Cakradatta (Cikitsasangraha) 78: Adhikāra 78

A healthy person should rise at the brāhma muhūrta for the sake of preserving life; / having attended to the calls of the body, having then performed the rules of cleanliness,

in the morning, and having eaten, he should chew a tooth-cleaning stick with a soft tip, / astringent, pungent, or bitter, without harming the gums.

One afflicted by indigestion, vomiting, dyspnoea, cough, fever, / thirst, stomatitis, or diseases of the heart, eyes, head, or ears must not chew it. / One should daily apply Sauvīra collyrium, which is beneficial to the eyes;

and every seventh or eighth night, rasāñjana for the purpose of secretion. / Then he should partake of nasal drops, mouth-gargles, medicated smoking, and betel leaves.

Betel leaf is unwholesome for those suffering from wounds, bleeding disorders, dryness, or irritated eyes, / as well as for those afflicted by poison, fainting, intoxication, and consumption.

One should practise oil massage daily; it dispels old age, fatigue, and vāta. / One should apply it especially to the head, ears, and feet.

External oil massage [should be avoided] by those overwhelmed by kapha, those who have undergone purification, and those with indigestion. / That bodily movement which is undertaken to produce stability and increase strength,

known as bodily exercise, one should practise in proper measure. / One suffering from vāta or pitta diseases, a child, an old person, and one with indigestion should avoid it.

In the same way, body-powder massage should be performed; after that, one should take a bath. / Pouring warm water over the lower body brings strength;

applied with that same [warm water] over the head, however, [it diminishes] the strength of the hair and eyes. / Bathing is condemned in those suffering from facial paralysis, diseases of the eyes, mouth, and ears, diarrhoea,

abdominal distension, chronic rhinitis, indigestion, and immediately after meals. / Having trimmed hair, nails, and beard, with clean feet and orifices of bodily wastes,

habituated to bathing, fragrant, well-dressed, in spotless garments, / one should constantly wear gems, consecrated mantras, and potent medicinal herbs.

Bearing an umbrella and footwear, one should walk looking forward a yoke's length. / At night, and on an urgent matter, [one should go] holding a staff, silent, and accompanied.

When [previous food] is digested, one should eat wholesome food in moderation; one should not suppress urges by force. / One urged by natural impulses should not engage in other actions, nor without overcoming a curable disease.

One should abandon the tenfold sinful acts in body, speech, and mind. / One should speak at the proper time, wholesomely, moderately, non-contradictorily, and gently.

One should constantly look upon even insects and ants as oneself. / One should not do to others what is disagreeable to oneself.

“How are my nights and days passing at present?” / One whose mindfulness is thus constantly attentive does not partake of sorrow.

The six seasons are taught to occur in succession, two months each, beginning with Māgha. / In the strong person, because of the confinement [of heat] by the cold, the digestive fire is powerful in winter.

Therefore, in the cold, one should enjoy unctuous, sweet, sour, and salty tastes; / preparations made from wheat, flour, meat, sugarcane, and milk; and spirituous liquor;

new grain, animal fat, oil, pleasant warm water for cleansing purposes, / the rays of the sun applied with discretion, sudation, and footwear at all times.

Covered with lightweight blankets of naturally warm properties, / one should resort to a bed spread with cloaks, animal hides, silks, woven covers, and rugs,

embracing a beloved woman whose thighs, breasts, and hips are plump, and who is anointed with aloe wood, / inside an inner subterranean chamber warmed by the heat of charcoal embers.

This very regimen should be followed especially in late winter as well. / For at that time there is cold, mādhvīka wine [is suitable], and dryness arises from the season of eating.

Kapha accumulated in late winter, liquefied by the rays of the sun in spring, / impairs the digestive fire and produces diseases; therefore, at that time one should apply:

sharp emesis, errhines, and the like, gargles, collyrium, / exercise, body-powder massage, medicinal smoking, and pleasant warm water for cleansing.

Bathed and anointed with camphor, sandalwood, aloe wood, and saffron; / eating old barley, wheat, honey, wild game, and roasted meat; / one should drink āsava, ariṣṭa, sīdhu, mādhvīka, and mādhavī wines.

In spring, one should enjoy the youth of women and forests. / One should avoid heavy, hot, unctuous, and sweet things, and sleeping by day.

In summer, the sun drinks up the unctuous moisture of the world with its rays. / Sweet, cold, liquid, and unctuous food and drink are wholesome then.

Resorting to a cold churned drink with sugar, wild animals and birds, / clarified butter, milk, and rice dishes, one does not decline in summer.

Liquor should be drunk in small amounts, or not at all, or else mixed with very abundant water. / At midday, with one's body moist with sandalwood, one should sleep in a shower-chamber; at night,

on a breezy terrace strewn with the rays of the moon, / with desire subdued, attended by fans and touch of hands cooled with sandalwood,

adorned with pearls and jewels, one should sit comfortably in this [season]. / One should avoid salty, sour, pungent, and hot things, and exercise in this period.

Due to the vapor of the earth, the falling of rain from clouds, and the sour transformation of water, / when the strength of the digestive fire has weakened in the rains, wind and the other [doṣas] become aggravated.

One should take recourse to everything that is moderate and stimulates bodily heat; / non-unctuous enemas when the body is purified, aged grain, and prepared meat-soups;

wild meat, vegetable broths, old honey-wine and fermented liquors, / rainwater, well water, or boiled water; but meals on excessively gloomy days

should have distinct sour, salty, and unctuous tastes, be dry, mixed with honey, and light. / One should avoid river water, churned drinks mixed with water, daytime sleeping, exertion, and sunshine.

In those whose bodies are accustomed to the cold of the rains, when suddenly heated / by the rays of the sun, the accumulated pitta usually becomes aggravated in autumn.

To conquer it, bitter clarified butter, purgation, and blood-letting [are indicated]; / and when hungry, one should take light food that is bitter, sweet, and astringent.

Sugarcane, śāli rice, mung beans, lake water, boiled milk, / and moonbeams at dusk are wholesome in autumn,

as well as autumnal garlands and spotless garments. / Frost, alkalis, overeating, curd, sesame oil, meat gravy, sunshine,

strong liquor, sleeping by day, easterly winds, and heat from the sun should be avoided. / In the cold and in the rainy season, one should resort to the first three tastes; in spring, to the last [three tastes];

sweet tastes in summer; sweet, bitter, and astringent ones in autumn. / Food and drink should be dry in autumn and spring, cold in the summer and at the end of the rains [i.e. autumn];

in short, contrary to this otherwise. / Constant practice of all tastes [is recommended], with predominance of the respective tastes season by season.

The final and initial seven days of a season are known as the seasonal transition. / There, the previous regimen should be abandoned, and the subsequent routine should be adopted.

Thus is taught seasonal adaptation, which rests upon conduct and diet. / That which agrees by virtue of habit is called habitual suitability.

Those who understand suitability desire that the qualities [of diet and conduct] be opposite in properties / to those of the region and the diseases, both in conduct and in food.

And one should constantly employ that by which health is maintained / and which prevents the arising of unmanifest diseases.

Just as the administrator of a city [is attentive] to the city, or a charioteer to his chariot, / so should the wise person be attentive to the duties concerning his own body.

The son of Nārāyaṇa, the minister in charge of the royal kitchen of the lord of Gauḍa, / well-versed in policy, born from the inner circle [of royal physicians], / born of the renowned Lodhravalī lineage following Bhānu, / the venerable Cakradatta is the qualified author here. (1)

Whoever inserts here additional proven formulations beyond those written in the Siddhayoga, / or merely extracts [from them], / may a curse fall immediately upon his head, / pronounced by those who know the Three Bhaṭṭas, the three paths, and the Vedas! (2)

In the year 1948 [of the Vikrama era] marked by vasu (8), Veda (4), aṅka (9), and bhūmi (1), in the month of Kārtika, / this vernacular commentary was properly composed by the wise physician Ravidatta. (1)