Therapeutic procedures
कर्मचिकित्सित · उत्तरतंत्र
Title lines of chapter 21, which opens the Uttaratantra (supplementary section). From the next page the running head names the chapter कर्मचिकित्साधिकार, the chapter on therapeutic procedures.
- Topics
- 63
- PDF pages
- 544–566
Topics in this session
Headings from the book in reading order. Open a topic for its summary and the knowledge it refers to.
Bowing to Lord Vira Jinendra, worshipped by the Indras and saluted by great sages, the author promises to set out the excellent Uttaratantra, described as the essence for all beings and as…
The author asks who could fully state everything, said and unsaid, that the omniscient taught; as good men complete even an abandoned work with the help of the learned, he will present the…
The author says the book was composed on Ramagiri mountain, arose from the teachings of Shrinandi acharya and contains the subject matter of the Pranavaya canon taught by the omniscient, so…
Title lines of chapter 21, which opens the Uttaratantra (supplementary section). From the next page the running head names the chapter कर्मचिकित्साधिकार, the chapter on therapeutic…
Treatment is said to be of four kinds: caustic (kshara), fire (agni), knife (shastra) and medicine (aushadha). Some diseases yield to one well-performed procedure, others need two, harder…
Even when the four procedures are done well, serious complications are said to follow from neglected aftercare and diet, the patient's irregular conduct, the physician's ignorance of…
The author undertakes to describe, in a few verses, the best treatment of these complications together with many excellent preparations and kalpa formulas said to fulfil one's aims,…
The text will describe in order the diseases that arise when the four great procedures go wrong and their treatment, starting with kshara. Kshara is called foremost even among fierce…
Kshara is of two kinds, pratisaraniya (applied or dripped on outer parts of the body) and paniya (drunk); by its cooking it is again of two kinds, slightly fluid and very fluid. A kshara…
If the spot turns black at once after the caustic is applied, that is the sign of proper burning; the caustic is then washed off with sour gruel combined with milk, ghee, a sour liquid and…
A good kshara is described as smooth, white, slimy, easy to apply, mildly painful and spreading. The verses list the persons, conditions and body sites where it must not be used, and warn…
- Superiority of kshara and uses of external and potable ksharaक्षार का श्रेष्ठत्व, प्रतिसारणीय व पानीय क्षार प्रयोगMethodp. 476
Kshara cuts, splits and scrapes and, made from tridosha-destroying drugs, destroys all three doshas; because it can be used where a knife cannot, for example when drunk, it is called…
Heading that opens the description of cauterisation with fire (agnikarma).
- Superiority of cautery over caustic, sites to avoid and burning materialsक्षारकर्म से अग्निकर्म का श्रेष्ठत्व, अग्निकर्म से वर्ज्यस्थान व दहनोपकरणMethodp. 477
Fire is said to be sharper than kshara: diseases burnt with it are destroyed from the root and do not recur, and diseases not curable by kshara, medicine or knife yield to it. It is not to…
Cautery is avoided in summer and autumn; in an urgent disease curable only by fire it is done after measures opposing the season, such as cool coverings, cool food, a cool place and cool…
Cautery confined to the skin shows discolouration, many blisters, contraction of the skin, intense burning, much bad smell and great heat; cautery reaching the flesh shows slight pain and…
- Sites for cautery, diseases it cures and aftercareदहन योग्य स्थान, दहन साध्य रोग व दहन पश्चात् कर्मMethodp. 479
