The Compendium of Caraka 6.8

English (machine translation) 6.8

Language: English

6.8.1

Now we shall explain the treatment of rājayakṣmā.

6.8.3

An ancient tale concerning the Moon, connected with the vice of lust,
was indeed heard by the sages as the celestials were narrating it.

6.8.4

Excessively attached to Rohiṇī, not guarding his body,
the body of the Moon came to emaciation due to depletion of unctuousness.

6.8.5

Because of lack of cohabitation with the remaining daughters of Prajāpati,
his wrath, in the form of a sigh, issued forth embodied from his mouth.

6.8.6

For the Ray-Possessing One accepted twenty-eight daughters of Prajāpati
for the purpose of marriage, yet did not conduct himself equally with all of them.

6.8.7

Disregarded by his father-in-law, not behaving equally among his wives,
overcome with rajas and weakened, yakṣmā entered the Moon.

6.8.8

Overpowered by the immense anger of his father-in-law, deprived of splendour,
accompanied by gods and divine sages, he went for refuge to the elder.

6.8.9

Then, having perceived the pure mind of the Moon, Prajāpati
granted grace; Soma was thereafter treated by the two Aśvins.

6.8.10

Released from the seizing affliction, the Moon shone with special splendour;
increased in vigour by the two Aśvins, he attained pure sattva.

6.8.11

Wrath, yakṣmā, fever, and disease are synonyms designating suffering;
because it initially affected the King [Moon], it is therefore considered rājayakṣmā.

6.8.12

That yakṣmā, driven off by the two Aśvins, came to the world of mortals;
having found a fourfold cause, it enters human beings:

6.8.13

exertion disproportionate to strength, suppression of urges, depletion,
and irregular eating—one should know these as the fourfold cause of yakṣmā.

6.8.14

Through fighting, study, carrying loads, long journeys, leaping, swimming, and the like,
through falls, injuries, or other rash deeds;

6.8.15

when a person's chest is injured by exertion disproportionate to strength,
vāyu, enraged, stirs up both [other] doṣas and courses forth.

6.8.16

Residing in the head, it causes headache; located in the throat,
it causes irritation of the throat, cough, hoarseness of voice, and anorexia;

6.8.17

located in the flank, flank pain; situated in the rectum, diarrhoea;
situated in the joints, yawning and fever; and situated in the chest, chest pain.

6.8.18

Due to injury to the chest, he spits phlegm mixed with blood from coughing;
with a shattered chest, he spits with difficulty, severely tormented by chest pain.

6.8.19

Thus, yakṣmā born of rash exertion sets in with these eleven
manifestations; therefore, one who knows one's own self should not resort to rash exertion.

6.8.20

When a man, out of modesty, disgust, or fear,
suppresses an impelling urge that has arrived—of flatus, urine, or faeces—

6.8.21

then wind, stirring up phlegm and bile from the obstruction of urges,
causes disorders upwards, sideways, and downwards:

6.8.22

coryza, cough, hoarseness of voice, anorexia,
flank pain, headache, fever, crushing pain in the shoulders,

6.8.23

body-aches, frequent vomiting, and diarrhoea of three varieties—
these are the eleven manifestations by which the great yakṣmā is designated.

6.8.24

From envy, longing, fear, terror, anger, grief, extreme emaciation,
excessive sexual intercourse, and fasting, semen and ojas decline.

6.8.25

Then, through the loss of unctuousness, vāyu increases and, stirring up the [other] two doṣas,
causes coryza, fever, cough, body-aches, headache,

6.8.26

dyspnoea, diarrhoea, anorexia, flank pain, loss of voice,
and burning heat in the shoulders—these eleven diseases.

6.8.27

These eleven symptoms announce that the great disease,
rājayakṣmā, has arrived through depletion, bringing about the depletion of life.

6.8.28

For one who consumes various foods and drinks irregularly,
the wind and other [doṣas], becoming abnormal, produce dreadful disorders.

6.8.29

Having become abnormal due to the irregularity, they obstruct the channels of blood
and other [tissues], leading to disease, and the dhātus do not receive nourishment.

6.8.30

Coryza, excessive salivation, cough, vomiting, anorexia,
fever, burning heat in the shoulders, and vomiting of blood,

6.8.31

flank pain, headache, and also hoarseness of voice:
one should recognise these symptoms as caused by phlegm, bile, and wind respectively.

6.8.32

Thus the elevenfold symptom complex of this assembly of diseases,
this king of diseases, born of its causes, has been stated, as well as its fourfold cause.

6.8.33

The premonitory symptom is coryza, weakness, seeing defects
even in non-defective things, seeing one's own body as repulsive,

6.8.34

disgust while eating, depletion of strength and flesh,
fondness for women, alcohol, and meat, and a liking for wrapping oneself up,

6.8.35

frequent falling of flies, wood-boring insects, hairs, and straw
into one's food and drink, and the overgrowth of hairs and nails,

6.8.36

being attacked by birds, flying insects, and predatory beasts;
in dreams, climbing upon heaps of hair, bones, and ashes,

6.8.37

and seeing reservoirs of water, mountains, forests, and even celestial bodies
drying up, diminishing, or falling down—

6.8.38

this should be known as the premonitory symptom of multiform rājayakṣmā.
Now I shall describe its manifestations in brief, along with its remedies.

6.8.39

The bodily dhātus undergo cooking each by its own internal heat,
and through each its own channel, dhātu nourishes dhātu.

6.8.40

Due to the obstruction of the channels, the depletion of blood and other [dhātus],
and the decline of the dhātu-heats, rājayakṣmā sets in.

6.8.41

At that time, whatever food located in the gut the digestive fire cooks
mostly turns into waste; only a little goes to form ojas.

6.8.42

Therefore, the faeces must be protected, especially in a person suffering from rājayakṣmā;
for in one afflicted by the depletion of all dhātus, his strength is indeed the strength of faeces.

6.8.43

When the channels are obstructed, the rasa staying in its own seat burns;
arising upward with the impulse of cough, it issues forth in many forms.

6.8.44

From this, either six or eleven diseases arise,
by whose combination it is called rājayakṣmā:

6.8.45

cough, heat in the shoulders, alteration of voice, fever, flank pain and headache,
vomiting of blood and phlegm, dyspnoea, bowel disorder, and anorexia.

6.8.46

These are the eleven manifestations of yakṣmā, or these six:
cough, fever, flank pain, disorder of voice and bowel, and anorexia.

6.8.47

If accompanied by all, half, or even three symptoms when there is depletion of flesh and strength,
[the patient] is to be rejected; but otherwise, he is treatable, even if having all the symptoms.

6.8.48

Phlegm, blood, or bile residing at the root of the nose
congeals against the wind in one whose head is inflated by wind.

6.8.49

From that, a severe coryza arises, emaciating the body.
Its manifestations are headache, heaviness, nasal discharge,

6.8.50

fever, cough, excitation of phlegm, hoarseness of voice, anorexia, exhaustion,
and debility of the sense organs; from this, yakṣmā is produced.

6.8.51

Slimy, thick, foul-smelling, green, or whitish-yellow—
coughing, the patient with yakṣmā spits up rasa accompanied by phlegm.

6.8.52

Burning heat in the shoulders and flanks, heat in the hands and feet,
and fever extending over the whole body: this is the symptom complex of rājayakṣmā.

6.8.53

Hoarseness of voice may arise from vāta, from pitta, from kapha, from blood, from the urge of coughing, or with chronic rhinitis;
from vāta the voice is rough, weak, and unsteady;

6.8.54

from pitta there is scorching of the palate and throat, and he hates to speak;
from kapha it is broken and obstructed, and the voice rattles;

6.8.55

from obstruction by blood, the voice is depressed and proceeds with difficulty;
from excessive coughing it is hoarse, and from chronic rhinitis it is of phlegm-wind nature.

6.8.56

Flank pain is irregular, characterised by constriction and extension;
headache in a person with yakṣmā is accompanied by burning heat and heaviness.

6.8.57

When the body of a yakṣmā patient is congested due to irregular eating,
blood and excited, accumulated phlegm issue forth from the throat.

6.8.58

Blood, because its pathways are obstructed, does not reach the flesh and other [dhātus];
and remaining excited in the stomach, it comes up to the throat because of its abundance.

6.8.59

Because of obstruction of the chest by wind and phlegm, he falls into dyspnoea;
and when the digestive fire is impaired by the doṣas, he suffers from slimy diarrhoea.

6.8.60

Through the doṣas individually or combined residing in the tongue and heart,
and through repulsive mental objects, anorexia toward food arises.

6.8.61

One should know anorexia caused by vāta and the other [doṣas] respectively
by astringent, bitter, and sweet tastes in the mouth, and mental anorexia by seeing impurities.

6.8.62

Vomiting, which occurs from anorexia, from the urge to cough, from excitation of the doṣas, or from fear,
is also a complication of the other disorders.

6.8.63

Yakṣmā is always born of the three doṣas; but having examined the relative strength
of the doṣas according to stage, the physician should treat the emaciated patient.

6.8.64

In coryza, headache, cough, dyspnoea, loss of voice,
and flank pain, hear of the various general treatments:

6.8.65

In chronic rhinitis, one should administer sudation, unction, smoke, poultices,
affusion, immersion, barley groats, and vāṭya,

6.8.66

and meat broths that are salty, sour, pungent, and warm, enriched with unctuous substances,
prepared from common quail, black partridge, cock, and buttonquail.

6.8.67

One should drink unctuous goat meat broth prepared with pippalī, barley, horse gram, and dried ginger,
along with pomegranate and āmalaka.

6.8.68

By this, the six disorders beginning with chronic rhinitis are overcome.
Or [one should attend to him] with well-prepared soups of radishes or horse gram,

6.8.69

with cooked foods of barley, wheat, and śāli rice according to habituation.
He should drink the clear supernatant of vāruṇī wine, or water boiled with the five roots,

6.8.70

or [water] prepared with coriander and dried ginger, or boiled with tāmalakī,
[or] with the four parṇinīs; and with that one should prepare cooked foods.

6.8.71

Using kṛśarā, utkārikā, black gram, horse gram, and barley cooked with milk,
by the method of saṃkara sudation, on the throat, flanks, chest, and head,

6.8.72

one should administer sudation; and with broken leaves one should affuse the head,
or with pleasantly warm waters boiled with balā, guḍūcī, and licorice.

6.8.73

Or one should apply tube sudation using the heads of goats or fish,
on the throat, the head, and the flanks, or with milk boiled with vāta-[pacifying herbs].

6.8.74

The flesh of aquatic and wetland animals, water boiled with the five roots,
or fermented grain water with unctuous substances should be used in tube sudation.

6.8.75

Well-prepared warm poultices made of jīvantī, śatapuṣpā, balā, licorice,
vacā, minced-meat paste, vidārī, radish,

6.8.76

and the flesh of aquatic and wetland animals, containing the four unctuous substances,
are commended for those suffering from pain in the head, flanks, and shoulders.

6.8.77

Śatapuṣpā along with licorice, kuṣṭha, tagara, and sandalwood,
applied as a poultice with ghee, relieves pain in the head, flanks, and shoulders.

6.8.78

Balā, rāsnā, sesame seeds, ghee, licorice, and blue water lily;
palaṅkaṣā, devadāru, sandalwood, saffron, and ghee;

6.8.79

vīrā, balā, vidārī, kṛṣṇagandhā, punarnavā,
śatāvarī, payasyā, kattṛṇa, licorice, and ghee —

6.8.80

these four warm poultices are taught in half-verses;
they are recommended for those with pain in the head, flanks, and shoulders, whose bowels have moved.

6.8.81

Nasal administration, smoking regimens, unctuous drinks taken after meals,
oils suitable for inunction, and especially enema therapy [are indicated].

6.8.82

With a horn, a gourd, or leeches, or by venesection,
one should draw out his vitiated blood in pain of the head, flanks, and shoulders.

6.8.83

A warm poultice with ghee made of padmaka, uśīra, and sandalwood is desirable,
or made of dūrvā, licorice, mañjiṣṭhā, and saffron steeped in ghee.

6.8.84

Prapauṇḍarīka, nirguṇḍī, lotus stamen, blue water lily,
kaśeruka, and payasyā along with ghee form an external application.

6.8.85

Inunction with candanādya oil or hundred-times-washed ghee,
and affusion with milk or with licorice water is commended.

6.8.86

Affusion should be applied with very cold rainwater or [water] boiled with sandalwood and the rest;
this is the pacifying treatment.

For those with an excess of doṣas, emesis together with purgation is commended
after they have undergone unction and sudation, [administered] with unctuous substances so that it does not cause emaciation.

6.8.88

An emaciated patient loses bodily strength even from the passing of stools;
how much more one who is purged, [even] with a dose adapted to weakness?

6.8.89

For those whose gut has been purified, in cough, dyspnoea, loss of voice,
and pains in the head, flanks, and shoulders, one should administer these proven formulations:

6.8.90

Ghee prepared with herbs of the balā group or vidārigandhā group, or with vidārī or licorice,
along with salt, makes an excellent errhine that improves the voice.

6.8.91

Prapauṇḍarīka, licorice, pippalī, bṛhatī, balā,
milk, and ghee: boiled together, that makes an excellent nasal administration that improves the voice,

6.8.92

cures pain of the head, flanks, and shoulders, and destroys cough and dyspnoea;
and ghee taken repeatedly after meals [acts likewise].

6.8.93

Ghee prepared with daśamūla, milk, and meat broth,
containing a paste of balā, quickly arrests these diseases,

6.8.94

administered either after or in the middle of a meal according to digestive capacity;
or rāsnā-ghee with milk, or balā-ghee with milk.

6.8.95

Now hear further of electuaries that relieve cough, improve the voice, destroy dyspnoea and hiccup,
and of unctuous substances that cure pain of the head, flanks, and shoulders:

6.8.96

Ghee mixed with dates, raisins, sugar, and honey,
along with pippalī, cures hoarseness, cough, dyspnoea, and fever.

6.8.97

Fresh ghee that arises from milk boiled with daśamūla,
with pippalī and honey, is supreme in restoring the voice,

6.8.98

cures pain in the head, flanks, and shoulders, and relieves cough, dyspnoea, and fever;
or ghee that arises from [milk] boiled with the five pañcamūlas.

6.8.99

Ghee prepared in a decoction of the five pañcamūlas with four parts milk
overcomes this sevenfold strength of yakṣmā.

6.8.100

Dates, pippalī, grapes, pathyā, śṛṅgī, durālabhā;
triphalā, pippalī, musta, śṛṅgāṭaka, jaggery, and sugar;

6.8.101

vīrā, śaṭī, puṣkara, holy basil, sugar, and jaggery;
dried ginger, citraka, puffed paddy, pippalī, āmalaka, and jaggery —

6.8.102

a man should lick these [formulations], prescribed by half-verses, with honey and ghee;
they relieve cough and dyspnoea, improve the voice, and likewise cure flank pain.

6.8.103

Rock sugar, bamboo manna, pippalī, cardamom, and cinnamon,
each doubled from the last in reverse order, one should have him lick with honey and ghee,

6.8.104

or one should make him consume it as a powder, when afflicted with dyspnoea, cough, and phlegm,
with a numb tongue, loss of taste, weak digestive fire, and flank pain.

6.8.105

In burning of the hands, feet, and limbs, in fever, and likewise in upward internal bleeding,
vāsā-ghee or [ghee] prepared with śatāvarī is exceedingly beneficial.

6.8.106

Durālabhā, śvadaṃṣṭrā, the four parṇinīs, and balā,
taking one pala of each, and one pala of parpaṭaka,

6.8.107

one should boil in ten parts water; when reduced to one-tenth part,
into the well-strained decoction one should add pastes of these drugs:

6.8.108

śaṭī, puṣkara root, pippalī, trāyamāṇā,
tāmalakī, kirātatikta, and indrayava,

6.8.109

and sārivā, well crushed, in the quantity of one karṣa [each];
then with that, one should cook one prastha of ghee with twice as much milk.

6.8.110

Fever, burning sensation, dizziness, cough, pain in the shoulders, flanks, and head,
thirst, vomiting, and diarrhoea: this ghee dispels them.

6.8.111

Jīvantī, licorice, grapes, indrayava,
śaṭī, puṣkara root, vyāghrī, gokṣuraka, balā,

6.8.112

blue water lily, tāmalakī, trāyamāṇā, durālabhā,
and pippalī: grinding these in equal amounts, the physician should cook ghee.

6.8.113

This foremost ghee dispels the elevenfold symptoms
arisen from the king of diseases, the collection of disorders.

6.8.114

Having boiled balā, sthirā, pṛśniparṇī, bṛhatī, and kaṇṭakārī,
in that decoction [one should boil] cow's milk with dried ginger,

6.8.115

cooked together with grapes, dates, ghee, and pippalī;
and one should administer this with honey to relieve fever and cough, and to improve the voice.

6.8.116

Likewise is the use of goat's milk and broths of arid-land animals; / and chickpeas, mung beans, and makuṣṭha beans are prepared for soup.

6.8.117

The pacifying treatment that was previously described for fevers / is commended, along with ghee, for the fevers and burning sensations of patients with yakṣmā.

6.8.118

A strong man dominated by phlegm, suffering from excessive salivation, should vomit / with milk mixed with madanaphala, or with its juice, or with licorice decoction,

6.8.119

or with gruel containing ghee and prepared with emetic drugs. / Having vomited, he should take light food with digestive stimulants at mealtime.

6.8.120

Using barley, wheat, mādhvīka, sidhu, ariṣṭa, surā, and āsava, / and roasted meats of arid-land animals, he will overcome kapha.

6.8.121

Due to the excessive discharge of phlegm, vāyu drives out the phlegm; / the wise physician should overcome that excessive salivation only with unctuous and warm measures.

6.8.122

Whatever treatment is used for excessive salivation is commended for vomiting as well, / along with agreeable, vāta-dispelling, and light food and drinks.

6.8.123

Generally, owing to an impaired digestive fire, slimy diarrhea occurs; / he develops an unpleasant taste in the mouth and has no relish for food.

6.8.124

For him, one should prepare formulations that stimulate the digestive fire, eliminate diarrhea, / cleanse the mouth, and check anorexia.

6.8.125

He should make him drink indrayava together with dried ginger in rice water, / and when it is digested, gruel prepared with cāṅgerī, buttermilk, and pomegranates.

6.8.126

Pāṭhā, bilva, and yamānī are to be drunk mixed with buttermilk; / durālabhā, fresh ginger, and pāṭhā with surā liquor.

6.8.127

Pulp of jambū and mango, bilva, wood apple, and dried ginger / should be drunk with the scum of thin gruel to stop diarrhea.

6.8.128

And from these three formulations, beginning with pāṭhā, one should prepare khaḍa soups / with pulses, unctuous substances, and sours, which are supremely bowel-binding.

6.8.129

Shoots of vetasa, arjuna, jambū, mṛṇālī, kṛṣṇagandhā, / śrīparṇī, madayantī, and yūthikā,

6.8.130

and of citron, dhātakī, and pomegranate, / he should make into khaḍa soups containing unctuous substances, sour, and salt, which are supremely bowel-binding.

6.8.131

He should also prepare khaḍa soups of cāṅgerī, cukrikā, and dugdhikā, / mixed with curd cream, with ghee, and with pomegranate.

6.8.132

Broths of easily digestible meats combined with bowel-binding ingredients / are commended as side dishes, and red śāli rice as the staple food.

6.8.133

For drinking, water boiled with the lesser group of five roots is beneficial, / or buttermilk, surā with cukrikā, or pomegranate juice.

6.8.134

Thus has been stated the digestive-fire-stimulating, bowel-binding medicine for those with loose stool; / now hear the foremost appetizer that destroys bad taste in the mouth.

6.8.135

Twice daily one should chew a tooth-cleaning stick and use a mouthwash; / likewise, one should rinse the mouth and hold mouth gargles.

6.8.136

He should then inhale medicinal smoke, and eat cleanly prepared food and drink / with digestive-stimulant and carminative medicines, wholesome and prepared to his liking.

6.8.137

Cinnamon, mustā, cardamom, and coriander; mustā, āmalaka, and cinnamon; / bark of dāruharidrā, yavānī, tejohvā, and pippalī;

6.8.138

yavānī and tintiḍīka: these five mouthwashes, / stated in the quarter-verses, are appetizers and oral cleansers.

6.8.139

He should keep a pill in the mouth, or cleanse the mouth with powders, / or hold these as gargles after stirring them [in water].

6.8.140

He should hold agreeable gargles of surā, mādhvīka, and sīdhu liquors, / of oil, honey, and ghee, and of milk and sugarcane juice.

6.8.141

One should take yavānī, tintiḍīka, dried ginger, amlavetasa, / pomegranate, and sour jujube, one karṣa each;

6.8.142

coriander, sauvarcala salt, cumin, and cinnamon, half a karṣa each; / one hundred pippalī fruits, and two hundred black peppercorns;

6.8.143

and four palas of sugar; one should powder them together. / That powder cleanses the tongue, is pleasing to the heart, and promotes relish for food.

6.8.144

It relieves pain in the heart, spleen, and flanks, destroys constipation and abdominal distension, / alleviates cough and dyspnea, is bowel-binding, and cures disorders of the grahaṇī and piles.
Thus ends the Yavānīṣāḍava.
Tālīśapatra, black pepper, dried ginger, good pippalī, / increasing in parts in successive order, and cinnamon and cardamom, half a part each;

6.8.146

and eight times as much white sugar as pippalī is to be added here. / That powder relieves cough, dyspnea, and anorexia, and is a supreme digestive stimulant.

6.8.147

It removes heart disease, anemia, grahaṇī disorders, consumption, spleen disorders, and fever; / it cures vomiting, diarrhea, and colic, and directs obstructed vāta downwards.

6.8.148

Having cooked sugar candy, one may also prepare this powder into pills; / for pills, by contact with fire, are considered lighter than powders.
Thus ends the Tālīśādya powder and pills.
For those who are wasting and depleted of flesh, the skilled physician / should give prepared meats of carnivorous animals, especially as tonics.

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit