A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.427

Language: English

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Its subjects are: Suśruta’s questions to Dhanvantari on the number of snakes, their classification, the symptoms caused by their bites, and the stages of poisoning (4.3–4); the innumerability of snakes, of which Vāsuki, Takṣaka, etc., are the foremost;85 their actions and functions; the incurability of the disorders due to the breath86 and gaze87 of these (celestial) snakes, who deserve to be honoured by human beings (4.5–8ab); the earthly snakes with poisonous fangs are eighty in number; they are divided into either five: darvīkara, maṇḍalin, rājimant, nirviṣa and vaikarañja, or three groups: darvīkara, maṇḍalin and rājimant;88 there are twenty-six kinds of darvīkara, twenty-two kinds of maṇḍalin, ten kinds of rājimant, twelve kinds of nirviṣa, and three kinds of vaikarañja;89 the snakes of vaikarañja origin are seven in number, variegated (citra), and either maṇḍalin or rājila (4.8cd–13ab);90 circumstances inciting a snake to bite; the three types of bite: sarpita, radita and nirviṣa; some add a fourth type, called sarpāṅgābhihata (coming in contact with a snake’s body) (4.13cd–14); the characteristics of these four types (4.15–19);

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bites by diseased, frightened, very old or young snakes are less venomous (4.20);⁹¹ snake poison does no harm in regions inhabited by Garuḍa,⁹² deities, brahmaṛṣis, yakṣas and siddhas, nor in places where antipoisonous drugs abound (4.21);⁹³ the characteristics of darvīkara,⁹⁴ maṇḍalin,⁹⁵ and rājimant⁹⁶ snakes (4.22–24);⁹⁷ the characteristics of brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra snakes (4.25–28);⁹⁸ snakes which are hooded (phaṇin)⁹⁹ excite vāta, maṇḍalin snakes pitta, rājimant snakes kapha;¹⁰⁰ hybrid snakes¹⁰¹ excite two doṣas, dependent on those associated with their parents (4.29–30c);¹⁰² rājimant snakes move about in the last quarter (yāma) of the night, maṇḍalin snakes in the first three quarters, darvīkara snakes during the day (4.30d–31);

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fatal bites are those of a young darvīkara, an old maṇḍalin, and a rājimant of middle age (4.32);¹⁰³ less dangerous are the bites of snakes which are defeated by a mongoose (nakula), or which are very young, distressed by water, weakened, or old, and which have recently cast off their skin (4.33);¹⁰⁴ the darvīkara snakes are:¹⁰⁵ kṛṣṇasarpa,¹⁰⁶ mahākṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇodara, śvetakapota, mahākapota,¹⁰⁷ balāhaka, mahāsarpa, śaṅkhakapāla, lohitākṣa, gavedhuka, parisarpa, khaṇḍaphaṇa, kakuda, padma, mahāpadma, darbhapuṣpa, dadhimukha, puṇḍarīka, bhrūkuṭīmukha, viṣkira, puṣpābhikīrṇa, girisarpa, ṛjusarpa, śvetodara, mahāśiras, alagarda, and āśīviṣa;¹⁰⁸ the maṇḍalin snakes are: ādarśamaṇḍala, śvetamaṇḍala, raktamaṇḍala, citramaṇḍala, pṛṣata, rodhrapuṣpa, milindaka, gonasa,¹⁰⁹ vṛddhagonasa, panasa, mahāpanasa, veṇupattraka, śiśuka, madana, pālindira, piṅgala, tantuka, puṣpapāṇḍu, ṣaḍaṅga, agnika, babhru, kaṣāya, kaluṣa, pārāvata, hastābharaṇa, citraka, and eṇīpada;¹¹⁰ the rājimant snakes are: puṇḍarīka, rājicitra, aṅgularājī, bindurājī, kardamaka, tṛṇaśosaka, sarṣapaka, śvetahanu, darbhapuṣpa, cakraka, godhūmaka, and kikkisāda;¹¹¹ the nirviṣa snakes¹¹² are: galagolī, śūkapattra, ajagara, divyaka, varṣāhika, puṣpaśakalin, jyotīratha, kṣīrikāpuṣpaka, ahipatāka, andhakāhika, gaurāhika, and vṛkṣeśaya;¹¹³ vaikarañja snakes are cross-breeds of the above three groups;

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they are called mākuli, poṭagala, and snigdharājī;¹¹⁴ mākuli is a cross-breed of kṛṣṇasarpa and gonasa, poṭagala of rājila and gonasa, snigdharājī of kṛṣṇasarpa and rājimant; some are of the opinion that the poison of a mākuli is like that of its male parent, that of the other two like that of their female parent; the vaikarañja snakes are of seven subtypes: divyelaka, rodhrapuṣpaka, rājicitraka, poṭagala, puṣpābhikīrṇa, darbhapuṣpa, and vellitaka; the first three resemble the rājila (= rājimant), the other four the maṇḍalin;¹¹⁵ thus the eighty kinds of snakes have been described (4.34); characteristic features of male, female and napuṃsaka snakes (4.35);¹¹⁶ the general effects of snake-bite (4.36); the signs and symptoms of bites by darvīkara, maṇḍalin and rājimant snakes (4.37);¹¹⁷ characteristic features of persons bitten by a male, female or napuṃsaka snake,¹¹⁸ by a pregnant (garbhiṇī) snake, or one which has recently given birth (sūtikā),¹¹⁹ by an old, young or non-venomous snake; some assert that the bite of a blind snake causes blindness; an ajagara¹²⁰ kills its victim by swallowing it, and not by means of poison; a person bitten by a serpent with an instantaneously deadly (sadyaḥprāṇahara) poison drops down and loses consciousness (4.38);

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the characteristic of the seven stages (vega) of poisoning by the bite of a darvīkara, maṇḍalin, and rājimant snake respectively (4.39);¹²¹ these stages result from the successive involvement of the seven kalās, which are located between the dhātus;¹²² the amount of time which a poison, transported by vāta, requires for the penetration of each subsequent kalā is called vegāntara (4.40–41); the characteristics of the four stages of poisoning by a snake-bite which occur in mammals (paśu); some are of the opinion that three stages, which include the fourth (described above), are characteristic of mammals; the characteristics of the three stages of poisoning by a snake-bite in birds; some hold that one stage only occurs in birds (4.42–45ab);¹²³ cats, mongooses, etc., are not much affected by (snake) poison (4.45cd).¹²⁴