A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.148

v1.c23.148

The subjects dealt with are: the type of soil most suitable to the collection of medicinal plants; selection criteria for these plants (36.3);³⁵⁸ the characteristics of soils in which one of the five mahābhūtas predominates (36.4); the opinion of some experts that roots, leaves, barks (tvac), milky juices (kṣīra), heartwoods (sāra), and fruits should be collected in the seasons of prāvṛṣ (early raining season), varṣāḥ (rainy season), śarad (autumn), hemanta (winter), vasanta (spring), and grīṣma (summer) respectively;³⁵⁹ the rejection of this opinion, on account of the saumya or āgneya character of everything in the world; saumya drugs are to be collected in saumya seasons, āgneya drugs in āgneya seasons³⁶⁰ (36.5); purgative drugs should be taken from soils with a predominance of earth and water, emetics from soils with a predominance of fire, ākāśa and air; soils possessing a combination of these properties produce drugs with both types of action;³⁶¹ soils in which ākāśa predominates produce saṃśamana drugs (36.6); all drugs should be used when still in a fresh state; exceptions are honey, ghee, treacle (guḍa), pippalī and viḍaṅga, which are beneficial when old; honey, etc., of at least one year old, should be taken when older samples are unavailable (36.7–9);³⁶² information on the identity (vyakti) of drugs may be collected from cowherds, ascetics, hunters, forest-dwellers and those living on food of vegetable origin (36.10); drugs all parts of which can be employed medicinally, may be collected in all seasons (36.11);³⁶³ some generalities on soils and the drugs growing in them; the unmanifest (avyakta) taste of water, which becomes manifest due to the taste of a particular kind of soil (36.12–15);³⁶⁴ medicinal substances of animal origin should be collected from grown-up individuals; their milk, urine and faeces should be collected after digestion of the food (36.16); rules for the room in which drugs are stored (36.17).³⁶⁵