In head disorders and adhimantha the brows and temples are burnt; in eyelid disorders the eye is covered with a wet cloth and the eyelid hair follicles are burnt. Cautery is also named for…
People of pitta constitution, those with bhinna-koshtha, the emaciated, those with blood collected inside, the exhausted, those with a foreign body, those afflicted by many wounds and those…
Burns that happen otherwise than by planned cautery are of four kinds, touched (sprishta), evenly burnt (samyag-dagdha), badly burnt (durdagdha) and over-burnt (atidagdha); their signs,…
A touched burn is badly discoloured and very hot; an even burn is black like sesame, hot and not deep; a bad burn raises many blisters, causes fierce burning pain and settles slowly; an…
Fire reaching unctuous or dry materials burns quickly and fiercely, with great pain and blisters. A touched (sprishta) burn should at once be warmed with the same fire, that is, given…
An even burn is smeared repeatedly with ghee and then pasted with sandalwood, bark of latex trees, sesame, liquorice and rice ground in milk or sugarcane juice or mixed with ghee;…
A bad burn is treated with sprinkling of lukewarm milk, smearing of ghee and cooling pastes; the blisters are opened, ghee with cooling drugs is applied on the burst blisters, they are…
For an over-burn the skilled physician gives strongly cooling treatment, removes the hanging flesh and ligaments, clears away all such tissue, spoiled or not, washes the wound with milk,…
When the burn wound being healed reaches the stage for powders, clean unbroken rice, lac and the barks of latex trees, alkali trees, tinduka, mango, bakula, jambu and kadamba are finely…
Once the burn wound has healed, its colour is made like the surrounding skin with the many colour-restoring applications described for shvitra, and the patient eats unctuous, pleasant, cool…
The accessory instruments are kshara, fire, crystal, bamboo, nail, glass, skin and leeches; they are used for those who fear the knife, such as kings, women, small children and the very…
Some teachers say blood vitiated by vata, pitta and kapha is let respectively with a horn, a leech and a gourd with fire in it; others say no such order is needed and any suitable means may…
Leeches are called jalaukas because water is their home and jalayuka because water is their life, and also jaluka. There are twelve kinds: six poisonous and very painful, krishna, karbura,…
Group heading for the descriptions of the six poisonous leeches that follow in verses 36 to 38.
The krishna leech is black like a heap of collyrium with a thick head; the karbura is dark, with a long belly of hollows and ridges, like the varmi fish, which a footnote calls…
- Signs of the alagarda, indrayudha and samudrika leechesअलगर्दा, इंद्रायुधा, सामुद्रिका लक्षणMethodp. 484
The alagarda has a hairy body and a large, very black mouth; the indrayudha is streaked with many-coloured lines like an evening rainbow; the samudrika is slightly black and yellow, its…
- Signs of the gochandana leech and of poisonous leech bitesगोचंदना लक्षण व सविष जलूकादष्ट लक्षणToxicologyp. 484
The gochandana has its underside divided in two like a cow's horns or testicles, is always moist, thick-mouthed and fiercely poisonous. Bites of poisonous leeches cause severe swelling,…
Their poison is as fierce as snake venom, so the physician uses the poison-destroying antidotes, agadas and mantras taught in the poison chapter, gives agada in drink and food, and applies…
Group heading for the descriptions of the six non-poisonous leeches in verses 40 to 42.
Having described the poisonous leeches, the author turns to the six non-poisonous ones. The kapila has its sides and belly red as if smeared with cinnabar ground in lac juice, a tawny mouth…
The pingala is round, with a red and tawny body and a tawny mouth; the mushika is bell-shaped, with the colour and smell of a rat; the shankhamukhi drinks blood quickly, moves fast, has a…
The pundarikamukhi has a belly and mouth like a red lotus and a back the colour of green gram. The savarika is eighteen finger-breadths long and dark, with well-known qualities, and is used…
Leeches are said to be plentiful especially in Malaya, the Pandya country, the Sahya hills, the banks of Adityachala, within the Kaveri river, Vanga, Trikalinga, Paundra and the Indra…
The leeches are caught carefully and kept in a new pot with clean lake water, cool moss, lotus, lotus leaves, mud from the same pond and lotus stalks; they are given water and food daily…
A patient with a disease curable by bloodletting is examined, given cool food in the cool season and seated; if the site has no wound it is rubbed rough with powdered earth and cow dung or…
Vitiated blood is drawn with a fire-lit gourd or a horn, and leeches able to suck draw it by themselves. When a leech has drunk and dropped off, its body is dusted with rice powder, rock…
After vomiting, the leech is kept and fed in the water pot described earlier. If the blood flows too forcefully it is stopped with medicines, and if the bite becomes very painful and itchy,…
The bitten place is washed again and again with cold water and then sprinkled with milk or ghee for a long time. If bleeding is very heavy it is stopped with a very dry powder of lac,…
Alternatively, lodhra, pure cow dung, wheat, amalaki, conch, shell (shukti), arimeda (glossed as foul-smelling khadira) with the knots of these trees, and the sarja, arjuna and bhurja trees…
Leeches that are very thin, very thick, very young, injured, distressed, of low breed, eating very little, helpless, very sleepy and lazy, born in a bad region, poisonous or very hard to…
Having described the accessory instruments, the author turns briefly to the knives proper. Instruments have many qualities, and the physician who knows instruments, metals and surgery…
- Instruments for the eight kinds of surgical actionअष्टविध शस्त्रकर्मों में आने वाले शस्त्र विभागSurgeryp. 489
The vriddhipatra is used for cutting and scraping, the utpalapatra for splitting, the kutharika for piercing bone, the vrihimukha for piercing flesh, the patrika for letting out fluid, and…
When a foreign body can be extracted, the patient is restrained and it is drawn out with instruments such as the kankamukha. If its place is unknown, the patient is made to ride quickly on…
When suturing is needed it is done with a straight or curved needle. Where many wounds occur at the uru-shira and the abdomen, they are smeared with excellent ghee prepared with joining…
Before any of the eight surgical actions such as cutting and splitting, the physician gathers suitable medicines, knives, instruments, an operating room (the commentary adds the English…
Patients with mouth diseases, obstructed labour, abdominal enlargement or urinary stone are operated on with great care without being fed, and stone surgery is done promptly. For piles, the…
The patient fit for venesection is first oleated and sweated and properly restrained; the vein is identified and held, punctured clearly with a suitable instrument, and the vitiated blood…
Even vitiated blood should not be let in excess, for too much blood taken from a vein brings vata disorders, wasting, breathlessness, cough, hiccup, anaemia, insanity and heat in the head,…
When blood flows excessively it is stopped at once, and the patient is given cow's milk boiled and cooled, then and every day. Any complications are identified and pacified, and the patient…
- Pure blood and the benefit of removing impure bloodशुद्धरक्त का लक्षण व अशुद्ध रक्त के निकालने का फलPhysiologyp. 492
The sages call pure blood the very life of the body, the root and constant support of its existence, giving bright complexion and nourishment, so the physician should always protect it.…
- Signs of blood vitiated by the doshas and of pure bloodवातादि से दुष्ट व शुद्ध शोणित का लक्षणPhysiologyp. 492
Blood vitiated by vata is very dark, frothy, thin and quick to flow; by pitta it is blue, very yellow or black, foul-smelling and shunned by insects, mosquitoes and flies; by kapha it is…
Blood is not let in very cold or very hot weather, when the patient is heated by fierce sun, has not been sweated or has sweated too much, is too unctuous or too dry, has eaten much…
Those with breathlessness, cough, wasting, fever or fatigue from travel, the emaciated, the dry, the wounded, the very old, children, those with consumption, those just purified by emesis…
The work is likened to a drop drawn from the great ocean of scripture that issued from the mouth of Jina, whose waves are all substances and categories and whose two shining banks are the…
- Colophon of chapter 21इत्युग्रादित्याचार्यविरचिते कल्याणकारके उत्तरतन्त्राधिकारे कर्मचिकित्सितं नाम प्रथम आदित एकविंशोऽध्यायःEditorialp. 494
The Sanskrit colophon closes the chapter named Karmachikitsita in the Uttaratantra of the Kalyanakaraka composed by Ugradityacharya, the first chapter of that section and the twenty-first…