Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 5
English (machine translation) 5
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Contents
5.1.1
On the delightful peak of the Himālaya, frequented by Siddhas and Gandharvas,
to Atri, the pre-eminent sage residing there, abiding in the splendour of austerities,
5.1.2
Hārīta diligently makes an inquiry concerning the pharmaceutics (kalpas):
5.1.3
"Therapeutics has been understood by me in summary, dear father;
now I wish to hear the section on pharmaceutics (kalpasthāna), O you of good vows!"
5.1.4
Atri said:
"Of medicinal formulations, chebulic myrobalan (abhayā) is the best; hear its merits and demerits.
5.1.5
As the ruler of the immortals drinking nectar stood in heaven,
drops fell from it to the earth, and from them harītakī was born.
5.1.6
Endowed with five tastes, lacking only one taste:
it is remembered as astringent, sour, pungent, bitter, and sweet in taste,
and devoid of salt; hear about them separately:
5.1.7
The pungent resides in its skin, its pulp (medas) is astringent,
inside the pulp it is sour, and sweet is situated in the seed;
5.1.8
the bitter is in between; thus it is endowed with five tastes.
Because of its sourness it destroys wind; because of sweetness and bitterness, bile;
because of pungency and astringency, phlegm: harītakī destroys all three humours."
5.1.9
Harītakī is beneficial to embodied beings; like a mother, it brings about welfare. / At times even a mother may grow angry, but pathyā, even when consumed, does not become angered.
5.1.10
I shall describe the origins and names of it; listen, O learned one!
5.1.11
Vijayā, Rohiṇī, Pūtanā, Amṛtā, / Cetakī, Abhayā, and Jīvantī as the seventh.
5.1.12
Vijayā is born in the Vindhya, and Abhayā in the Himālaya; / Rohiṇī is born in Vidiśā, and Pūtanā is recorded in Magadha;
5.1.13
Jīvantikā is considered [native] to Saurāṣṭra, and Cetakī to Campā; / Amṛtā is on the banks of the Sarayū. Thus are the seven varieties.
5.1.14
Abhayā is [used] in eye diseases; in head diseases Kālikā; / Vijayā in all applications; and Rohiṇī heals wounds.
5.1.15
Pūtanā is for the purpose of plastering, and Amṛtā likewise is considered so; / Cetakī is to be employed in every way; Jīvantī through formulation as a powder.
5.1.16
One should identify Vijayā for the benefit of children; / Rohiṇī is declared three-sided, and Amṛtā is thick and fleshy.
5.1.17
Abhayā is declared five-sided, and Pūtanā four-sided; / Cetakī is declared three-sided, and Jīvantī is elongated and fleshy.
5.1.18
Vijayā is blue in color, and Rohiṇī is yellow, O physician; / Amṛtā is black in color, and Abhayā is somewhat white.
5.1.19
The wise person should identify Amṛtā by a measure of two and a half finger-breadths.
5.1.20
Pathyā is most wholesome for men, and immediately destroys all diseases; / it bestows longevity, contentment, and expands excessive intellect, complexion, vital essence, radiance, and memory.
5.1.21
An eradicator of pitta, kapha, and vāta; an awakener of intellect, strength, and sensory faculties; / a purgative of urine, feces, and bodily wastes—harītakī removes diseases in men.
5.2.1
Thus ends the first chapter, named 'Pharmaceutics of Harītakī', in the Section on Pharmaceutics of the Supplementary Hārīta Compendium spoken by Ātreya.
5.3.1
Ātreya said: / The fruit of harītakī, āmalakī, and vibhītaka / is called triphalā by physicians; I shall explain the determination of the parts.
5.3.2
One should use one part of harītakī, two parts of vibhītaka, / and three parts of āmalakī together in one place.
5.3.3
Triphalā destroys kapha and pitta, destroys severe leprosy, / promotes longevity, kindles [the digestive fire], benefits vision, and cleanses wounds.
5.3.4
When rubbed, it confers complexion; it destroys irregular fever, / bestows eyesight, removes itching, and destroys vomiting, abdominal lump, and hemorrhoids.
5.3.5
It pacifies all diseases and is the supreme maker of intellect and memory. / I shall explain its practical application separately in disease after disease.
5.3.6
In vāta, [given] with ghee and jaggery; in pitta, with honey and sugar; / in kapha, with the three pungents; in urinary disorder, with honey-water;
5.3.7
and in leprosy, mixed with ghee; with rock salt, it destroys weakness of digestive fire; / in eye-washing, the decoction prevents eye diseases;
5.3.8
with ghee, it removes itching; with the juice of citron, vomiting;
5.3.9
in abdominal lump and hemorrhoids, [taken] with jaggery and elephant-foot yam, it becomes efficacious; / with milk, [it cures] consumption, and with jaggery, anaemia;
5.3.10
administered also with the juice of bhṛṅgarāja along with ghee, / it destroys wrinkles and graying hair, and is likewise regarded as producing intellect.
5.3.11
The decoction with milk and with jaggery destroys irregular fever; / the decoction with sugar and ghee dispels all chronic fevers.
5.3.12
Triphalā is beneficial to men and is commended in every application; / it pacifies all diseases immediately, and makes one's form endowed with radiance and beauty.
5.3.13
In swelling, as well as in jaundice and anaemia, and also in abdominal disease, it is beneficial combined with [cow's] urine; / and the triad of fruits is beneficial with buttermilk in diarrhoea and in disorders of dysentery.
5.3.14
When sense organs are deteriorated, in chronic fever, and in consumption, triphalā combined with milk is beneficial; / and it is [effective] in eye disease, in head affliction, in leprosy, and in distress from itching and wounds.
5.3.15
In retention of urine, in jaundice, [and] in weakness of digestive fire, the paste of triphalā and others is drunk with water; / in the cold season with jaggery and dry ginger, and in the hot season with sugar and milk;
5.3.16
in the rains the triad of fruits with dry ginger—the triad of fruits removes all ailments.
5.3.16.p1
Thus ends the second chapter, named 'Decoction of Triphalā', in the Section on Pharmaceutics of the Supplementary Hārīta Compendium spoken by Ātreya.
5.4.1
Ātreya said: / Abhayā is declared to be two finger-breadths, Pūtanā four finger-breadths, / Jīvantī one and a half finger-breadths, and Cetakī six finger-breadths.
5.4.2
Cetakī is declared of two kinds according to shape and color: / the six-finger-breadth one is declared white, and the bright one is recorded as one finger-breadth;
5.4.3
the black one is described as best by one desiring success for the purpose of purgation.
5.4.4
So long as Cetakī stays on the tree branch, beasts, birds, and the like / break [their bowels] from it; what wonder is there regarding men?
5.4.5
As long as a man stands holding Cetakī in his hand, / for that long it breaks diseases through its potency; here there is no doubt.
5.4.6
For kings, for delicate persons, as well as for those averse to medicines, / and for emaciated persons, it is wholesome in this way as an easy means of purgation.
5.4.7
Harītakī is a harmless rejuvenation therapy for the poor; / one should eat it at the end of a wholesome regimen or at the beginning, as a destroyer of diseases.
5.4.8
For those afflicted with thirst, when there is drying of the chest and throat, in lockjaw, and also in throat spasm, / in acute fever, and for those whose strength and faculties are diminished, and for pregnant women, it is not declared commendable.
5.4.9
Harītakī combined with jaggery and dry ginger, or with rock salt, is spoken of in practice; / it strikes down diseases of the belly situated in the stomach like Indra's thunderbolt strikes trees.
5.4.10
In autumn, it is administered with white sugar; in early winter, it should be used with dry ginger and jaggery; / in late winter, with rock salt and long pepper; in spring, the three pungents with jaggery are beneficial;
5.4.11
in summer, pathyā with white sugar and dry ginger; in the rains, it is beneficial combined with rock salt; / harītakī prescribed as pathyā with ghee immediately destroys all diseases.
5.4.12
A paste [of it] given to a man with ghee destroys digestive gas in a man's alimentary tract; / boiled with castor oil, pathyā immediately removes malignant disorders.
5.4.13
One should eat just that and drink oil after it; [kept] in buffalo urine for seven days, / it conquers all disorders caused by colic and constipation, arisen from pitta, kapha, and vāta.
5.4.14
Five abhayās, five palas of urine, with milk for seven days is highly commended; / others dry it in milk-water thereafter; this is another formulation after twenty-one days.
5.4.15
Harītakī boiled in the water of grain-husks swiftly destroys enlargement of the abdomen due to vāta, / spleen enlargement, abdominal distension, chest oppression, anaemia, and worms.
5.4.16
Its powder combined with long pepper and rock salt, with eructation and pyrosis, immediately destroys / even severe indigestion and produces appetite; and its paste with dry ginger
5.4.17
dispels fever with rock salt; with curd and with buttermilk it is beneficial in diarrhoea; / in consumption one should lick it with honey; [taken] with urine, it is for the purpose of destroying swelling and abdominal enlargement.
5.4.18
With an equal measure of sugar in anaemia; in desiccation with a burning sensation, combined with citron juice, it is prescribed as Harītakī. Thus ends the paste [preparation] as proclaimed by the foremost sages.
5.4.18.p1
Thus, in the Kalpasthāna of the Latter Hārīta, spoken by Ātreya, [ends] the distinction of Harītakī formulations, being
5.4.3-2
the third chapter.
5.5.1
During the churning for nectar, a great seizure arose among the gods and demons; / and Garuḍa seized [it] in his beak and flew off to heaven.
5.5.2
When fatigue in battle overcame him and he dashed with the impetus of exertion, / as he ascended and suffered distress, drops of nectar fell down.
5.5.3
Having once fallen upon the contaminated ground, they remained there. / Then, through the force of time, a twelve-year famine arose.
5.5.4
All the trees, thorny plants, and creepers in the forest dried up; / and on account of that, all the sages went into a deep, remote forest.
5.5.5
In their midst was one seized by old age, deprived of movement, exceedingly decrepit, / with a staff, worn out by the road, his mouth filled with a crumbling row of teeth.
5.5.6
Left behind by the sages afflicted with hunger, well known there, / he too, tormented by hunger, wandered over the fertile earth.
5.5.7
Somewhere, through the merit of past deeds, he beheld flourishing shrubs / resembling blue moss, dense on the grassy earth.
5.5.8
Afflicted by hunger, he ate even the leafy parts;
5.5.9
after six months, [when] the shrubs [were] dry, / that sage likewise ate the bulbs for one month.
5.5.10
Later, when plenty returned, all of them gathered in one place; / and that old man, having become youthful, went where they were.
5.5.11
Seeing him, filled with astonishment, they asked: "What did you do?" / He said nothing at all; then, out of anger, he was cursed by them:
5.5.12
"The substance eaten by you is unfit to be eaten by the twice-born, / foul-smelling yet miraculous; therefore garlic (rasonaka) has come into being."
5.5.13
Now I shall proclaim the potency of garlic, O wise one: / garlic is endowed with five tastes, lacking only that [sour one].
5.5.14
Garlic is pungent and sour in potency, beneficial, unctuous, heavy, sweet in taste, and strength-giving; / it provides intellect, voice, complexion, vision, and joins fractured bones in an old man, [and is] exceedingly sharp.
5.5.15
It destroys heart disease, chronic fever, belly colic, urinary disorders, hiccup, anorexia, abdominal tumours, and swelling, / piles, leprosy, windy disorder born of darkness and fire, dyspnoea, and phlegm.
5.5.16
Therefore it is celebrated as 'rasonaka' in the three worlds. / In summer, when its leaves have withered, one should dig up that which resembles a fowl's egg.
5.5.17
Having tied it up well-concealed in a packet, one should keep it, O wise one; / in the rains and in winter, one should administer it with proper dosage.
5.5.18
Combined with asafoetida, both kinds of cumin, ajowan, the three pungents, / ghee, and black salt, it is especially [useful] in vāta disease.
5.5.19
With citron juice it is prescribed in colic and abdominal distension; / with curd, garlic has been prescribed by the wise for pacifying vāta and other [humours].
5.5.20
One should give only meat broths of wild animals for food.
5.5.21
Having pressed out and taken its juice, O best of sages, / a man should drink it with milk and sugar in pitta disease.
5.5.22
In consumption, wasting, anaemia, jaundice, and chlorosis; / in all headaches, in internal hemorrhage, and in giddiness;
5.5.23
in desiccation, fainting, and epilepsy, this rejuvenation therapy is beneficial.
5.5.24
Having ground garlic, an equal amount of trivṛt is advised; / adding jaggery and castor oil, [and when] cool, [it forms] a confection.
5.5.25
Having prepared this carefully, one should make patients suffering from urinary disorders drink it; / this is beneficial in swelling, abdominal tumour, vāta-disorders, and in piles.
5.5.26
The meat of deer, hare, black francolin, grey partridge, francolin, / and peacock, crane, goat, and the like, / along with ghee, sweet tastes, and rice and wheat of the month, are beneficial to men when [taking] guggulu or garlic.
5.5.27
One should avoid exercise, riding vehicles, sun, sexual intercourse, / anger, travel, and indigestion; / one should also avoid it in diarrhoea, urinary disease, anaemia, and rectal disease.
5.5.28
Not for pregnant women, not for children, nor for one afflicted by giddiness or intoxication; / not in internal hemorrhage, nor in a leprosy patient, nor in gout, nor in erysipelas.
5.5.29
If garlic is given through foolish understanding, purgation or vomiting must be administered; / or else it produces leprosy or anaemia, or causes fault in a man's sight; / [yet] when applied through good combination, it spreads like nectar, producing men's semen, sense faculties, nourishment, and strength.
5.5.4-2
Thus, in the Kalpasthāna of the Latter Hārīta, spoken by Ātreya, [ends] the fourth chapter, titled the formulation of garlic.
5.6.1
Hārīta said: / O Blessed One, you ought to tell of the formulation, potency, and qualities of guggulu, / or in which diseases it is commended.
5.6.2
Having been thus addressed by his disciple, the one of great austerities replied:
5.6.3
Ātreya said: / In desert regions the purapādapa trees mostly grow; / in summer, under the constant rays of the sun, they exude guggulu.
5.6.4
Or one should collect it according to rule from the Himalaya in winter: / sometimes resembling gold and bright, sometimes resembling ruby,
5.6.5
sometimes resembling a buffalo's eye, beloved by Yakṣas and deities. / Learn from me speaking of its application according to rule:
5.6.6
Pacifying the three humours, aphrodisiac, unctuous, nourishing, kindling [the digestive fire], / pungent in post-digestive effect, guggulu greatly promotes complexion and strength.
5.6.7
It promotes longevity, brings prosperity, increases sons, memory, and intellect; / it dispels sins, is supreme, and is considered to produce semen and menstrual fluid.
5.6.8
Possessing colour, scent, and taste, guggulu, taken in proper measure, / should be decocted with various disease-destroying medicaments respectively.
5.6.9
Having observed that only the measured portion remains, one should strain it through a white cloth / into an earthenware, golden, silver, or crystal vessel.
5.6.10
On an auspicious and propitious lunar day, after food is digested, endowed with forbearance, / having offered an oblation into fire, one should attend upon deities and Brāhmaṇas with devotion.
5.6.11
Having entered a chamber strewn with flowers and rested, / [taking] rāsnā, guḍūcī, castor plant, the ten roots, and prasāriṇī,
5.6.12
one should drink their decoction suitably with yavānī in a vāta disorder; / one afflicted with pitta disease should drink it prepared separately with the revitalising [drugs].
5.6.13
Vāsā, sandalwood, hrībera, dried grapes, tiktarohiṇī, / date, parūṣa, and likewise jīvaka and karṣaka— / this decoction combined with guggulu should be used for drinking in pitta disease.
5.6.14
One afflicted by kapha [should drink it] as a decoction with the three fruits, the three pungents, cow's urine, / neem, coriander, puṣkara, amṛtā, ajowan, and paṭolī.
5.6.15
One suffering from sinus tracts, chronic wounds, glandular enlargements, scrofula, and tumours, / or one with urinary disease or wounds, should drink it combined with a decoction of the three fruits.
5.6.16
The physician should make [the patient] drink guggulu combined with a decoction of these: / kirātatikta, amṛtā, neem, vāsā, kaṇṭakārī, and durālabhā.
5.6.17
In abdominal tumours, cough, trauma, dyspnoea, abscess, anorexia, and wounds, / one should drink guggulu combined with a decoction of tree turmeric and paṭola.
5.6.18
In itching, eruptions, swelling, and the like, one should drink that which alleviates wind and phlegm:
chebulic myrobalan, punarnavā, tree turmeric, cow's urine, and likewise guḍūcī.
5.6.19
A decoction of these is beneficial in anaemia, swelling, and for those with slight vitiligo;
the dose should be up to one pala, begun with care from one karṣa.
5.6.20
When it is digested, one should eat with soups of mung bean or with meat broths from wilderness animals,
and ṣaṣṭika rice with milk, or soft cooked rice of śāli grains.
5.6.21
The first dose is known to be for seven days, the moderate is twice that;
the highest dose is known by practitioners of applications to be three times as much.
5.6.22
The man who indeed makes use of guggulu gradually even for a year
shall suffer no harm from poison, whether stationary or mobile.
5.6.22.p1
Freed from wrinkled skin and grey hair, an old man becomes a youth;
intelligence, eyesight, strength, vital essence, and virility become abundant, and he becomes free from old age.
5.6.23
It alleviates abdominal lumps, benign prostatic hypertrophy, cardiac ailments, and rheumatoid arthritis; it cures leprosy, urinary disorders, urinary calculi,
colic, abdominal distension, erysipelas, and blood disorders; and it is beneficial for one possessed by spirits.
5.6.5-2
Thus ends the fifth chapter, named The Pharmaceutics of Guggulu, in the section on pharmaceutics in the supplementary book of Hārīta, spoken by Ātreya.
5.6.5-2.p1
Thus ends the fifth section, the section on pharmaceutics.
Linked texts (1)
- Hārītasaṃhitā — Hārīta, Sanskrit