Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c13.13.1

c13.13.1

§ 68. Leprosy and allied Skin-diseases :— By kuṣṭha, a very dangerous skin-disease causing the most wretched deformation— the so-called black leprosy is in general to be understood. According to the Smṛtis, sinners of the highest grade are punished with kuṣṭha in their future birth¹; therefore, the kuṣṭhin is incapable of inheriting² unless he has practised penance in order to remove the sin³. In the medical literature, however, kuṣṭha appears mostly to have a wider meaning. In the Bower MS, Hoernle has always translated it as "skin-disease". The following are mentioned as causes : food and drink that are injurious or mutually unsuitable (e.g. milk with fish)⁴, suppression of vomiting and of natural excretions in general, physical exercise or excessive heat after a rich meal, a cold bath after experiencing heat, fatigue or anxious excitation, sexual intercourse while having indigestion, mischief against a Brāhman or a spiritual teacher and others, also sins made in an earlier birth. The following are the preliminary signs : the skin appears glittering and rough, there is excessive perspiration or no perspiration, decolourization, heat and itching of the skin, numbness of certain parts of body, exceedingly strong painfulness of wounds or abscesses, quick aggravation and slow cure of the same and of a rough place remaining after the cure, dark colour of blood, goose-skin, red eruption, pain, weakness etc.