The Compendium of Caraka 2.5

English (machine translation) 2.5

Language: English

2.5.1

Now we shall explain the etiology of kuṣṭha.

2.5.3

Seven substances constitute the primary materials of kuṣṭhas when they have undergone alteration.

Namely: the three doshas—vāta, pitta, and phlegm—altered by provoking causes; and the fourfold corruptible body tissues—skin, flesh, blood, and lymph—altered through the pathogenic impact of the doshas.

2.5.3_2

This combination of seven, comprising seven bodily elements, is the origin of kuṣṭhas in such manner; arising from this, they manifest and torment the entire body.

2.5.4

No kuṣṭha whatever is caused by the provocation of a single dosha; yet, even among kuṣṭhas of identical constitution, distinctions arise regarding pain, colour, shape, influence, name, and treatment, according to the fractional division of doshas, accessory factors, and location.

2.5.4_1

It is of seven kinds, eighteen kinds, or of innumerable kinds.

2.5.4_2

For the doshas, when differentiated by permutations, differentiate the disorders, except where there is incurability.

2.5.4_3

Having observed that excessive proliferation occurs in enumerating their permutations and varieties, we shall declare the distinctions of kuṣṭha as merely sevenfold.

2.5.5

Here, when the three [doshas] beginning with vāta are provoked and corrupt the four [tissues] beginning with skin: if vāta is predominant, kapālakuṣṭha develops; if pitta [is predominant], audumbara; if phlegm [is predominant], maṇḍalakuṣṭha; if vāta and pitta [predominate], ṛṣyajihva; if pitta and phlegm [predominate], puṇḍarīka; if phlegm and vāta [predominate], sidhmakuṣṭha; and upon the increase of all doshas, kākaṇaka develops. Thus is this sevenfold distinction of kuṣṭha.

2.5.5_1

And when this constitution is differentiated in terms of more, most, and comparative degrees, it attains a far greater number of varieties of the disorder.

2.5.6

In this regard, we shall declare concisely the etiology of all kuṣṭhas: In one who indulges alternately in cold and hot without proper sequence, and similarly in the alternation of nourishing and reducing diets; who constantly and excessively eats honey, molasses, fish, lakuca, radish, and kākamācī during indigestion, or cilicima fish with milk; whose meals consist mostly of hāyanaka, yavaka, cīnaka, uddālaka, and koradūṣa grains accompanied by milk, curd, buttermilk, kola, kulattha, māṣa, flaxseed, and safflower oil; who, having excessively overeaten with these very foods, indulges excessively in sexual intercourse, physical exercise, and heat; who, afflicted by fear, exhaustion, and heat, suddenly plunges into cold water; who partakes of foods causing digestive burning without vomiting out corrupted food; who suppresses vomiting; and who overuses unctuous substances—all three doshas simultaneously undergo provocation. The four [tissues] beginning with skin undergo laxity. When these are lax, the provoked doshas, finding a seat and settling there, corrupt those very [tissues] beginning with skin and produce kuṣṭhas.

2.5.7

These are their premonitory symptoms, namely: absence of sweating or excessive sweating, roughness, extreme smoothness, discolouration, itching, piercing pain, numbness, burning sensation, tingling, horripilation, harshness, sensation of internal heat, heaviness, swelling, erysipelas-like spreading, frequent coating over the body and body cavities, excessive pain upon suppurating, burning, biting, fracturing, wounding, or falling, and the vitiation and non-healing of even tiny ulcers.

2.5.8

Immediately thereafter, the kuṣṭhas develop. This is the diagnostic knowledge of their specific pain, colour, shape, influence, and name, namely: one should recognise as kapālakuṣṭha those that are dry, reddish-brown, rough, spreading irregularly, with harsh borders, thin, raised and thin at the exterior, numb as if dead, covered in bristled hairs, full of piercing pain, with little itching, burning, pus, and lymph, fast in progress and onset, quick to fissure, infested with organisms, and having the colour of a blackish-red potsherd.

2.5.8_2

One should recognise as audumbarakuṣṭha those that are copper-coloured, covered with coppery, harsh rows of hair, thick, having abundant and thick pus, blood, and lymph, possessed of itching, moisture, sloughing, burning, and suppuration, fast in progress, onset, and ulceration, accompanied by burning heat and organisms, and possessing the colour of a ripe udumbara fruit.

2.5.8_3

One should recognise as maṇḍalakuṣṭha those that are unctuous, heavy, elevated, with smooth, firm, yellowish borders, having a white-red appearance, crossed by rows of white hair, discharging abundant, thick, white, slimy fluid, having much moisture, itching, and organisms, slow in progress, onset, and ulceration, and circular in shape.

2.5.8_4

One should recognise as ṛṣyajihva those that are rough, reddish-brown, dark grey outside and inside, with a bluish, yellow, or copper hue, fast in progress and onset, with little itching, moisture, and organisms, abundant in burning, tearing pain, piercing pain, and suppuration, with pain resembling the sting of a bristled caterpillar, raised in the centre, thin at the borders, studded with hard papules, oblong-circular, and having the shape of a blue-bull's tongue.

2.5.8_5

One should recognise as puṇḍarīka those that have a white-red appearance, red borders, spread over with red streaks and sirās, elevated, having abundant and thick blood, pus, and lymph, accompanied by itching, organisms, burning, and suppuration, fast in progress, onset, and ulceration, and resembling the petal of a white lotus.

2.5.8_6

One should recognise as sidhmakuṣṭha those that are rough and reddish-brown, shedding external scales, unctuous inside, having a white-red appearance, extensive, with little pain, with little itching, burning, pus, and lymph, light in onset, with slight fissuring and few organisms, and resembling an alābū flower.

2.5.8_7

One should recognise as kākaṇaka those that initially have the colour of a guñjā berry, but later possess the signs of all kuṣṭhas, and variegated in colour due to the more grievous manifestation of the symptoms of all kuṣṭhas.

2.5.8_1

These are incurable; the others, on the other hand, are curable.

2.5.9

Among them, that which is incurable does not transcend incurability; but that which is curable sometimes transcends curability through dietary and behavioral misconduct.

2.5.9_1

For the six curable ones, excluding kākaṇaka, if left untreated or through misconduct, being inundated by the doshas, arrive at incurability.

2.5.10

For even among the curable forms, if neglected, worms arise born of the putrefaction, moisture, and sweat of the skin, flesh, blood, and lymph; they, devouring the skin and other [tissues], while the doshas vitiate further, generate these complications individually: there, vāta produces a dusky and reddish colour, roughness, dryness, colic, emaciation, piercing pain, tremor, horripilation, contraction, exhaustion, stiffness, numbness, splitting pain, and cracking; pitta produces burning, sweating, moistness, putrefaction, exudation, suppuration, and redness; while phlegm produces whiteness, coldness, itching, firmness, heaviness, elevated swelling, unctuousness, and coating; and the worms consume the four [tissues] beginning with skin, as well as the sirās, ligaments, and even tender bones.

2.5.11

And in this very stage, complications afflict the patient with kuṣṭha; that is to say: discharge, cracking of the limbs, falling off of bodily components, thirst, fever, diarrhoea, burning, weakness, anorexia, and indigestion; one should know [a condition] of that kind to be incurable.

Commentaries (1)

Jalpakalpataru — Gaṅgādhara Kaviratna 1860, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit