The Bower Manuscript 1
English (machine translation) 1
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I. Fol. 1: Bower manuscript
Om. On whose peaks dwell divine seers, hosts of Siddhas, Kinnaras, Nāgas, Yakṣas, and Vidyādharas, endowed with endless gems, / holy, pleasing to the gods, elevated from the surface of heaven, [...] lofty; // 1
Where darkness, scattered in fear in all ten directions by the net of rays of thousands of flashing gems, / does not return even during rainy season nights, as if suspecting the abode of the moon, stars, sun, and fire; // 2
Who is constantly frequented by multitudes of sages accompanied by their pupils, holding twigs of sacrificial wood, kuśa grass, fruits, water, and flowers in their hands; / and in whose bowers the branches of the trees are touched by heavenly maidens desiring blossoms; // 3
Where, through union with the rays of the moon permanently resting on a part of the braided matted crest of the Three-Eyed [Śiva], / the moon-stones pour out copious water resembling ice and crystals of the Himālaya, cool even during the day; // 4
On whose rock-slabs washed by water released from the clouds, in bowers echoing with the calls of various kinds of birds, / charming and crowded with trees bearing flowers and fruits, medicinal herbs blaze at night like fire; // 5
Where lions, bearing thick manes whiter than moonbeams, their limbs sprinkled with blood from the foreheads of maddened elephants, / roaring loudly from the mouths of mountain caves, cannot endure even the thunder of clouds; // 6
On that mountain, which is the ornament of the circle of the earth, like a universal host to the world through its lavish gifts, / whose peaks are lovely with trees bearing flowers and fruits in all seasons, these sages whose darkness had been dispelled were residing: // 7
Ātreya, Hārīta, Parāśara, Bhela, Garga, Śāmbavya, Suśruta, Vasiṣṭha, Karāla, and Kāpya; / desiring to know the taste, quality, appearance, potency, and name of all medicinal herbs, assembled in their hundreds, they wandered forth. // 8
Having seen [a plant] with leaves green and dark-green like sapphires, and with bulbs white like jasmine, crystal, white water-lilies, moonbeams, conch shells, and clouds, becoming full of interest,
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Suśruta approached the sage, the king of Kāśi: "What could this be?" Then that venerable one told him truly: // 9
"Long ago, when the nectar was churned, the lord of the Asuras drank it himself. / The venerable Janārdana severed his head. // 10
When his head was cut off, near the windpipe, / drops fell upon the earth; that was indeed its first origin here. // 11
I. Fol. 2: Bower manuscript
And for this reason, Brahmins do not eat it, because it came forth from contact with a body; / and precisely on this account those proficient in traditional lore speak of its pungent smell. // 12
Because it lacks the salty taste, they call it raśūna, / while 'laśuna' is its well-known worldly designation. / What need is there to state its many names in vernacular tongues? Listen to its taste, quality, and potency, and also its practical application: // 13
It is stated to be pungent in taste and in post-digestive effect, / and another [variety] is mentioned as sweet in post-digestive effect. / It is light, and because of its smell hard to digest, and hot in potency, and renowned as an aphrodisiac. // 14
Owing to its sourness, heat, and unctuous nature, it removes the power of the wind humour, / as stated by the foremost sages; through sweetness and its nature regarding bile, by its taste it pacifies the bile humour; / through heat, sharpness, and pungency, it overcomes the power of the phlegm humour, as told by the wise; it cures all diseases when applied according to the rule, removing the combination of the three humours. // 15
It destroys the wind humour even when residing in the bones, and it quickly pacifies excited phlegm humour; / it generates strong digestive power, produces strength and complexion, and is considered pre-eminent. // 16
Now then, for those who consume various kinds of wine, meat, clarified butter, barley, and wheat, living comfortably, / this garlic-festival should be undertaken in the winter season, and in the months of Madhu and Mādhava, // 17
When waistbands fitting for the hips are cast aside by loving women, / when necklaces are not worn over the chest and twin breasts because of cold, / when women do not find pleasure on mansion roofs made attractive by interwoven moonbeams—
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at that time it should be applied, when aguru and saffron markings are held in high esteem. // 18
One should display garlands of garlic rich in bulbs on the tops of mansions, on archways, and on the doors of turrets, / and likewise perform worship upon the ground; / and one should put garlands made of it on one's attendants; this rule is prescribed for a person, known by the name of 'small [garlic festival]'. // 19
Then, having cleansed one's body, pure and solitary, / having worshipped the gods, the Brahmins, and fire, / one should drink the fresh juice of garlic strained through a cloth on a day endowed with auspicious planets and lunar mansions: // 20
a kuḍava measure, or half a kuḍava measure, or a kuḍava measure and a half, or beyond that according to measure. / For there is no fixed measure in this matter; one should drink it having observed the humours, strength, and illness. // 21
One drinking it should be gently fanned with auspicious palmyra-leaf fans; / and if fainting should happen to the drinker, one should then touch him with cold water mixed with sandalwood. // 22
One should drink one mouthful of the juice, mixed with a third part of liquor, / first to cause the cleansing of the throat; / and having paused for an instant, one should drink the rest. // 23
When that has digested, one should eat boiled rice with milk, or milk combined with the broth of wild animals, / or agreeable seasoned soups made of split pulses, combined with fats, in proper measure, at one single meal. // 24
One should drink grape wine, or honey, or wine blended with honey, or ariṣṭa liquor, or śīdhu, or jagala, or agaja, or maireya liquor, / or whatever other wine of good quality is available, diluted with water, or each one separately, so that there is no mixing of liquors. // 25
A non-drinker of wine should drink pleasant warm water, or sour gruel, / water made from barley husk, sauvīraka, and pure whey. // 26
One should by no means consume this with molasses, nor should one drink unboiled water.
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applying [it]. And he should constantly fear indigestion, and should not eat for not a few days. // 27
Now, taking clean, smooth bulbs, ground, and clarified butter equal to them, / having stirred this together with a ladle into one in a vessel of ghee, // 28
left overnight, one should consume [it] starting after ten days in the quantity of a bael fruit; / and when it is digested, one should observe the dietary regimen taught in the treatise on the elixir. // 29
Both of these procedures have been declared by me as foremost among choices. / If a man should not make an effort with these two, hear from me other procedures: // 30
Bulbs gleaming like conch shells, cleared of dirt, with parched grain flour, gruel, and vinegar; / with clarified butter and sesame oil, preparations of flour, varieties of pulses and meat, / with powders of mung bean mixed with chebulic myrobalan, and enriched with fragrant black salt, / cooked by many other methods, he should eat, or by different ones. // 31
Having cooked its stalk along with meats, he should have him drink that strained, agreeable broth. / Likewise, he should give him boiled milk, or it may be vegetable soup mixed with it. // 32
Then garlic along with oil and vinegar, placed in barley after being smeared with mud / and kept for one year—a man who uses [it] leaves behind even long-standing diseases. // 33
When a cow has stayed three nights without eating grass, then one should arrange garlic [amounting to] half the grass; […] / having consumed that milk, curd, clarified butter, or even buttermilk, a Brahmin will conquer various diseases and attain happiness. // 34
Thirty-two prastha measures of garlic juice, / half of half of this of ferment, a prastha measure of sesame oil freed from impurities, and six [prasthas] of paste should be added; / he should also add a jar of the decoction of meṣaśṛṅgī, / well cooled, and the wise man should again add two prastha measures of paste there. // 35
Thus, after five and twenty days this liquor is endowed with taste, colour, and fragrance,
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and this is called 'the elevated oil', exceedingly efficacious. / A man who diligently uses this oil or the liquor, / the hosts of diseases shun him, as other [warriors shun] those skilled in weapons in battle. // 36
Having ground one purified prastha measure of garlic, one should combine it with powders of the three myrobalans of half a pala measure each, / and with a kuḍava measure of clarified butter and sesame oil; kept for ten days, it is said to remove cough, dyspnoea, and obstruction of stool. // 37
Combined with wind-destroying [drugs], it cures wind abdominal tumours; / just combined with khadira, it cures leprosy; / mixed with aśvagandhā, it destroys cough and dyspnoea; and mixed with liquorice, it is declared beneficial for the voice. // 38
It destroys various kinds of diseases / when combined with various specific substances; / there is no restriction anywhere in this formulation; this formulation is used by the prosperous as desired. // 39
Of this supreme elixir when used, / hear with an attentive mind from me, Suśruta, the virtues / being stated in brief: // 40
It dispels leprosy, anorexia, abdominal tumours, cough, emaciation, leukoderma, and sluggishness of the digestive fire; / it removes gout, menorrhagia, colic, consumption, abdominal enlargement, enlargement of the spleen, and piles; / it removes hemiplegia, stiffness of the lumbar region, worm-diseases, upward movement of wind, and urinary disorders; / it destroys torpor, chronic rhinitis, wind in the arms and back, and epilepsy. // 41
Splendid, possessing a voice delightful as a bamboo flute or mṛdaṅga drum, having the brilliance of heated superior gold, / possessed of intellect, wisdom, and strength, his body well-compacted, free from old age and the like, / with all firm sense faculties gathered together in constant vitality and great growth, / with firm power of digestive fire, a man lives for a hundred years, or remains inexhaustible among women. // 42
[…] this procedure for garlic has been declared by me, and thus indeed was seen by ancient sages; […] and may one apply [it] properly […] // 43 // […]
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Digestion of food, equilibrium of the bodily elements, and health, / nourishment, splendour, and energy, and long life are produced from the digestive fire. // 44
For the digestive fire has food as its root, and the bodily elements have digestion as their root; / from equilibrium of the bodily elements comes health, and from health, supreme nourishment. // 45
From nourishment come splendour and energy, and from all these the life / of living beings increases; therefore, one should examine the digestive fire first of all. // 46
From equilibrium of the bodily elements it is said to be balanced; that indeed is declared to be the best. / When it is irregular, one should drink curd-clarified butter or [a ghee] prepared with havuṣā and other [drugs]. // 47
Unctuous and warm suppositories are desirable, as well as drinks and food; / but when it is sluggish, fasting comes first, followed by digestive and fire-kindling remedies. // 48
And the administrations of powders and fermented liquors that remove bile and phlegm are beneficial; / thus, when the digestive fire is balanced, [the physician] should apply what is agreeable, according to physicians. // 49
And on this point there is [a verse]: / When it is sluggish and when it is sharp, a man dies without remedies; / when it is irregular, there is an abundance of disease; when it is balanced, he will live long and happily. // 50
Therefore, in all diseases at all times, a wise man / should carry out treatment rooted in the digestive fire first, for the pacification of the disease. // 51
With the fresh juice of śaṅkhapuṣpī, brāhmī, maṇḍūkaparṇī, and liquorice, / one desiring intellect, health, and strength, and wishing to live, should make use of it. // 52
In a month he becomes intelligent; after six months, able to retain what is heard and free from old age; / by using it according to rule for a year, he lives for a thousand years, [or] for two hundred. // 53
Using it thus continuously, he becomes free from old age. […] // 54
In gruels, khaḍa soups, and pulses, and in electuaries, powders, and antivenoms, / and in pills, collyria, suppositories, and in medicinal inhalations and nasal blowing powders, // 55
and in closed-pot baking, saturating drinks, fomentations, sternutatories, and eye-drops, // 56
and in others not mentioned, wherever the proportion is not stated, / the ingredients should be in equal parts, and honey and clarified butter in double [amount]; // 57
but one should add threefold jaggery, and fourfold sugar-powder, where among ingredients to be ground
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where a liquid is not specified, water is understood there. // 58
And among curds, urine, milk, clarified butter, hair, horns, and hooves,
one should use all from cows; among honeys, that produced by the honeybee. // 59
One should cook pungent oil with pomegranate peel;
the ears, vulva, lips, and penis all enlarge by means of this. // 60
Half a pala of root of plumbago, and likewise of turpeth and sātala,
[...] of danti roots, one karṣa each, // 61
and of long pepper, rock salt, and likewise asafetida and amlavetasa,
and twenty prime chebulic myrobalans [...] one should cook. // 62
From eight palas of jaggery, one should properly make ten pills;
one should eat one of them every tenth day. // 63
Afterward, one should drink hot water for the digestion of the humours;
then, at the end of the purgation, having bathed, one should consume wholesome food. // 64
Here there is never any restriction of speech, body, or mind;
this purgative, prepared by Agasti, is suited for kings in all seasons. // 65
It crushes old age and death, destroys all diseases,
is aphrodisiac, rejuvenating, and promotes intellect and health. // 66
It must never be given to one who is not a son, nor to one who is not a pupil;
it must not be given to an enemy of the king, nor to others who practice evil. // 67
The two pañcamūlas, licorice, guḍūcī, rāsnā, aśvagandhā, devadāru, pāṭhā,
cassia bark, the two balas, tagara, sesame seeds, mūrvā, horse gram, spikenard, musta, // 68
punarnavā, bamboo peel, jīvantī, cardamom, agallochum, jīvaka,
castor root, sprouts of suphala, kuraṇḍa flowers, and dry ginger: // 69
boiled with water using two or three [of these], goat's, cow's, or sheep's milk,
with a little rock salt, lukewarm—this eye drops is for eye disease caused by wind humour. // 70
Tree turmeric, blue water lily, padmaka, tuṅga, yāṣā, medā, lotus stalk,
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licorice, mañjiṣṭhā,
kālīyaka, parpaṭaka, latā, grapes, kārṣmarya, and parūṣaka, // 71
roots of gundrā, reed, and vetasa, sprouts of flowerless grasses,
prapauṇḍarīka with kirātatikta, sandalwood, neem, snake gourd, and vāsā: // 72
two or three of these boiled in goat's milk or woman's milk would be an excellent eye drops;
with sugar and combined with honey, in eye disease caused by bile humour and originating from blood. // 73
The three pungents, three myrobalans, turmeric, iron sulfate, nutmeg, soot, jasmine,
lāc, dantī, holy basil, sweet flag, pāṭhā, aśvagandhā, prime devadāru, // 74
kaṭphala, cardamom, agallochum, kaṇṭakārī,
lodh tree, karañja, bṛhatī, gokhru:
two or three of these boiled in water, made lukewarm with rock salt, // 75
the wise call an eye drops plentiful in honey for eye disease caused by phlegm humour.
With parūṣaka, āmrātaka, tamarind, vṛkṣāmla, rose apple, mango, wood apple, and jujube, // 76
with citron and sour pomegranate, with wine, milks, or whey,
boiled with tree turmeric, blue water lily, and the others, sour, as eye drops combined with rock salt, // 77
[...] forcefully destroys pain of the eyes caused by [blood] arisen from alternating cold and heat.
In a disease born of combination [of two humours] or arisen from all [three], having examined deficiency and excess, // 78
the discerning [physician] removing [...] should prepare [...].
Castor root with sprouting fruits, vijarjana, combined with goat's milk // 79
would be foremost in dispelling vātarakta; good physicians call it an eye drops.
Prapauṇḍarīka, licorice, turmeric, and [...] // 80
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applied as an eye drops mixed with sugar would turn back distress caused by bile and wind humours.
Tagara, gokhru, bṛhatī, cassia bark, and hrīvera—boiled with milk and water of goats, // 81
combined with rock salt, this would be an eye drops dispelling wind and phlegm humours.
[...] tree turmeric and prime licorice boiled in cow's milk or woman's [milk], // 82
administered as an eye drops with sugar by a good physician in [disorders of] wind humour, blood, and bile humour.
Having tied fine powders of the three fruits in a corner of white linen cloth, // 83
steeped in goat's milk, woman's [milk], or water, it would dispel all pain.
Tree turmeric, turmeric, the three myrobalans, with musta, with sugar, combined with honey, // 84
as an eye drops combined with human milk, is declared foremost in dispelling bile humour, blood, and wind humour.
With young castor roots together with leaves, or with pastes of sixty-day rice, // 85
flooded with ghee, applied as a śāvaraka plaster according to the previous rule, it would dispel pain. // 86
Fomentations, puṭapākas, nasal medicines, satiations, ghee-drinks, pastes, and sprinklings—
the physician should prepare these with the substances prescribed for eye drops. // 87
Face pastes are declared beneficial for seasonal disorders, destroying freckles and dark pigmentation,
and also dispelling poison and swelling. // 88
Bamboo manna, sandalwood, and padmaka, gundrā, lotus stalk,
musta and bālaka,
root of kuśa grass, tagara, elavālu, tālīsa leaf, spikenard, and sesame seeds; // 89
lentils, dūrvā grass, māṣa, barley, lotus stalk, and juice of licorice and water lilies,
lichen, musta, agallochum, jhāmaka, sthauṇeyaka, cardamom, tagara, and sesame seeds; // 90
cassia bark, tejapatra, kuṣṭha, agallochum, jhāmaka, spikenard, hareṇu, and paripelava,
licorice, lodh tree, agallochum, sandalwood, punarnavā, black sesame seeds, and latā: // 90
thus with these half-forms
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9 To be applied as facial pastes in the appropriate seasons, such as the hot season and others. / Those beneficial to the eyesight of men have been shown; now hear from me those spoken of as removing the humours: // 92 // Those destroying disorders of the wind humour are stated for the arrival of the rains; those destroying disorders of the bile humour / are prescribed in autumn; those destroying blood disorders are taught in summer; those destroying phlegm disorders are stated for the arrival of spring. // 93 // Cotton roots, latā, uśīra, kālīyaka, and the bark of trees with milky sap, / bhadraśriya, […] and barley: they call these complexion-enhancing facial pastes. // 94 // Having dried these with cow's urine, or mixed together with jujube-water and urine, / or combined with the juice of citron together with mustard seeds, having dried them, they should be applied on the face. // 95 // […] when [the skin] is distressed, and when corrupt blood has been released, / and after oleation, purgation, and various types of nasal medication have been performed, facial pastes should be applied. // 96 // Cinnamon bark, patra, māṃsī, nata, sandalwood, red arsenic, tiger's claw, / hareṇu, […], tamarind, kuṣṭha, surasā, and the two turmerics—these facial pastes are destroyers of poison. // 97 // Mūrvā, aśvagandhā, the three myrobalans, and karañja—these facial pastes destroy swelling. / They also say that mūrvā combined with cow's urine is a facial paste that destroys swelling. // 98 // When the face is smeared, one should not laugh, nor weep, nor indulge in sleep, and likewise should not eat; / a man should not warm himself at a fire, nor keep a dried paste on the face. // 99 // Abhīlu, dark spots, kuṣṭha, melasma along with pilpu, and freckles of a person— / these subside immediately from a facial paste, and the eyesight and face become clear. // 100 // When the face is smeared, if one laughs or eats, the phlegm humour along with the wind humour / quickly flares up when sleeping; therefore, purgations of the head, unctuous substances, and fumigations must again be employed. // 101 // And from heat of fire, it melts away, or if a dry facial paste is retained on a person, / they say that the diseases beginning with abhīlu arise; one should provide relief for them as prescribed. // 102
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6 Night-blindness, timira, burning pain in the head, and ocular pain caused by the bile humour accompanied by burning, / as well as other humours situated in the skin of the face, subside immediately from a facial paste. // 103 // In an affection of the eyes caused by phlegm and wind humours, after a nasal application has been performed, and in patients with chronic coryza, / in lockjaw, and in headaches: they say facial pastes should be avoided. // 104 // A facial paste is prescribed to be a quarter of a finger's breadth [thick]; / the middling one should be a third part, while the last should be half a finger's breadth. // 105 // Liquorice, rodhra, the three myrobalans, lotus stalk, sugar candy, and golden ochre, / patra, cinnamon bark, cardamom, aguru, cedar, punarnavā, tiger's claw, and collyrium, // 106 // red arsenic, orpiment, bṛhatī bark, māṃsī, hareṇu, and paripelava, / sauvīraka, red ochre, kaṭphala, and śārivā, mixed with sugar: // 107 // thus, by these half-verses, four [pastes] are prescribed for the alleviation of diseases of the phlegm humour, blood, bile humour, and wind humour. / With these eye-pastes, one should smear around the eye up to the root of the eyelashes or on the outside. // 108 // And rodhra smeared with a little ghee, or chebulic myrobalan rubbed on an iron plate, / with bark of bṛhatī and an equal amount of collyrium, forms an eye-paste that removes all pains. // 109 // Red ochre, rasāñjana, collyrium, red arsenic, and brass flowers in equal parts, / along with a little black pepper, twice as much […] // 110 // and in black pepper flowers, green, one should cook it over a gentle fire together with ghee. / This eye-paste collyrium, four […] we shall explain […] // 111 // […] baldness […] / […] as it is being explained, learn! // 112 // From disturbance of the bodily fluids, from sexual intercourse, and from the vitiation of bile and blood, / premature greying occurs; in an aged person, it occurs through old age. // 113 // Mostly women possess phlegm humour […] / […] engaging in [these], they discharge corrupt menstrual blood. // 114
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3 Therefore, the heat of bile and blood being calm in women, their scalp is preserved; / consequently, their hair does not fall out, and for that reason women do not become bald. // 115 // In men, due to the contrary, bile and blood become vitiated; / […] the hair roots, and makes the head bald. // 116 // Baldness that is hairless, with copper-coloured hair, and of long standing, / that does not heal; but one should properly treat that which is curable and recent. // 117 // In baldness and premature greying, one should first pierce the veins repeatedly; / when he is cleansed of corrupt blood, procedures beginning with vomiting are beneficial. // 118 // Afterwards, having cleansed the belly, one should administer […] / and various oil formulations, and likewise hair dyes, // 119 // and also those that produce hair, as well as those that make it grow, / and hair-washes that are beneficial according to the removal of the humours. // 120 // The wise man should treat one who coughs from the wind humour with ghees endowed with sweet, sour, and salty tastes, / combined with food or alone, according to strength. // 121 // Wheat and rice should be eaten with the broths of domestic, swamp, and aquatic animals, with jaggery and onions, / and with sour, unctuous, hot, and sweet substances. // 122 // One should drink surā liquor with its scum, warm water, or meat-broths at will; / in wind-cough, one should drink copious unctuous substances or milk with jaggery. // 123 // With ginger, ṣaḍī, grapes, śṛṅgī, long pepper, and bhārgī, / an electuary combined with jaggery and sesame oil is beneficial to those coughing from the wind humour. // 124 // With long pepper, māruta, cumin, ṣaḍī, puṣkara, and citraka, / this powder along with rock salt is beneficial to those coughing from the wind humour. // 125 // One should boil thirty palas of kaṇṭakārī in an āḍhaka measure of water; / when it remains reduced to a fourth part, having strained it, one should add thirty palas of jaggery to it, // 126 // with powders of dried ginger, bhārgī, cardamom, long pepper, ṣaḍī, and citraka, / and also with palas of ghee and sesame oil.
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one should cook [it] together like a linctus until thickened by four [parts]; and when cooled, having added two palas of honey
and a pala of long pepper powder, one should lick it to dispel cough.
One should cook clarified butter with a paste of Clerodendrum serratum and a decoction of the ten roots
in an extract of rooster and partridge; that is supreme in dispelling cough caused by wind humour.
One should cook a kuḍava measure of clarified butter in a prastha measure of Solanum virginianum juice
with a paste of punarnavā; that is supreme in dispelling cough caused by wind humour.
And one should cook a paste of Clerodendrum serratum and clarified butter in four times the amount of curd
and twice the amount of Solanum virginianum juice; it is supreme in removing cough caused by wind humour.
In [cough] caused by bile humour, the drinking of clarified butter is beneficial along with purgation.
Linked texts (1)
- Bower Manuscript — Sanskrit