Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 1.10
English (machine translation) 1.10
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Contents
1.10.1
en: Now therefore I will describe the waters separately one by one; / and listen in brief to their qualities and opposite qualities.
1.10.2
en: Water is stated to be of two kinds: celestial and terrestrial; / the celestial water is of two kinds: Gāṅga and oceanic.
1.10.3
en: Celestial water is declared to be of four kinds in that way; / and having fallen onto the ground, that water becomes eightfold.
1.10.4
en: I shall now tell the discernment of Gāṅga and oceanic [water]; / it is perceived as being of that kind according to the vessel by which it is collected.
1.10.5
en: One should tie a washed, clean, white cloth, four cubits in measure, / to four poles of three cubits [length] at the four corners.
1.10.6
en: Therefore that water should be tested; having drawn it up in a clean silver or / bronze vessel, the best of physicians should test it.
1.10.7
en: Pure cotton wool or a ball of boiled white śāli rice / is thrown into it, and if it becomes white again,
1.10.8
en: and the ball is white and stainless, and the water is clean and stainless, / that Gāṅga [water], which destroys all faults, should be collected in an auspicious vessel.
1.10.9
en: An intelligent person should hold that [water, which is] strengthening, intellect-promoting, and rejuvenating; / it destroys exhaustion, fatigue, and thirst, and removes the affliction of itching;
1.10.10
en: it is light and destroys fainting, thirst, vomiting, and urinary retention; / such is the rain of river-water (Gāṅga), or it is observed during the day.
1.10.11
en: Turbid, dirty, dark, dense, or yellowish, / alkaline, and slimy: that is called oceanic.
1.10.12
en: Thick, it produces kapha, causes itching and elephantiasis; / it should be known as windy, and causes distress from blood disorders.
1.10.13
Water is stated to be of two kinds; likewise I shall declare it to be of four kinds: / night rain, daytime rain, rain on a cloudy day, and momentary rain.
1.10.14
Night water produces kapha, having dense and cold qualities; / it should be understood as equal to ocean water, provoking vāta.
1.10.15
The water which the clouds, heated by the sun's rays, shower during the day / is phlegm-destroying, thirst-quenching, light, and aggravating to wind.
1.10.16
The fall of rain on an overcast day is full of wind and generative of wind; / it creates phlegm, destroys desiccation, is nourishing, and aggravates the humours.
1.10.17
Likewise, rain falling for merely a moment causes humoral diseases in men; / causing itching and all three humours, that water is not praised.
1.10.18
The water which clouds discharge over mountains and forest tracts, / on the ground in the month of Śrāvaṇa, is blamed; the sun pours down hail-water.
1.10.19
Atmospheric water accompanied by clouds produces phlegm and aggravates wind; / it pacifies bile disorders, is sweet, and corrupts the blood.
1.10.20
Dry, generating bile, sour, and causing internal abdominal tumours and blood disorders, / that which arises during the constellation Citrā is harsh and corrupts crops.
1.10.21
Water born of rain in the month of Kārttika, cooled from the heat by Svāti, / destroys all three humours and makes all crops flourish.
1.10.22
Cold, imparting strength, aphrodisiac, and destroying burning sensation and fever; / in some exceptionally holy land, autumn showers this vernal [nectar].
1.10.23
For the eradication of bilious fever and for the sake of maturing crops, / the water abiding in the sky born of Svāti is always wholesome and like nectar.
1.10.24
Rainwater, when caught in a vessel, destroys the three humours; / it is strengthening, rejuvenating, promotive of intellect, and superior with respect to blunt instruments [and appliances].
1.10.25
The unseasonal water that rain-clouds release, / when fallen, leads to the aggravation of the three humours for all corporeal beings.
1.10.26
Arising from unseasonable rain and heat, it produces disease; / it is not praised because it especially causes phlegm diseases.
1.10.27
Likewise, water is taught to be of four kinds: rain, hail, dew, and snow. / I shall declare their virtues and defects.
1.10.28
Rainwater has been declared fourfold; I shall speak of hail-water, O highly intelligent one, / for the welfare of the fortunate and wise, and for the alleviation of pain.
1.10.29
By the cold wind of the heavenly river, dense with rumbling of clouds, / the cold water, having hardened and turned to stone by snow,
1.10.30
later melts a little from the intense heat of the sun; / clouds vomit forth fragments of water, which is considered cold.
1.10.30.p1
Hail-water, through its cold qualities, relieves fatigue and destroys the affliction of desiccation;
it destroys fainting, confusion, and headache, and halts hiccup and vomiting;
1.10.31
it pacifies the humours in swellings and in the wounded, and is wholesome for those of bilious nature; / they praise it as foremost in virtues, hence daily it is not kept distant.
1.10.31.p1
Dew-water is light, cold, dispels fatigue, and brings relief from bilious distress;
it pacifies the humours, removes distress caused by water, and is supreme in destroying all diseases;
1.10.32
it cures leprosy, elephantiasis, eczema, and poison, dispels scabies and erysipelas, / is beneficial to the emaciated and those desiccated by chest-wounds, and is used by men.
1.10.33
Snow-water is dense, sweet, and of the nature of phlegm; it alleviates fainting, fatigue, and pain, and destroys giddiness; / it calms bilious blood, is suitable for blood, and water born of snow instantly brings peace.
1.10.34
Rainwater fallen upon the earth, however, differentiated in qualities right there according to diverse conditions, / is fully differentiated by qualities of various kinds, and they declare this water to be of eightfold types:
1.10.35
river water, spring water, cascade water, water from shallow hollows, well water, pond water, lake water, / and water arising from stepped wells; the wise declare this water and state it here in brief.
1.10.36
That which is fit to be used and taught as most suitable for fortunate men and kings: / river water is sweet, light, dry, warm, and a pacifier of wind;
1.10.37
it kindles the digestive fire, destroys crops, and should be consumed at the onset of winter or in the late winter; / it gives strength and provides a wholesome regimen for men; this is always taught by physicians.
1.10.38
Spring water is warm, light, dispels wind, is mixed with bile, and destroys thirst and fever; / it is commended for leprosy, wounds, and those suffering from fatigue and desiccation, and it is not endowed with alkaline qualities.
1.10.39
Water originating from a cascade is warm, astringent, removes phlegm, and cures internal abdominal tumours and heart disease; / it causes itching, erysipelas, and wasting disease, and produces an accumulation of various humours.
1.10.40
They declare water from shallow hollows to be saline, heavy, phlegmatic, and disease-causing; / it certainly produces hiccup, fever, colic, aversion to food, and humoral diseases of the skin.
1.10.41
Dry, phlegm-destroying, saline, kindling the digestive fire, causing bile, light, and warm; / well water is taught to remove wind; it is beneficial, [yet] they say it is not commended in autumn.
1.10.42
Pond water is dense, astringent, sweet, and likewise sweet in digestion; / it is commended in autumn, produces phlegm with wind, [and] the wise declare it not wholesome in summer.
1.10.43
Alkaline, dense, aggravating wind and phlegm, causing skin diseases, pungent, kindling the digestive fire, / declared pungent in post-digestive effect, causing giddiness and desiccation—lake water is not wholesome.
1.10.44
Alkaline, lukewarm, destroying phlegm and wind diseases, causing bile, and pungent; / it is always commended for those suffering from bile disorders, but they declare water from stepped wells not commended in autumn.
1.10.44.p1
Thus eightfold water has been declared by the best of physicians.
1.10.45
I shall fully declare the river waters of streams that flow into the ocean,
1.10.46
as well as those flowing eastward and those flowing westward; / I shall speak of their virtues and defects in brief, O most virtuous one.
1.10.47
Watercourses are of two kinds: sandy and rocky; / in this way rivers are fourfold, possessing the nature of wind, bile, and phlegm.
1.10.48
The river that flows continuously, or whose dense water is lukewarm, pacifies wind and phlegm; / its river water is especially beneficial in spring, and not at the onset of winter.
1.10.49
Its foam spread by the striking of dense and spotless rocks, proud in turbulence covered by thick waves laden with water, / indeed, light, pleasantly cold, not too warm, and dense, it pacifies wind and bile, and properly produces phlegm.
1.10.50
The flow of a sandy river does not have dense and pure water, nor does it have lightness; it produces phlegm and destroys bile; / it is sweet, slightly warm, and astringent; it generates wind, and destroys desiccation and fainting.
1.10.51
Rivers originating from the Himavat are holy, resorted to by gods and sages, / carrying dense stones and sand, possessing pure waters.
1.10.52
Their water destroys wind and phlegm, and eradicates fatigue and desiccation; / it slightly produces bile, and is water that pacifies the three humours.
1.10.53
Rivers originating from the Malaya mountain have cold water comparable to nectar; / they destroy wind and bile, and remove desiccation, giddiness, and fatigue.
1.10.54
The Gaṅgā, Sarasvatī, Śoṇa, Yamunā, Sarayū, Śacī, / Veṇā, Śarāvatī, and Nīlā flow towards the north and east.
1.10.55
These rivers, indeed arising from the Himavat, are cold from their origin in snow; / equal in all virtues, they dispel vāta and phlegm in men.
1.10.56
Together with nine hundred of them, the Gaṅgā is spoken of by the wise; / likewise the Carmaṇvatī, the Vetravatī, and the Pārāvatī,
1.10.57
the Kṣiprā, Mahāpadī, Pītā, Mutsakānyā, Manasvinī, / Śevatī, and Śaivalinī, united with the Sindhu, go to the ocean.
1.10.58
Their water removes vāta and pitta, is considered supreme in destroying all three doṣas, / dispels fatigue and exhaustion, is aphrodisiac, and flows towards the northern quarter.
1.10.59
The Tāpī, Tāpā, Golomī, Gomatī, Salilā, Mahī, / and the rivers joined with the Sarasvatī, and the Narmadā, flow westward.
1.10.60
Their water is dense and yellowish; it dispels pitta and causes kapha; / it removes disorders of vāta, is pleasing to the heart, and destroys itching and leprosy.
1.10.61
The Gautamī, born from the western mountains, brings auspicious contemplation; / its cold water or spring water produces disorders of kapha and vāta, / promotes pitta, is pacifying, strengthens, and produces urinary disorders.
1.10.62
The Pūrṇā, Payasvinī, Vetrā, Praṇītā, Varānanā, / Droṇā, and Govardhanī are those that follow the Gautamī.
1.10.63
Their water is dense and does not excessively cause disorders of vāta and phlegm; / and the rivers that go to the eastern ocean are reckoned along with nine hundred.
1.10.64
The Kāverī, Vīrakāntā, Bhīmā, Payasvinī, / Vibhāvarī, Viśālā, Govindī, Madanasvasā, / Pārvatī, and other rivers flow towards the southern direction.
1.10.65
One should not partake of them individually or conjoined separately; / their total count is twenty-one hundred.
1.10.66
At every krośa there is a watercourse; at every yojana, a river; / and a river spanning two yojanas is known by the wise as a great watercourse.
1.10.67
The soil is to be known as fivefold: black, red, white, / yellow, and another that is blue; their properties are proclaimed:
1.10.68
The black is sweet and dry; the yellow-coloured is astringent; / the red is bitter; and the white is held to be sweet and sour.
1.10.69
The blue is to be known as pungent; [thus] they know the water according to the portion of soil: / dense and sweet is the water resting upon black soil;
1.10.70
astringent is that resting upon yellow; alkaline-sweet is that of red; / sour-sweet is that upon white: one should diagnose it by the portion of soil.
1.10.71
Likewise I shall proclaim fourfold water; listen, O learned one: / sinister water, disease water, ray water, and health water.
1.10.72
Sinister water brings sin, and indeed causes loss of appetite; / full of feces, it is astringent water, teeming with worms and insects,
1.10.73
with impurity and blue algae, wretched, and putrid. / It is not recommended for bathing or drinking, neither for men nor for horses.
1.10.74
By bathing, it causes skin diseases, itching, leprosy, and erysipelas; / by drinking, it produces phlegm-abdominal tumors, and abundant varieties of worms, / and causes diverse diseases; therefore one must completely avoid it.
1.10.75
A well or pool in the shade of a grove of many trees and creepers, / if it is also unventilated beneath, full of worms and algae,
1.10.76
moist, slimy, dark, situated at the roots of trees, / full of leaves from many trees, foul-smelling like the smell of urine—
1.10.77
one should know it as disease water; it produces uneven diseases; / indeed, when consumed, it causes colic, leprosy, and itching.
1.10.77.p1
Water mixed with feces, urine, grass, blue algae, or poison, heated, dense, frothy,
setting the teeth on edge, out of season, foul-smelling, and arising with algae,
1.10.78
commingled with diverse creatures, exceedingly heavy, turbid with a mass of leaves and mud, / and thoroughly hidden from the rays of the moon and sun—one must never drink [such] doṣa-producing water.
1.10.79
[Such] water [causes] abdominal tumors, spleen disorders, piles, anaemia, and even dropsy.
1.10.80
Heated by day with the rays of the sun, cooled at night by the rays of the moon, / celebrated as ray water (aṃśūdaka), it dispels all diseases.
1.10.81
It destroys kapha, fat, and wind; stimulates digestion; purifies the bladder; / cures dyspnoea and cough; is beneficial to the eyes; and removes eye diseases.
1.10.82
Boiled down to a quarter remaining, that is known as health water; / it removes cough and dyspnoea, is wholesome regimen, and draws out wind.
1.10.83
It quickly removes acute fever; destroys fat along with kapha; / ripens catarrh; and destroys colic, abdominal tumors, and piles.
1.10.84
It stimulates the digestive fire; dispels anaemia, swelling, and abdominal enlargement; / and quickly digests undigested food when hot water is drunk at night.
1.10.85
In disease arising from wine drinking accompanied by pitta, / and arising from a combination of all three doṣas, there cold water is beneficial.
1.10.86
In autumn and in summer, one should boil it down to a quarter remaining; / in dewy season and in spring, one should make it reduced to half.
1.10.87
In the rainy season, rubbing [herbs] suited to the opposite season, [reduce it] to a half part.
1.10.88
When being boiled it is without turbulence, devoid of froth, clear, / and reduced to half, it is called hot water.
1.10.89
Reduced by one quarter, it destroys vāta; reduced by half, it overcomes disorders of pitta; / with a quarter remaining, the water destroys kapha, is light, and aids digestion.
1.10.90
Falling in a cascade, it causes constipation, is hard to digest, and removes wind; / boiled and then cooled, it destroys all three doṣas, terminates kapha, alleviates dizziness, and is cooling.
1.10.91
Water boiled during the day becomes heavy at night and should be avoided; / but boiled at night, it attains heaviness during the day.
1.10.92
In alcoholism, with burning sensation, in upward bleeding disorder, / and especially in blood-urine, hot water is not recommended.
1.10.93
In side-pain, catarrh, vāta diseases, constriction of the throat, / flatulence, sluggish bowels, after recent evacuative therapy, in acute fever,
1.10.94
in indigestion, and likewise in cough, cold water is not beneficial. / In catarrh, excessive salivation, fever, leprosy, in wounds,
1.10.95
swelling, eye diseases, dullness of the digestive fire, wasting, / in haemorrhage of a newly delivered woman, and in loss of appetite,
1.10.96
by those desiring success in these [conditions], water should be taken sparingly. / When drunk when food is digested and hunger has arrived, it destroys the fire in the belly.
1.10.97
Abundant water drunk when fatigued produces an abdominal tumor or colic; / therefore, when food is digested it impairs the fire, [whereas] in indigestion water is medicine.
1.10.98
Water drunk beyond the end of a meal is recommended and endowed with good qualities; / drunk by one fatigued from the road, seized by hunger, suffering from desiccation or anger,
1.10.99
or seated on an uneven posture, water produces pain; / therefore, with a tranquil mind, one should take water sparingly.
1.10.100
Drunk at the beginning [of a meal], it burns the digestive fire; drunk in the middle, it is a rejuvenator; / and drunk at its end, that water becomes difficult to digest.
1.10.101
Drinking water before a meal causes decline of the digestive fire and emaciation of the limbs; / at the end, it causes corpulence, and kapha above the stomach.
1.10.101.p1
Thus is the rule for drinking water.
1.10.7-2
Thus ends the seventh chapter, named the Section on Water.