The Compendium of Caraka 3.2

English (machine translation) 3.2

Language: English

3.2.1

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

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.

Commentaries (1)

Jalpakalpataru — Gaṅgādhara Kaviratna 1860, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit