Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c9.21

c9.21

According to Su 1.37 one must examine the ground while collecting the medicinal plants, whether it contains holes, pyrites, stones, anthills, desert-salt etc., whether it is soft, black, white or red etc. According to the condition the ground has the qualities of the five elements; thus one should take, e. g. purgative from the ground in which earth and water prevail, emetic from the ground in which fire, air and wind prevail. One should learn to know the medicinal plants from cowherds, ascetics, hunters and other people living in forests. One should take the animal substances like blood, hair, nails, milk, urine and faeces from grown up animals after their digestion. The hut (*bhesajāgāra*) for preserving the plants should be erected on a clean place. Further (1. 38) he mentions over 700 plants divided into 37 Ganas according to the diseases for which they are to be applied, and gives them names according to the first plant of every group, as e. g. *arkādigana* from Arka (*Calotropis gigantea*). This classification is crossed by another grouping (1.39) according to the effect of the medicine as emetic, purgative, errhine or pacifying remedy. Car 1.1-4 divides the remedies from similar points of view; particularly he mentions in 1.4 fifty groups of decoctions (*kaṣāya*) namely those which prolong life, make the body fat, make it thin, cause secretions, contract (the fractures), raise appetite, give strength, improve the complexion, cure hoarseness, stimulate the voice, remove oversaturation, hemorrhoids, skin-diseases, itch, maggots and poisoning, beget mother's milk or purify it, create or purify the sperm, are remedies for fattening, perspiring, vomitting and purgation, remedy for ordinary and for oily enemata, errhine remedy, remedy for retching, thirst, hiccup, diarrhoea, for change of colour of the faeces, for increasing the urine and for changing its colour, remedy for cough, asthma, tumour, fever, fatigue, feeling of heat or cold, nettle-rash, arthritis, colic, bleeding, pain, unconsciousness, barrenness and decrepitness. Each of these 50 groups covers 10 plants, so that 500 vegetable medicines are mentioned in them. The most exhaustive collections of medicines inclusive of the eatables and drinks with the exact information of their qualities and effects are contained in the medical glossaries. See § 11.