Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 2.1

English (machine translation) 2.1

Language: English

2.1.46 — 1 part

2.1.1

Ātreya said: / Now, therefore, I shall thoroughly explain the excellent second section: / auspicious and inauspicious dreams, and prognostic signs regarding health in man.

2.1.2

Listen in brief, my son, as it is revealed, dear child.

2.1.3

Hārīta said: / I have understood, O highly wise one, the excellent food and drink; / now I wish to understand the diagnosis of diseases,

2.1.4

and those diseases that are born of karma: declare them, O highly wise one.

2.1.5

Ātreya said: / Indeed, all diseases of embodied beings are born of karma; / they are all forms of hell, and they are either curable or incurable.

2.1.6

When a sin has been committed unknowingly, and one afterwards performs penance, / through the power of expiation the disease becomes curable.

2.1.7

When it is committed knowingly, and one afterwards performs penance, / at the end, through expiation, the disease becomes curable with difficulty.

The killer of a brahmin, the killer of a cow, the killer of a king, the destroyer of groves and water-reservoirs, the adulterer, / the violator of the master's wife, of the teacher's wife, or of a woman of one's own family: these are the thirteen powerful kinds of diseases.

2.1.9

Anaemia, leprosy, consumption, diarrhoea, urinary disorders, retention of urine, urinary calculus, and dysuria, / acute colic, dyspnoea, cough, swelling, and wounds: these afflictions of men are of the nature of sin.

2.1.10

Fever, indigestion, vomiting, dizziness, stupor, sluggishness of digestive fire, / disorders of the liver and spleen, haemorrhoids, and wasting: these are secondary vitiators.

2.1.11

Wound, colic, headache, and upward internal haemorrhage: / these diseases, O highly wise one, arise indeed from a curse.

2.1.12

Many other diseases also arise, born of the doshas; / therefore I shall speak in brief: listen, O highly wise one.

2.1.13

The killer of a brahmin becomes anaemic; the killer of a cow becomes lepromatous; / the regicide suffers consumption; the destroyer [of reservoirs] suffers diarrhoea.

2.1.14

From sexual relations with a master's wife, urinary disorders arise; / from intercourse with a teacher's wife arises urinary disease and urinary calculus;

2.1.15

and from intercourse with a woman of one's own family arises fistula-in-ano; / one who torments others suffers acute colic; from calumny, people suffer dyspnoea and cough.

2.1.16

Those who create obstacles on the road are born with diseases of the feet; / from a curse arises a wound, or liver disease is produced.

2.1.17

One who showers faeces in a temple or in water / develops extremely dreadful diseases of the anus, born of sin.

2.1.18

For those who torment twice-borns, severe fevers arise; / and from creating obstacles to another's food, indigestion arises.

2.1.19

A poisoner suffers vomiting, and likewise paralysis and staggering of the limbs; / a rogue suffers epilepsy; one who gives bad food has sluggish digestive fire.

2.1.20

Liver and spleen disease arises from the sin of destroying an embryo; / wound, colic, and headache arise from causing torment to others.

2.1.21

One addicted to drinking what should not be drunk develops internal haemorrhage; / one who sets forest fires develops erysipelas.

2.1.22

One who cuts down many trees develops numerous wounds; / and from stealing another's property, dysentery arises.

2.1.23

From stealing gold, one gets diseased nails and birth [with deformities]; / from stealing silver, white leprosy; from stealing copper, rhagades of the feet.

2.1.24

A thief of tin gets sidhma leprosy; a stealer of lead gets mouth disease; / a thief of iron becomes a stammerer; a thief of salt becomes excessively diuretic.

2.1.25

A thief of ghee develops intestinal disease, and a thief of oil has severe itching; / by these defects one becomes one-eyed, crooked of speech, or squint-eyed.

2.1.26

One has defective, blackish teeth; malicious speech; corruption by leprosy; / from destroying tastes, tongue disease; a killer of kin suffers spider-bite ulcers.

2.1.27

These indeed are the great faults; therefore I shall declare the expiation / by which these sinful diseases are overcome with difficulty.

2.1.28

Having performed the gift of a cow, the gift of land, the gift of gold, and worship of the gods, / one should afterwards apply remedies for the relief of anaemia.

2.1.29

In the case of great sins, one's entire property [should be given]; half of that in the case of secondary faults; / according to Ātreya, one-sixtieth or one-tenth should be determined based on the strength or weakness of the disease.

2.1.30

For the pacification of leprosy, rites performed sixty-nine times [are prescribed], / as well as the donation of cows and gold, and the offering of sweet food.

2.1.31

Having bestowed this fourfold gift, one should perform counter-measures; / sometimes it might succeed, as well as an operation to restore strength and lifespan.

2.1.32

In urinary anomaly, the donation of gold is given; in colic, asthma, and fistula-in-ano, / by the donation of a horse and a bullock, one is freed from asthma and cough.

2.1.33

In fever, one should perform worship of Īśvara and the recitation of the Rudra hymns; / and in one afflicted with vertigo, the donation of abundant food and drink and the donation of an edged weapon [should be made].

2.1.34

In sluggish digestion, an agnihotra oblation is offered; in abdominal lump, the gifting of a maiden; / and for the destruction of urinary anomalies and calculus, salt is given.

2.1.35

By donating plenty of food, one is freed from the disease of colic. / In high fever, an appeasing rite [is performed], and one should bathe Śiva

2.1.36

with a thousand pots of water; thereby success arises, and one is freed from fever. / By giving ghee and honey, bleeding disorders subside.

2.1.37

By watering a large tree, one is freed from erysipelas; / and by watering a banyan tree, multiple wounds will not persist here.

2.1.38

Dysentery may be cured by the fourfold gift. / From the gift of gold, one afflicted with bad nails and black teeth becomes happy.

2.1.39

By donating silver, leucoderma is said to be curable; / in sidhma-leprosy, the donation of tin; in barbarian leprosy, the donation of iron;

2.1.40

in mouth sores, the gift of lead; the gift of a cow in severe boils; / in eye disease, one should give ghee; fragrant substance in nasal disease;

2.1.41

the gift of oil in itching, and the gift of mercury in tongue disease. / By one with dark teeth, honouring of the gods should be performed; / in lip disease likewise; in spider poison, one should give cows.

2.1.42

And I will describe other bodily afflictions of men: / one who puts others to shame by censuring them becomes blind in one eye from the intense sun;

2.1.43

a killer of hoofed beasts becomes crooked-nosed; a slayer of birds becomes paralyzed by hemiplegia; / a dwarf arises from self-praise; a hater of others becomes extremely jaundiced and yellow-eyed;

2.1.44

and one who performs malevolent sorcery against another is born deformed. / These and other great diseases arise born of sins.

2.1.45

Even if there is no cure in this world, there should not be [misery] in the other world; / therefore, the best of physicians should indeed have penance performed.

2.1.46

As long as the patient experiences his sin again in another birth, / when penance has been performed, he is not born again [with that disease] in existence.

2.1.46.p1

Thus ends, in the second section of the supplemental Hārīta taught by Ātreya, the counteraction of sins and flaws,

Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 2.1

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