The Compendium of Caraka 3.3: tṛtīyo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall explain the specific determination of the destruction of communities.

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.

In the Pañcāla territory, within the territory of the community inhabited by eminent twice-born people, in the royal capital of Kāmpilya, during the last summer month, the venerable Punarvasu Ātreya, surrounded by a group of disciples, while wandering through the forest along the bank of the Gaṅgā, said to his disciple Agniveśa:

"Indeed, gentle one, unseasonal morbid manifestations of the stars, planetary bodies, moon, sun, winds, and fires, as well as of the directions, are seen to have become abnormal. Soon after this, the earth also will not properly yield the taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and specific action of the medicinal herbs; and from their loss, a predominance of disease is certain.

Therefore, gentle one, gather the medicines before the destruction and before the loss of taste of the earth, as long as their taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and specific action are not impaired.

We shall employ their taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and specific action for those who desire [aid from] us, and for those whom we desire [to help].

For indeed, gentle one, when medicines are properly gathered, properly prepared, and properly administered, there is no great difficulty in counteracting diseases that cause the destruction of communities."

To the venerable Ātreya who was speaking thus, Agniveśa said: "Medicines are indeed gathered, venerable one, properly prepared, and properly administered; but why does the destruction of a community occur through a single disease at the same time among men of dissimilar constitution, diet, body, strength, suitability, mind, and age?"

The venerable Ātreya said to him: "Agniveśa, even though human beings differ from one another in these factors such as constitution, there are other factors that are common [to all]; because of their vitiation, diseases arising at the same time and having the same symptoms destroy a community.

These factors that are common to communities are indeed these; namely: wind, water, land, and time.

Among these, one should know wind to be unwholesome when it is of such kind; namely: irregular according to the season, excessively calm, excessively unsteady, excessively harsh, excessively cold, excessively hot, excessively dry, excessively channel-blocking, making terrifying sounds, moving with mutually obstructed paths, moving in excessive whirls, or afflicted with unwholesome smells, vapor, sand, dust, and smoke;

Water, however, one should know to be of impaired quality when it has excessively altered odor, color, taste, and touch, is full of slimy moisture, has its water-dwelling birds departed and its aquatic animals depleted, and is unpleasant;

Land, moreover, one should know to be unwholesome when it has color, odor, taste, and touch that deviate from nature; is full of slimy moisture; is overrun with reptiles, beasts of prey, mosquitoes, locusts, flies, mice, owls, carrion birds, jackals, and the like; has clumps of grass and reeds and thickets of creepers and the like; whose crops have fallen, dried, or perished as never before; whose wind is smoky; whose flocks of birds are puffed up; whose herds of varied deer and birds are wandering about and distressed; whose communities have abandoned and lost righteousness, truth, modesty, conduct, character, and virtue; whose reservoirs of water are constantly agitated and swollen; which has frequent falls of meteors, thunderbolts, and earthquakes; which is of a terrifyingly roaring appearance; whose sun, moon, and stars are constantly covered by nets of dry, coppery, reddish-brown, and white clouds; appearing as if in confusion and agitation, as if weeping with fright, as if full of darkness, as if inhabited by guhyakas, and full of sounds of wailing;

Time, indeed, one should determine to be unwholesome when it exhibits signs contrary to the seasonal characteristics, excessive signs, or deficient signs.

The experts speak of these four factors afflicted with such flaws as causing the destruction of communities; but those of an opposite nature they declare to be wholesome.

Even when these factors causing the destruction of communities are abnormal, there is freedom from fear of diseases for those who are sustained by medicine."

And here there are [verses]:

"The relative gravity, with reasons, of land, time, wind, and water
which have undergone vitiation, will be explained in particular.

Water is [more grave] than wind, land than water, and time than land by nature;
one who understands the matter should know [this] to be progressively graver due to the difficulty of avoiding [it].

However, an expert in distinctions regarding the aforesaid factors beginning with wind
should know the mark of lightness [among them] according to the ease of remediation.

Even when all four are corrupted, including time,
men do not fall sick when they are sustained by medicine.

For those whose death is not uniform and whose past actions are not uniform,
the fivefold therapy is said to be the supreme medicine.

And the use of rejuvenatives according to rule is praised,
as well as maintenance of the body by medicines gathered beforehand.

Truth, compassion toward living beings, charity, offerings, worship of the deities,
observance of virtuous conduct, tranquility, self-protection,

resort to beneficial and auspicious communities,
observance of celibacy and likewise association with celibates,

discussion of treatises on righteousness and of great sages with conquered minds,
and constant companionship with the righteous, the virtuous, and those approved by elders—

this is declared to be the medicine that protects the lifespan
of those whose death is not predetermined at that dreadful time."

Having heard these causes of the destruction of communities, Agniveśa again said to the venerable Ātreya: "Now indeed, venerable one, from what root does the vitiation of these [factors] beginning with wind arise, by which, when developed, they destroy a community?"

The venerable Ātreya said to him: "Agniveśa, of whatever vitiation arises among all [the factors] beginning with wind, the root is unrighteousness, or an unwholesome deed done in the past as its root; and the origin of both is cognitive error alone.

Namely: when the leaders of regions, cities, merchant guilds, and communities, transgressing righteousness, govern the subjects with unrighteousness, then their dependents, sub-dependents, townspeople, countryfolk, and tradesmen promote that unrighteousness; then that unrighteousness forcibly suppresses righteousness; then, their righteousness having disappeared, they are abandoned even by the deities. For those whose righteousness has thus vanished, who are unrighteous, whose foremost concern is unrighteousness, and whose deities have departed, the seasons become impaired. Due to this, the god does not send rain in time, or does not rain, or rains abnormally; the winds do not blow properly; the earth becomes disordered; the waters dry up; the medicinal herbs, abandoning their natural state, fall into abnormality. Thereupon communities are destroyed due to the affliction of touchable and ingestible substances."

Likewise, unrighteousness alone is the cause also of the destruction of communities arising from weapons. Those whose greed, anger, delusion, and pride have excessively increased, disregarding the weak, attack one another with weapons to destroy themselves, their kin, and their enemies, or attack others, or are attacked by others.

Or, finding that unrighteousness or some other transgression, they are struck down by various hosts of spirits, such as hordes of rakṣases.

Likewise, unrighteousness alone is the cause also of [the destruction] arising from curses.

Those whose righteousness is lost, who have departed from righteousness, disregard their teachers, elders, accomplished beings, ṛṣis, and venerable ones, and practice harmful deeds. Then those people, cursed by their teachers and the rest, are reduced to ashes, primarily causing the destruction of many families of men, because of the arrival of predetermined causes, while others are non-predetermined.

Even anciently, there was no arising of inauspiciousness apart from unrighteousness.

For in the primal age, men had vigor equal to the sons of Aditi, possessed exceedingly spotless and vast majesty, directly witnessed the deities, divine ṛṣis, righteousness, sacrifices, and ritual procedures, had bodies firm and compact like the essence of mountains, possessed clear complexions and sense organs, possessed strength, speed, and valour equal to the wind, had handsome buttocks, possessed attractive proportions, shapes, clarity, and development, were devoted to truth, rectitude, non-cruelty, giving, self-restraint, moral observances, asceticism, fasting, and the vow of celibacy, had departed from fear, passion, aversion, delusion, greed, anger, sorrow, pride, disease, sleep, sluggishness, fatigue, exhaustion, laziness, and possessiveness, and possessed immeasurable lifespan.

For them of noble nature, virtues, and deeds, grains endowed with unimaginable qualities of taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and specific action appeared, because of the earth and other [elements] being endowed with all qualities at the beginning of the Kṛta age.

When the Kṛta age was declining, however, heaviness of the body occurred in some beings who were prosperous due to excessive consumption; from heaviness of the body came fatigue, from fatigue laziness, from laziness accumulation, from accumulation possessiveness, and from possessiveness greed manifested in the Kṛta age.

Then, in the Tretā age, from greed arose malice; from malice, untruthful speech; from untruthful speech arose lust, anger, pride, aversion, harshness, violence, fear, affliction, sorrow, worry, agitation, and the rest.

Then, in the Tretā age, a quarter of righteousness went into disappearance.

From its disappearance, a reduction by a quarter of the measure of years of the age occurred, and the loss of a quarter of the qualities of the earth and other [elements] took place.

And brought about by their loss was the decline of a quarter of the qualities of unctuousness, purity, taste, potency, post-digestive effect, and specific action of the crops.

Then those bodies of the subjects, supported inadequately compared to before by food and regimen whose qualities were diminished by a quarter, pervaded by fire and wind, were anciently attacked by diseases beginning with fever. Therefore, living beings suffered a gradual reduction of lifespan.

And on this [subject] there are [verses]:

In age after age, a quarter of righteousness is lost in this succession, / and a quarter of the qualities of the elements; thus the world dissolves.

When a century of years is completed, one year goes to destruction / in the lifespan of embodied beings, at the time when that measure is accepted.

Thus the primal cause of the arising of diseases has been stated.

To the venerable one speaking thus, Agniveśa said: "Is all lifespan indeed of a predetermined duration, venerable one, or not?"

The venerable one said to him:

"Here, Agniveśa, the lifespan of beings depends upon proper application; / for its strength and weakness rest upon destiny and human effort.

One should know destiny as one's own deed, which was done in a previous body; / but human effort is commemorated as that other which is performed here [in this life].

There is also a distinction of strength and weakness between those two types of deeds; / for action is observed to be of three kinds: inferior, middling, and superior.

The conjunction of those two when noble is the cause of a long, happy, / and predetermined lifespan; and the reverse [is the cause] of the opposite.

A middling [conjunction] is held to be the cause of a middling [lifespan]. And hear another cause: / for weak destiny is overcome by human effort,

and the other deed [human effort] is overcome by distinguished destiny. / Seeing which, some consider the measure of lifespan to be predetermined.

Some great deed is predetermined in maturation at a certain time, / whereas some is not predetermined in time, [and] is awakened by circumstantial factors.

Therefore, because both are observed, an exclusive view is improper.

And on this point we shall also cite an illustration: For if all lifespan were of a predetermined duration, then rites and sacrifices such as mantras, medicines, gems, auspicious rites, offerings, oblations, burnt offerings, observances, expiations, fasts, benedictions, prostrations, and pilgrimages would not be employed by those desiring longevity; nor would crazed, fierce, and restless cows, elephants, camels, donkeys, horses, buffaloes, and the like, as well as vitiated winds and the like, have to be avoided; nor precipices, rugged mountains, impassable terrains, and rapids of water; likewise, not persons whose minds are heedless, intoxicated, crazed, fierce, fickle, or confounded by delusion and greed, nor enemies, nor raging fire, nor creeping reptiles, snakes, and the like that harbour various poisons, nor rash overexertion, nor conduct improper for place and time, nor the wrath of kings; for factors such as these would not be destructive, because all lifespan would be of a predetermined duration.

Nor would fear of untimely death come to living beings who have not practiced avertives of fear of untimely death; and the initial plans, treatises, applications, and intentions of the great ṛṣis in the subject of rasāyana would be useless; nor would Indra strike with his thunderbolt an enemy whose lifespan is predetermined; nor would the Aśvins treat an afflicted person with medicine; nor would the great ṛṣis attain lifespan as desired through asceticism; nor would the great ṛṣis, together with the lord of the gods, who know what is to be known, correctly perceive, teach, or practice.

Moreover, of all eyes, this divine eye is superior, and this is directly perceived by us through it: namely, that for thousands of men rising up again and again to fight or not to fight, lifespan is unequal; likewise, among the newborn, due to absence of intervention and due to intervention, and among those who do not ingest poison and those who do ingest poison, lifespan is indeed unequal; nor is the welfare and security equal between water-well pitchers and painted pitchers that are perishable. Therefore, life has beneficial management as its root; from the reverse comes death."

Moreover, proper, gradual use of actions and food preparations opposed to the qualities of place, season, and self; abandonment of all excessive, deficient, and erroneous associations; control over all excessive urges; non-suppression of emerging [urges] that have natural movement; and avoidance of rash overexertion—we recognize these as the cause of continuous health, we teach this correctly, and we see it rightly."

After this, Agniveśa said: "This being so, O Lord, how does timely death or untimely death happen to those whose lifespan is of unfixed duration?"

The venerable Ātreya said to him: "Listen, Agniveśa! Just as an axle fitted to a vehicle, endowed by its very nature with the qualities of an axle and furnished with every excellence, when driven, will reach its end in due time solely through the depletion of its own span; so also a lifespan associated with the body, strong by nature and properly cared for, reaches its end solely through the depletion of its own measure. That is death in due time.

And just as that very axle meets an untimely end midway through being loaded with excessive weight, through rough ground, absence of a road, breaking of the wheel-axle, defects in the yoke or driver, loosening of the axle-pin, lack of lubrication, or overturning; so too lifespan meets an end midway due to exertion disproportional to one's strength, eating disproportional to one's digestive fire, irregular eating, improper postures of the body, excessive sexual intercourse, reliance on the wicked, suppression of emerging urges, failure to suppress urges that ought to be suppressed, afflictions from spirits, poison, wind, or fire, physical trauma, and avoidance of food and corrective remedies. That is untimely death; likewise, we see that diseases such as fevers, when improperly managed, become untimely deaths."

Then Agniveśa asked: "Why indeed, O Lord, do physicians generally give hot water to those with fever and not cold water likewise, even though there is a tissue that causes fever which is amenable to cold?"

The venerable Ātreya said to him: "Physicians, after thoroughly examining the bodily origin, place, and season of a person with fever, administer hot water for the purpose of digestive maturation.

For fever arises from the stomach, and medicines for disorders arising from the stomach are generally capable of digestive maturation, emesis, and reducing therapy; and hot water is for digestive maturation. Therefore, physicians generally give it to those with fever.

For it normalizes the downward movement of vāta in them, kindles the abdominal fire, undergoes rapid digestion, dries up kapha, and even drunk in small amount it serves to alleviate thirst. Even when properly suited, however, it should not be given in a fever with extremely aggravated pitta, or accompanied by burning heat, dizziness, delirium, and diarrhea; for through heat, burning heat, dizziness, delirium, and diarrhea increase further, while through cold they subside."

And here there is [a verse]:

"Wise physicians pacify diseases caused by heat with cold; / but for those diseases caused by cold, heat is the medicine."

Likewise, for other diseases also, the medicine is contrary to the etiology; just as for diseases caused by reducing therapy there is no relief without nourishing therapy, so for diseases caused by nourishing therapy there is no relief without reducing therapy.

Reducing therapy is also threefold: fasting, fasting with digestive maturation, and elimination of the doshas.

Among these, fasting is for doshas of mild strength; for through fasting, because of the increase of fire and wind, a mild dosha undergoes drying up like a small amount of water surrounded by wind and heat. Fasting with digestive maturation is for doshas of medium strength; for through fasting and digestive maturation, a dosha of medium strength undergoes drying up like water of moderate amount through the sun's burning heat and wind, and through scattering dust and ashes. But for abundant doshas, only elimination of the doshas is to be performed; for when an embankment of a field is unbroken, there is no draining of a pool; such is elimination of the doshas.

One should not perform elimination of the doshas, or any other medicine, even if the proper time has arrived, for a patient of this sort:

Namely, one whose management brings blame, one who is without wealth, one who has no attendant, one who conceits himself to be a physician, one who is fierce, envious, strongly averse to righteousness, excessively depleted in strength, muscle, and blood, afflicted by an incurable disease, and endowed with signs of imminent death.

For a physician who treats a patient of this sort meets with very evil infamy.

And here there is [a verse]:

"An action whose result would be inauspicious, / either in the present or in its consequence, must not be done: this is the opinion of the wise."

([A region] which has little water and few trees, is windy, and has abundant sunlight / is to be known as a jāṅgala country; it has the fewest diseases.

One which has abundant water and trees, is sheltered from wind, and has rare sunlight / is an anūpa country, having many doshas; a balanced one is considered ordinary.)

Here are the summary verses:

Premonitory symptoms, general etiologies together with their specific characteristics, / the remedy for the destruction of a country, and the very root of the causes;

The early arising of disorders, the course of depletion of lifespan, / and the determination of timely and untimely death for living beings;

How untimely death [occurs], how medicine correctly applied / attains success, and for whom one should not apply medicine, and for what reason—

All that, in its entirety, Ātreya, the best of sages, / declared to Agniveśa in the Vimāna [chapter] on the cause of the destruction of countries.

Thus ends the third chapter, named 'Specific Determination Regarding the Destruction of Communities', in the section on specific determination in the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka. (3)