The Compendium of Caraka 6.1.1

First quarter in the chapter on Rasāyana.
Cikitsita ('treated'), vyādhihara ('remover of disease'), pathya ('wholesome'), sādhana ('means'), auṣadha ('medicament'),
prāyaścitta ('expiation'), praśamana ('alleviator'), prakṛtisthāpana ('restorer of normal state'), and hita ('beneficial')—
these should be known as synonyms for medicine; and that medicine is twofold:
one promotes vigor in the healthy, the other dispels disease in the sick.
Non-medicine is also twofold: noxious and persistently noxious.
That which promotes vigor in the healthy is mostly aphrodisiac and rasāyana;
the second kind is generally held to alleviate diseases.
The word 'mostly' conveys a specific emphasis, for both in fact accomplish both purposes.
Long life, memory, intellect, health, youthful age,
excellence of radiance, complexion, and voice, supreme strength of body and senses,
efficacy of speech, reverence, and beauty are obtained by a man from rasāyana;
for rasāyana is the means for obtaining excellent bodily tissues beginning with rasa.
That which produces continuity of progeny, produces instantaneous exhilaration,
by which one, immensely strong like a stallion, approaches women uninhibited,
becomes exceedingly attractive to women, by which one is nourished,
by which one's semen, even in old age, is seen to be inexhaustible and fruitful,
by which one becomes possessed of abundant offspring, reverenced and esteemed among people,
like a tree with many branches, like a great caitya tree,
by which one attains the root of lineage here and immortality hereafter,
fame, prosperity, strength, and nourishment—that indeed is vājīkaraṇa.
This medicine promoting vigor in the healthy has thus been declared to be twofold.
That which destroys disease will be explained in the section on therapeutics (Cikitsita).
Such is the scope of therapeutics: the medicine for disorders,
and first the regimen of rasāyana and vājīkaraṇa.
What is contrary to medicine should be known as non-medicine;
that is to be avoided, but the medicine that is to be used, I shall proclaim.
The sages recognize a twofold application of rasāyanas:
entering an enclosure (kuṭīprāveśika) and exposed to wind and sun (vātātapika).
First, the procedure of entering an enclosure will be taught:

In a secure, auspicious city where supplies are easily obtained, inhabited by kings, physicians, twice-born men,
and virtuous persons of meritorious deeds,
in the northeastern direction and on good ground, one should have an enclosure constructed,
endowed with breadth and height, having three concentric chambers, small windows,
thick walls, comfortable in all seasons, well-lighted, pleasing to the mind,
inaccessible to unwholesome sounds and the like, devoid of women,
equipped with desirable utensils, and attended by ready physicians, medicines, and twice-born men.
Then, during the northern course of the sun, in the bright fortnight, on an auspicious lunar day and constellation,
endowed with an auspicious muhūrta and karaṇa, having had one's head shaved,
having gathered the strength of resolve and memory, full of faith and composed in mind,
having cast away mental blemishes, contemplating goodwill toward living beings,
having first worshipped the deities and circumambulated twice-born men,
and having paid homage to the gods, cows, and brāhmaṇas, one should then enter that enclosure.
Cleansed therein by evacuative measures, happy, having regained strength once more,
one should employ rasāyana; I shall explain that cleansing:
Powders of harītakī, rock salt, āmalaka, jaggery,
vacā, viḍaṅga, turmeric, pippalī, and ginger
a person should drink with hot water, having undergone oleation and sudation.
To him whose body has been purified by that and who has undergone the restorative dietary regimen,
one should give barley gruel with ghee for three nights, or five days,
or seven days, until his feces of old accumulated waste are purified.
Knowing him to have a purified digestive tract, one should administer rasāyana,
knowing his age, constitution, and suitability, using whatever would be appropriate for whom.
Harītakī should be known to possess five tastes, to be hot, non-salty, auspicious,
carminative of the doṣas, light, and a promoter of digestion and assimilation;
promoting longevity, nourishing, fortunate, supreme in preserving youth,
alleviating all diseases, and bestowing strength upon the intellect and senses.
Obstinate skin diseases, abdominal lump, upward movement of vāyu, wasting, anemia, intoxication,
piles, disorders of the duodenum, chronic intermittent fever,
heart disease along with head disease, diarrhea, anorexia,
cough, urinary anomalies, flatulence, spleen enlargement, fresh abdominal enlargement,

salivation of kapha, loss of voice, discoloration, jaundice, worms,
swelling, tamaka asthma, vomiting, impotence, exhaustion of the limbs,
various obstructions of the channels, coating of the heart and chest,
and confusion of memory and intellect—these harītakī quickly overcomes.
(Those with indigestion, those consuming dry food, those emaciated by women, wine, or poison,
and those afflicted by hunger, thirst, or heat should not take abhayā.)
One should recognize those same virtues and those same actions in āmalakī as well,
which have been stated for harītakī, except for the difference in potency.
Therefore, by such actions, the pulp of harītakī and āmalakī
should be known by the physician to be like nectar.
The Himalaya, the best of mountains, is the supreme ground for medicinal plants;
therefore, one should gather the fruits born there, born in due season,
filled with juice and potency at the proper time in accordance with rule,
gratified by the sun, wind, shade, and water,
which are uneaten, unrotted, unblemished, and free from disease;
I shall proclaim the formulation of those fruits and their excellent action:
Ten-pala portions of the five pañcamūlas,
a thousand harītakī fruits, and three times as many fresh āmalakas;
vidārigandhā, bṛhatī, pṛśniparṇī, and nidigdhikā,
with śvadaṃṣṭrā as the fifth, should be known as the group beginning with vidārigandhā;
bilva, agnimantha, śyonāka, kāśmarya, and pāṭalā;
punarnavā, the two śūrpaparṇīs, balā, and eraṇḍa;
jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, medā, jīvantī, with śatāvarī;
and the roots of śara, ikṣu, darbha, kāśa, and śāli;
thus of these five pañcamūlas one should take
the portions as stated; all that is to be boiled in tenfold water.
When reduced to a tenth part, one should take that strained decoction;
and all those harītakīs and all those āmalakas—
having pounded all those fruits freed of seeds with whisks
and mixed them into that decoction, one should add these powders:
of maṇḍūkaparṇī, pippalī, śaṅkhapuṣpī, and plava,

Taking four-pala parts each of mustā, viḍaṅga, candana, aguru, / madhuka, haridrā, vacā, and kanaka, / and likewise of small elā and tvac, / and a thousand [palas], plus one tulā, of powdered rock sugar; / one should add thereto two āḍhakas of oil and three of ghee. / All that should be cooked in an udumbara vessel over a gentle fire. / Knowing it to be a confection and unburnt, once cool, one should blend it with honey; / the measure of honey is half that of the unctuous substance. All that should sit integrated / in a ghee container. One should administer a dose of it at the appropriate time— / a dose that does not impede the morning meal, up to old age; / and here, when it is digested, ṣaṣṭika rice with milk is recommended as food. / The Vaikhānasa, the Vālakhilyas, and other ascetics, / having consumed this rasāyana, attained immeasurable lifespans. / Shedding their aged bodies, they attained foremost, youthful age; / freed from torpor, fatigue, and dyspnea, free from affliction, composed, / endowed with intellect, memory, and strength, those rich in austerity / practiced Brahma-like austerity and celibacy for a long duration with supreme devotion. / One desirous of Brahma-like longevity should use this rasāyana: / he attains long life, foremost youth, and desired pleasures. / Beloved of creatures, successful in purpose, having the brilliance of the sun and moon, / he retains what he has heard, and the mental nature of a ṛṣi arises in him; / he has the endurance of a mountain and a stride equal to the wind; / he becomes free from poison, and poison turns harmless in his body. / (Thus ends the second Brāhmarasāyana.) / Bilva, agnimantha, śyonāka, kāśmarya, pāṭali, balā, / the four parṇīs, pippalī, śvadaṃṣṭrā, the two bṛhatīs, / śṛṅgī, tāmalakī, drākṣā, jīvantī, puṣkara, aguru, / abhayā, amṛtā, ṛddhi, jīvaka, ṛṣabhaka, śaṭī, / musta, punarnavā, medā, elā, candana, utpala, / vidārī, roots of vṛṣa, kākolī, and kākanāsikā— / one-pala measures of each of these, and five hundred āmalakas—

one should combine these and boil them together in a droṇa of water. / Knowing that these medicinal herbs have lost their essence, one extracts that decoction / and those āmalakas; and having removed the stones, after frying them / in twelve palas of oil and ghee, and adding half a tulā / of strained sugar crystals, the physician should cook it well into a confection. / And here, when cooked and cooled, he should add six palas of honey, / four palas of tugākṣīrī, and two palas of pippalī, / and he should deposit one pala each of tvac, elā, patra, and keśara. / This is called Cyavanaprāśa, the supreme rasāyana. / It is specifically taught as a cure for cough and dyspnea; / it promotes bodily growth in the emaciated, the chest-wounded, the aged, and children; / and it removes hoarseness, chest disease, heart disease, vātaśoṇita, / thirst, and the disorders situated in the urine and semen. / One should employ a dose of this that does not impede eating. / By the use of this, Cyavana, though very aged, became young once more. / Intellect, memory, radiance, freedom from disease, longevity, strength of the sense faculties, / great delight in women, supreme enhancement of the digestive fire, clarity of complexion, and natural downward movement of wind: / a person can obtain these through the use of this rasāyana even if aged, through kuṭīprāveśika method; / casting off all the appearance produced by old age, he bears the form of fresh youth. / Neither old age, nor debility, nor sickness, nor death / did they meet for thousands of years, those intent on rasāyana in ancient times. / Not only does one who consumes rasāyana according to rule attain long life here, / but he also reaches the auspicious state frequented by divine seers, and likewise the imperishable Brahman. / In this chapter on abhayā and āmalakī, six formulations / of proven rasāyanas have been proclaimed, by which life is sustained.