A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.425.3

v1.c23.425.3

disorders caused by it; methods of purifying poisoned water (3.7–10ab);77 the disorders caused by poisoned soil (kṣiti), stone slabs (śilātala), steps on the bank of a river at a tīrtha (place of pilgrimage), uncultivated soil (tṛṇa); purificatory measures (3.10cd–12); symptoms caused by poisoned grass and other fodder; treatment by means of appropriate drugs and by beating on drums and sounding other musical instruments, besmeared with antipoisonous substances (3.13–15);78 signs of poisoned air; disorders caused by it; purification of the air (3.16–17); the mythic origin of poison, associated with Brahmā’s wrath over the asura Kaiṭabha,79 who obstructed the creation of the living beings (3.18–22);80 just like rain water, which has no manifest taste and acquires the taste of the soil it falls upon, poison acquires the taste of the substance in which it stays after pervading it (3.23–24); poisons excite all the doṣas by their sharp (tīkṣṇa) property; for that reason, these doṣas forego their proper functions; since poisons cannot be digested, they obstruct the prāṇas; breathing becomes difficult because its pathway is covered by kapha; consequently, a poisoned person, though remaining alive, loses consciousness (3.25–27); the venom of snakes is, like semen, present throughout their body;