A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c44.s49.62

v3.c44.s49.62

Chapter three (3.25–27) informs us of the discount on fresh or prepared drugs available to vaidyas; this discount, called dhānvantarabhāga or rudrabhāga, was one-eleventh with respect to fresh drugs and 12.5 to 50 percent of the cost of prepared medicines.⁵¹¹ Homage has to be paid to Vighneśa, Kṣetrapāla and Baṭuka before starting the process of snehapāka (4.21–22).⁵¹² A form of sudation called vṛhijanyasveda has been added to the usual series (5.29).⁵¹³ Among the ways of examining a patient the unusual process of vastraparīkṣā is described (13.1–4).⁵¹⁴ The examination of one’s shadow (chāyāpuruṣa) is described among the forms of parīkṣā (14.1–11);⁵¹⁵ it provides information on the chances of recovery or the time span left to a patient until his death; the verses on this subject are from the Śivāgama. Syphilis, although not separately described, is referred to at least once as phirāṅga (17.69). The preparation of rasakarpūra, often used as a specific against syphilis, is described (17.62–69), quoted from the Bauddhasarvasva.⁵¹⁶ The symptoms of one series of thirteen samnipāta fevers⁵¹⁷ are