The Compendium of Caraka 6.15
English (machine translation) 6.15
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- English
6.15.1
Now we shall explain the treatment of grahaṇī disorder.
6.15.2
Thus declared the venerable Ātreya.
6.15.3
Lifespan, complexion, strength, health, enthusiasm, plumpness, luster, / ojas, glow, bodily fires, and vital breaths are said to have their cause in the body's digestive fire.
6.15.4
When the fire is extinguished, one dies; when it is properly functioning, one lives long and free from disease; / when it is abnormal, one becomes sick. Therefore, the fire is declared to be the root.
6.15.5
The food that nourishes the body's tissues, ojas, strength, complexion, and the rest— / in that, the fire is the cause, for rasa and the other [tissues] do not arise from undigested food.
6.15.6
Prāṇa [vāyu], whose action is ingestion, draws food down into the belly; / there, its mass broken up by fluids, it becomes softened by unctuousness.
6.15.7
Fanned by samāna, the fire within the belly, conveyed by the wind, / properly cooks in due time the food eaten in suitable measure, for the prolonging of life.
6.15.8
Thus, situated beneath, the fire cooks the food in the digestive tract to produce rasa and waste, / just as [a fire beneath] a cooking-pot cooks water and grain to make boiled rice.
6.15.9
From the initial digestion of food possessing the six tastes as soon as it is eaten, / kapha arises in the form of foam because of its primary sweet state.
6.15.10
Further, during digestion, because of the sour state of what has become partially transformed, / clear pitta is released as it leaves the stomach.
6.15.11
When it reaches the colon, being desiccated by the fire, / and compacted into a mass as it is cooked, vāyu arises because of its pungent state.
6.15.12
For wholesome food, provided with agreeable smell and other [qualities], / gratifies the bodily smell and other [qualities], as well as the sensory organs such as the nose.
6.15.13
The five heats—earthy, watery, fiery, airy, and ethereal— / indeed digest their respective five food attributes: the earthy and the rest.
6.15.14
The properties of the substances nourish their respective counterparts individually in the body: / the earthy nourish the earthy alone, and the remainder nourish all the remainder.
6.15.15
The seven tissues that sustain the body undergo, in turn, / a twofold digestion by their own respective fires into waste and nutrient essence.
6.15.16
From rasa comes blood; thence flesh; from flesh, fat; and thence bone; / from bone, marrow; thence semen; and from semen comes the embryo born of the nutrient essence.
6.15.17
From rasa comes breast milk, and thence menstrual blood; from blood, large tendons and blood vessels; / from flesh, visceral fat and the six layers of skin; and from fat, sinews originate.
6.15.18
The waste of food is feces and urine; of rasa, kapha; of blood, / pitta; of flesh, excretions of the cavities; and the waste of fat is sweat;
6.15.19
The waste of bone is the hair of the head and body; of marrow, the unctuous substance of the eyes, feces, and skin; / thus, through digestion, the tissues reach [a division into] nutrient essence and waste.
6.15.20
The succession of tissue essences supports one another; / but the specific potency of aphrodisiacs and similar substances nourishes strength quickly.
6.15.21
Some hold that the transformation [of food into semen] takes place in six days and nights; / but the rotation of the consumable bodily tissues occurs continuously, like a wheel.
6.15.22
When the teacher had spoken thus, the pupil questioned him: / "From rasa, which is dissimilar, how is blood born in the body?
6.15.23
And rasa has no red color; how does it attain redness? / How does stable flesh arise from fluid blood for men?
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How does fat arise from the stable flesh, which came from a fluid tissue? / From smooth flesh and fat, how does roughness come to be in the bones?
6.15.25
And in rough bones, by what is marrow unctuous and soft? / And if semen proceeds from the transformation of marrow,
6.15.26
the wise declare semen to pervade the entire body; / and so too semen comes from the marrow inside the bones of embodied beings.
6.15.27
No opening is seen in the bones; how then does it emerge?" / When thus addressed by the pupil, the teacher spoke this reply:
6.15.28
"That which is called the essence of all tastes for human beings, / that rasa attains redness through the coloring agent of the heat of pitta.
6.15.29
Combined with wind, water, fire, and heat, / blood, having attained stability, becomes flesh, fully cooked by its own heat.
6.15.30
Surpassing in unctuousness through its own heat and watery quality, fat is born. / The compaction of earth, fire, wind, and the rest effected by its own heat
6.15.31
produces its roughness; bone is then born from it for men. / Wind produces porosity there in the middle of the bones;
6.15.32
they are filled with fat, and the unctuous essence is therefore known as marrow. / And the unctuous essence of that marrow—from that, semen is born.
6.15.33
Porosity arises in the bones through the qualities of wind, ether, and the like; / through that, the semen trickles like water from a new earthen jar.
6.15.34
It flows from the body from all sides through the semen-carrying channels, / impelled by excitement, through urgency and desire born of the mind.
6.15.35
Melted like ghee by the heat of exercise and dislodged from its place, / having collected in the bladder, it departs, like water from high ground to low."
6.15.36
Indeed, by vyāna [wind], whose proper function is expulsion, / the rasa tissue is constantly and simultaneously propelled everywhere in the body.
6.15.37
While being propelled, wherever it lodges due to defective channels, / it causes pathology there, like a cloud [producing] rain in the sky.
6.15.38
And likewise there may be localized aggravation of the doṣas. / Thus the action of the elemental, tissue, and food digesters has been declared.
6.15.39
The digester of food is considered the lord of all digesters; / for they are rooted in it, their increase and decrease depending on its increase and decrease.
6.15.40
Therefore, one should diligently protect it with proper and wholesome fuels of food and drink; / for the preservation of lifespan and strength depends on its preservation.
6.15.41
He who eats disregarding proper rules quickly contracts diseases born of grahaṇī disorders / out of gluttony; these will now be described.
6.15.42
From fasting, eating during indigestion, overeating, irregular meals, / eating unwholesome, heavy, cold, overly dry, and corrupted food,
6.15.43
from errors in purgation, emesis, and oleation, from emaciation by disease, / from irregularity of place, season, and time, and from suppressing natural urges,
6.15.44
the digestive fire becomes corrupted; corrupted, it does not digest food, even when light. / Undigested, food turns sour and assumes the nature of poison.
6.15.45
The symptom of that indigestion is abdominal distension, prostration, / headache, fainting, dizziness, stiffness of the back and hips,
6.15.46
yawning, body aches, thirst, fever, vomiting, straining at stool, / loss of appetite, and lack of digestion—and that terrible condition is food-poisoning.
6.15.47
Combining with pitta, it produces burning sensation, thirst, mouth diseases, / acid pitta, and other disorders born of pitta.
6.15.48
Joined with kapha, it causes consumption, chronic coryza, urinary disorders, and others born of kapha; / combined with vāta, it causes many diseases born of vāta.
6.15.49
Located in the urine, it causes urinary diseases; located in feces, belly diseases; / and combined with rasa and the other tissues, it causes diseases born of rasa and the rest.
6.15.50
Irregular, it causes imbalance of the tissues by digesting irregularly; / sharp, with deficient fuel, the fire dries up the tissues.
6.15.51
Balanced in one who eats in balanced measure, it causes tissue balance by digesting evenly; / weak, it burns the food, and that goes upward or downward.
6.15.52
Passing downward, either digested or undigested, it is called grahaṇī disease; / for almost all of his food is burned.
6.15.53
It is taught to be excessively passed or obstructed, and fluid. / Accompanied by thirst, anorexia, bad taste in the mouth, excessive salivation, and bronchial asthma,
6.15.54
with swollen feet and hands, pain in the bones and joints, vomiting, fever, / and eructation that smells of iron and raw matter, and tastes bitter and sour.
6.15.55
Its premonitory symptoms are: thirst, lethargy, loss of strength, / burning of food, slow digestion, and heaviness of the body.
6.15.56
It is considered the grahaṇī because it grasps the food, and is the seat of the digestive fire; / situated above the navel, supported and nourished by the power of the digestive fire,
6.15.57
it retains undigested food and releases digested food to the sides; / but corrupted by a weak digestive fire, it discharges it while still raw.
6.15.58
That disease may arise from vāta, from pitta, and from kapha, and indeed from all three. / Hear its etiology, symptoms, and varieties separately.
6.15.59
From eating pungent, bitter, astringent, overly dry, and cold foods, / from eating measured quantities, fasting, walking excessive distances, suppressing urges, and sexual intercourse,
6.15.60
aggravated wind encloses the digestive fire and makes it dull; / his food digests with difficulty, turns sour, and roughness of the body occurs,
6.15.61
dryness of throat and mouth, hunger, thirst, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, / frequent pains in the flanks, thighs, groins, and neck, acute gastrointestinal disorders,
6.15.62
pain in the heart, emaciation, weakness, bad taste in the mouth, cutting pain in the rectum, / craving for all tastes, and depression of mind.
6.15.63
When food is digested and being digested, flatulence occurs, and upon eating he attains ease; / and that man suspects wind-gulma, heart disease, or spleen disease.
6.15.64
After a long time, with difficulty, fluid, dry, thin, undigested, accompanied by sound and froth, / he repeatedly expels stool, afflicted by cough and dyspnea due to wind.
6.15.65
Through pungent, undigested, burning, sour, and alkaline substances and the like, aggravated pitta, / inundating the fire, destroys it, like hot water extinguishes fire.
6.15.66
He, yellowish in complexion, purges undigested, bluish-yellow, fluid stool, / afflicted by foul and sour eructations, burning sensation in the heart and throat, anorexia, and thirst.
6.15.67
From eating heavy, excessively unctuous, cold, and similar foods, from overeating, / and from sleeping immediately after eating, aggravated kapha destroys the digestive fire.
6.15.68
His food digests with difficulty; nausea, vomiting, anorexia, / coating of the mouth, sweetness, cough, spitting, and chronic coryza occur.
6.15.69
He feels his heart is sluggish, his abdomen stiff and heavy, / his eructations corrupted and sweet, with prostration and lack of sexual desire toward women.
6.15.70
Evacuation of broken, unripened, kapha-mixed, heavy feces occurs; / and there is debility even without emaciation, and sluggishness, when [the disorder] is caused by kapha.
6.15.71
And the fourfold digestive fire previously mentioned in the chapter on the classification of diseases— / that too we declare to be the grahaṇī disorder, with the exception of the balanced one.
6.15.72
When the causes and symptoms described separately for vāta and the others occur together, / one should diagnose it as tridoshic. Hear now the treatment for them.
6.15.73
The morbid humor lodging in the grahaṇī, stupefied by improperly digested food, / accompanied by abdominal distension, excessive salivation, pain, burning sensation, anorexia, and heaviness,
6.15.74
observing it to be accompanied by symptoms of āma, one should evacuate it with comfortably warm water, / or with a decoction of [madana] fruit, and likewise with pippalī and mustard.
6.15.75
Or if āma is adhering or situated in the colon, it must be purged with digestive stimulants. / When the chyle accompanied by āma has spread through the body, fasting and digestives [are indicated].
6.15.76
To him whose stomach has been purified, one should give light food such as rice gruel cooked with pañcakola and the like, / and further, digestive-stimulating formulations.
6.15.77
Having recognized, however, that the āma has fully ripened in the vāta-type grahaṇī disease, / the physician should administer ghee combined with digestive stimulants in small doses.
6.15.78
When the digestive fire is slightly rekindled, if feces, urine, and wind are obstructed, / having unctuated him for two or three days, fermented and massaged, one should administer a non-unctuous enema.
6.15.79
Then, with castor oil, or with tailvaka ghee / combined with alkali, once vāta has calmed and the morbid humors have loosened, one should purge him.
6.15.80
When he is cleansed, if his viscera are dry and his feces bound, one should give an unctuous enema / in proper dose with an oil processed with digestive stimulants, sours, and vāta-dispelling [drugs].
6.15.81
When he has received a non-unctuous enema, has been purged, and properly given an unctuous enema, / and has taken light food in return, one should accustom him again to ghee.
6.15.82
The two pañcamūlas, sarala, devadāru with dry ginger, / pippalī, pippalī root, citraka, hastipippalī,
6.15.83
hemp seed, barley, jujubes, horse gram, and likewise suṣavī— / one should boil these with sour gruel, curd, or sauvīra vinegar.
6.15.84
With that reduced to a quarter, one should cook an āḍhaka of ghee, / adding properly the two alkalis named svarjikā and barley alkali,
6.15.85
and rock salt, earth-salt, sea salt, biḍa salt, romaka salt, / together with sauvarcala and pākya salt, two palas of each separately;
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stirring these in powdered, the wise physician should make him drink a prasṛta of it. / It generates digestive fire, strength, and complexion, destroys vāta, and digests what is eaten.
Thus, Daśamūlādya Ghṛta.
With a paste of the three pungents and triphalā measuring a bilva, and a pala of jaggery, / cooking eight palas of ghee, one with sluggish digestive fire should drink a measured dose.
Thus, Tryūṣaṇādya Ghṛta.
With the pañcamūla, abhayā, the three pungents, pippalī root, rock salt, / rāsnā, the two alkalis, cumin, viḍaṅga, and śaṭī, ghee [cooked]
6.15.89
with vinegar, expressed juice of citron and of fresh ginger, / and water of dried radish and jujube, cukrikā and pomegranate,
6.15.90
buttermilk, whey, scum of wine, sauvīra vinegar, tuṣodaka, / and sour fermented rice-water—that, when cooked, is superior in enkindling the digestive fire.
6.15.91
It dispels colic, phantom tumors, belly disease, asthma, cough, vāta, and kapha. / Or one should administer ghee prepared with the juice of citron.
6.15.92
One should also use oil prepared with these [drugs] for massage; / or one should drink the powder of these drugs with warm water.
6.15.93
When vāta is enveloped by kapha, or when āma kapha is aggravated by vāta, / one should give the powder for digestion, which excels at rekindling the digestive fire.
Thus, Pañcamūlādya Ghṛta and Powder.
Unripened feces sink due to heaviness, but the ripened float on water, / except when corrupted by extreme fluidity, compaction, coldness, or kapha.
6.15.95
Having thus first examined whether the patient suffering from āma disorder has āma or is free from āma, / one should properly treat him according to rule with digestives or otherwise.
6.15.96
Citraka, pippalī root, the two alkalis, the salts, / the three pungents, asafoetida, ajamodā, and cavya—one should powder these together.
6.15.97
Pills prepared with the juice of citron or pomegranate / digest āma and quickly kindle the digestive fire.
Thus, Citrakādyā Guṭikā.
A decoction of dry ginger, ativiṣā, and mustā digests āma; / or paste made up of mustā, or pathyā and dry ginger with warm water.
6.15.99
Devadāru, vacā, mustā, dry ginger, ativiṣā, and abhayā, / infused in vāruṇī wine or in warm water, one should drink without salt.
6.15.100
Or when feces are unripened and accompanied by colic, one should drink with pomegranate water / rock salt ground with biḍa salt, bilva, citraka, and dry ginger.
6.15.101
Or when vāta is accompanied by āma or kapha and causes abdominal colic, one should drink / kaliṅga, asafoetida, ativiṣā, vacā, sauvarcala salt, and abhayā.
6.15.102
In vomiting, piles, granthi, and colic, one should drink with warm water / powder of pathyā, sauvarcala, and cumin, combined with black pepper.
6.15.103
Abhayā, pippalī root, vacā, kaṭukarohiṇī, / pāṭhā, vatsaka seeds, citraka, and dry ginger—
6.15.104
decocting them or making a powder, one should drink it with warm water; / it is beneficial and removes colic in grahaṇī afflicted by pitta and kapha.
6.15.105
In states of āma, decocting the three pungents with ativiṣā, salt, alkali, and asafoetida, / or making a powder, one should have it taken with warm water.
6.15.106
Pippalī, dry ginger, pāṭhā, sārivā, the two bṛhatīs, / citraka, seeds of kuṭaja, and then the five salts—
6.15.107
a man should drink that powder with barley alkali, along with curd, warm water, wine, or the like, / to increase the digestive fire and remove abdominal vāta.
6.15.108
Black pepper, kuñcikā, ambaṣṭhā, and vṛkṣāmla, a kuḍava of each, / and ten palas of sour vetasa, half a pala each
6.15.109
of sauvarcala, biḍa, pākya salt, barley alkali, together with rock salt, / śaṭī, puṣkaramūla, asafoetida, and hiṅguśivāṭikā;
6.15.110
powdering all that together finely, one should employ it; / it is wholesome in grahaṇī afflicted by vāta, and likewise in anorexia.
Thus, Maricādya Cūrṇa.
A prastha of the four sours, three palas of the three pungents, / four palas of the salts, and eight palas of sugar: / powdering them together, one should administer it in vegetables, soups, foods, condiments, and the like.
6.15.112
It relieves cough, indigestion, anorexia, asthma, heart disease, anemia, and colic. / Having ground cavya bark, pippalī root, dhātakī, the three pungents, citraka,
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kapittha, bilva, ambaṣṭhā, śālmala, hastipippalī, / śilodbheda, and likewise cumin, to the size of a jujube,
6.15.114
and fried them in ghee, the physician should prepare a gruel with curd / and with the juices of kapittha, cukrīkā, vṛkṣāmla, and pomegranate.
6.15.115
It destroys all forms of diarrhea, grahaṇī, phantom tumors, piles, and spleen disease. / And soup of pañcakola, and of radishes with black pepper,
6.15.116
unctuous, soured with pomegranate and buttermilk, processed meat broth of wild animals, / and broth of carnivorous animals, stimulating digestion, is commended for meals.
6.15.117
Buttermilk, sour gruel, and wines are for drinks, and also ariṣṭas; / but buttermilk is [best] in grahaṇī disorder because it stimulates digestion, is astringent, and is light.
6.15.118
It is the best because its post-digestive effect is sweet, and it does not provoke pitta; / and because of its astringency, hot [potency], spreading quality, and dryness, it is beneficial in kapha.
6.15.119
In vāta, [it is beneficial] because it is sweet, sour, and dense; fresh, it does not cause burning. / Therefore, whatever applications of buttermilk have been prescribed for belly diseases as well as piles,
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one should employ them entirely in grahaṇī disorder. / Yavānī, āmalaka, pathyā, and black pepper—three palas each,
6.15.121
and the five salts, one pala each—should be powdered together. / Fermented in buttermilk, a man should drink this resulting takrāriṣṭa, / which stimulates digestion and removes swelling, phantom tumors, piles, worms, urinary disorders, and belly diseases.
Thus ends takrāriṣṭa.
Having recognized pitta to be situated in its own place, excited, and extinguishing the digestive fire, the physician / should expel it by purgation or by emesis.
6.15.123
And with foods that do not cause burning, light, and combined with bitters; / with broths of wild animals, with soups of mung beans and the like, and also with khaḍa soups,
6.15.124
soured with pomegranate, with ghee, and endowed with [substances that] stimulate digestion and are astringent, / one should kindle his digestive fire with powders and also with bitter ghees.
6.15.125
Sandalwood, padmaka, uśīra, pāṭhā, mūrvā, kuṭannaṭa, / ṣaḍgranthā, sārivā, sphotā, saptaparṇa, āṭarūṣaka,
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paṭola, udumbara, aśvattha, vaṭa, plakṣa, kapītana, / kaṭukā, rohiṇī, musta, and neem, two palas each,
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one should cook in a droṇa of water. When reduced to a quarter, one should cook a prastha of ghee / with kirātatikta, indrayava, vīrā, māgadhikā, and utpala,
6.15.128
in pastes equal to an akṣa. That is to be drunk in disease of pitta-grahaṇī; / and the bitter ghee which was described in [the treatment of] skin diseases, that too one should administer.
Thus ends candanādya ghṛta.
Dry ginger, ativiṣā, musta, dhātakī, and rasāñjana, / bark and fruit of vatsaka, bilva, pāṭhā, and kaṭukarohiṇī—
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one should drink that powder in equal parts with honey and rice-water, / in paittika grahaṇī disorder, and when blood is passed,
6.15.131
and piles, pain in the rectum, and it overcomes tenesmus. / This nāgarādya powder was honored by Kṛṣṇa Ātreya.
Thus ends nāgarādya cūrṇa.
Bhūnimba, kaṭukā, the three pungents, mustaka, and indrayava—equal parts; / two parts of citraka, sixteen parts of vatsaka bark: one should powder them.
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Drunk with jaggery and cold water, it removes grahaṇī disorder and phantom tumors; / it removes jaundice, fever, anemia, urinary disorders, anorexia, and diarrhea.
Thus ends bhūnimbādya cūrṇa.
Vacā, ativiṣā, pāṭhā, saptaparṇa, rasāñjana, / syonāka, udīcya, kaṭvaṅga, vatsaka bark, durālabhā,
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dārvī, parpaṭaka, pāṭhā, yavānī, madhuśigruka, / leaves of paṭola, mustard seeds, yūthikā, sprouts of jātī,
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pulp of jambū, mango, and bilva, and fruits of neem and śāka: / desiring the pacification of that disease, one should combine [these] with the bhūnimbādya [formula].
6.15.137
Kirātatikta, ṣaḍgranthā, trāyamāṇā, the three pungents, / sandalwood, padmaka, uśīra, bark of dārvī, kaṭurohiṇī,
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bark and fruit of kuṭaja, musta, yavānī, and devadāru, / leaves of paṭola and neem, cardamoms, saurāṣṭrī, bark of ativiṣā,
6.15.139
and seeds of madhuśigru, mūrvā, and parpaṭaka— / that powder is to be licked with honey, or drunk with wines or water.
6.15.140
It destroys heart disease, anemia, grahaṇī disease, phantom tumors, colic, anorexia, fever, / jaundice, sannipāta, and mouth diseases.
Thus ends kirātādya cūrṇa.
When the grahaṇī is vitiated by kapha, for one who has vomited according to rule, / one should increase the digestive fire with pungents, sours, salts, alkalis, and bitters.
6.15.142
Palāśa, citraka, cavya, mātuluṅga, harītakī, / pippalī, pippalī root, pāṭhā, dry ginger, and coriander—
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one karṣa each, having cooked in a prastha of water, reduced to a fourth, / one should employ it as drinking water, and with them one should prepare gruel.
6.15.144
With soup of dried radishes, or again of horse gram, / pungent, sour, alkaline, and salty, one should feed light foods.
6.15.145
And afterward one should drink sour buttermilk, or takrāriṣṭa, / or madirā, madhvariṣṭa, or nigada sīdhu.
6.15.146
A droṇa of madhūka flowers, half that of viḍaṅga, / half of that should be of citraka, and an āḍhaka of bhallātaka,
6.15.147
and eight palas of mañjiṣṭhā: one should boil in three droṇas of water. / Reduced to a droṇa, cooled, combined with half an āḍhaka of honey,
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in a jar smeared with cardamom, lotus stalk, aguru, and sandalwood, / left for a month, one should administer that resulting āsava.
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It certainly stimulates the grahaṇī; it is nourishing, conquers kapha and pitta, / and removes swelling, dermatosis, kilāsa, and urinary disorders.
Thus ends madhūkāsava.
Fresh juice of madhūka flowers, boiled and reduced by half, / combined with a fourth part of honey, cooled, one should store as before.
6.15.151
Drinking it, eating wholesome food, one overcomes all grahaṇī disorders; / likewise one should drink fermented juices of grapes, sugarcane, and dates.
6.15.152
Two prasthas of durālabhā, a prastha of āmalaka, / two handfuls each of dantī and citraka, and a hundred fresh abhayās,
6.15.153
boiled in four droṇas of water, cooled, reduced to a droṇa, / strained, with two hundred [palas] of jaggery, combined with a kuḍava of honey,
6.15.154
likewise with powdered kuḍavas of priyaṅgu, pippalī, and viḍaṅga, / placed in a ghee jar: after a fortnight, one should then drink what is produced.
6.15.155
It removes grahaṇī, anemia, piles, dermatosis, erysipelas, and urinary disorders; / and it produces voice and complexion, and destroys bleeding disorders and kapha.
Thus ends durālabhāsava.
Turmeric, the two sets of five roots, vīrā, ṛṣabhaka, jīvaka— / of these, five-pala portions one should cook in four droṇas of water.
6.15.157
When the liquid is reduced to a droṇa and strained, the physician should throw in two hundred [palas] of jaggery / and half-kuḍava portions of powders, along with honey:
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priyaṅgu, musta, mañjiṣṭhā, viḍaṅga, madhuka, plava, / and lodhra and śābaraka; kept for half a month, one should drink it.
6.15.159
This proven mūlāsava stimulates digestion and conquers bleeding disorders; / it removes distension, kapha, heart disease, anemia, and bodily exhaustion.
Thus ends mūlāsava.
Having ground a prastha of pippalī, jaggery, and the inner part of bibhītaka, / combined with a prastha of water, one should place it in a heap of barley.
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From that, when well matured, one should drink a pala combined with a handful of water; / for this piṇḍāsava destroys the army of diseases.
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Even a healthy person, eating unctuous meat broth, should drink it for a month, / desiring the non-arising of those diseases which have been mentioned here.
Thus ends piṇḍāsava.
In a new jar smeared with pippalī and honey and fumigated with aguru, / an āḍhaka of honey equal to the water, one should add these powders:
6.15.164
Half a kuḍava of viḍaṅga, likewise a kuḍava of pippalī, / a fourth-part each of tvakkṣīrī, keśara, and black pepper,
6.15.165
tvac, elā, patraka, śaṭī, kramuka, ativiṣā, ghana, / hareṇu, elvālu, tejohvā, pippalīmūla, citraka—
6.15.166
each a karṣa: kept for a month, one should administer it thereafter. / It enkindles sluggish digestive fire and makes an irregular one normal.
6.15.167
Madhvariṣṭa dispels heart disease, anemia, grahaṇī disease, dermatosis, piles, swelling, fever, / and other diseases of vāta and kapha.
Thus ends madhvariṣṭa.
Pippalī together with its roots, the two alkalis, the five salts, / mātuluṅga, abhayā, rāsnā, śaṭī, black pepper, and dry ginger—
6.15.169
having made this powder in equal parts, one should drink it in the morning with warm water / in grahaṇī disorder caused by kapha, increasing strength, complexion, and digestive fire.
6.15.170
Ghee prepared with these very drugs should be drunk when accompanied by vāta; / or the ṣaṭpala [ghee] and bhallātaka-ghee that were taught for gulma.
6.15.171
Biḍa salt, black salt, sarjikā alkali, barley-sprout alkali, / saptalā, kaṇṭakārī, and citraka: one should incinerate these.
6.15.172
With two āḍhakas of this alkali-water strained seven times, / having cooked one āḍhaka of ghee, one should drink it to increase digestive fire.
Thus ends kṣāraghṛta.
Pippalī together with its roots, pāṭhā, cavya, indrayava, dry ginger, / citraka, ativiṣā, hiṅgu, śvadaṃṣṭrā, kaṭurohiṇī,
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and vacā, each a karṣa; and a pala each of the five salts, / in two prasthas of curd and two kuḍavas of oil and ghee:
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cut into pieces and boiled down, when the liquid has slowly been absorbed, / then incinerated by closed baking and reduced to powder, flooded with ghee,
6.15.176
one should drink a palmful; when that is digested, one should eat sweet food. / It destroys all diseases of vāta and kapha, as well as animate and manufactured poisons.
6.15.177
Bhallātaka, the three pungents, triphalā, and the three salts, / two palas each, one should incinerate by closed baking with cow-dung fire.
6.15.178
That alkali, drunk with ghee or dusted over food, / removes heart disease, anemia, grahaṇī disorder, gulma, upward movement of vāyu, and colic.
6.15.179
Durālabhā, both types of karañja, saptaparṇa, vatsaka, / ṣaḍgranthā, madana, mūrvā, pāṭhā, and āragvadha—
6.15.180
made into powders of equal parts with cow urine, one should incinerate them; / and having incinerated them, one should drink that alkali which increases the strength of the grahaṇī.
6.15.181
Bhūnimba, rohiṇī, tiktā, paṭola, and nimba-parpaṭa / one should incinerate with buffalo urine; this alkali increases digestive fire.
6.15.182
The two haridrās, vacā, kuṣṭha, citraka, kaṭurohiṇī, / and mustā: one should incinerate them with goat urine; this alkali increases digestive fire.
6.15.183
Four palas of the stem of sudhā, three palas of the three salts, / a kuḍava of vārtākī, eight [palas] of arka, and two palas of citraka:
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incinerated and made with vārtāku juice into pills to be taken after meals, / they quickly digest meal after meal and are beneficial for cough, dyspnea, and piles.
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And they alleviate choleraic diarrhea, coryza, and heart disease. / Thus this alkali pill was declared by Kṛṣṇātreya.
Thus ends the alkali pill.
Vatsaka, ativiṣā, pāṭhā, duḥsparśā, hiṅgu, and citraka, / powdered and cooked in urine-strained alkali of the tip of palāśa
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in an iron vessel until thick: from that, one should drink a kola with warm water / or with alcoholic drinks if suffering from grahaṇī disorder, swelling, piles, or anemia.
Thus ends the fourth alkali.
Triphalā, kaṭabhī, cavya, bilva pulp, iron filings, / rohiṇī, kaṭukā, mustā, kuṣṭha, pāṭhā, and hiṅgu,
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madhuka, muṣkaka alkali, barley-sprout alkali, the three pungents, vacā, / viḍaṅga, pippalīmūla, svarjikā alkali, nimba, and citraka,
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mūrvā, ajamodā, indrayava, guḍūcī, and devadāru, / one karṣa each; and of each of the five salts separately, one pala each
6.15.191
in three kuḍavas of curd, infused with ghee and oil: / having slowly incinerated it by closed baking, one should drink a palmful of it
6.15.192
with ghee, if suffering from kapha-vāta piles, grahaṇī disease, or anemia. / Splenomegaly, retention of urine, dyspnea, hiccup, cough, worms, fever,
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wasting, diarrhea, swelling, urinary disorders, abdominal distension, and cardiac stiffness, / as well as all poisons, it destroys: an excellent alkali that produces digestive fire.
