[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Medicine](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med) › [Early and ascribed compendia](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita) › [Carakasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt) › 6.22 # The Compendium of Caraka 6.22 English (machine translation) 6.22 - **Language:** English ### [6.22.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.1) Now we shall explain the treatment of thirst. ### [6.22.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.2) Thus said the venerable Ātreya. ### [6.22.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.3) Renowned for knowledge, tranquility, and asceticism, devoted to the welfare of the world, / the son of Atri spoke the treatment for the pacification of the five thirsts. ### [6.22.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.4) From agitation, fear, exertion, sorrow, anger, excessive fasting, alcohol, / from resort to alkaline, sour, salty, pungent, hot, dry, and parched foods, ### [6.22.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.5) from depletion of tissues, emaciation by disease, excessive use of emesis and the like, and heat of the sun, / pitta and vāta become increased and dry up the watery tissues. ### [6.22.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.6) And having thoroughly dried up the chyle-carrying channels, the root of the tongue, the throat, the palate, and the kloman, / these two powerful \[doṣas\] produce thirst in the bodies of men. ### [6.22.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.7) Indeed, they dry up water as soon as it is drunk, so it does not reach pacification; / in those emaciated by terrible diseases, it arises as a secondary complication. ### [6.22.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.8) Its premonitory symptom is dryness of the mouth; its specific characteristic is a constant desire for water; / lightness of symptoms is the departure of all thirsts. ### [6.22.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.9) Dryness of the mouth, alteration of voice, giddiness, burning heat, delirium, rigidity, / roughness of palate, lips, throat, and tongue, loss of consciousness, ### [6.22.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.10) protrusion of the tongue, loss of appetite, deafness, distress in vital parts, and debility— / thirst, once arisen, produces \[these\]; hear it in its five varieties according to signs. ### [6.22.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.11) When provoked vāta dries up the water element residing in the body, / when that is dried up, the weakened person dries up, and drying up, becomes thirsty. ### [6.22.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.12) Loss of sleep, giddiness of the head, dry and tasteless mouth, / and obstruction of channels would be the symptom of vāta-thirst. ### [6.22.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.13) Pitta is considered fiery; if provoked, it heats the water element; / for being heated, it produces thirst in men that is intense with burning sensation. ### [6.22.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.14) Bitter taste in the mouth, burning in the head, delight in cold, fainting, / and yellowness of eyes, urine, and stool is the clinical picture of pitta-thirst. ### [6.22.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.15) The thirst that arises from āma is also fiery, because it is produced by āmapitta; / and its symptom is anorexia, flatulence, and flow of kapha. ### [6.22.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.16) The body is born of chyle, and chyle is born of water; and from its depletion one becomes thirsty indeed, / with a plaintive voice, fainting, and heart, throat, and palate completely dried up. ### [6.22.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.17) The thirst that arises as a complication in those whose bodies are afflicted by fever, meha, wasting, consumption, asthma, and the like, / is surely emaciating and difficult to cure. ### [6.22.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.18) All thirsts, however, that are continuous in people emaciated by disease, in those afflicted by persistent vomiting, / or that are accompanied by terrible complications, should be known to lead to death. ### [6.22.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.19) For there is no thirst without fire or without wind; indeed, those two are the causes of drying. / A person becomes thirsty when the water element is greatly increased \[in loss\], that is, upon the depletion of water. ### [6.22.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.20) And when one becomes thirsty during the time of digestion with a burning sensation due to heavy food, milk, and unctuous substances blending together / while the channels are obstructed, there too wind and fire are the causes. ### [6.22.21](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.21) Because of its sharp, hot, and dry properties, liquor aggravates pitta and wind; / and in habitual drinkers, those two very \[doṣas\] dry up the water element. ### [6.22.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.22) For just as water thrown onto heated sand quickly dries up, / \[so it is in them\]; comfort comes to those heated \[drinkers\] from drinking ice-cold water. ### [6.22.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.23) Heat held back in one who has bathed in cold water enters the internal organs and makes him thirsty; / therefore, one exhausted by heat should not suddenly resort to cold water. ### [6.22.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.24) In all these \[thirsts\], the sign arises from wind, depletion, and pitta; but / because of the distinct causes, I shall now declare the treatment of the thirsts. ### [6.22.25](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.25) For thirst, having dried up a person through the depletion of water, would quickly destroy him; / therefore, he should drink rainwater with honey, or other \[water\] endowed with its qualities. ### [6.22.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.26) That which has a slightly astringent aftertaste, is thin, light, cool, fragrant, well-tasting, / and non-obstructive, even though gathered on earth, should be known to be like rainwater. ### [6.22.27](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.27) Or \[he should drink water\] boiled and cooled, with sugar candy; or \[boiled\] with the five roots beginning with śara; / or a mantha with parched grain, groats, sugar candy, and honey, prepared with rainwater; ### [6.22.28](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.28) or one should give a cooling gruel of raw barley with honey and sugar, / or give a peyā of śāli rice, or of koradūṣa. ### [6.22.29](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.29) Or food should be served with boiled milk, accompanied by honey and sugar, / or with broths of birds such as the pigeon, fried in ghee, without salt and sourness. ### [6.22.30](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.30) Well-prepared meat juices of arid-zone animals with the five grass-roots, muñjātaka, / and priyāla are recommended, or milk processed with them, containing sugar and honey. ### [6.22.31](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.31) Anointed with hundred-times-washed ghee, after immersing in cold water he should drink milk; / and broths made of mudga, masūra, and caṇaka, fried in ghee, should be given. ### [6.22.32](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.32) Milk boiled with sweet, vitalizing, cooling, and bitter drugs, / combined with honey and sugar, is desirable for drinking, anointing, and sprinkling. ### [6.22.33](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.33) Or the ghee produced from it is desirable for drinks, anointing, and also as an errhine; / woman's milk with sugar, camel's milk, and sugarcane juice may also serve as an errhine. ### [6.22.34](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.34) Gargles of milk, sugarcane juice, jaggery-water, sugar candy, honey, sīdhu, and mārdvīka wines, / and with vṛkṣāmla and mātuluṅga destroy dryness of the palate. ### [6.22.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.35) Plasters over the heart, face, and head made of jambū, āmrātaka, badarī, vetasa, the five barks, and the five sours, / with ghee, destroy fainting, dizziness, and thirst. ### [6.22.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.36) A plaster to the head of pomegranate, dadhittha, and lodhra, with vidārī and bījapūraka, / or with gaurāmalaka, combined with ghee and sour gruel, is beneficial. ### [6.22.37](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.37) A plaster of duckweed, mud, and water lilies, or of groats with sour liquid and ghee; / touches of whey, sour gruel, wet garments, lotuses, and pearl necklaces; ### [6.22.38](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.38) and the touch of the sloping breasts, palms, and limbs, wet with cold water and sandalwood, / of beloved, noble women wearing wet linen garments; ### [6.22.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.39) and the recollection of and tales about lovely, cold waters, cold with caves, forests, rivers, and lakes / of the Himavat, water lilies, wind, and moonbeams destroy thirst. ### [6.22.40](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.40) Food and drink that alleviates wind, is mild, light, and cold, is for wind-thirst; / boiled milk and ghee that cures wasting and cough destroys thirst due to upward wind. ### [6.22.41](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.41) Milk and ghee prepared with vitalizing drugs would be for vātapitta-thirst; / in pitta-thirst, water containing grapes, sandalwood, dates, uśīra, and honey \[should be used\]. ### [6.22.42](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.42) Grains of red śāli rice, dates, parūṣaka, blue water lily, grapes, / honey, and a baked earthen clod left in cold water should be drunk. ### [6.22.43](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.43) A prastha of crushed red śāli rice, with lodhra, madhuka, añjana, and blue water lily, / along with baked earthen clods, water, and honey, should be drunk from an earthen pot. ### [6.22.44](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.44) In water boiled with shoots of vaṭa, mātuluṅga, and vetasa, roots of kuśa and kāśa, and