The Compendium of Caraka 3

English (machine translation) 3

Language: English

3.1 — 75 parts
3.2 — 36 parts
3.3 — 86 parts
3.4 — 25 parts
3.5 — 55 parts
3.6 — 54 parts
3.7 — 66 parts
3.8 — 332 parts

3.1.1

Now we shall explain the specific assessment of tastes.

Here indeed, after having thoroughly examined the specific causes, premonitory symptoms, symptoms, therapeutic suitabilities, enumeration, predominance, varieties, fractional distributions, strengths, and times of diseases, the physician with an attentive mind must subsequently ascertain accurately the measure of the doshas, medicines, place, time, strength, body, tissue excellence, diet, suitability, mental constitution, constitution, and age, because treatment depends upon the knowledge of the measure of doshas and the like.

3.1.3_1

For a physician who does not know the measure of doshas and the like is not capable of checking disease.

3.1.3_2

Therefore, O Agniveśa, for the sake of knowing the measure of doshas and the like, we shall teach the section on specific determination.

3.1.4

Therein, at the outset, we shall declare the specific potencies of tastes, substances, doshas, and disorders.

3.1.4_1

The tastes are six: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.

3.1.4_2

When properly used, they sustain the body; but when improperly used, they surely lead to the provocation of the doshas.

3.1.5

The doshas, moreover, are three: vāta, pitta, and kapha.

3.1.5_1

In their natural state, they benefit the body; but having undergone alteration, they afflict the body with diverse disorders.

3.1.6

Therein, three tastes produce each individual dosha, and three pacify [it].

3.1.6_1

That is to say: pungent, bitter, and astringent produce vāta, while sweet, sour, and salty pacify it; pungent, sour, and salty produce pitta, while sweet, bitter, and astringent pacify it; sweet, sour, and salty produce kapha, while pungent, bitter, and astringent pacify it.

3.1.7

In the encounter of tastes and doshas, those tastes that have identical qualities or mostly identical qualities with the doshas increase them; when habitually used, those having contrary qualities or mostly contrary qualities pacify them.

3.1.7_1

For the purpose of this determination, the number six is taught for the unmixed tastes among themselves, and the number three for the doshas.

3.1.8

For the expansion of their combinations and fractional distributions is incalculable, because the divisions of fractional distributions are incalculable.

3.1.9

Therein, indeed, in substances having multiple tastes and in disorders having multiple doshas, one should ascertain the true specific potency of substance and disorder after individually examining the specific potency of tastes and doshas.

3.1.10

Yet this is certainly not so in all cases.

3.1.10_1

For in the case of [substances] inhering through an altered and unequal composition, manifold in nature, counteracted by one another, and differentiated by other fractional configurations, it is impossible to determine the true specific potency of the whole merely by inferring the specific potency of the parts.

3.1.11

For when a combination is thus constituted, one should ascertain the true specific potency of the substance and disorder after apprehending precisely the true specific potency of the whole as such.

3.1.12

Therefore, we shall teach the truth from the specific potency of tastes, from the specific potency of substances, from the specific potency of doshas, and from the specific potency of disorders.

3.1.13

Therein, this specific potency of tastes has been taught; we shall further teach the specific potency of substances.

3.1.13_1

Oil, ghee, and honey are the substances for the pacification of vāta, pitta, and kapha [respectively].

3.1.14

Therein, oil, being endowed with unctuousness, heat, and heaviness, overcomes vāta when constantly used; for vāta, being endowed with dryness, coldness, and lightness, has contrary qualities, and in the encounter of contrary qualities the lesser is overcome by the greater; therefore, oil overcomes vāta when constantly used. Ghee indeed overcomes pitta in the very same way, on account of sweetness, coldness, and slowness; for pitta is non-sweet, hot, and sharp.

3.1.14_1

And honey overcomes kapha on account of dryness, sharpness, and astringency; for kapha is unctuous, slow, and sweet.

3.1.14_2

And whatever other substance likewise is contrary in qualities to vāta, pitta, and kapha, that overcomes them when habitually used.

3.1.15

Now, one should not use three substances in excessive quantity beyond other substances; namely: pippalī, alkali, and salt.

3.1.16

For pippalī fruits, though pungent, have a sweet post-digestive effect, are heavy, not excessively unctuous or hot, moisture-producing, and are considered medicine immediately; they produce good and bad effects; they are agreeable on immediate intake due to the perfection of immediate administration, but their succession brings about an accumulation of doshas; for when constantly used, they irritate kapha due to heaviness and moisture-production, [and] pitta due to heat, and they are not capable of pacifying vāta due to their slight unctuous and hot nature; and they are indeed catalytic agents; therefore, one should not use pippalī fruits excessively.

3.1.17

Alkali, moreover, endowed with heat, sharpness, and lightness, moistens at first and afterwards dries out; it is used for digesting, burning, and piercing; when used to excess, it brings about harm to the hair, eyes, heart, and virility.

3.1.17_1

For the villages, towns, cities, and countries that constantly use it become subject to blindness, impotency, baldness, and premature greying, and suffer from cardiac distress; such as the easterners and the Chinese; therefore, one should not use alkali excessively.

3.1.18

Salt, moreover, is endowed with heat and sharpness, is not excessively heavy, not excessively unctuous, moisture-producing, capable of laxation, produces relish in food substances, is agreeable on immediate intake due to the perfection of immediate administration, and its succession brings about an accumulation of doshas; it is used for appetizing, digesting, moistening, and laxation.

3.1.18_1

It is used for appetizing, digesting, moistening, and laxation.

3.1.18_2

When used to excess, it brings about the development of languor, flaccidity, and debility in the body.

3.1.18_3

For the villages, towns, cities, and countries that constantly use it are mostly languid, have flaccid muscle and blood, and are incapable of enduring hardship.

3.1.18_4

Such as the people of Bahlika, Saurāṣṭra, Saindhava, and Sauvīra; for they eat salt even with milk.

3.1.18_5

Moreover, in regions of the earth that are excessively saline, annual plants, creepers, large trees without flowers, and fruit-bearing trees do not grow, or have little vigor, because of being afflicted by salt.

3.1.18_6

Therefore, one should not use salt excessively.

3.1.18_7

For even in men who are habituated to excessive salt, baldness, premature greying, and wrinkles appear prematurely.

3.1.19

Therefore, their gradual departure from that habituation is preferable.

3.1.19_1

For even a habituation, when discontinued gradually, becomes harmless or of slight harm.

3.1.20

Habituation is that which is therapeutically suitable to oneself; for the meaning of habituation is the meaning of therapeutic suitability.

3.1.20_1

It is of three kinds according to the classification of superior, inferior, and middling; but it is of seven kinds by taking each individual taste singly and by the use of all tastes. Therein, [habituation to] all tastes is superior, to a single taste is inferior, and the middling stands between superior and inferior.

3.1.20_2

Therein, from inferior and middling habituation, one should bring about superior habituation only gradually.

3.1.20_3

And even one endowed with habituation to all tastes, having examined all the factors of food intake beginning with natural constitution and ending with the consumer as the eighth, should adhere solely to what is wholesome.

3.1.21

Therein, indeed, these eight factors of food intake are: namely, natural constitution, processing, combination, quantity, habitat, time, rules of use, and the consumer as the eighth.

3.1.22

Therein, natural constitution is said to be that which is intrinsic nature; it is, moreover, the natural possession of heavy and other qualities in food and medicinal substances, such as of black gram and green gram, or of domestic pig and blackbuck deer.

3.1.22_2

Processing, moreover, is the refinement of naturally existing substances.

3.1.22_1

Refinement is indeed defined as the imparting of other qualities.

3.1.22_2_2

Those qualities are imparted by contact with water or fire, cleaning, churning, place, time, scenting, steeping, and so forth, as well as by length of time, vessels, and the like.

3.1.22_3

Combination, moreover, is the unification of two or more substances; it brings about a specific quality which the substances do not bring about individually, as in the combination of honey and ghee, or of honey, fish, and milk.

3.1.22_4

Quantity, however, consists of total measurement and fractional measurement, meant for determining the result of proper and improper measures.

3.1.22_1_2

Therein, taking the measure of the whole food as a single mass is total measurement; fractional measurement, moreover, is taking the measure of the food substances individually.

3.1.22_2_3

For taking the whole is called total measurement, and taking from every part is called fractional measurement.

3.1.22_5

Habitat, moreover, is locality; it indicates the origin and distribution of substances as well as suitability to the habitat.

3.1.22_6

Time is indeed both continuous and transient; therein, transient [time] relates to disease, while continuous [time] relates to seasonal habituation.

3.1.22_7

Rules of use, however, are the regulations of eating; they depend on the signs of digestion.

3.1.22_8

The consumer, moreover, is the one who consumes that food, on whom bodily habituation depends.

3.1.22_1_3

Thus the eight factors of food intake are explained.

3.1.23

Their particular varieties yield auspicious and inauspicious results and assist one another; one should seek to know them, and having understood them, one should desire only what is wholesome; nor, out of delusion or negligence, should one consume food or anything else that is pleasing yet unwholesome and of disagreeable consequence.

3.1.24

Therein, this is the rule for food intake for healthy persons and also for certain patients eating at the proper time what is most wholesome by nature: one should eat warm, unctuous, in proper measure, when [previous food] is digested, non-antagonistic in potency, in a favorable place, with all favorable utensils, not too fast, not too slow, without talking, without laughing, with a focused mind, properly examining oneself.

3.1.25

We shall teach the excellence thereof: one should eat warm [food]; for warm [food], when being eaten, is savory, and when eaten, stimulates the digestive fire of the stomach, undergoes digestion quickly, causes vāta to move downward, and reduces kapha; therefore, one should eat warm [food].

3.1.25_2

One should eat unctuous [food]; for unctuous [food], when being eaten, is savory, and when eaten, stimulates an unaroused fire, undergoes digestion quickly, causes vāta to move downward, nourishes the body, strengthens the sense organs, generates increase of strength, and produces clarity of complexion; therefore, one should eat unctuous [food].

3.1.25_3

One should eat in proper measure; for food eaten in proper measure, without afflicting vāta, pitta, or kapha, exclusively increases lifespan alone, passes easily to the anus, does not impair the digestive heat, and attains digestion without pain; therefore, one should eat in proper measure.

3.1.25_4

One should eat when [previous food] is digested; for if one eats when food is undigested, the ingested food substance, uniting the undigested chyle of the earlier food with the later food juice, quickly aggravates all the doshas; but when one eats after it is digested, with the doshas stationed in their proper places, the fire aroused, hunger arisen, the openings of the channels dilated, eructation cleared, the cardiac region cleared, vāta moving downward, and the urges of flatus, urine, and feces expelled, the ingested food substance exclusively prolongs lifespan without corrupting any bodily tissue; therefore, one should eat when [previous food] is digested.

3.1.25_5

One should eat [food] non-antagonistic in potency; for eating food non-antagonistic in potency, one is not afflicted by disorders arising from food of antagonistic potency; therefore, one should eat [food] non-antagonistic in potency.

3.1.25_6

And one should eat in a favorable place and with all favorable utensils; for eating in a favorable place, one does not suffer mental distress caused by things arising from an unfavorable place that cause mental distress, and likewise with all favorable utensils; therefore, one should eat in a favorable place and likewise with all favorable utensils.

3.1.25_7

One should not eat too fast; for in one eating too fast, there occurs going the wrong way, depression, failure of the meal to sit well, and there is no certain apprehension of the flaws or excellence of the food; therefore, one should not eat too fast.

3.1.25_8

One should not eat too slowly; for eating too slowly, one does not achieve satisfaction, eats too much, the food becomes cold, and it digests irregularly; therefore, one should not eat too slowly.

3.1.25_9

One should eat without talking, without laughing, and with a focused mind; for in one eating while talking, laughing, or absent-minded, there occur the very same faults as in one eating too fast; therefore, one should eat without talking, without laughing, and with a focused mind.

3.1.25_10

One should eat having properly examined oneself: 'This agrees with me, this does not agree with me'—for thus one's personal habituation is known to oneself; therefore, one should eat having properly examined oneself.

3.1.26

And on this there is [a verse]:

3.1.26_1

He who knows tastes, substances, doshas, and disorders according to specific influence,
and knows place, time, and body—he is our physician.

3.1.27

Here are the two summary verses:

3.1.27_1

The purpose of the section on specific determination, tastes, substances, doshas, diseases according to specific influence,
substances not to be used excessively, and the three kinds of habituation,

3.1.28

the eight factors of food, and the excellence of meals—
all this has been illumined in the specific determination concerning the enumeration of tastes.

3.1.28_1

Thus, in the treatise composed by Agniveśa, redacted by Caraka, in the section on specific determination, the first chapter entitled 'Specific Determination of Tastes' is complete.

3.2.1

Now, therefore, we shall explain the specific determination of the threefold cavity [of the stomach].

3.2.2

Thus said the venerable Ātreya.

3.2.3

Taking food, one should establish a threefold space in the stomach for food, namely: one space for solid food preparations, one for liquids, and one for vāta, pitta, and kapha; for taking food in such a measure, one incurs no harm arising from an improper measure of food.

3.2.4

Nor can the complete excellence of the result of food be obtained merely from eating in proper measure, because the eight factors of food intake beginning with natural constitution have differentiated results.

3.2.5

Therein, this [teaching] regarding food quantity is for determining the results of proper and improper measure.

3.2.5_1

For the distinction in the rules regarding the quantity of food is only this much: having proper measure and having improper measure.

3.2.6

Therein, proper measure was indicated earlier by dividing the parts of the cavity [of the stomach]; we shall now explain it again in detail.

3.2.6_1

That is to say: no compression of the cavity [of the stomach] by food, no obstruction in the cardiac region, no tearing pain in the flanks, no excessive heaviness of the abdomen, gratification of the sense organs, cessation of hunger and thirst, ease in standing, sitting, lying down, walking, inhalation, exhalation, laughter, and conversation, easy digestion in the evening and morning, and production of strength, complexion, and nourishment—such is the characteristic of food consumed in proper measure.

3.2.7

Improper measure, moreover, they declare to be of two kinds: deficient and excessive.

3.2.7_1

Therein, a deficient measure of food quantity they declare to cause depletion of strength, complexion, and nourishment, to cause dissatisfaction, to cause udāvarta, to be unwholesome for longevity, non-aphrodisiac, non-conducive to ojas, destructive to the body, mind, intellect, and sense organs, damaging to the bodily tissue-elements, bringing misfortune, and an abode of the eighty varieties of vāta disorders; excessive measure, on the other hand, the experts hold to provoke all the doshas.

3.2.7_2

For whoever, having reached satiety with solid food items, further gratifies himself with liquids—his vāta, pitta, and kapha situated in the stomach, excessively compressed by that excessive food intake, all simultaneously undergo provocation; these [doshas], provoked, enter that very undigested mass of food, and staying in one part of the stomach and clinging to the food, obstructing it, or suddenly expelling it through the upper and lower passages, produce respectively these various disorders in the one who eats in excessive measure.

3.2.7_3

Therein, vāta produces colic, abdominal distension, body aches, dryness of the mouth, fainting, giddiness, irregularity of the digestive fire, stiffness in the flanks, back, and hips, and contraction and stiffness of the vessels; pitta, on the other hand, produces fever, diarrhea, internal burning heat, thirst, intoxication, giddiness, and delirium; and kapha produces vomiting, anorexia, indigestion, fever with chills, lethargy, and heaviness of the limbs.

3.2.8

Nor indeed do they hold an excessive measure of food alone to cause the severe disorder of āma; but also the intake of foods and drinks that are heavy, unctuous-less, cold, dry, disliked, distending, burning, impure, incompatible, and taken at the improper time, or whatever food and drink is consumed by a mind afflicted by passion, anger, greed, delusion, envy, shame, grief, pride, agitation, or fear—that too vitiates āma itself.

3.2.9

And here it is said:

3.2.9_1

Even food that is taken in proper measure and wholesome is not digested / due to anxiety, grief, fear, anger, uncomfortable bedding, and wakefulness at night.

3.2.10

Physicians declare that severe disorder of āma to be of two kinds: visūcikā and alasaka.

3.2.11

Therein, one should know visūcikā to be that which has discharged upward and downward, having the signs of the doshas described as aforesaid.

3.2.12

We shall explain alasaka: in a person who is weak, has low digestive fire, has an abundance of kapha, suppresses the urges of flatus, urine, and feces, and consumes stable, heavy, abundant, unctuous-less, cold, and dry food, that food and drink, pressed by vāta and having its passages blocked by kapha, excessively stuck, does not turn outward due to sluggishness; then it displays excessive symptoms of the severe disorder of āma, excluding vomiting and diarrhea.

3.2.12_1

And the excessively vitiated doshas, having their passages blocked by the vitiated āma, moving transversely, sometimes stiffen his whole body like a staff; hence they call it daṇḍālasaka, which is incurable.

3.2.12_2

Moreover, in one who is habituated to incompatible foods, eating before the previous meal is digested, and eating during indigestion, physicians call the resulting disorder of āma 'āma poison' (āmaviṣa), because of having symptoms resembling poison; that is exceedingly incurable, because of its rapid action and because its treatments are contradictory.

3.2.13

Therein, curable āma that is vitiated and become sluggish one should first cause to be vomited by making [the patient] drink hot water with salt; then one should treat him with sudation and the application of suppositories, and make him fast.

3.2.13_1

In visūcikā, however, fasting alone comes first, and the subsequent regimen is like that for one who has been purged.

3.2.13_2

In severe disorders of āma, however, when the food has digested at the time of a meal, but observing that the stomach is still smeared with doshas, the belly is rigid and heavy, and the patient has no desire for food, one should administer medicine to digest the remaining doshas and to kindle the digestive fire, but never [give] food during indigestion; for the digestive fire weakened by the severe disorder of āma is not able to digest the doshas, the medicine, and the mass of food at the same time.

3.2.13_3

Moreover, the confusion among the severe disorder of āma, the food, and the medicine, being extremely powerful, would suddenly destroy the weak patient whose bodily fire has ceased.

3.2.13_4

Furthermore, disorders arising from the severe disorder of āma cease only through reducing therapy; but if persistence remains after reducing therapy has been performed, in checking the diseases one should put aside medicine opposed to the cause and administer [medicine] opposed to the disease itself, as appropriate.

3.2.13_5

And in checking all disorders, experts desire medicine opposed to the cause, opposed to the disease, or producing the same effect.

3.2.13_6

Furthermore, for one who is freed from the severe disorder of āma, whose doshas are fully cooked, and whose digestive fire is kindled, inunction, non-unctuous enema, unctuous enema, and intake of unctuous substances should be administered properly according to rule, after carefully examining the intermediate states of the doshas, medicine, habitat, season, strength, body, food, habituation, mental constitution, natural constitution, and age, as well as the disorders.

3.2.14

And here it is said:

3.2.14_1

Having properly examined the eight factors of food intake, one should arrange what is beneficial to oneself; / and whatever other path there is here regarding the use of wholesome things, that too one should pursue.

3.2.15

Where is that which is eaten, chewed, drunk, and licked digested? / Wise one, we ask this of you; explain that to us, O intelligent one!

3.2.16

Thus asked by the disciples headed by Agniveśa, Punarvasu / then explained to them where food is digested:

3.2.17

The space between the navel and the breasts in a living being is known as the stomach; / and here what is eaten, chewed, drunk, and licked is digested.

3.2.18

Having reached the stomach, the food undergoes complete digestion; / once digested, it then proceeds through the channels to all the receptacles.

3.2.19

Here is a verse:

3.2.19_1

The sign and the result of [food] in proper measure have been stated respectively, / and likewise the sign and the result of [food] in improper measure have been stated analytically.

3.2.19_2

In the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka, in the section on specific determination, the second chapter entitled 'Specific Determination of the Threefold Cavity [of the Stomach]' is concluded.

3.3.1

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

3.3.2

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.

3.3.3

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:

3.3.4

"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.

3.3.4_1

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.

3.3.4_2

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].

3.3.4_3

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."

3.3.5

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?"

3.3.6

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.

3.3.6_1

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

3.3.7

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;

3.3.7_2

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;

3.3.7_3

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;

3.3.7_4

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

3.3.7_5

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.

3.3.8

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."

3.3.9

And here there are [verses]:

3.3.9_1

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

3.3.10

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].

3.3.11

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.

3.3.12

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

3.3.13

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

3.3.14

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

3.3.15

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

3.3.16

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

3.3.17

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—

3.3.18

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

3.3.19

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?"

3.3.20

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.

3.3.20_1

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."

3.3.21

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.

3.3.22

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

3.3.23

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

3.3.23_1

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.

3.3.24

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

3.3.24_1

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.

3.3.24_2

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.

3.3.24_3

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.

3.3.24_4

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.

3.3.24_5

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

3.3.24_6

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.

3.3.24_7

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.

3.3.24_8

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.

3.3.25

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

3.3.25_1

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.

3.3.26

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.

3.3.27

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

3.3.28

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

3.3.29

The venerable one said to him:

3.3.29_1

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

3.3.30

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].

3.3.31

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.

3.3.32

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.

3.3.33

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,

3.3.34

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

3.3.35

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

3.3.36

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

3.3.36_1

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.

3.3.36_2

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.

3.3.36_3

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."

3.3.36_4

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."

3.3.37

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?"

3.3.38

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.

3.3.38_1

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."

3.3.39

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?"

3.3.40

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.

3.3.40_1

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.

3.3.40_2

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."

3.3.41

And here there is [a verse]:

3.3.41_1

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

3.3.42

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.

3.3.43

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

3.3.44

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.

3.3.45

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:

3.3.45_1

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.

Commentaries (1)

Jalpakalpataru — Gaṅgādhara Kaviratna 1860, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit

The Compendium of Caraka 3

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