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When it is digested, one should eat with sweet meat broths or with milk.
Thus ends the fifth alkali.
In a disorder of all three doṣas, the physician skilled in the procedures should apply the five therapies,
6.15.195
and should give ghees, alkalis, āsavas, and ariṣṭas that increase the digestive fire. / And whatever treatment has been directed against the grahaṇī for vāta and the other [doṣas],
6.15.196
the expert in distinguishing doṣas should perform alternatingly or together: / oleation, fomentation, purification, fasting, and stimulation of digestive fire,
6.15.197
powders, salts, alkalis, madhvariṣṭas, surās, and āsavas, / various buttermilk preparations, and ghees that stimulate digestive fire
6.15.198
should be used by patients with grahaṇī disease; and hear the treatment according to specific stages: / In kapha-caused [disease], unctuous spitting is [used]; a stimulant of digestion combined with bitters,
6.15.199
dry at one time, unctuous at another, is beneficial for a lean person with abundant kapha. / Having examined the āma of the body, a stimulant of digestive fire combined with unctuous substance [is given];
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for one with abundant pitta, a bitter stimulant combined with sweet; / but for one with abundant vāta, [a stimulant] combined with unctuous, salty, and sour is beneficial.
6.15.201
Thus the fire of these patients blazes up duly by means of fuels. / One should know unctuous substance alone to be superior for stimulating a weak digestive fire;
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even very heavy food is not adequate to extinguish [a fire] kindled by unctuous substance. / However, he who with sluggish fire passes undigested stool
6.15.203
should drink a dose of ghee prepared with digestive-stimulant drugs; / through that, the samāna wind, pacified and established in its path,
6.15.204
quickly imparts strength to the fire because of moving in its vicinity. / But the person who, owing to hardness, passes stool with difficulty
6.15.205
should take a pre-meal draught of ghee combined with salts. / When the fire is sluggish due to dryness, one should drink ghee or oil combined with digestive stimulants;
6.15.206
but when digestive fire is sluggish due to excessive unctuousness, powders, ariṣṭas, and āsavas are beneficial. / When stool is loose due to coating of the rectum, oil, surā, and āsava are beneficial.
6.15.207
When digestive fire is sluggish due to upward movement of vāyu, non-unctuous and unctuous enemas [are beneficial]. / But when digestive fire is sluggish due to increase of doṣas, one who has been purified should follow the regimen for the doṣas.
6.15.208
When sluggish in one afflicted with disease, ghee alone stimulates the digestive fire; / and when digestive fire is sluggish due to fasting, one should drink ghee with gruels:
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taken before and after food, it is strengthening, stimulating to digestive fire, and nourishing. / But due to chronic recurrence, for men who are emaciated, wasted, and lean,
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one should feed them with sour meat broths of predatory carnivorous birds and animals; / being light, and because of cleansing by sharp and hot properties, they quickly kindle the digestive fire.
6.15.211
Because of building up the flesh with flesh, they are also more rapid flesh-builders. / The digestive fire of the body is not kindled by complete abstention from food, nor by excessive eating,
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just as a fire devoid of fuel, or a small fire overwhelmed by excessive fuel [is extinguished]. / By varied regimens of unctuous foods, powders, ariṣṭas, surā, and āsavas,
6.15.213
when properly employed by the physician, the strength of the digestive fire increases; / for just as a fire of heartwood remains steady for a long time,
6.15.214
so too the internal digestive fire becomes steady through regimens of unctuous food. / Eating what is wholesome in measured quantity once the previous meal is digested, one enjoys long-lasting health.
6.15.215
A man should strive for the increase of the digestive fire without upsetting the equilibrium of the bodily tissues. / When the doṣas are in equilibrium, the bodily heat residing in the digestive fire, being balanced in the middle of the body,
6.15.216
digests food for the increase of health, nourishment, lifespan, and strength; / but when sluggish or excessively increased due to imbalanced doṣas, it produces diseases.
6.15.217
What was to be said regarding sluggish [fire] has been stated; that regarding excessively increased [fire] will now be explained: / in a man whose kapha is depleted, pitta, provoked and following vāta,
6.15.218
imparts strength to the digestive fire by its own heat in the seat of the fire. / Then, having gained strength in a dry body, the fire along with vāta,
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Linked texts (1)
- Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit