A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.339

v1.c23.339

The subjects dealt with are: the two groups of urinary disorders: congenital (sahaja) and caused by unwholesome things; the congenital group is caused by defects (doṣa) of the maternal and paternal seed (bīja), the other one by unhealthy dietary habits; patients with a type of prameha belonging to the former group are lean and dry, do not eat much, are usually thirsty, and in particular restless (parisaraṇaśīla); those with a prameha of the latter group are obese, voracious, glossy (snigdha), and inclined to sitting or lying down, and sleeping much (11.3); ¹²⁴ the general management of these two groups of patients (11.4); ¹²⁵ articles of diet to be avoided by patients with prameha (11.5) or to be recommended to them (11.6); ¹²⁶ purificatory procedures in the preliminary stage of treatment (11.7); ¹²⁷ five recipes for general use in prameha (11.8); specific prescriptions for each of the ten pramehas due to kapha, the six pramehas due to pitta, and the four pramehas due to vāta (11.9); ¹²⁸ ariṣṭas, āsavas, lehas and ayaskṛtis useful in prameha; foods prepared from barley, ¹²⁹ medicated gruels (yavāgū), and decoctions may also be prescribed (11.10); special prescriptions for wealthy patients and members of a royal family; recommended physical exercises ¹³⁰ for these types of patients in an advanced stage of prameha (11.11); special rules concerning diet and behaviour for patients who are poor and without relatives, those who are affluent (mahādhana), those who are brāhmaṇas, and those belonging to the other classes (11.12); a poor patient who unrelentingly follows the directions of his physician, may get rid of the disease within a year (11.13).