Health conditions

Vata is presented as the root cause of many local and whole-body diseases. Each of the five vayus, aggravated in its own seat, causes the diseases of that seat; joined with kapha, pitta or…

Kushtha, the second of the major diseases in chapter 11, is said to arise from all the vitiated doshas and to take eighteen forms. The text gives its pathogenesis (wrong conduct or…

Fever is said to arise when the doshas, aggravated by wrong diet, other diseases, season, wrong conduct or injury, spread through the whole body. Its general signs and prodromes, its vata,…

The opening of chapter 19 treats poisoning as a danger to kings: who poisons, how a poisoner and poisoned food are recognised, and the signs of poison in food, drinks and personal articles.

Sourness and burning are given as the brief signs of aggravated pitta.

The text counts seventy-six eye diseases, lists their causes and their seats in the eye, and stresses that the eye must be protected in every way.

Diarrhoea, burning, thirst, fever, giddiness, intoxication, heat and drying are said not to arise without aggravated pitta.

Chapter 12 treats piles as a major disease: causes, six kinds with their signs, sites in the anal folds, prodromes, its name mularoga, fatal signs, related growths elsewhere and their…

A pricking pain that moves about in the abdomen is given as the brief sign of aggravated vāta.

Verses 3 and 4 describe swelling as local or general, give a poor outlook for spreading swelling with wasting of the other limbs, and name the pot-shaped, mouthless and opened forms…

Prameha is the first of the major diseases treated in chapter 11. The text gives its causes (too much heavy, liquid, unctuous and cold food, day sleep, lack of exertion), its prodromes, its…

Snake poison is called the most dreadful of animal poisons; snakes are of five kinds, divine serpents poison by sight and breath and earthly snakes by their fangs, and the text lists why…

The text says terrible abdominal enlargements (mahodara) arise from the doshas singly or together, from liver and spleen disorders, from water, from poisons and from obstruction and foreign…

The complication in which a purifying medicine goes neither up nor down or acts too little; the text gives its causes, signs and stepwise management.

Raktapitta is described as blood, corrupted in the liver and spleen by vata and pitta after vata, injury or heat, flowing upward, downward or both ways. Its prodromes, incurable and fatal…

The people of marshy (ānūpa) land are described as very stout and kapha-predominant, and physicians there are told always to treat kapha and vāta.

Rajayakshma, also called kshaya and shosha, is described as a severe wasting disease of all three doshas that dries up the tissues and is the seat from which many other diseases arise.

Trishna is a strong thirst in the heart region that arises when vitiated liver and spleen dry the throat and palate. It has five kinds; ama thirst is counted under the dosha kinds and…

Worm disease is described with head and heart pain, vomiting, sneezing and fever; worms arise in kapha, faeces and blood and are treated with medicated ghee, purification, juices, powders,…

The physician who knows the curable and the means should weigh the strength of the doshas and use as suitable the decoctions, pastes, ghees and oils prepared with the drugs described…

Immobile (sthāvara) poison is described as tenfold by the part in which it resides, each kind with its own signs; tuber poisons are thirteen, and all are said to kill untimely.

Masurika (pox; called devi, mata or chechak in the commentary) is described as lentil-like eruptions of many colours and shapes, arising mainly from pitta, with dosha and blood types,…

Ashmari (urinary stone) is described as kapha that hardens in the bladder into a dense stone. Kapha predominates in every stone, but four kinds are named after the leading factor: kapha,…

Abhishyanda is presented as the cause and basis of all eye diseases, arising from the individual doshas; the text gives vata, pitta, blood and kapha types with their signs and treatment.

Murchha (fainting) is described as the doshas covering the channels of consciousness so that the patient sees darkness and falls; it is of six kinds (blood, poison, vata, pitta, kapha,…

Ajirna is food that is not digested, in three kinds (ama, vidagdha, vishtabdha); constant eating of many foods leads to it and to alasaka, vilambika and vishuchika. It is treated with…

Here adhmana is presented as a vata disease of the abdomen: the colon gurgles, there is severe pain and the belly swells like a bag full of air.

Pitta is said to be aggravated by pungent, sour, dry, salty, hot and burning foods and alcohol, and to cause fainting, burning, drying, blisters, delirium and thirst; spread through the…

Kasa is described as vitiated prana vayu joined with udana leaving the mouth with a cracked-bronze sound. It has five kinds; the kshayaja kind is tridoshic and hard to treat.

Hikka is provoked vayu (prana with kapha) rising repeatedly to the mouth with a hik sound while afflicting spleen, intestines and liver. It has five kinds, and certain signs mark it as…

Shvasa is described as prana vayu moving the wrong way and rising upward, alone or with kapha. It has five kinds: kshudra and tamaka are curable, the other three are to be abandoned.

Bhagandara is described as a very painful boil near the anus, within two finger-breadths of it, that bursts there. Five kinds are named after vata, pitta, kapha, all three doshas and injury…

Vatarakta is said to arise from burning, pungent, hot and dry food in the hot season and long fast riding, which burn the blood and provoke vata; the corrupted blood collects in the feet…

Gulma is a round lump between the heart and the bladder, of five kinds (vata, pitta, kapha, all three, and blood in women); it is treated with purgation, dosha-pacifying drugs, enemas, the…

Vidradhi is described as of two kinds, external and internal, the internal being the more severe.

Chapter 15 describes twenty-eight ear diseases arising mainly from aggravated vata, alone or with other doshas, and treats them by dosha with ear oils, fomentation, washes and other…

Chhardi is the coming out by the mouth of what was eaten, caused by aggravated doshas or other causes. It has five kinds and is treated by dosha; vomiting with blood, pus and kapha,…

Arochaka is an unmatched aversion to food caused by aggravated doshas, emotions such as grief, fear and anger, and impaired digestive fire.

Mouth diseases arise from the doshas in seven sites: the two lips, teeth, tongue, gums, throat and palate.

Graha affliction is described as seizure by spirit beings (vyantaras and grahas), who the text says trouble people from enmity, for play or wishing to kill, and enter those who neglect…

Unmada (insanity) arises when the doshas leave their paths and pervade the mind-carrying channels; it is of five kinds, from vata, pitta, kapha, all three and grief, and is treated with…

In verses 39 to 52 the text describes urinary obstruction (mutraghata, glossed मूत्रावरोध) in the forms vatakundalika, mutrashthilika, vatabasti, mutratita, mutrajathara, mutrotsanga,…

Chapter 14 returns to the minor diseases described before and sets out more of them briefly, with their dosha features and beneficial drugs, starting with ajagalli.

Pratishyaya (coryza) arises when vata, kapha, pitta and blood lodged in the head are provoked singly or together. It has a prodrome, five kinds and a neglected, vitiated form, and if…

If too much blood is let from a vein, vata disorders, wasting, breathlessness, cough, hiccup, anaemia, insanity and heat in the head are said to arise, and death may follow soon.

The text names vibandha as a complication of emesis and purgation: if a person takes very cold drinks, wind and the like while the cleansing is still going on, the doshas in the channels…

Much itching of the body is among the signs of aggravated kapha.

The text treats yoni diseases by dosha; an editorial note gives their causes (wrong diet and conduct, vitiated menstrual blood, semen defects, fate) and twenty kinds, five each from vata,…