The Compendium of Caraka 1.29: ūnatriṃśo 'adhyāyaḥ

Now we shall explain the chapter on the 'Ten Seats of Vital Breath'.

Thus declared the venerable Ātreya.

They say there are ten seats in which the vital breaths are established: / the two temples, the three vital spots, the throat, the blood, semen and vitality, and the rectum.

He who knows these, the sense faculties, consciousness, the source of sentience, and diseases— / he indeed is a learned physician, called a promoter of vital breath.

Physicians, Agniveśa, are indeed of two kinds: some are promoters of vital breath and destroyers of diseases; others are promoters of diseases and destroyers of vital breath.

To the venerable Ātreya who spoke thus, Agniveśa said: 'Revered Sir, how should these be recognized by us?'

The venerable [Ātreya] said: Those who are of noble birth, thoroughly versed in scripture, experienced in practical work, skilled, pure, deft-handed, self-controlled, equipped with all appliances, possessed of all sense faculties, knowledgeable of normal constitution and knowledgeable of proper action—they are to be recognized as promoters of vital breath and destroyers of diseases. For such [physicians] are free from doubt regarding the comprehensive knowledge of the body, knowledge of the body's development, and knowledge of the normal constitution and its disorders; free from doubt regarding the knowledge of the specific etiology, premonitory symptoms, signs, sensations, and therapeutic suitability of easily curable, difficult to cure, palliatable, and incurable diseases; expositors of the three-limbed aphorisms of Āyurveda along with their compendium and explanation and with the threefold group of drugs; administrators of the thirty-five roots and fruits, the four fats, the five salts, the eight urines, the eight milks, the six milky-sap and bark trees, the drug-collection serving the five procedures beginning with errhine therapy, the twenty-eight gruels, the thirty-two powders and pastes, the six hundred purgatives, and the five hundred decoctions; skilled in the proper conduct for health regarding the rules of food and drink, standing, walking, lying down, sitting, dosage, substances, collyrium, smoke, errhines, anointing, massage, non-suppression and suppression of natural urges, exercise, suitability, examination of the sense organs, treatments, and virtuous conduct; free from doubt regarding medicine comprised of the four limbs, endowed with sixteen qualities, with its definite conclusions, with the three quests, and with the knowledge of normal and abnormal wind; determiners of the four kinds of fats, their twenty-four modes of preparation, their required equipment, up to sixty-four combinations; skilled in the treatment with various drugs administered in multiple ways, for those needing oleation, sudation, emesis, and purgation; skilled in the compendium of diseases starting with diseases of the head arising from various permutations of the doṣas, along with phthisis, boils, and abscesses, the three swellings with their various complications, the forty-eight seats of disease, the one hundred and forty diseases born of a single dosha; skilled also in the etiology, signs, and treatment of the despised excessively obese and excessively emaciated, beneficial and unbeneficial sleep along with the causes and treatment of sleeplessness and excessive sleep, the six therapeutic measures beginning with lightening therapy, the diseases born of over-nourishment and under-nourishment along with their symptoms and pacifications, blood-born diseases, and intoxication, fainting, and coma along with their causes, symptoms, and medical treatment; skilled in the determination of dietary regimen, food transformations naturally wholesome and unwholesome, the compendium of the foremost items, the eighty-four fermented drinks, the determination of substance, quality, and action based on primary and secondary tastes, wholesome and unwholesome combinations, food and drink based on the twelve groups along with their qualities and specific potencies, the qualities of post-drink accompaniments, the ninefold collection of purposes, the transit of food, the auspicious and inauspicious consequences consisting of beneficial and unbeneficial utilization, diseases based in bodily tissues along with their medicinal collections, and the ten seats of vital breath; and regarding what I shall state in the thirtieth chapter entitled 'Arthedaśamahāmūlīya', skilled there in grasping, retaining, understanding, and applying the entire compendium along with its brief and detailed exposition, and in action, object, time, agent, and instruments; and skilled in memory, intellect, understanding of scripture and reasoning, by being consistent with one's own virtuous conduct and qualities, and by cultivating a friendly mind toward all living beings like a father, mother, brother, or kinsman—endowed with such [qualities], Agniveśa, are the promoters of vital breath and destroyers of diseases.

Those contrary to this are promoters of diseases and destroyers of vital breath; disguised under the guise of physicians, thorns to the world, counterfeit in nature, they roam through kingdoms because of the negligence of kings.

Their distinctive recognition is this: vaunting themselves excessively through a physician's dress, they wander from lane to lane out of greed for practice. Hearing of someone's illness, they swarm around him on all sides, loudly proclaim their own medical merits in his hearing, and repeatedly point out the faults of whichever physician is treating him. They seek to win over the patient's friends through flattering, instigating, and serving, and profess their own modesty of desire. Having secured a case, they look about repeatedly, wishing to conceal their own ignorance behind an appearance of dexterity. Unable to relieve the disease, they blame the patient himself, [saying] that he lacks appliances, lacks attendants, and is undisciplined. And seeing him reach the end, they flee to another region, making an excuse for themselves. In an assembly of ordinary people, they describe their skill like clumsy pretenders, and boldly speak against the fortitude of the steadfast. Seeing an assembly of learned men, they avoid it from afar, as travelers avoid a terrifying forest. Whatever fragment of a scriptural aphorism they may have memorized, they constantly quote it out of context or in irrelevant matters. They do not wish to be questioned, nor to question; and they dread questioning as if it were death. Neither a teacher, nor a pupil, nor a fellow student, nor any disputant of theirs is known.

And on this there are [verses]:
Those who, thus entering under the guise of a physician, target the sick,
just as bird-catchers in the forest [target] birds, resorting to a snare,

devoid of knowledge of scripture, practical observation, action, time, and dosage—
they should indeed be avoided, as attendants of death roaming the earth.

The wise patient should avoid those filled with medical pride for the sake of a livelihood,
ignorant yet presumptuous; they are serpents that have drunk air.

Those, on the other hand, who know the treatises, are skilled, pure, proficient in action,
deft-handed, and self-controlled—to them obeisance is always paid.

Here is a summary verse:
In [the chapter on] the ten seats of vital breath, a compendium of the meaning of the Ślokasthāna,
the two kinds of physicians, and the seats of vital breath have been stated.

Thus ends the twenty-ninth chapter, entitled 'The Ten Seats of Vital Breath', in the Ślokasthāna of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.