The Bower Manuscript 25

25

II. Fol. 24: Bower manuscript
[bringing] prosperity, renown, longevity, welfare, and supreme good fortune; // 780
and spoken by Viśvāmitra, and honored by the sages. // 781a
[Formula for] the Aśvins' rejuvenator.
In winter, one should regularly consume aśvagandhā, or black sesame seeds mixed with sugar, [and] constantly drink milk afterwards here.
And this was ordained by the Lord himself here, conferring strength like Viṣṇu's, which, having drunk for twelve days, even an old man indeed becomes young. // 782
[Formula for] stoutening.
Having combined aśvagandhā and payasyā, one should drink [them] with milk.
Employing [this] for one month, one who is very emaciated would attain stoutness. // 783
Now we shall explain stoutening for an emaciated person:
Taking aśvagandhā that has grown on ground untouched by the sounds of pestles, wheels, or plows, together with its roots, leaves, and flowers, one should make fine powders.
Then, taking a measure of a viḍālapada with clarified butter, one should lick it during the day, and drink milk afterwards; at the end of digestion, one should eat a meal with milk.
In this way, after twenty-one nights, he becomes strong and stout-bodied; thus said Bṛhaspati. // 784
Bṛhaspati's stoutening [formula].
This decoction of jujube, horse gram, barley, and radish, mixed with ghee and sesame oil,
combined with curd, rice, and rock salt, would overcome fever and the wind humour situated in the abdomen. // 785
Rice gruel with dry ginger, long pepper, cavya, plumbago, together with long-pepper root and grains of rice,
is light, destroys colic, is an appetizer, and kindles the digestive fire. // 786
Pulp of wood apple with pulp of bilva and cāṅgerī, prepared with pomegranate and buttermilk—
this rice gruel is bowel-binding, digestive, but in an affection of the wind humour, it should be prepared with the five roots. // 787
It should contain śālaparṇī, pṛśniparṇī, balā, and likewise the pulp of bilva fruit,
together with pomegranate and combined with rice grains, in diarrhea caused by the phlegm humour, but [also] in that arising from the phlegm and bile humours. // 788
With hrīvera, coriander, blue water lily, and dry ginger, in goat's milk and water with pṛśniparṇī,
the skilled [physician] should cook that rice gruel with rice grains, beneficial in cases of blood diarrhea. // 789
In crude [diarrhea], the physician should administer a gruel with sour [ingredients], along with dry ginger and ativiṣā.
And [a gruel] containing kaṇṭakārī, gokṣura, and treacle, is to be drunk in cases of bladder pains. // 790
Vidanga, and long-pepper root, drumstick, suvarcikā, and similarly red silk-cotton gum—
rice gruel combined with buttermilk is beneficial, and destroys worms residing in a person's abdomen. // 791
Raisins, and uśīra, śārivā, and parched grain cooked along with long pepper—
a gruel very cool, mixed with honey, would destroy morbid thirst
[…] heightened. // 792
They say rice gruel with somarājī is beneficial in diseases connected with poison.
Rice gruel cooked in a decoction of boar's fat would be stoutening for men. // 793
Rice gruel of barley, however, sour with pomegranate, with the three pungents, if cooked in asafoetida,
clarified butter, sesame oil, and added salt, is beneficial in chronic coryza and in phlegm [disorders]. // 794
[Rice gruel] made of scorched gavedhukā seeds, mixed with honey, would be emaciating.
Rice gruel containing clarified butter, combined with rock salt and sesame seeds, is unctuous. // 795
Gruel of wild millet in a boiled decoction of kuśa and śālaparṇī is roughening.
Rice gruel cooked with the ten roots is beneficial in hiccups, coughs, and likewise in asthma. // 796
Clear liquor cooked in a combination of two unctuous substances is beneficial in pains arising in the large intestine.
[Rice gruel] cooked with meats, black gram, sesame, and vegetables would be bowel-clearing. // 797
Rice gruel [cooked] with stones of jambul and mango, wood apple, and bilva, however, would be bowel-binding.
Cooked with alkaline ashes, asafoetida, plumbago, and sour wood apple, it is laxative. // 798
Rice gruel with long-pepper root, chebulic myrobalan, and bilva makes the wind humour move downward.
Rice gruel combined with buttermilk, followed by a drink of buttermilk, is beneficial in disorders caused by ghee. // 799
Rice gruel combined with watered buttermilk, sesame cake, and honey is beneficial for one troubled by oil.
Rice gruel cooked with long pepper and emblic myrobalan, and cooked with a combination of two unctuous substances, is good for the throat. // 800
Cooked with curd and rice, upodakā would be a destroyer of intoxication.
And rice gruel cooked with water monitor [meat] and juice of prickly chaff-flower would be a destroyer of hunger. // 801
Rice gruel with the five roots, mixed with ghee and sesame oil, and with pomegranate,
destroys the wind humour; made with aged grain, it destroys disorders of the phlegm humour;
containing lotus, blue water lily, and sugar, one should drink the cooked rice gruel to dispel the bile humour. // 802
"May fire from my central body, may wind sustain my vital breaths,
may Indra bestow strength upon me, and may the waters grant me bliss." // 803
Having eaten and likewise having approached a woman, chanting this seer's mantra,
one should touch water; thus his lifespan is not diminished. // 804
Bhela's rice gruels.
Ambaṣṭhā, along with kuṭaja seeds, ginger, mango-stone, kāyphal, and core of jambul,
should be [used], along with dhātakī, hrīvera, and stony ash; and best mustā, and stamen of the water lily should be [used]. // 805