A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s41.t1: Contents
A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s41.t1
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Contents
v3.c44.s41.t1.1
The *Vaidyakaustubha* ¹³⁵ consists of about 1,200 verses arranged in sixteen chapters (sarga), which chiefly deal with therapy and to a lesser extent with nidāna. General subjects are absent, apart from vamana and virecana. Three chapters are devoted to alchemical procedures and formulae of rasas.
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v3.c44.s41.t1.3
The order of the diseases is largely in agreement with the *Mādhavanidāna*. Their order diverges with respect to the position of udara, pariṇāmaśūla, amlapitta and vātarakta; a number of diseases has been omitted altogether, e.g., svarabheda, arocaka, pāṇātyaya, udāvarta, gulma, ślīpada, upadaṃśa, and śūkaroga. ¹³⁶ In a considerable number of cases the etiology of a disease, its symptoms, or both, are not described and prescriptions are given only. In some rare cases the nidāna verses are borrowed
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from the *Mādhavanidāna*. ¹³⁷ A conspicuous feature is the enumeration of the number of complications (upadrava). ¹³⁸
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Chapters one to eleven are devoted to the diseases and their treatment along āyurvedic lines. Chapter twelve deals with vamana and virecana, chapter thirteen with the purification, etc., of the dhātus and upadhātus, chapter fourteen with the same type of procedures applied to mercury. Chapter fifteen, by far the longest, contains formulae of rasas against many diseases which are arranged along the lines of the *Mādhavanidāna*. Chapter sixteen deals with vājīkaraṇa and rasāyana.
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Sources referred to by Mevārāma are Caraka (1.1), the *Vṛddhatrayī* (16.88), and a work on karmavipāka (14.72).