Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c13.49

c13.49

Impotency, *klaibya*, is divided into four kinds according to Car 6:30, in five kinds according to Hārīta 709, 359, in six kinds according to Su 4.26, and in seven kinds according to Bhāv 3.2. It is either hereditary or gained by use of sour, saltish, dry or useless food, excessive water-drinking, fasts, diseases or wounds of penis, castration, chastity, mental causes like dejection, anxiety, intercourse with disagreeable or sick woman, sexual extravagance, decrepitude etc. The Indian law-books also refer to impotency since it forms an obstruction for marriage and effects no right of succession.⁹ Nārada 12.11-18, therefore, mentions fourteen kinds of impotency, seven curable and seven incurable, among the latter especially natural impotency as well as that caused by castration. The remedies for regaining and strengthening potency (*vājīkaraṇa*, *vṛṣya*) form one of the eight chief subjects of medicine. Already in the Bower MS a special chapter is devoted to them which contains a recipe for enabling to enjoy a hundred women in a day (Bower MS 2.830-32). Such remedies are recommended especially for polygamists (Su 4.26.5).