yaṣṭyāhva, / one should quench fire-like, glowing black earth or black sand, ### [6.22.45](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.45) or heated new potsherds, and give the clear water to drink; / or water of amṛtavallī with half-cooked sugar destroys thirst. ### [6.22.46](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.46) Cold infusions of milky, sweet, and cooling herbs mixed with sugar and honey, / combined with earth fried \[or baked in fire\], destroy pitta-thirst. ### [6.22.47](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.47) Bitter decoctions of the three pungents, vacā, and bhallātaka destroy āma-thirst; / and whatever has been stated for kaphaja vomiting should also be carried out. ### [6.22.48](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.48) Recognizing thirst following kapha by stiffness, anorexia, indigestion, lethargy, and vomiting, / emesis with curd, honey, tarpaṇa, salt, and hot water is desirable. ### [6.22.49](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.49) Or one should give pomegranate or another sour fruit, with astringent drugs, as an electuary, / or a drink combined with turmeric and sugar. ### [6.22.50](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.50) Thirst from wasting, being equal to wasting-cough, is very severe in people; / therefore, one should soothe it with remedies beneficial for the emaciated, chest-injured, and consumed. ### [6.22.51](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.51) One distressed by thirst from drinking \[liquor\] should drink \[wine\] with half water, rich in sour, salty, and aromatic ingredients; / one who has bathed in cold water, when thirsty, should drink liquor with water or jaggery-water. ### [6.22.52](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.52) One thirsty from fasting, or distressed by thirst from unctuous substances, should drink a thin yavāgū; / one thirsty from heavy food that has been eaten should bring up that eaten food. ### [6.22.53](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.53) Or a strong person, when thirsty, should vomit after drinking wine with water or lukewarm water; / with his mouth cleansed by long pepper, he should drink a mantha with sugar. ### [6.22.54](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.54) A strong person with dryness of the palate should drink ghee and wine when thirsty; / a weak person should consume milk boiled with ghee, and unctuous meat broths. ### [6.22.55](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.55) In excessively dry and weak people, milk quickly alleviates thirst here; / or a cold, sweet, cordial goat broth fried in ghee \[alleviates it\]. ### [6.22.56](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.56) The thirst that arises after unctuous food has been eaten should be alleviated with jaggery-water; / one should destroy the thirst of a person struck down by fainting with remedies that eliminate raktapitta. ### [6.22.57](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.57) Naturally cold water is recommended in thirst, burning, fainting, dizziness, exhaustion, alcoholism, blood-poisoning, and pitta; / water boiled and cooled is recommended in sannipāta. ### [6.22.58](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.58) Hot water is beneficial in hiccup, asthma, acute fever, catarrh, after ghee has been drunk, in diseases of the flanks and throat, / in conditions caused by kapha and wind, in congestion, and immediately after purification. ### [6.22.59](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.59) In anemia, abdominal enlargement, catarrh, meha, gulma, sluggish digestion, diarrhea, / and spleen disease, water is not beneficial; if unbearable, he may drink a little at will. ### [6.22.60](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.60) If a person, already suffering from an earlier disease, miserable and tormented by thirst, craving water, / should not obtain it, he would quickly meet death or a prolonged disease. ### [6.22.61](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.61) Therefore, when thirsty, the patient should drink coriander water mixed with sugar and honey, / or whatever else may be wholesome for him and beneficial for the disease. ### [6.22.62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.62) When it has subsided, the complication born of it is easily conquered; / therefore, one should conquer thirst before many diseases. ### [6.22.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.63) Here is a summary verse:— ### [6.22.63\_1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.63_1) How fire and wind serve as the two causes; the separate signs along with complications / of the five thirsts; incurability; and the treatment have been declared. ### [6.22.63\_2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22.63_2) Thus, in the treatise composed by Agniveśa, redacted by Caraka, and, being incomplete, filled out by Dṛḍhabala, in the section on therapeutics, the twenty-second chapter, entitled “Treatment of Thirst Disease.” ## Linked texts (1) - [Carakasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka.6.22.1) — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.samhita.caraka~en-mt.6.22) · Pramāṇa