Cakradatta (Cikitsasangraha) 76: Adhikāra 76

In all eye diseases, eye-drops (āścyotana) are beneficial at the outset; / they remove pain, pricking, itching, irritation, discharge, and redness. // 1

It should be warm in vāta, warm in kapha, and cold in raktapitta. / For one stationed in a windless place, opening the eye with the left hand, // 2

one should instill ten or twelve drops into the inner corner of the eye from a distance of two finger-breadths / by means of a cotton swab hanging into a shell with the other [hand]. // 3

Then, having wiped it with a soft cloth, in the case of kapha and vāta / one should foment it gently with another [cloth] soaked in lukewarm water. // 4

Excessively hot and sharp eye-irrigation causes pain, redness, and loss of vision; / excessively cold, however, produces pricking pain, stiffness, and aching. // 5

Too much [causes] an astringent feeling in the lids, irritation, and difficult opening of the eyes; / too little [causes] increase of the disorder, violent onset, and unpurged state. // 6

Now, collyrium (añjana) should be applied to one whose body is purified, when the impurity is located only in the eye, / when the signs are mature, marked by slight swelling, pain, itching, and sliminess, // 7

in an eye with mild irritation, tears, and redness, and having thick rheum. / It is threefold: scraping, healing, and eyesight-soothing. // 8

Among them, scraping collyrium is prepared with astringent, sour, saline, and pungent [drugs]; / healing with bitter substances; soothing with sweet and cold [drugs]. // 9

A rod of ten finger-breadths, thin in the middle, with a tip like a bud, / made of copper is commended for scraping; made of iron, for healing; // 10

and one of ten finger-breadths made of gold or made of silver, for soothing. / Collyrium preparations are only of three kinds: pill, extract, and powder. // 11

One should employ them successively in severe, moderate, and mild doṣa. / Then, not opening wide the eyes, one should gently move them within; // 12

when collyrium is applied, one should also move the eyelids slightly. / When the eye is free from contact with the medicine and has found relief, // 13

then one should wash away the disease and doṣa with suitable waters. / Then, holding the upper eyelid of the left eye with the right thumb // 14

covered with a cloth, it should be cleansed, and the other [cleansed] with the left [thumb]. / By sleep at night, drinking at midday, and the hot rays [of the sun], // 15

the doṣas would become increased, aggravated, and liquefied, causing eye disease; / therefore, to pacify that, one should always apply collyrium in the morning and evening when the sky is clear of clouds. // 16

In itching and sluggishness, one should again apply sharp collyrium or smoke; / but when distressed by a sharp collyrium, a counter-collyrium is promptly beneficial. // 17

One should not apply collyrium to one who is frightened, has vomited, has purged, has eaten, or is under the urge [of natural eliminations]; / to one who is angry, feverish, has unsteady eyes, has headache, is emaciated, or has kept awake; // 18

when the sun is not seen, after washing the head, when smoke or wine has been drunk, / during indigestion, when heated by the sun, after day-sleep, or when thirsty. // 19

Satiation of the eyes (tarpaṇa) should be applied in a windless place, when the head and body are purified, / during moderate weather, in the morning or in the evening, to one lying on the back. // 20

Having made an even, firm wall of barley and black gram paste outside the corner of the eye, / two finger-breadths high, one should pour in [the medicament] prepared appropriately [for the condition].

[Pouring in] clarified butter melted with hot water while the eyes are closed; / or muscle fat in night-blindness, timira caused by vāta, dysuria, obstruction, and the like.

Then, as he slowly opens his eyes up to the tips of the eyelashes, / one should count the measure [of time] there: in diseases of the eyelid, the junctions, the sclera, and the cornea/iris,

and of the vision progressively, [one should count] one hundred, three [hundred], and five [hundred], / seven hundred, and eight [hundred]; in [ophthalmic] churning, ten [hundred]; in vāta, ten [hundred];

in pitta, six [hundred]; in a healthy regimen, [six hundred]; and in kapha, one should retain it for five [hundred]. / Then, having made an opening at the outer corner of the eye, one should drain the unctuous substance into a vessel.

He should inhale medicated smoke, and not gaze at the sky or bright objects. / Thus, [the treatment is done] every day in vāta; but every other day in pitta; in kapha

and in a healthy person, one should administer it with two days' interval, applying it until satisfaction is reached. / Tolerance to light, health, clarity, and lightness of the eye

indicate satisfaction; the opposite indicates non-satisfaction; excessive satisfaction produces disorders born of kapha. / One should employ puṭapāka in the very same stages mentioned before.

When combined with vāta, it is considered unctuous (snehana); when accompanied by kapha, scraping (lekhana); / in thirst, debility, vāta, pitta, and blood, and in the healthy, it is soothing (prasādana).

A separate lump, the size of a bilva fruit, of meat and a paste of medicinal substances, / wrapped respectively with leaves of castor, banyan, and lotus in unctuous and other [preparations],

smeared with clay, one should bake over blazing dhavadhavana [or wood] and cow-dung until it glows like fire; / having squeezed out the juice of what has been cooked,

one should apply it to the eye like a tarpaṇa, retaining it for one hundred, two [hundred], or three [hundred mātrās] / in the scraping, unctuous, and last [soothing preparations]; the first two are lukewarm, the other cold.

At the end of the first two only, he should inhale medicated smoke; and the signs [of proper application] there are just like those of satisfaction. / One must not employ tarpaṇa and puṭapāka in someone unfit for nasal medication.

For as many days as one uses [this therapy], for twice that time he should partake of wholesome [regimen].