The Bower Manuscript 24
English (machine translation) 24
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24.1
II. Fol. 23: Bower manuscript
Śaṅkhapuṣpī, however, is especially promoting of intellect. // 743
A man who drinks liquorice combined with ghee and honey, drinking milk after it and avoiding women, shall live for a hundred autumns. // 744
Or five, eight, seven, or ten long peppers with honey and clarified butter
should be used for one month by one seeking the qualities of a rejuvenating tonic (rasāyana). // 745
Three long peppers each in the forenoon, after eating, and before the meal,
macerated in kiṃśuka alkali and fried in ghee, // 746
combined with ghee, should be used by one desiring the qualities of a rejuvenating tonic
to conquer cough, consumption, wasting, dyspnoea, hiccup, throat disease, // 747
hemorrhoids, impairment of the digestive fire, jaundice, irregular fever,
chronic catarrh, hoarseness of voice, abdominal tumor (gulma), and vātabalāsaka. // 748
Application of long pepper: 5 verses.
Increasing gradually for ten days, a man should increase by ten long peppers a day,
taken along with milk, and similarly drink [milk] after it. // 749
When each meal is digested, he should eat ṣaṣṭika rice with milk and clarified butter.
This is a rejuvenating tonic regimen using a thousand long peppers. // 750
Ground into a paste, they are to be consumed by the strong; boiled, by men of moderate strength.
That regimen which extends only up to three long peppers is the mildest. // 751
It is nourishing, beneficial to the voice, longevity-promoting, curative of enlargement of the spleen and abdomen,
stabiliser of youth, and intellect-promoting: thus is the rejuvenating tonic of long pepper. // 752
Second application of long pepper.
At the beginning of autumn, under the constellation Puṣya, a physician should dig up nāgabalā;
having purified himself, he should reduce its root to fine powder. // 753
Stirring a karṣa measure of that powder into milk, he should make [the patient] drink it;
when it is digested, milk should be drunk, and [solid] food should be avoided. // 754
Gradually over seven nights, he should increase it pala measure by pala measure;
then it should be drunk decreased by a pala measure, so long as no complication arises. // 755
And unseen by women and Śūdras, and dwelling in the forest, this
24.2
is prescribed.
This rejuvenating tonic destroys even pulmonary consumption (yakṣman) that has arisen with complications
and has all eleven forms, and life is constantly increased. // 756
This very procedure should also apply to the rejuvenating tonic of liquorice,
and is likewise stated for maṇḍūkaparṇī and for fresh ginger.
This is declared as an unsurpassed rejuvenating tonic bringing strength. // 757–758
Application of nāgabalā: 6 verses.
In the auspicious month of Mārgaśīrṣa, having purified himself with emetics and the like,
[the patient] should make use of black nightshade (kākamācī) possessing fruits and flowers. // 759
Attentively, a physician should slowly cook ten pala measures of cleaned black nightshade
in an iron vessel with half [that measure] of sesame oil. // 760
He should administer a dose of it and feed [him] with ṣaṣṭika grain;
he should eat ṣaṣṭika rice in appropriate measure along with that cooked vegetable. // 761
And here he should drink water infused with emblic myrobalans as an after-drink.
This supreme course lasts for twenty-one nights; // 762
the middling is two seven-night periods (fourteen days), and another lasts seven nights.
He should practice this regimen and avoid sexual intercourse. // 763
He should not take day-sleep, and should avoid physical exercise;
and gradually, at the end of the course, he should reintroduce the tastes (rasa). // 764
He should not eat out of due time, nor anything unwholesome in any way.
This generally brings back youth to the aged; // 765
it destroys wrinkles; it turns away wind that has departed [from balance] in living beings;
and for those whose virility is impaired, it purifies their virility. // 766
Combined with manifold auspicious deeds free from irregularities,
being taken as desired, it will gradually produce success. // 767
It brings fortune, brings fame, brings longevity, and is a supreme blessing and auspiciousness.
Application of kācamācī.
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One should take equal parts of the three myrobalans, indigo (nīlī), and blue water-lilies, // 768
antimony (añjana), long pepper root, leaves of sahacara,
bark of the arjuna tree, and fruit of piṇḍāraka, // 769
a decoction of rose-apple (jambū) root, and clay from the root of a rose-apple tree,
bhṛṅgarāja, and iron filings, in the measure of an akṣa each. // 770
One should cook this slowly over a gentle fire in belleric myrobalan (vibhītaka) oil.
Then, having performed purification, one should administer nasal therapy (nastas). // 771
A man should eat kṛsarā [rice-and-lentil mash] prepared with sesame oil for a month;
and when thirsty, he should drink water of the three myrobalans. // 772
Whatever other water-related necessity there is, he should perform that only with it.
Rejuvenating tonic nasal oil.
To the great sage Viśvāmitra, who was performing severe asceticism, // 773
the two divine physicians, the Aśvins, bestowers of boons, said:
‘For a man exhausted by the practice of austerities, this supreme invigorating
rejuvenating tonic increases health and strength. // 774
There should be a prastha measure of powder of pale emblic myrobalans gathered in the cold season; // 775
he should macerate it for twenty-one nights in its own juice;
there should be a prastha measure of long pepper powder, and a prastha measure of iron dust; // 776
there should be two prastha measures of honey, and an āḍhaka measure of clarified butter;
and two prastha measures of sugar, and half a prastha measure of plumbago (citraka). // 777
Having gathered this supply and put it into a vessel of ghee,
left for a month in the forest (or a container), he should eat it according to his strength. // 778
Or he should lick a pala measure or two pala measures at dawn before eating.
Possessed of intellect, free from wrinkles and grey hair, he lives for a hundred [years]. // 779
And here there is no restriction regarding bathing, eating, or sexual intercourse.’
Linked texts (1)
- Bower Manuscript — Sanskrit