Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 1.11

English (machine translation) 1.11

Language: English

1.11.1

Now, therefore, I shall declare the section on milk, O little child, / [as well as] curd, clarified butter, muscle-fat, and buttermilk, and all their virtues and faults.

1.11.2

Whatever essence arises from food and enters the milk-vessels,
that essence, water, and eaten food, mixed together with bile,

1.11.3

digested in the stomach's fire, blended together with bile,
undergoing digestion and reaching the vessels along with milk-fluid, O son,

1.11.4

from that, milk, consisting of the nature of fire and Soma, is known as milk (payaḥ);
it is nectar for all beings, giving life, and considered to produce strength.

1.11.5

Hārīta, beset by doubt, asked his father again:
"How does the essence originate, and how does it accumulate, O Lord?

1.11.6

How is milk stated to be pale-white in the place of blood?
Why is it not present there in virgins and in barren women?"

1.11.7

Thus questioned, the foremost of sages, possessing great power, spoke:
"Listen, O greatly wise son, to what has been declared by the ancient sages.

1.11.8

Milk is unctuous, and blood, having undergone cooking by bile,
turns white, and thus milk becomes white.

1.11.9

How could the milk-channel [function] in virgins and barren women?
Because the strength of their bodily tissues is small, milk is not produced.

1.11.10

Indeed, the milk-channels of barren women are filled with vāta;
and milk does not develop because their menstrual fluid is excessive.

1.11.11

In women who have given birth, childbearing occurs with force;
by that, purification of the channels occurs, and milk flows forth quickly.

1.11.12

Therefore, in a woman who has recently given birth, phlegmatic milk arises;
it becomes thick due to that; therefore, one should avoid it.

1.11.13

Milk effects the clearing of the channels, produces strength, destroys doshas,
pacifies the three doshas, is aphrodisiac, and enhances the digestive fire.

1.11.14

A black [cow] is aphrodisiac and destroys vāta; her milk is superior.
The milk of a white [cow] produces phlegm, and the milk of a reddish [cow] aggravates vāta.

1.11.15

A yellow [cow] pacifies bile; her milk is superior.
The black is connected with blood and bile; the white is endowed with the qualities of phlegm;

1.11.16

the yellow is associated with phlegm and vāta; the red is endowed with the qualities of vāta.
Whatever the qualities of their colours are, those must be known by the great-souled [physician].

1.11.17

Cow's milk is praised when warm from the udder, but buffalo's milk when cooled after milking.
Sheep's milk is wholesome boiled and hot; goat's milk boiled and cold.

Cow's milk is pure, a rejuvenation therapy, wholesome, beneficial to the heart, and confers strength and nourishment;
it grants longevity and dispels blood disorders, bile, the three doshas, heart disease, and poison.

1.11.19

Goat's milk is astringent, sweet, cold, binding, light, and removes bile and wasting;
goat's milk is wholesome in cough, fever, and dysentery with blood, and overcomes the three doshas.

1.11.20

Ewe's milk is sweet, ununctuous, hot, and removes vāta and phlegm;
it is not commended in internal haemorrhage, but is wholesome for those suffering from vāta disorders.

1.11.21

Buffalo's milk is said to be unctuous, cooling vāta, causing drowsiness and sleep, highly aphrodisiac, dispelling fatigue,
conferring strength, bringing nourishment, and enlivening phlegm.

1.11.22

Camel's milk is ununctuous, hot, salty, checks phlegm, removes vāta disorders,
is light, commendable, pungent, and beneficial against worms, swelling, and haemorrhoids.

1.11.23

Woman's milk is praised as enlivening, bulk-promoting, suitable, nourishing, dispelling eye pain,
destroying bile and blood [disorders], and unctuous.

1.11.24

Cooled by the moon's cold rays during the night, bringing sleep, lassitude, and heaviness,
thick, cold, and producing phlegm is the milk milked in the morning.

1.11.25

During the day, warmed recently by the heat of the sun, it conquers phlegm and vāta;
it is wholesome, pacifying bile, and well-cooled for the evening meal.

1.11.26

[Milk of animals that] drink little water, exercise, and eat pungent and bitter food is light;
but of those eating oil-cake and sour food, it is heavy, channel-blocking, and cold.

1.11.27

For the emaciated, the weak, those afflicted with chronic fever,
those with a blazing digestive fire, free of lethargy, and those suffering from fatigue and desiccation disorders,

1.11.28

for those indulging in sexual intercourse, having little semen, suffering from dyspnoea, with an irregular digestive fire,
and also for those with consumption, the drinking of milk is prescribed.

1.11.29

Milk combined with salt, or again with sour substances, is not commended;
it produces leprosy and skin diseases; therefore, it is never considered wholesome.

1.11.30

[Curd has] a sour and sweet taste, is binding, heavy, hot, and conquers vāta diseases;
it produces fat, semen, strength, phlegm, internal haemorrhage, digestive fire, and swelling.

1.11.31

Cow's curd is unctuous, sweet in post-digestive effect, stimulating the digestive fire, strength-increasing,
dispelling vāta, pure, and removing pain.

1.11.32

Goat's curd is hot, destroying wasting and vāta,
wholesome in haemorrhoids, dyspnoea, and cough, and stimulates the digestive fire.

1.11.33

It is sweet in post-digestive effect, aphrodisiac, clears internal haemorrhage,
is declared commendable in the morning, and destroys vāta and bile.

1.11.34

Buffalo's curd is declared dense, sweet, causing disorders of the blood,
removing phlegm and swelling, wholesome, producing bile, and aggravating vāta.

1.11.35

Camel's curd is pungent in post-digestive effect, slightly alkaline, heavy, and purgative;
it destroys vāta, haemorrhoids, leprosy, worms, and especially abdominal enlargement.

1.11.36

Woman's curd is unctuous, sweet in post-digestive effect, strengthening, nourishing, wholesome,
beneficial to the eyes, binding, destroying doshas, and supreme in virtues.

1.11.37

Ewe's curd aggravates phlegm and vāta, and causes haemorrhoids;
it stimulates the digestive fire, is beneficial to the eyes, causes anaemia, and aggravates vāta.

1.11.38

It is ununctuous, hot, astringent, highly channel-blocking, aggravating doshas,
sweet in taste and post-digestive effect, astringent, and increases leprosy.

1.11.39

[Curd] of the rainy season produces bile, pacifies vāta, and aggravates phlegm;
it is not commended in abdominal tumours, haemorrhoids, leprosy, and internal haemorrhage.

1.11.40

Curd of the autumn is heavy, sour, and increases internal haemorrhage;
it causes irregular fever in those afflicted with swelling, thirst, and fever.

1.11.41

[Curd] of early winter is heavy, unctuous, very sweet, producing phlegm, increasing strength,
aphrodisiac, beneficial to the intellect, conferring nourishment, and increasing satisfaction.

1.11.42

[Curd] of late winter is aphrodisiac, conferring strength, producing bile, pre-eminently removing fatigue,
dense, sour, slimy, and heavy.

1.11.43

[Curd in spring] aggravates vāta, is sweet, unctuous, slightly sour, having the nature of phlegm,
is declared to produce strength and virility, and is not commended in spring.

1.11.44

In summer curd is light, sour, extremely hot, produces internal haemorrhage,
and causes desiccation, dizziness, and thirst; curd is not recommended in summer.

1.11.45

In autumn, summer, and spring, it causes vitiation of doshas and is not wholesome;
one should not eat curd at night, nor without ghee and sugar.

1.11.46

One may eat curd with salt, or one may eat it with water;
curd combined with salt and water is definitely praised at night.

1.11.47

For those with fever, internal haemorrhage, erysipelas, leprosy, anaemia,
those afflicted with jaundice, and especially those with swelling,

1.11.48

and likewise for those with consumption, epilepsy, chronic catarrh,
and those afflicted with coryza, curd is not wholesome in their food.

1.11.49

For those with hiccup, dyspnoea, haemorrhoids, spleen enlargement, diarrhoea, and fistula-in-ano,
curd mixed with salt is declared to be commendable.

1.11.50

Cow's [milk/water] pacifies the three humours; it is called the foremost among wholesome things; / it kindles the digestive fire, creates taste, promotes intellect, and overcomes piles and abdominal enlargements.

1.11.51

Buffalo's [milk/water] produces phlegm, is somewhat dense, and causes swelling in men; / it is commended in spleen disease, piles, disorders of dysentery, and for those with diarrhoea.

1.11.52

Goat's [buttermilk] is light, soothing, pre-eminent in pacifying the three humours, / and destroys abdominal tumours, haemorrhoids, dysentery, colic, and anaemia.

1.11.53

Likewise, buttermilk is said to be of three kinds; listen, my son, / as to how and in which patients it is properly commended according to formulation.

1.11.54

Buttermilk from which the ghee is completely removed, that from which half the ghee is removed, / and that from which no ghee has been removed: thus it is considered threefold.

1.11.55

All are light, wholesome, and pre-eminent in pacifying the three humours; / beyond that, they are declared to be progressively more aphrodisiac.

1.11.56

That from which no ghee is removed is dense, heavy, and should be known to be of the nature of kapha; / yet it imparts strength to the emaciated, [though] causing unripe swellings and diarrhoea.

1.11.57

In chronic poisoning, abdominal enlargement, haemorrhoids, dysentery, anaemia, and in one suffering from fever, / or in retention of faeces and urine, splenic disorders, and urinary ailments,

1.11.58

it is beneficial, gratifying, strengthening, and counteracts pitta and blood. / Sweet, it destroys pitta and blood; excessively hot, it produces internal haemorrhage.

1.11.59

With abundant water, it stimulates digestion, [yet] provokes internal haemorrhage; / in chronic coryza, asthma, and cough, it is stated here not to be recommended.

1.11.60

That with half water is udaśvit; buttermilk has one-fourth part of water. / It removes vāta and severe kapha; udaśvit increases phlegm.

1.11.61

Churned by hand, it is regarded as nourishing to beings and strength-giving; / it dispels fatigue, is unctuous, and removes dysentery, haemorrhoids, and diarrhoea.

1.11.62

Except in swelling and in the emaciated, [it should] not [be taken] in hot weather nor in autumn; / nor in fainting, giddiness, and thirst, and likewise when blood is accompanied by pitta: / drinking buttermilk is not recommended [then], and causes various diseases.