The Compendium of Caraka 5.1

English (machine translation) 5.1

Language: English

5.1.1

Now, therefore, we shall explain the section of the senses [dealing with fatal signs] regarding complexion and voice (Varṇasvarīya Indriya).

Here, indeed, complexion, voice, smell, taste, touch, eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, mind, disposition, cleanliness, conduct, behavior, memory, appearance, constitutional nature, pathological alteration, strength, debility, intellect, exhilaration, dryness, unctuousness, drowsiness, exertion, heaviness, lightness, bodily qualities, diet, regimen, digestion of food, expedient means, harm, disease, premonitory symptoms of disease, pain, complications, shadow, reflection, dreams, messenger's condition, omens on the road, condition and state of affairs in the patient's household, and the response to medicine and application of therapeutics—these are to be examined through direct perception, inference, and authoritative testimony by a physician seeking to know the remaining span of life.

5.1.4

Among these objects of examination, some do not reside in the person, while others do reside in the person.

5.1.4_1

Among them, those that do not reside in the person should be examined by authoritative instruction and reasoning; those, however, that reside in the person [should be examined] through constitutional nature and pathological alteration.

5.1.5

In that context, constitutional nature is related to caste/species, related to lineage, dependent on region, dependent on season/time, dependent on age, and fixed to the individual.

5.1.5_1

For specific bodily characteristics belong to those respective individuals as determined by caste/species, lineage, region, season/time, age, and individual uniqueness.

5.1.6

Pathological alteration, moreover, has marks as its cause, has what is to be marked as its cause, and corresponds to a cause.

5.1.7

Among these, that which has marks as its cause is that for which bodily marks themselves become causes by destiny; for certain marks are bound to the body, which, finding their locus there at such and such a time, produce such and such a pathological alteration.

5.1.7_2

That which has what is to be marked as its cause is that whose cause is observed as stated in the etiology (Nidāna).

5.1.7_3

That which corresponds to a cause is that which imitates the object of a cause; physicians consider this causeless [alteration] to be a sign for knowing the remaining span of life, and furthermore, being caused by the exhaustion of life, it corresponds to the signs of death, which the wise teach for the sake of knowing the term of life.

5.1.7_1

And with reference to this, we shall explain the signs residing in the person of those about to die.

5.1.7_2_2

Such is the brief statement.

5.1.7_3_2

We shall explain it in detail.

5.1.8

In that regard, right at the beginning is the topic of complexion.

5.1.8_1

Namely: black, dark brown, fair-dark, and fair are the constitutional complexions of the body; and whichever others an observant person may recognize, as handed down by tradition or otherwise pointed out by experts on the subject.

5.1.9

Blue, greyish-black, coppery, green, and white are the pathological complexions of the body; and whichever others an observant person may recognize as having arisen without previously existing as a pathological alteration.

5.1.9_1

Thus the constitutional and pathological complexions of the body have been stated.

5.1.9_2

In that regard, having observed the constitutional complexion in half of the body and the pathological complexion in the other half of the body, both complexions being divided by a boundary—whether divided by left and right, whether divided by front and back, whether divided by upper and lower, or whether divided by interior and exterior—one should know it to be a fatal sign (ariṣṭa) for the patient; similarly, a difference in complexion occurring in half of the face or elsewhere leads to death.

5.1.10

By means of the difference in complexion, debility, exhilaration, dryness, and unctuousness are explained.

5.1.11

Likewise, the emergence on the face of a patient of any one of freckles, dark pigmentation, moles, or eruptions should similarly be recognized as inauspicious.

5.1.12

Moreover, the appearance of any of the stated pathological complexions on the nails, eyes, face, urine, feces, hands, feet, lips, and so forth, in persons diminished in strength, complexion, and sensory faculties, is a sign of the exhaustion of life.

5.1.13

And whatever other unnatural change in complexion, never seen before, should arise suddenly without any apparent cause in a patient who is constantly declining, one should know that to be a fatal sign.

5.1.13_1

Such is the topic of complexion.

5.1.14

The topic of voice, however: voices resembling a swan, a sarus crane, a chariot wheel, a kettle drum, a sparrow, a crow, a dove, or a cracked vessel are constitutional voices; and whichever others an observant person may recognize, as handed down by tradition or otherwise pointed out by experts on the subject.

5.1.14_1

Those resembling a sheep, sweet, choking, indistinct, stammering, faint, distressed, or disordered are the pathological voices of patients; and whichever others an observant person may recognize as having arisen without previously existing as a pathological alteration.

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit