The Compendium of Caraka 1.5: pañcamo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall expound the chapter on eating according to measure.

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya:

One should eat according to measure.

Moreover, the measure of food depends on the strength of the digestive fire.

For as much food eaten as undergoes digestion in due time without harming one's constitution, that much is to be known as the standard measure for that person.

Among these, food substances such as śāli rice, ṣaṣṭika rice, green gram, quail, grey partridge, blackbuck, hare, sharabha, and swamp deer, even though light by nature, still depend on measure.

Likewise, food substances such as flour preparations, sugarcane products, milk products, black gram, and the meat of marshy and aquatic animals, though heavy by nature, also indeed depend on measure.

Nor, when this is stated, should one consider heaviness and lightness in a substance to be of no consequence. For light substances abound in the qualities of wind and fire; the others abound in the qualities of earth and water. Therefore, by their own quality too, light substances are of a nature that enkindles the digestive fire and are said to cause little fault even when consumed to satiety. Heavy substances, on the other hand, are not of a nature to enkindle the digestive fire because of their dissimilarity [in qualities]; hence, consumed to satiety, they are excessively faulty, except through the strength of exercise and the digestive fire. This is the measure that depends on the strength of the digestive fire.

Nor does it not depend on the substance: depending on the substance, satiety up to one-third or one-half is advised for heavy things; and even for light things, excessive satiety is not advised, for the proper functioning of the digestive fire.

For food eaten in proper measure, without harming the constitution, inevitably endows the consumer with strength, complexion, happiness, and lifespan.

And on this, there are [the following verses]:

Therefore, having already eaten, one must never eat heavy food / made of flour, nor [raw] rice grains, nor flattened rice; hungry, one should eat a measured amount.

One should not habitually consume dried meat, dried vegetables, lotus tubers, and lotus stalks, / because of their heaviness; nor should one ever use meat of an emaciated animal.

One should not make a habit of fish, curd, black gram, and wild barley.

One should habitually consume barley pastries, śāli rice, green gram, rock salt, āmalakī, barley, / rainwater, milk, ghee, meat of arid-zone animals, and honey.

And one should constantly use that by which health continues, / and that which does not produce diseases that have not yet arisen.

Hereafter, the practices for the body, beginning with eye-salve, / will be declared according to their qualities, with an eye to the regimen for the healthy.

One should daily apply sauvīra collyrium, which is beneficial to the eyes; / and every fifth or eighth night, rasāñjana for draining [kapha].

The eye is made of fire; it especially has danger from phlegm; / therefore, an action that removes phlegm is beneficial as a purifier of vision.

That sharp collyrium should not be applied to the eyes by day; / vision weakened by evacuation suffers upon reaching the sun.

Therefore, the draining collyrium is certainly prescribed at night. / For just as metals like gold and so on, though dirty in various ways,

Attain stainless purity when washed with oil, cloth, hair-brushes, and the like, / so in the eyes of mortals, through collyriums, drops, and the like,

Vision shines clear like the moon in a cloudless sky. / Hareṇukā, priyaṅgu, pṛthvīkā, saffron filament, nakha,

Hrīvera, sandalwood, cinnamon leaf, cinnamon bark, cardamom, uśīra, padmaka, / dhyāmaka, madhuka, māṃsī, guggulu, aguru, sugar,

Auspicious barks of banyan, udumbara, aśvattha, plakṣa, and lodhra, / vanya, sal resin, mustā, śaileya, blue and white lotuses,

Śrīveṣṭaka, shallaki, and also śukanāsa— / having ground these, one should coat a reed stalk [to form] a cigar resembling a barley grain;

The physician should make it the thickness of a thumb and equal to eight finger-breadths. / When dry, with its core removed, that cigar placed in the smoking pipe,

Smeared with unctuous substance and scorched with fire, a person should comfortably inhale for habitual use. / With muscle fat, ghee, and beeswax, suitably combined with excellent drugs,

Having made a cigar with sweet drugs, one should practice unctuous smoking. / Śvetā, jyotiṣmatī, along with orpiment, realgar,

And fragrant substances beginning with aguru and patra, are for smoke in head-evacuation. / Heaviness of the head, headache, rhinitis, hemicrania,

Earache, eye pain, cough, hiccup, dyspnea, throat spasm, / weakness of the teeth, discharge born of faults in ear, nose, and eye,

Foul odor of the nose and mouth, toothache, anorexia, / stiffness of the jaw and neck, itching, parasites, paleness in the face,

Excessive salivation, loss of voice, uvulitis, sublingual swelling, / baldness, greying, and falling of the hair,

Sneezing, excessive drowsiness, mental confusion, and excessive sleep / are pacified by smoke-inhalation, and strength increases

Of the hair, cranium, sense organs, and voice; / and even strong diseases of the supraclavicular region caused by vāta and kapha,

Diseases affecting the head, do not arise in one who inhales smoke through the mouth. / Eight times have been proclaimed for its habitual inhalation,

For in these times the aggravation of vāta and phlegm is observed: / after bathing, after eating, after vomiting, after sneezing, after brushing the teeth,

At the end of errhine therapy, collyrium, and sleep, the self-controlled person should inhale smoke; / thus, diseases of the supraclavicular region caused by vāta and kapha

Do not arise for him. Three puffs each time should be inhaled three times. / The wise person should inhale at most twice a day during the times of day

In habitual smoking; in unctuous smoking, once; in evacuating smoking, three or four times. / Cleansing of the heart, throat, and sense organs, lightness of the head, and pacification

Of the aforesaid doṣas are the sign of proper inhalation. / Deafness, blindness, muteness, bleeding disease, dizziness,

And complications smoke produces when inhaled at the wrong time or in excess. / In that case, drinking ghee, errhines, collyrium, and soothing drops are desired;

Unctuous [treatment] in fault born of smoke if vāta is accompanied by pitta; / cold in bleeding disease; and drying in phlegm-pitta.

Hereafter I shall declare those for whom smoking is censured: / one who has been purged should not inhale smoke, nor after an enema has been administered,

Nor one bleeding, nor afflicted by poison, nor grieving, nor a pregnant woman, / nor in fatigue, intoxication, raw state (āma), pitta, sleeplessness,

Nor in fainting, giddiness, or thirst, nor in the emaciated, nor in the injured, / nor having drunk liquor or milk, nor unctuous substance, nor honey.

Nor should one inhale smoke after eating with curd, nor when un-unctuous (rūkṣa), nor when angry, / nor in dryness of the palate, timira (cataract), nor when struck on the head,

Nor in śaṅkhaka (temporal headache), nor in rohiṇī (diphtheria), nor in meha (urinary disease), nor in alcoholism. / If a man drinks smoke at these improper times out of delusion,

His severe diseases increase due to the error regarding smoke. / One suitable for smoke should inhale it when the doṣa is lodged in the head, nose, or eyes

Through the nose; but through the mouth when it is in the throat; one who inhales through the nose should vomit it out through the mouth. / Inhaling mouthfuls of smoke through the mouth, one must not expel it through the nose;

For moving upstream, the smoke would quickly injure the eyes. / With body and gaze straight, mindful, seated well, for three turns,

Closing one aperture, the self-controlled person should inhale smoke through the nostril. / The pipe should measure twenty-four of one's own finger-breadths for evacuation (virecana),

Thirty-two finger-breadths for unctuous [smoking]; for habitual use, one and a half [times twenty-four] is prescribed; / straight, with three rings, tapering, sized at the tip like a jujube stone,

Made of the same material as an enema pipe—[such] a smoke-pipe is praised. / Discharged from afar, interrupted by nodes, and thinned by the tube,

Smoke used according to measure and proper time does not harm the sense organ. / When the chest, throat, and head attain lightness,

And kapha has reached thinness, one should declare the smoke well-inhaled. / He whose voice is unclear, whose throat has kapha,

And whose head is stiff—in such a case one should declare the smoke uninhaled. / The palate, head, and throat dry up and burn intensely,

The creature thirsts, is bewildered, and blood flows excessively, / the head spins violently, and fainting arises in him,

And the sense organs are tormented when smoke has been indulged in excessively. / Every year, a man should practice Aṇutaila in the three seasons,

In early rains, autumn, and spring, when the vault of the sky is free of clouds. / He who resorts to errhine therapy (nasyakarman) in accordance with the proper time, as prescribed,

His eye, nose, or ear is not impaired; / nor would his hair or beard become white or tawny;

Nor does his hair fall out, and it especially grows; / stiff neck, headache, facial paralysis, lockjaw,

Chronic coryza (pīnasa), hemicrania (ardhāvabheda), and head tremor are pacified; / the vessels, the sutures of the cranial bones, the ligaments, and tendons

Of his [head], gratified by errhine therapy, obtain superior strength; / the face becomes bright and plump, the voice unctuous, firm, and deep,

All sense organs attain clarity, and their strength becomes greater; / nor do supraclavicular diseases suddenly overpower him,

And as he grows old, old age does not gain power over his head. / Sandalwood, agallochum, patra, dārvī-bark, madhuka, balā,

Prapauṇḍarīka, small cardamom, viḍaṅga, bilva, blue water lily, / hrībera, abhayā, vanya, cinnamon-bark, musta, sārivā, sthirā,

Jīvantī, pṛśniparṇī, devadarū, śatāvarī, / hareṇu, bṛhatī, vyādhrī, surabhī, and lotus filament—

One should boil [these] down in a hundred times as much pure rain water; / one should take down the decoction when ten times the quantity of oil remains.

With that decoction one should cook the oil ten times; / then at its tenth cooking, an equal part of goat's milk

One should add: this is the procedure for Aṇutaila to be used as an errhine. / One should administer a dose of this oil measuring half a pala

By means of a cotton swab, for the head that has been oleated and sweated, in three instillings; / every three days, one should carry out this procedure for a week,

Dwelling in a draft-free, warm place, eating wholesome food, with restrained senses. / This oil pacifies all three doṣas and imparts strength to the sense organs;

Employing it according to season, one attains the benefits as declared. / Having crushed its tip, twice daily, [a stick] astringent, pungent, or bitter

One should chew as a tooth-cleaning stick, without hurting the gums; / it removes odor, tastelessness, and tartar originating on the tongue, teeth, and mouth,

And extracting [them] instantly bestows relish and cleans the teeth: / karañja, karavīra, arka, mālatī, kakubha, and asana,

And whichever trees are of this kind, are praised for tooth-cleaning sticks. / Made of gold, silver, copper, tin, and brass,

Tongue-scrapers should be non-sharp and curved; / and the dirt which clings to the root of the tongue and obstructs respiration,

Begets foul smell; therefore one should scrape the tongue. / One desiring clarity, relish, and fragrance in the mouth should hold [there]

The fruits of nutmeg, kaṭuka, and areca nut, and of clove, / the fruit of kakkola, auspicious betel leaf, / likewise camphor exudate, and the fruits of small cardamom.

Strength of the jaws, strength of voice, excellent plumping of the face, / superior tasting of flavors, and the best relish for food will ensue,

Nor will he have dryness of the throat, nor fear from cracking of the lips, / and the teeth do not undergo decay and become firmly rooted;

They do not ache, nor do they set on edge from sourness, and they can chew / even extremely hard eatables—from holding an oil gargle (gaṇḍūṣa).

Headache does not arise in one whose head is constantly moist with unctuous substance, / nor baldness, nor premature graying, nor does hair fall out;

The strength of the cranial bones especially increases, / and hair becomes firmly rooted, long, and black;

The sense organs become serene, the face attains good skin, / and sound sleep and ease ensue from the habitual use of oil on the head.

Neither ear diseases arising from vāta, nor stiffness of the neck and jaw, / nor hardness of hearing, nor deafness will occur from regular filling of the ears.

Just as an earthen jar from anointing with oil, as leather from rubbing with unctuous substance, / and as an axle becomes strong and enduring of strain from greasing,

So the body becomes strong and of good skin through massage (abhyaṅga), / with afflictions of vāta pacified, capable of enduring strain and physical exercise.

Vāyu is predominant in the tactile organ, and the tactile organ is based in the skin, / and massage is exceedingly beneficial to the skin; therefore a man should practice it habitually.

Nor does the limb of one who practices massage, when struck by a trauma, / or in strenuous activity, ever undergo excessive morbidity.

Pleasant to touch, with well-nourished limbs, strong, pleasing in appearance, / a man becomes one with little aging, due to regular attention to his body.

Roughness, stiffness, dryness, fatigue, and numbness of the feet / are instantly pacified by the practice of foot massage.

Delicacy, strength, and stability of the feet arise;
vision gains clarity, and vāta is pacified.

Sciatica does not occur, nor cracking of the feet,
nor contraction of vessels and ligaments of the feet, through foot massage.

Foul odor, heaviness, drowsiness, itching, dirt, anorexia,
and the repulsiveness of sweat are destroyed by rubbing down the body.

A purifier, aphrodisiac, life-prolonging, dispelling fatigue, sweat, and dirt,
restoring bodily strength, bathing is supreme in promoting ojas.

Desirable, conferring fame and longevity, warding off misfortune, exhilarating,
lustrous, fitting for assemblies, wearing clean garments is praised.

Aphrodisiac, fragrant, life-prolonging, charming, bestowing nourishment and strength,
producing cheerfulness and destroying misfortune is the application of perfumes and garlands.

Auspicious, propitious, life-prolonging, bringing splendor, destroying distress,
exhilarating, charming, enhancing ojas is the wearing of jewels and ornaments.

Promoting intellect, purifying, life-prolonging, destroying misfortune and pollution
is the frequent cleansing of the feet and excretory passages.

Nourishing, aphrodisiac, life-prolonging, clean, enhancing beauty
is the trimming and grooming of hair, beard, nails, and so forth.

Beneficial for the eyes, beneficial to touch, warding off afflictions of the feet,
conferring strength, ease in strides, aphrodisiac is the wearing of footwear.

Pacifying calamity, conferring strength, securing protection, coverage, and welfare,
warding off sun, wind, dust, and water is the carrying of an umbrella declared to be.

Support for one who stumbles, slayer of enemies,
sustaining, life-prolonging, dispelling fear is the carrying of a staff.

Just as the administrator of a city [acts] for the city, as the charioteer for the chariot,
so should the intelligent person be attentive in duties toward his own body.

And here it is said:
One should pursue means of livelihood that do not conflict with righteousness,
and practice tranquility and study; thus one attains happiness.

Here are the summary verses:
Measure, substances, depending on measure [the property of] heaviness and lightness;
of which substances habitual use is condemned, and of which it is praised;

collyrium, smoke-stick, and the threefold preparation of sticks;
the benefits of smoke-inhalation, its times, and the proper measure of inhalation for whom;

the signs of complication, remedies, for whom smoke[-inhalation] is condemned,
how it should be inhaled, what material the pipe is made of, and of what kind for each;

the benefits of errhine therapy, what should be done through the nose, how and when;
how one should chew the tooth-cleaning stick, which [kind], and with what qualities;

for what purpose and which [liquids] are to be held in the mouth in gargling;
the qualities that are taught of oil, and the qualities of head oil;

likewise [the qualities] in ear-oiling, massage, foot massage, rubbing down the body;
in bathing, clean clothing, perfumes, and wearing jewels;

in cleansing, trimming of hair, wearing footwear and carrying an umbrella;
and the qualities in carrying a staff are stated thus in this [chapter], “Eating According to Measure.”

Thus ends the fifth chapter, named “Eating According to Measure,” in the Ślokasthāna of the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.