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# The Compendium of Caraka 5.8

English (machine translation) 5.8

- **Language:** English

### [5.8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8.1)

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

### [5.8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8.2)

Thus spoke the blessed Ātreya:

### [5.8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8.3)

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

### [5.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8.11)

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

### [5.8.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8.27)

Here is a verse:

### [5.8.27\_1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.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.

## Linked texts (1)

- [Carakasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka.5.8.1) — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit

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Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.5.8) · Pramāṇa