Agnipurana 280

English (machine translation) 280

Language: English

280.9 — 2 parts
280.19 — 3 parts
280.31 — 1 part
280.33 — 3 parts

280.1

Dhanvantari said: / I shall state the characteristics of tastes and so forth; listen to the qualities of medicines. / A person who understands taste, potency, and post-digestive effect can protect kings and others.

280.2

Sweet, sour, and salty tastes are declared to be born of Soma; / pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes are fiery, O mighty-armed one.

280.3

The post-digestive effect of a substance is threefold, consisting of pungent, sour, and sweet. / Potency is declared to be twofold: hot and cold.

280.4

And the specific potency of medicinal plants is inexplicable, O best of the twice-born. / Sweet, astringent, and bitter tastes

280.5

are taught to be cold in potency, while the remaining ones are proclaimed to be hot. / Among them, guḍūcī, though bitter, is hot due to its superior potency.

280.6

Likewise pathyā, though astringent, is hot, O giver of honor; / meat also, though sweet, is declared to be hot.

280.7

Salty and sweet tastes are taught to have sweet post-digestive effects; / sour is hot, and the rest have pungent post-digestive effects.

280.8

When potency and post-digestive transformation are inverted, the decision is based on specific action (prabhāva); / thus honey, though sweet, is taught to be pungent in post-digestive effect.

280.9

One should boil sixteen times [as much water], and drink four times [as much as] the substance.

280.9.p1

[Footnote]

280.9.p2

1. 'Yavakṣaudram' in manuscript kha. / [page 39]

280.9_2

This is the formulation of a decoction where no specific rule has been declared.

280.10

The decoction water in cooking unctuous substance should be fourfold; / having taken equal substance to substance, the wise one should add the unctuous substance.

280.11

One should then add a fourth part of the unctuous substance of the substance's measure; / and that which is substance devoid of water becomes the unctuous substance.

280.12

The cooking of unctuous substances is declared to be [done] when the medicinal paste rolls together into a ball; / its equality, O Suśruta, becomes likewise for an electuary.

280.13

A clear decoction with little medicine and an astringent drink are as described; / an akṣa is declared for a powder, and four palas for a decoction.

280.14

This is considered the middling dose; there is no fixed determination of dose; / observing age, season, strength, digestive fire, region, substance, and disease,

280.15

the formulation of the dosage should be made, O fortunate one. / Gentle tastes there are generally to be known as increasing the bodily tissues.

280.16

Sweet tastes especially are to be known as increasing the bodily tissues. / A substance that possesses qualities equal to the humors and bodily tissues

280.17

is to be known as producing their increase, while one of opposite qualities brings about their decrease. / Three supporting pillars are declared in this body, O best of men:

280.18

food, sexual intercourse, and sleep; one must always take care in these; / through non-practice or excessive practice one would meet total ruin.

280.19

Nourishment is to be given to the emaciated; reduction for the obese body; / preservation for the middling body—three divisions of bodies are recognized.

280.19.p1

[Footnote]

280.19.p2

1. 'And in the cooking of an unctuous substance, that quality' in manuscript kha.

280.19.p3

2. 'Its equality also becomes as it is, O Suśruta' in manuscript kha. / [page 40]

280.20

Two treatments are declared: nourishing or depletive. / One should eat wholesome food, eat measured food, and eat when previous food is digested.

280.21

The preparation of herbs is fivefold, O best of men: / fresh juice, paste, decoction, cold infusion, and hot infusion.

280.22

Fresh juice should be known as obtained by pressing; paste comes from churning [or grinding]; / decoction is known as boiled; cold infusion is what has stood overnight;

280.23

that which is instantly boiled and filtered is called a hot infusion. / The operations are remembered to be one hundred and sixty in addition.

280.24

He who knows this would indeed be unconquerable, skilled in bodily wrestling. / Purity of food is for the sake of the digestive fire; the digestive fire is the root of men's strength.

280.25

One should consume triphalā with rock salt, O good king, as it imparts complexion; / and wild meat broth with rock salt, curd, milk, and pippalī.

280.26

A man should make an excess of bodily fluid equal, or if he has an excess of vāta. / Massage is prescribed in the summer, and equally extensive in the dewy season;

280.27

it should be known as moderate in spring, and intense massage in summer. / First the skin should be massaged, and immediately after, the limb.

280.28

In bodies having tendons and blood, the bone appears as if fleshy; / the shoulders, the arms, and likewise here the shanks with the knees,

280.29

the wise one should massage like an enemy, and the collarbones and chest as before; / and pressing firmly upon all the joints of the limbs,

280.30

he should extend the joints of the limbs, but not with sudden jerk or out of order. / A man should not exert himself when food is undigested, nor after eating or drinking.