A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s49.11

v3.c44.s49.11

(1) The Yogatarangiṇī⁴⁵⁹ is a treatise of about 2,750 verses, arranged in eighty-one chapters (taraṅga). Chapter one is of an introductory nature and deals, amongst other things, with the tridoṣa doctrine. Chapter two is about weights and measures; it reproduces Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā I.1.14cd–44ab and 39cd–42 without mentioning this source; some verses from Kṛṣṇātreya are quoted at the end. Chapter three contains rules for the preparation of medicines and enumerates a number of substitutes for particular medicinal substances; 3.1–9 is identical with Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā I.1.44–45. Chapter four is about medicines with a fatty basis (sneha); the verses are partly from Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā III.1. Chapters five to nine describe the five procedures belonging to pañcakarman: sveda, vamana, virecana, basti and nasya. The source of the larger part of these chapters is the Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā again (III.2–8); the chapter on virecana adds some formulae, some of which are rasayogas. Chapters ten to eleven, on dhūmapāna and raktasṛti (bloodletting), have, once again, been borrowed from the Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā (III.9 and 12). The next five chapters are devoted to nāḍīparīkṣā (12),⁴⁶⁰ vastra- and jihvāparīkṣā (13), chāyāpuruṣalakṣaṇa (the examination of one’s shadow as a prognostic procedure) and mūtraparīkṣā (14), dūta- and malaparīkṣā (15),⁴⁶¹ netraparīkṣā,⁴⁶² śakuna (omina) and svapna (dreams) (16). Chapter seventeen is concerned with alchemy. Chapter eighteen is about the preparation of svarasa, kalka, kvātha, yavāgū and related fluids, bhakta and maṇḍa, phāṇṭa, śītakaṣāya, cūrṇa, vaṭikā, and avaleha; it also enumerates groups of medicinal substances.