The Compendium of Caraka 8.1

English (machine translation) 8.1

Language: English

8.1.1

Now we shall explain the chapter on Successful Formulation.

What formulation is stated for the five procedures, what is the order, and what are the signs / in proper, deficient, and excessive performance; what is the count, what are the properties, and which enema in which [conditions]?

8.1.4

What is to be avoided during each procedure, or how long is the period of avoidance when completed? / And administered, why does an enema not go in, why does it return quickly, or why after a long time?

8.1.5

And why do some curable diseases not subside when their pacifying remedies are applied? / Thus properly questioned by the foremost disciple Agniveśa, the best of physicians,

8.1.6

Punarvasu, the knower of the treatise, spoke to him this, out of a desire for the welfare of all living beings: / A man, unctuated, should be fomented for three days at minimum and seven days at maximum; this is stated.

8.1.7

They do not prescribe unction beyond this, for beyond seven days it becomes habitual. / Unction destroys vāta, softens the body, and breaks up the adherence of wastes.

8.1.8

Fomentation brings the doṣa, hidden in the subtle channels of an unctuated [patient], to liquidity. / One who is to vomit should be excited [in kapha] with meat broths of domestic, aquatic, and marshland animals and with milk.

8.1.9

Likewise, one who is to be purged [should be prepared] with broths of arid animals, with pulse soups, unctuous and not increasing kapha; / for one with prominent kapha vomits without distress, and one with diminished kapha purges properly.

8.1.10

When kapha is deficient below, an emetic causes purgation; when kapha is increased, a purgative likewise causes vomiting above. / An emetic should be given as described to one who is unctuated, and after vomiting, the sequential regimen of gruel and so forth [is applied].

8.1.11

To one who is unctuated and properly fomented in body, the most suitable purgative should be administered as prescribed. / Then, three times, twice, or once, [he should consume] thin gruel, thick gruel, unseasoned and seasoned soup, and meat broth,

8.1.12

in order, a person whose body has been purified, purified by superior, middling, or inferior evacuation. / Just as a tiny fire, being rekindled gradually with grass, cow-dung, and the like,

8.1.13

becomes great, stable, and digestive of all things, just so does the internal fire of a cleansed [patient] by means of gruel and so forth. / In inferior, middling, and superior [evacuation], four, six, and eight bouts are desired in emesis;

8.1.14

in purgation, they are ten, two times [ten], and three times [ten], and the prastha [measure] is likewise twofold, threefold, and fourfold. / Emesis is desired to end in pitta; purgation is said to be half that of emesis [in output of unevacuated drug] and to end in kapha.

8.1.15

In purgation, the measure is taken after setting aside two or three bouts containing stool; but in emesis, [it is measured after setting aside] what was drunk. / One from whom kapha, then pitta, and then vāta come out sequentially is considered properly vomited.

8.1.16

When purity of the heart, flanks, head, and sensory pathways and also lightness are perceived, [emesis is proper]. / In deficient vomiting, there are eruptions, urticaria, itching, lack of purity in the heart and body-cavities, and heaviness of the limbs;

8.1.17

and in excessive emesis there would be thirst, confusion, fainting, aggravation of vāta, loss of sleep, strength, and so forth. / Purity of channels, clarity of the sense organs, lightness, energy, digestive fire, freedom from disease,

8.1.18

and the sequential passing of stool, pitta, kapha, and vāta occur in one who has purged properly. / There would be aggravation of kapha, pitta, and vāta, weakness of the digestive fire, heaviness, catarrh,

8.1.19

drowsiness, vomiting, lack of appetite, and absence of the downward movement of vāta in one who has purged deficiently. / Arising from vāta caused by depletion of kapha, blood, and pitta, there are numbness, body aches, exhaustion, trembling, and the like,

8.1.20

loss of sleep and strength, entry into darkness, delirium, and hiccough in one who has purged excessively. / To one who has returned to normal diet, on the ninth day, he should give ghee to drink or administer an oily enema.

8.1.21

Then, to one whose body is anointed with oil and who is not overly hungry, he should give an un-oily enema after three days. / When it has returned, he should be fed with broth of arid animals, or suitably, having examined the strength of the doṣas.

8.1.22

Then, having rested, a man who is fit for an oily enema and not overly fed should be given an oily enema. / In cold weather and in spring, he should be given an oily enema by day; in autumn, summer, and the arrival of rainclouds, at night,

8.1.23

guarding against those very faults that were proclaimed earlier for the drinking of unctuous substances. / And when the oily enema has returned, food should be given during the day to one who has fasted overnight.

8.1.24

And food [is given] in the evening; after that, on the second day, on the third day, or on the fifth day he should receive an oily enema; / or every three days or on the fifth day he should administer an oily enema after an un-oily enema.

8.1.25

One or three in a disorder born of kapha, five or seven in one consisting of pitta, / or nine or eleven in vāta: a skilled [physician] should administer odd numbers of enemas.

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A man who has been purged must avoid the administration of an un-oily enema for seven days; / and one cleansed by an un-oily enema [must avoid] purgation, for that would dilate his emptied body.

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Enema maintains youth, brings happiness, longevity, strength, digestive fire, intellect, voice, and complexion; / it achieves all purposes for the child, the aged, and the youth, is free from danger, and removes all diseases.

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Drawing forth stool, kapha, pitta, vāta, and urine, bringing firmness, bestowing semen and strength, / driving out the accumulation of doṣas situated everywhere, an un-oily enema pacifies all disorders.

8.1.29

In a body whose passages have been cleansed by an un-oily enema, it causes unction and bestows complexion and strength. / There is no substance superior to the administration of oil, especially for one afflicted with vāta.

8.1.30

Destroying the dryness of vāta by its unctuousness, lightness by its heaviness, and coldness by its heat, / oil quickly bestows clarity of mind, virility, strength, complexion, and nourishment of the digestive fire.

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For just as a tree watered at the root becomes green-leaved, possessing the finest tender sprouts, / and in time grows large, bearing flowers and fruit, so a man becomes through an oily enema.

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Those who are stiff, those who are contracted, those who are lame, those who are crippled and broken, / and those in whose limbs vāta roams: for them enema is especially praised.

8.1.33

In flatulence, hard-knotted stool, colic, and aversion to food, / and in diseases of such kind that occur in the abdomen, an enema is desired.

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And women afflicted by disturbances caused by vāta who do not conceive when united with men, / and men whose faculties are wasted and who are emaciated: for them enema is praised above all.

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They declare cold [enemas] for those overcome by heat, and comfortably warm [enemas] for those overcome by cold. / Enemas formulated with drugs antagonistic to those [causes] should be applied everywhere according to distribution.

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A physician should not administer nourishing enemas in diseases requiring evacuation, / in skin diseases, obstinate urinary diseases, and so forth, in obese men, and in those who require evacuation.

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He should not administer evacuating [enemas] to the depleted and injured, nor to the consumptive, nor to the exceedingly weak, / nor to the swooning, nor to those who have been evacuated, and those whose life is bound to the doṣas.

8.1.38

Diseases situated in the limbs, situated in the gut, and arising in the vital points, above, in all bodily parts and limbs: / whatever there are, there is indeed no other cause superior to vāta for their origin.

8.1.39

Because it causes the dispersal and accumulation of the receptacles of wastes such as stool, urine, and pitta, / there is no medicine whatsoever other than enema for the pacification of it when excessively aggravated.

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Therefore, they call enema half of all treatment, while some say it is the whole of treatment.
Having reached the umbilical region, hips, flanks, and belly, churning up the accumulation of stool and doṣas,

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and unctuating the body, that which emerges properly and with ease along with feces and doṣas is an enema.
The elimination of stool, urine, and flatus; increase of appetite and digestive fire; lightness of the viscera;

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pacification of disease, restoration to one's natural state, and strength: that would be the sign of a properly administered non-unctuous enema.
There would be pain in the head, heart, rectum, bladder, and penis, swelling, catarrh, griping,

8.1.43

nausea, obstruction of flatus and urine, and dyspnea when it is not properly administered as a non-unctuous enema.
Whatever the sign of one excessively purged may be, precisely that belongs to one excessively treated with a non-unctuous enema.

8.1.44

The unctuous substance returning unhindered along with feces; clarity of blood and the other [tissues], intellect, and senses;
continuance of sleep, lightness, strength, and urges properly discharged: these would occur when one is well treated with an unctuous enema.

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Pain in the lower body, abdomen, arms, back, and flanks; rough and coarse limbs;
and retention of feces, urine, and flatus: these occur in one improperly treated with an unctuous enema.

8.1.46

Nausea, bewilderment, fatigue, exhaustion, fainting, and cutting pain occur in one excessively treated with an unctuous enema.
The man in whom the unctuous substance is retained for three yāmas would have a cleansed body.

8.1.47

When it comes out quickly, another unctuous substance must be administered, for it does not unctuate if it does not stay.
Thirty enemas are considered a karmabasti, half of that a kālabasti, and half of that a yogabasti.

8.1.48

Together with unctuous enemas, non-unctuous enemas are indeed twelve: first one unctuous enema, and five at the end;
in kālabasti there are three at the end and likewise one at the beginning, and there should be six unctuous enemas interposed with non-unctuous enemas.

8.1.49

In yogabasti only three non-unctuous enemas are to be given, and five unctuous enemas, at the end, beginning, and middle.
They declare three or five, or four, or six unctuous enemas for [conditions of] vāta and the others.

8.1.50

Having administered unctuous substances, the physician should soon prescribe non-unctuous enemas for clearing the channels.
Then, for one whose body has been cleansed, successively having unctuated and palm-fomented the head,

8.1.51

he should purge [it] three times, twice, or once, observing the threefold strength of the wastes.
Lightness of chest and head, clarity of the senses, and purity of the channels occur in one who is cleansed;

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stickiness of the throat, heaviness of the head, and spitting occur in one who is deficiently purged;
pain and pricking in the head, eyes, temples, and ears, and seeing darkness occur when one is excessively cleansed.

8.1.53

In that case, the restorative measure should be mild and liquid, but for one who has been unctuated, sharp [cleansing] should not be used again in application.
Such an application gives comfort to the sick and healthy, produces an increase of strength and lifespan, and destroys disease.

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit