Hārīta's Compendium of Medicine 6
English (machine translation) 6
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Contents
6.1.1
Ātreya said:
They know the body to consist of the five elements, endowed with the five sense organs,
possessing the qualities of the seven bodily tissues, and consisting of the ten winds.
6.1.2
The soul, the mind, space, and likewise consisting of the three qualities;
produced from semen and menstrual blood, the body is a receptacle for the humours,
and it is to be known as composed of the five elements, O best of physicians.
6.1.3
The body is of four kinds: childhood, maturity, advanced youth,
and old age, so it is said. Childhood has a small body;
childhood continues up to sixteen years of age.
6.1.4
There is the strength of the bodily tissues, and the body has bodily tissues as its root;
through the nourishment of the bodily tissues, the body grows exceedingly.
6.1.5
Life has its root in the bodily tissues, but death occurs through the depletion of the bodily tissues;
and through the union of diminished bodily tissues, one attains a short life.
6.1.6
A man is also seen to be alive in this world through the strength of the bodily tissues;
and from that, through sexual intercourse properly performed, the formation of the embryo takes place.
6.1.7
First is the strength of the bodily tissues; from that, they know lucidity; from that, passion;
through passion desire is born, and from desire comes sexual intercourse.
6.1.8
Month by month is the fertile season of women; seeing women who have reached their fertile season,
menstrual blood lasts up to seven days, and that is the fertile season, O best of physicians.
6.1.9
Purification of the vagina takes place after seven nights; therefore she becomes fit for conception;
and the menstrual blood of women is seen without intercourse, my son;
6.1.10
yet the fruit of women is not seen without intercourse, my son.
Wondering with doubt in his mind, Hārīta inquires:
6.1.11
Hārīta said:
Without union, O wise one, how is an embryo not produced?
Without union, how can there not be a flower or a fruit?
6.1.12
Why is the production of fruit not seen in women as in a tree?
Asked thus, the great teacher, the foremost of sages, spoke:
6.1.13
Ātreya said:
In distinct creepers and stationary plants, my son,
there the seed, equal to bodily tissue, exists together with union.
6.1.14
No separate view of it is seen; listen, my son:
all stationary plants are known to consist of Śiva and Śakti.
6.1.15
Śiva is to be known as motionless, and Śakti as pervasive, O highly intelligent one;
there the qualities of male and female exist through balanced union.
6.1.16
Similarly, the mango flower is the fruit, and the seed is known to consist of semen;
the seed of women consists of menstrual blood, while the seed-rich organ is in the male;
therefore, from their union, my son, the formation of the embryo takes place.
6.1.17
On the first day, semen, through union, is a jelly-like mass;
on the tenth day, it becomes bubble-shaped, and the blood appears;
6.1.18
on the fifteenth day it becomes dense; on the twentieth day, a lump of flesh;
when the twenty-fifth is reached, the manifestation of the five elements occurs.
6.1.19
In one month, the five principles of the mass are produced;
when fifty days are reached, the manifestation of sprouts takes place.
6.1.20
When three months have arrived, the hands and feet grow;
when three and a half months are reached, the head becomes firm.
6.1.21
In the fourth month, the appearance of body hairs is seen;
in the fifth month, there is good vitality; in the sixth, throbbing occurs.
6.1.22
When the eighth month has arrived, connection with the digestive fire commences;
and when the ninth month is reached, its movements take place.
6.1.23
Indifference to worldly life is born in it on account of dwelling in the womb;
and in the tenth month it is born, or likewise in the eleventh.
6.1.24
Moreover, through the force of the humours, the embryo is born prematurely;
if, when the days are incomplete, the embryo is propelled by wind,
6.1.25
it is born, or else the child is seen right then in the womb.
Now I shall speak of the knowledge of the complexion of the body, O highly intelligent one.
6.1.26
Through the predominance of the male fluid, and likewise through the predominance of semen,
even with deficient chyle and sense organs, one predominantly male is born.
6.1.27
Through the predominance of female seed, even with diminished semen and faculties,
and through the predominance of menstrual blood, the birth of a female takes place.
6.1.28
Even with the strength of the seven bodily tissues, when nature and transformation are equal,
whatever mental disposition belongs to women whose menstrual discharge pervades their fertile season—
6.1.29
whether sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic, O best of beings—
such a child she will bear, or endowed with such qualities.
6.1.30
Whichever man—a brother or a father—she reflects upon in her mind,
resembling him she gives birth, O best of physicians.
6.1.31
Through wind, a man is dark, born of wind constitution;
through bile, he becomes fair, possessing a bile constitution.
6.1.32
Through phlegm, he is born oily, dark, and hairy,
with long head hair, stout, and endowed with a lasting constitution.
6.1.33
Through wind and blood, one is black; through bile and blood, tawny;
and a man with bile is dry; through phlegm and blood, he is unctuous and dark.
6.2.34
Know that person in whom wind predominates to have fine body hair, black, possessing dry head hair,
and with a lustre of fine, dark nails.
6.2.35
Through bile, one becomes yellow, hairless, with tawny-coloured eyes and reddish-yellow hair,
scant in body hair, with the lustre of yellow nails, afflicted by hunger, and proud without warmth.
6.2.36
With phlegm, one has body hair, thick and hard hair, a dark complexion, a proud and broad body,
very oily teeth, pleasing white eyes, pale nail lustre, and a very long nose.
6.2.37
Through equality of semen and menstrual blood, a man becomes of female nature;
known as a neuter, he is neither woman nor man.
6.2.38
Through a specific condition of the humours and bodily tissues, the formation of limbs occurs during union;
and during completed, restless sexual intercourse, the minds of both dissolve;
6.2.39
the birth of twins, bringing delight to another's mind, is seen.
6.2.40
Even through the equal strength of the humours, whether from constitution or abnormality,
if semen and blood become dusky, the birth of a neuter occurs.
6.2.40.p1
Then, through the digestive fire of the five elements consuming the seed, the jelly-like mass is fully digested.
And that internal wind, bubble-shaped, is sustained by the external wind.
6.2.40.p2
Having become an embryonic mass, it produces [a solid mass] in the embryo by the fire of the five proto-elements.
And when it reaches full cooking in the embryo and becomes a solid mass, the five principles [are produced] by the vyāna wind.
6.2.40.p3
It generates the parts—the hands, feet, etc., and the head. Although the internal wind is single, resorting to various locations
it produces the form of the body.
6.2.40.p4
The udāna, seated in the throat and heart, manifests the body's oral orifice.
The apāna wind, situated below, cleanses the lower orifice.
6.2.40.p5
And these [winds] situated within, making openings on separate passages, emerge.
These are the nine orifices: the mouth, nostrils, ears, eyes, anus, and genitals; and these orifices arise through wind.
6.2.41
There, the internal wind, by branching out, generates the limbs such as hands, feet, etc.
6.2.42
Thus it generates the earthy portion: skin, flesh, hair of the head, body hair, and bone, / and the watery [portion]: fluid, blood, saliva, urine, and semen;
6.2.43
fire, bile, the eye, darkness, and the group of five beginning with anger; / hearing, touch, exhalation, sweat, walking, and so on—
6.2.44
for these are known to be from wind, as is another nature: / mind, intellect, sleep, laziness, and intoxication.
6.2.45
Five arise from the void, established in body after body. / The skin in the body is [born] of wind and blood; flesh is regarded as dependent upon skin;
6.2.46
fat arises from semen and phlegm; bodily fluid, bone, and blood arise [together]; / seated in the heart, dependent on bile, the liver consists of wind and blood;
6.2.47
the chest depends on blood, phlegm, and bodily fluid, consisting of phlegm, blood, and mucus; / the spleen consists of phlegm and blood, as do the muscles.
6.2.48
The body consists of the five proto-elements; space is indeed the void. / From the void, wind arose; from wind, the vital breath is born; / and a portion of the vital breath is thus born, established in every living creature.
6.2.49
From space, water arose; from water, the earth was born; / from that, fire was thus born; from fire, darkness is born.
6.2.50
In the body composed of the five proto-elements, endowed with five sense organs, / that which is primary among the proto-elements is called space.
6.2.50.p1
From space comes fire; from fire, pride; from pride, valour; from that, egoism; from that, anger; from anger, darkness; from darkness, evil.
6.2.50.p2
From space comes sattva; from sattva, truth; from truth, asceticism; from asceticism, right conduct; from right conduct, discernment;
6.2.50.p3
from discernment, peace; through peace, virtue.
6.2.50.p4
From sattva comes rajas; from rajas, desire; from desire, greed; from greed, untruth; from untruth, evil.
6.2.50.p5
From taste comes desire; from desire, longing; from longing, progeny; from progeny, friendliness; from friendliness, affection;
6.2.51
from affection, infatuation; from infatuation, illusion; from that, delusion; through delusion, error; from that, ignorance; from ignorance, merit and evil; and from merit and evil, birth.
6.2.52
And from sattva comes tamas; the master wakes and sleeps. / Veiled by tamas, the embodied self attains voidness through space.
6.2.53
Because the body rests, for that reason it is known as sleep. / Along with half the nose, it dissolves between the eyebrows together with the inner self;
6.2.54
therefore consciousness remains there; sleep dissolves for men.
6.2.55
Tejas is declared to come from sattva, and bile indeed from tejas. / Wind arises from the mind; covered by tamas, one sleeps.
6.2.56
From the union of wind and tamas, the state of dreaming is celebrated; / sattva, tamas, and wind exist in single union.
6.2.57
Food, sleep, hunger, thirst, fear, envy, intoxication, and delusion, / anger, longing, happiness, contentment, and peace—these occur for the embodied; listen:
6.2.58
Through the desire for food, fire moves through the body, / or it attains satisfaction from the rajas of the taste of fluids.
6.2.59
Whenever the fire dries up the waste products, then it spreads satisfaction as it were; / and whenever there is dissatisfaction for anyone, precisely then the mind extends thirst.
6.3.1
Thus ends the first chapter, named Chapter on the Body, in the Section on the Body in the Hārītottara spoken by Ātreya.
6.3.1.p1
Thus ends the Section on the Body.
6.4.p1
Thus the meaning of the body has been declared; it is taught with its expansion.
6.4.1
And having heard this, the highly splendid Hārīta, the best among sages,
6.4.2
bowing down to the supreme guru with a joyful heart, / then went to the bank of the heavenly river, engaged in bathing and meditation.
6.4.3
He who recites this treatise heard from the words of the great sage, / freed from all evil and healthy, enjoys happiness.
6.4.4
What was spoken in the beginning by Brahmā, immediately thereafter by Atri, / and spoken by Dhanvantari and the great-souled Aśvins,
6.4.5
is thus to be understood as equal to the Vedas, considered no cause for disrespect; / and it has been proclaimed in many ways by others proficient in various treatises.
6.4.6
Their opinion too is to be accepted; therefore all consider it equal. / Caraka, Suśruta, and another, Vāgbhaṭa:
6.4.7
these three compendiums are said to be principal in each and every age.
6.4.8
Atri is considered the physician in the Kṛtayuga, Suśruta in the Dvāpara; / and in the Kali[yuga], he named Vāgbhaṭa—their gravity is seen here.
6.4.9
The Vaiṣṇavī, Aśvinī, Gārgī, another the Mādhyāhnikā, / and the Mārkaṇḍeyā were taught by the wise king of yoga.
6.4.10
The compendium was spoken by the sages through various kinds of mantras, O lord:
6.4.11
Agniveśa, Bheḍa, Jātūkarṇya, Parāśara, / Hārīta, and Kṣīrapāṇi—these are those six sages.
6.4.12
Just as the lion is chief among beasts of prey, just as Ananta among serpents, / and just as Śambhu among gods, so is Ātreya in the art of medicine.
6.4.13
Therefore, with care, by virtuous physicians of respectful and tender good minds, / he should be worshipped and revered; he will grant happiness and prosperity.
6.5.1
Thus ends the Supplementary Chapter in the Hārītottara spoken by Ātreya.
6.5.1.p1
Thus ends the Hārītasaṃhitā.
Linked texts (1)
- Hārītasaṃhitā — Hārīta, Sanskrit