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The Compendium of Caraka 5.8

English (machine translation) 5.8

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English

5.8.1

Now we shall explain the sense faculty concerning the head hanging down.

5.8.2

Thus spoke the blessed Ātreya:

5.8.3

Whose reflected image is head downwards, crooked,
or headless: one should not wish to treat that person.

5.8.4

Whose eyelashes have become matted and whose vision is also restricted:
the wise physician should not approach that person with medicine.

5.8.5

Whose eyelids are swollen and do not meet as he wastes away,
and whose eyes are smeared [with discharge]: he is just as good as dead.

5.8.6

If on the eyebrows or on the head one sees many partings and cowlicks,
unprecedented, unmade, and distinct, one should predict death.

5.8.7

Sick men live for three days with this sign;
for the healthy, however, this [lifespan] is said to be at most six nights.

5.8.8

A man who does not notice when his hair is grasped and plucked out,
whether healthy or sick, does not survive past six nights.

5.8.9

Whose unanointed hair appears as if anointed:
knowing his life to be obstructed, the wise physician should avoid him.

5.8.10

Whose nasal bridge droops and becomes broadened,
and though unswollen appears swollen: he should be refused by the discerning physician.

5.8.11

Whose nose is exceedingly open or exceedingly contracted,
or crooked, or dried up: he does not live.

5.8.12

Whose mouth, ears, and lips are white, grayish, extremely red,
or abnormally blue: he is not freed from disease.

5.8.13

Whose teeth are bone-white, flowered, or covered with grime
by morbid change: he does not abandon that disease and attain health.

5.8.14

Rigid, senseless, heavy, thickly covered with thorns,
grayish, dry, or swollen, sliding out—[such is] a dead man's tongue.

5.8.15

A man who inhales deeply, exhales shortly, and faints:
knowing his lifespan to be cut short, the wise [physician] should avoid him.

5.8.16

Both hands, both feet, both carotids, and the palate become extremely cold;
at the exhaustion of lifespan they become either hard or soft.

5.8.17

Knocking knee against knee, raising and dropping both feet,
and repeatedly turning his face aside: that sick man does not live.

5.8.18

Biting the tips of his nails with his teeth, pulling out head hairs with his nails,
[or] scratching the ground with a stick: he is not freed from disease.

5.8.19

One who grinds his teeth while awake, weeping and laughing without cause,
and if he does not recognize suffering: he is not freed from disease.

5.8.20

Laughing repeatedly, hissing repeatedly, striking the bed with his foot,
and probing his upper bodily orifices: that sick man does not live.

5.8.21

Things that once brought supreme delight when joined together,
in which he no longer finds pleasure while languishing: one should predict death.

5.8.22

The neck does not bear the head, nor the back its own load,
nor do the jaws [bear] the bolus placed in the mouth of a sick man about to die.

5.8.23

Suddenly feverish heat, thirst, fainting, loss of strength,
and loosening of the joints arise in one about to die.

5.8.24

From whose face profuse perspiration pours forth at daybreak,
consumed by coating fever: his survival is difficult to obtain.

5.8.25

Food does not reach the throat, and the tongue retracts into the throat;
when the living being's life-span has reached its end, strength also wanes.

5.8.26

He tosses his head with difficulty, letting go of his forearms,
with sweat streaming from his forehead, his fastenings undone, about to die.

5.8.27

Here is a verse:

5.8.27_1

The intelligent [physician] should observe these signs attentively in men about to die;
for appearing in an instant, some vanish, and no sign here is without result.

5.8.27_2

Thus ends the eighth chapter, entitled "Indriya Concerning the Downward-Turned Head," in the section on sense faculties of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.

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