Cakradatta (Cikitsasangraha) 70: Adhikāra 70

Purgation should be given to one who has been unctuated, fomented, and vomited; / for if administered otherwise, it is held to cause malabsorption syndrome. .. 1 ..

The alimentary tract is soft due to pitta; it is hard due to resort to vāta and kapha; / and moderate due to equality of the doṣas; therefore the dose should be applied accordingly. .. 2 ..

Combined with sugar and honey, dusted with trivṛt powder, / containing one part each of cinnamon bark, cinnamon leaf, and black pepper, / is a purgative for delicate persons. One should drink trivṛt powder combined with white sugar as an excellent purgation. (3)

Having split sugarcane in two, smeared it with pastes / produced from triphalā, wrapped and bound it, / and cooked it thoroughly using the method of puṭapāka, / one suffering from a pitta disease should eat it when well cooled. (4)

One should have the patient lick long pepper, dry ginger, and alkali together with black trivṛt, / mixed with honey, as a purgative in kapha disorders. (5)

Harītakī, viḍaṅga, rock salt, dry ginger, trivṛt, / and black pepper: all this taken with cow's urine is a purgation. (6)

Triphalā equal to three śāṇas of trivṛt, and equal to that / are alkali, long pepper, and viḍaṅga. That powder, with honey and clarified butter, (7)

one should lick, or having made pills with jaggery, one should administer it. / It destroys abdominal lumps caused by kapha and vāta, splenomegaly, fistula-in-ano, (8)

and other diseases as well; this is a harmless purgation. / Harītakī, long pepper root, black pepper, and dry ginger, (9)

cinnamon bark, cinnamon leaf, long pepper, mustā, viḍaṅga, and āmalakī: / one karṣa of each of these, and three karṣas of dantī; (10)

there should be six karṣas of white sugar, and two palas of trivṛt. / Having made all into a fine powder and formed a sweet bolus with honey, (11)

one should eat one every day and drink cold water after it. / A person purges as long as he does not take anything warm. (12)

Anaemia, poison, cough, pain in the shanks and flanks, / backache, dysuria, haemorrhoids along with fistula-in-ano, (13)

calculus, urinary disorders, skin diseases, burning sensation, oedema, abdominal diseases, / phthisis, and eye diseases: administered by a physician knowing the proper regimen, / this sweet bolus beginning with abhayā indeed quickly destroys [them]. (14)

Castor oil taken with a double quantity of triphalā decoction / or with milk purges without delay. (15)

Clearing of the channels, serenity of the senses, / lightness, energy, digestive fire, freedom from disease, / and the proper successive passage of faeces, pitta, kapha, and vāta / will occur in one who has been properly purged. (16)

There will be aggravation of kapha, pitta, and vāta, / weakness, also depression of the digestive fire, heaviness, coryza, / drowsiness, vomiting, anorexia, / and no downward movement of vāta in one improperly purged. (17)

Originating from vāta produced by the depletion of kapha, blood, and pitta: / numbness, body-aches, exhaustion, tremors, and the like, / loss of sleep, loss of strength, entering into darkness [fainting], / along with insanity and hiccough, occur in one excessively purged. (18)

One should not give thick gruel on that day to one who has dull digestive fire, is unweakened, and has not purged well. / On the other hand, in the contrary case, in the evening of that day / the regimen of thin gruel is prescribed, as in the case of one who has vomited. (19)

Just as a tiny fire, being kindled gradually / with grass, cow dung, and the like, becomes / great, steady, and capable of consuming everything, so indeed does / the internal digestive fire of a cleansed person by means of thin gruel and the rest. (20)

Purgation is to be brought about with astringent and sweet substances in pitta, with pungent ones in kapha, / and with unctuous, warm, and salty ones in vāta; and if it has not started, one should make [the patient] drink [them]. (21)

And one should foment his abdomen with warm water and with the heat of the hands. / When there has been little evacuation, having eaten on that day, he should drink again on the next day. (22)

One whose alimentary tract has not been firmly oleated should drink the purgative after ten days, / his body being prepared once again by oleation and sudation. (23)

Having thoroughly considered what is suitable, remembering the previous procedure: / a man who is weak, previously cleansed, having few doṣas, or emaciated, / or whose alimentary tract is unknown, should drink a mild and small dose of medicine. (24)

In those who are un-unctuous, have much vāta, have a hard alimentary tract, practise exercise, / and have blazing digestive fire, medicine is digested without purging at all. (25)

To them one should first give an enema, and then an unctuous purgative. / An unctuous purgative is prescribed for an un-unctuous person, and a dry one for one who is excessively unctuous. (26)

Having dried out someone accustomed to oleation, one should purge him again when he is unctuous. / One should employ padmaka, uśīra, nāgapuṣpa, and sandalwood (27)

in excessive purging, by means of drinks, pastes, and sprinklings. / A paste of mango bark ground with sauvīraka stops diarrhoea. (28)

Those who should not be purged are: children, the elderly, the exhausted, the frightened, those with fresh fever, / those with weak digestive fire, downward haemorrhagic disease, an injured anus, or diarrhoea; (29)

those with foreign bodies, those with established hard alimentary tracts, the excessively unctuous, the phthisical, / a pregnant woman, a newly delivered woman, one tormented by thirst, and also one with indigestion. (30)