoxication, fainting, and saṃnyāsa— / all this has been illuminated in the chapter on the rules of blood.

Thus, in the treatise composed by Agniveśa, redacted by Caraka, in the Ślokasthāna, the twenty-fourth chapter, entitled 'Rules of Blood'.

The tetrad on planning is concluded.