The Bower Manuscript 11

English (machine translation) 11

Language: English

11.256

II. Fol. 9: Bower manuscript
And twenty-two chebulic myrobalans, and half a droṇa of water // 245
One should take down that decoction when one-fourth remains. Then, with that decoction, one should cook a prastha measure of ghee // 246
Half a kuḍava measure of indigo, then milk of calotropis […], adding spurge milk
as the paste, one should cook it. // 247
This, named Bindughṛta, destroys many diseases.
As many drops as one drinks, with so many bouts one is purged: // 248
Enlargements of the abdomen, spleen diseases, abdominal tumours, skin afflictions, and artificial poisons;
in wind-abdominal tumours of women, in cervical lymphadenitis, and in anal fistula; // 249
in bile-haemorrhoids, in upward wind, in those diseases born of all three humours,
in slow-poisoning, in administered poison, and in diabetes it is commended. // 250 // Bindughṛta. Six verses. // In this matter, with one pala measure of spurge milk,
one should cook two pala measures of clarified butter; and one pala measure of kampillaka, and half a śāṇa measure of rock salt; // 251
and one pala measure of trivṛt, a kuḍava measure of emblic myrobalan juice,
one should cook with a kaṃsa measure of water, slowly over a gentle fire, [as] a physician. // 252 // This Bindughṛta
by name, approved by the Aśvins, is auspicious.
As many drops as one drinks, with so many bouts one is purged. // 253
A karṣa measure should be given in ascites and abdominal tumour;
likewise, for patients suffering from turtle-like swelling, the wise physician should administer it. // 254
And one should drink warm water afterwards because of the small quantity of that clarified butter.
This breaks up abdominal tumours with accumulation, with pain, and with grasping, // 255
with a single application, like the wind [scatters] the clouds.
Indeed, to destroy the five abdominal tumours this clarified butter was instituted, // 256

11.261

just as the thunderbolt [was created] by the Self-born to destroy all demons.
This Bindughṛta is proclaimed, perfected and honoured by the perfected ones. Thus. // 257 // The Aśvins' Bindughṛta. Two verses. Goat's milk, ginger, sweet flag, horse-radish tree, chebulic myrobalan,
long pepper, black pepper, pāṭhā, and rock salt the tenth, [and] ghee. // 258
The ingredients beginning with ginger and ending with salt are one pala each.
With four times as much milk, one should cook a prastha measure of ghee. // 259
From its use a man obtains memory and intellect;
dullness, stammering, and muteness subside merely from drinking it. Thus. // 260 // Sārasvata-ghṛta. Three verses. Chapter Two. I shall proclaim Balātaila, destroyer of diseases of the wind humour,
approved by Ātreya, perfected, auspicious, granting pregnancy to barren women: // 261

11.268

Indeed, there should be one hundred dried pala measures of roots of balā,
and twenty-five of guḍūcī, and there should be ten pala measures of rāsnā. // 262
Having washed and bruised them, one should cook [them] with rain water;
when cooked in a hundred āḍhaka measures of water, one should reduce it to an āḍhaka. // 263
With that excellent decoction one should cook an āḍhaka measure of sesame oil;
and there should be curd whey, fermented gruel, and likewise sugarcane juice, // 264
and a half-share of goat's milk; one should cook it slowly over a gentle fire.
And one should add these [following ingredients], measured in pala quantities, to be ground into a paste: // 265
Roots of balā and atibalā, pine, Himalayan cedar,
mustā, madhuka, Indian madder, tagara, padmaka, agallochum, // 266
renuka, cardamom, vyāghranakha,
keśara, surasā, śaṭī,
mudgaparṇī, māṣaparṇī, and both jīvaka and ṛṣabhaka. // 267
When he knows that it is cooked, then he should take it down;
and, after it is taken down, the physician should add a paste of fragrant leaves. // 268

11.270

Having strained that clear [oil], he should store it in a clean vessel.
Then the wise one should administer it according to the disease and according to [the patient's] strength. // 269
It is to be used in inunction, nasal medication, draught, unctuous enema,
in food, in the ears, and in enemas and urethral/vaginal douches. // 270

11.272

Whether there is consumption or cough, dyspnoea or fever,
fainting or vomiting, weakness, impaired complexion, // 271
edema, semen defects, or abdominal tumour, or spleen disease,
hernia, duodenal disorder, emaciation, or headache, // 272

11.283

epilepsy, or tetanus—this oil cures them.
And whichever wind humours reside in the skin, and whichever have resorted to the marrow, // 273
those in the blood vessels, those in the sinews, and those that have pervaded all parts,
it pacifies all wind humours; there is no doubt about this. // 274
And at the time of menstruation, when women have bathed their heads, he should administer it;
even a barren woman obtains offspring, performing [its] application. // 275
Allaying discolouration, allaying misfortune, auspicious,
the physician should give Balātaila, which increases strength and faculties. Thus. // 276 // Balātaila. Sixteen verses. With a decoction of one hundred [palas] of balā, one should cook half an āḍhaka measure of sesame oil,
with pastes of madhuka, Indian madder, sandalwood, blue lotus, and padmaka, // 277
and with aromatics and restorative herbs, cooked with two droṇa measures of milk.
This Balātaila, worthy of kings, removes disorders of the wind humour. // 278
By this procedure, one should cook an oil of rāsnā, of guḍūcī, and of madhuka,
called by their own names, and likewise of sahacara. // 279 // Balātaila. Two and one-fourth verses. The learned man
should take a well-weighed hundred [palas] of balā root
and should boil it in a droṇa measure of water until reduced to one-fourth. // 280
And another ten pala measures of balā to be ground with milk;
and of husked sesame seeds he should take two āḍhaka measures of oil. // 281
With four times as much milk he should cook it over a gentle fire.
By this method one should cook the oil ten times. // 282
This perfected Balātaila destroys many diseases;
it is commended in draught, inunction, food, nasal medication, and in enema, // 283

11.285

in all menstrual disorders and in those having recourse to bleeding disorders,
and for damaged reproductive organs, and when men have lost semen; // 284
dryness of the palate, thirst, burning sensation, flank pain, abnormal menstruation,
emaciation, consumption, and insanity, erysipelas […] // 285

Linked texts (1)

Bower Manuscript — Sanskrit