The Compendium of Caraka 6.22: dvāviṃśo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall explain the treatment of thirst.

Thus said the venerable Ātreya.

Renowned for knowledge, tranquility, and asceticism, devoted to the welfare of the world, / the son of Atri spoke the treatment for the pacification of the five thirsts.

From agitation, fear, exertion, sorrow, anger, excessive fasting, alcohol, / from resort to alkaline, sour, salty, pungent, hot, dry, and parched foods,

from depletion of tissues, emaciation by disease, excessive use of emesis and the like, and heat of the sun, / pitta and vāta become increased and dry up the watery tissues.

And having thoroughly dried up the chyle-carrying channels, the root of the tongue, the throat, the palate, and the kloman, / these two powerful [doṣas] produce thirst in the bodies of men.

Indeed, they dry up water as soon as it is drunk, so it does not reach pacification; / in those emaciated by terrible diseases, it arises as a secondary complication.

Its premonitory symptom is dryness of the mouth; its specific characteristic is a constant desire for water; / lightness of symptoms is the departure of all thirsts.

Dryness of the mouth, alteration of voice, giddiness, burning heat, delirium, rigidity, / roughness of palate, lips, throat, and tongue, loss of consciousness,

protrusion of the tongue, loss of appetite, deafness, distress in vital parts, and debility— / thirst, once arisen, produces [these]; hear it in its five varieties according to signs.

When provoked vāta dries up the water element residing in the body, / when that is dried up, the weakened person dries up, and drying up, becomes thirsty.

Loss of sleep, giddiness of the head, dry and tasteless mouth, / and obstruction of channels would be the symptom of vāta-thirst.

Pitta is considered fiery; if provoked, it heats the water element; / for being heated, it produces thirst in men that is intense with burning sensation.

Bitter taste in the mouth, burning in the head, delight in cold, fainting, / and yellowness of eyes, urine, and stool is the clinical picture of pitta-thirst.

The thirst that arises from āma is also fiery, because it is produced by āmapitta; / and its symptom is anorexia, flatulence, and flow of kapha.

The body is born of chyle, and chyle is born of water; and from its depletion one becomes thirsty indeed, / with a plaintive voice, fainting, and heart, throat, and palate completely dried up.

The thirst that arises as a complication in those whose bodies are afflicted by fever, meha, wasting, consumption, asthma, and the like, / is surely emaciating and difficult to cure.

All thirsts, however, that are continuous in people emaciated by disease, in those afflicted by persistent vomiting, / or that are accompanied by terrible complications, should be known to lead to death.

For there is no thirst without fire or without wind; indeed, those two are the causes of drying. / A person becomes thirsty when the water element is greatly increased [in loss], that is, upon the depletion of water.

And when one becomes thirsty during the time of digestion with a burning sensation due to heavy food, milk, and unctuous substances blending together / while the channels are obstructed, there too wind and fire are the causes.

Because of its sharp, hot, and dry properties, liquor aggravates pitta and wind; / and in habitual drinkers, those two very [doṣas] dry up the water element.

For just as water thrown onto heated sand quickly dries up, / [so it is in them]; comfort comes to those heated [drinkers] from drinking ice-cold water.

Heat held back in one who has bathed in cold water enters the internal organs and makes him thirsty; / therefore, one exhausted by heat should not suddenly resort to cold water.

In all these [thirsts], the sign arises from wind, depletion, and pitta; but / because of the distinct causes, I shall now declare the treatment of the thirsts.

For thirst, having dried up a person through the depletion of water, would quickly destroy him; / therefore, he should drink rainwater with honey, or other [water] endowed with its qualities.

That which has a slightly astringent aftertaste, is thin, light, cool, fragrant, well-tasting, / and non-obstructive, even though gathered on earth, should be known to be like rainwater.

Or [he should drink water] boiled and cooled, with sugar candy; or [boiled] with the five roots beginning with śara; / or a mantha with parched grain, groats, sugar candy, and honey, prepared with rainwater;

or one should give a cooling gruel of raw barley with honey and sugar, / or give a peyā of śāli rice, or of koradūṣa.

Or food should be served with boiled milk, accompanied by honey and sugar, / or with broths of birds such as the pigeon, fried in ghee, without salt and sourness.

Well-prepared meat juices of arid-zone animals with the five grass-roots, muñjātaka, / and priyāla are recommended, or milk processed with them, containing sugar and honey.

Anointed with hundred-times-washed ghee, after immersing in cold water he should drink milk; / and broths made of mudga, masūra, and caṇaka, fried in ghee, should be given.

Milk boiled with sweet, vitalizing, cooling, and bitter drugs, / combined with honey and sugar, is desirable for drinking, anointing, and sprinkling.

Or the ghee produced from it is desirable for drinks, anointing, and also as an errhine; / woman's milk with sugar, camel's milk, and sugarcane juice may also serve as an errhine.

Gargles of milk, sugarcane juice, jaggery-water, sugar candy, honey, sīdhu, and mārdvīka wines, / and with vṛkṣāmla and mātuluṅga destroy dryness of the palate.

Plasters over the heart, face, and head made of jambū, āmrātaka, badarī, vetasa, the five barks, and the five sours, / with ghee, destroy fainting, dizziness, and thirst.

A plaster to the head of pomegranate, dadhittha, and lodhra, with vidārī and bījapūraka, / or with gaurāmalaka, combined with ghee and sour gruel, is beneficial.

A plaster of duckweed, mud, and water lilies, or of groats with sour liquid and ghee; / touches of whey, sour gruel, wet garments, lotuses, and pearl necklaces;

and the touch of the sloping breasts, palms, and limbs, wet with cold water and sandalwood, / of beloved, noble women wearing wet linen garments;

and the recollection of and tales about lovely, cold waters, cold with caves, forests, rivers, and lakes / of the Himavat, water lilies, wind, and moonbeams destroy thirst.

Food and drink that alleviates wind, is mild, light, and cold, is for wind-thirst; / boiled milk and ghee that cures wasting and cough destroys thirst due to upward wind.

Milk and ghee prepared with vitalizing drugs would be for vātapitta-thirst; / in pitta-thirst, water containing grapes, sandalwood, dates, uśīra, and honey [should be used].

Grains of red śāli rice, dates, parūṣaka, blue water lily, grapes, / honey, and a baked earthen clod left in cold water should be drunk.

A prastha of crushed red śāli rice, with lodhra, madhuka, añjana, and blue water lily, / along with baked earthen clods, water, and honey, should be drunk from an earthen pot.

In water boiled with shoots of vaṭa, mātuluṅga, and vetasa, roots of kuśa and kāśa, and yaṣṭyāhva, / one should quench fire-like, glowing black earth or black sand,

or heated new potsherds, and give the clear water to drink; / or water of amṛtavallī with half-cooked sugar destroys thirst.

Cold infusions of milky, sweet, and cooling herbs mixed with sugar and honey, / combined with earth fried [or baked in fire], destroy pitta-thirst.

Bitter decoctions of the three pungents, vacā, and bhallātaka destroy āma-thirst; / and whatever has been stated for kaphaja vomiting should also be carried out.

Recognizing thirst following kapha by stiffness, anorexia, indigestion, lethargy, and vomiting, / emesis with curd, honey, tarpaṇa, salt, and hot water is desirable.

Or one should give pomegranate or another sour fruit, with astringent drugs, as an electuary, / or a drink combined with turmeric and sugar.

Thirst from wasting, being equal to wasting-cough, is very severe in people; / therefore, one should soothe it with remedies beneficial for the emaciated, chest-injured, and consumed.

One distressed by thirst from drinking [liquor] should drink [wine] with half water, rich in sour, salty, and aromatic ingredients; / one who has bathed in cold water, when thirsty, should drink liquor with water or jaggery-water.

One thirsty from fasting, or distressed by thirst from unctuous substances, should drink a thin yavāgū; / one thirsty from heavy food that has been eaten should bring up that eaten food.

Or a strong person, when thirsty, should vomit after drinking wine with water or lukewarm water; / with his mouth cleansed by long pepper, he should drink a mantha with sugar.

A strong person with dryness of the palate should drink ghee and wine when thirsty; / a weak person should consume milk boiled with ghee, and unctuous meat broths.

In excessively dry and weak people, milk quickly alleviates thirst here; / or a cold, sweet, cordial goat broth fried in ghee [alleviates it].

The thirst that arises after unctuous food has been eaten should be alleviated with jaggery-water; / one should destroy the thirst of a person struck down by fainting with remedies that eliminate raktapitta.

Naturally cold water is recommended in thirst, burning, fainting, dizziness, exhaustion, alcoholism, blood-poisoning, and pitta; / water boiled and cooled is recommended in sannipāta.

Hot water is beneficial in hiccup, asthma, acute fever, catarrh, after ghee has been drunk, in diseases of the flanks and throat, / in conditions caused by kapha and wind, in congestion, and immediately after purification.

In anemia, abdominal enlargement, catarrh, meha, gulma, sluggish digestion, diarrhea, / and spleen disease, water is not beneficial; if unbearable, he may drink a little at will.

If a person, already suffering from an earlier disease, miserable and tormented by thirst, craving water, / should not obtain it, he would quickly meet death or a prolonged disease.

Therefore, when thirsty, the patient should drink coriander water mixed with sugar and honey, / or whatever else may be wholesome for him and beneficial for the disease.

When it has subsided, the complication born of it is easily conquered; / therefore, one should conquer thirst before many diseases.

Here is a summary verse:—

How fire and wind serve as the two causes; the separate signs along with complications / of the five thirsts; incurability; and the treatment have been declared.

Thus, in the treatise composed by Agniveśa, redacted by Caraka, and, being incomplete, filled out by Dṛḍhabala, in the section on therapeutics, the twenty-second chapter, entitled “Treatment of Thirst Disease.”