The Bower Manuscript 14

14

II. Fol. 12: Bower manuscript
[For those whose minds] are struck down by malevolent spirits, and afflicted by concurrent [humours]; // 360
in irregular fever, blood-gulma, abscesses, and sciatica; in splenic enlargement, in wind-gulma, and likewise […]; // 361
and women whose wombs are impaired, […] women
who do not conceive a child when the fertile time arrives; // 362
one whose labor is arrested, likewise a barren woman, and women whose vaginas are afflicted—plainly the barren woman will conceive a child having bathed after her period, there is no doubt. // 363
At the fertile seasons of women, when they have just bathed, he should administer [it]. For this produces strength and complexion, and is supreme at generating intelligence; // 364
and it generates memory, is nourishing, and of great virtue; a destroyer of all diseases and a promoter of growth in children. // 365
This medicament, resembling ambrosia, should be applied in four ways. // Aśvagandhā-oil, 15 verses, 1 quarter. // Now I shall declare the oil called Śvadaṃṣṭrā-vātanirjaya; // 366
hear from me according to which procedure and recipe [it is prepared] for men. Nabhas and Nabhasya are two months, the best of seasons, // 367
when diverse herbs grow upon the surface of the earth, thriving and rained upon when the rain-cloud showers in season. // 368
When the earth has borne her crops, one should then harvest the medicinal herbs: when devoid of flowers and fruits, free from disease, born in a good field, auspicious. // 369
Having gathered it at an auspicious hour on a good day, taking pure [substance] in a pure [state], having crushed it in a mortar, // 370
one should then strain the juice through a cloth to the measured amount of an āḍhaka measure; and a prastha measure of sesame oil should be added, and one should add four times as much milk; // 371
and eight pala measures of jaggery, and six pala measures of ginger. When cooked, he should place it in a clean, very pure vessel. // 372
He should drink a dose of it at the proper time, and milk […]; […] he should eat jaggery mixed with ginger. // 373
And when the unctuous substance has been digested, he should eat ṣaṣṭika-rice with boiled milk. Now hear from me as I declare those diseases which it will pacify: // 374
excited […] […]. This oil is highly praised for those afflicted with the wind humour; // 375
named 'Ajita' (the Unconquered), it increases health and strength for mortals. This […] the wind humour pervading the whole body // 376
and […] of those who move about, he should relieve; tremblings and tremors, and likewise sciatica; // 377
in fistula-in-ano, kuṣṭha, gulma, and in epilepsy; and likewise this [is beneficial] for the vaginal disorders of young women; // 378
[…] gods. // 379a // Śvadaṃṣṭrā-oil, 12 verses. // Cook a kuḍava measure of sesame oil with twice as much juice of emblic myrobalans, [and with] equal karṣa parts of […] // 380
liquorice, prapuṇḍarīka, fresh blue water lilies, long pepper, and sandalwood: that oil he should always administer into the nose with his two fingers. // 381
[…] cures disease arising in the head; it makes even an old man's head black [haired] after one year. // 382 // Nasal oil that cures diseases of the head. // Jīvantī, liquorice, medā, long pepper, madana, sweet flag, // 383
ṛddhi, rāsnā, balā, bael, dill, and śatāvarī—having ground [these], cook clarified butter and sesame oil together in milk and water. One should know this unctuous enema as a dispeller of fever. // 384
When the path is cleansed, the humour removed, and the bodily tissues purified, with bodily pain gone and limbs light, he immediately becomes fever-free. // 385 // Fever-dispelling unctuous enema oil, 3 verses. // Long pepper, liquorice, bael, dill, madana, sweet flag, // 386
kuṣṭha, ṣaḍī, puṣkarāhvā, plumbago, and deodar—having ground [these], sesame oil should be cooked with twice as much milk. That is the best unctuous enema for piles and baffled wind humour; // 387
prolapse of the rectum, colic, dysuria, dysentery, weakness of the loins, thighs, and back, constipation localized in the groin, // 388
mucous discharge, swelling in the rectum, retention of flatus and feces, and frequent urge [to stool]: that unctuous enema cures [these]. // 389
Unctuous enema oil, 4 verses. // One should prepare five prastha measures of radish juice and four of curd; there should be three kuḍava measures of fermented gruel and likewise three of sesame oil; // 390
four pala measures of rock salt and eight of fresh ginger; if fresh is unavailable, dry should be used, [which] should be sixteen pala measures. // 391
This pacifies sciatica, stiffness of the thighs, and khallī-cramps of the wind humour, and all loin diseases; and those wind disorders [are conquered] by drinking it. // 392
Vāta-dispelling oil, 3 verses. // Liquorice, prapauṇḍarīka, bṛhatī, rock salt, sprouted pigeon pea, unripened fruits of bael, hareṇu, the two curcumas, and long pepper should be given as the tenth. // 393 // With these in measures equal to an akṣa […]