A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c42.s15.7

v3.c42.s15.7

The first chapter of the Cikitsasthāna describes the pathogenesis of fever in a way that differs from what is found in other treatises (III.1.1–3). 228 A series of verses (I.4–11ab) describe chains of disorders, beginning with fever, resulting the one from the other, and ending in death. 229 Eleven dreadful (mahāghora) diseases are enumerated (1. 11cd–12). 230 The number of days required for each doṣa and group of doṣas to reach maturation (pāka) is specified (1.14–17ab). The average duration of a fever is said to be seven days (1.18cd–19). The choice treatment of fevers, consisting of fasting and related procedures (laṅghana), is described in detail (1.21–33); six varieties are distinguished (1.34); 231 laṅghana procedures should be employed for six days in vāta fevers, three days in pitta fevers, seven days in kapha fevers, while sāmṇipāta fevers require ten days and reach maturation on the fifteenth day (1.36–37). Blood is the foremost doṣa in fevers occurring in children; in the sixteenth year of life the three doṣas (vāta, pitta, kapha) have become involved in fevers; from the twenty-fifth year onwards fevers are of a sāmṇipātika type (1.38cd–39). 232