An outline of diseases
व्याधिसमुद्देश · चिकित्साधिकार
Opening lines of the seventh chapter, whose running head calls it the outline of diseases (vyādhisamuddeśa) and which begins the section on the principles of treatment. It opens with the nature of the soul and with karma as the root cause of disease before turning to the patient's house and conduct and the qualities of physician, patient and medicine.
- Topics
- 53
- PDF pages
- 162–176
Topics in this session
Headings from the book in reading order. Open a topic for its summary and the knowledge it refers to.
The author bows to the Jina, who gladdens all beings and is the cause of the end of old age, disease and death (the commentary says birth, old age and death), and undertakes to set out…
The author says he will describe, by sound reasoning, the nature of the self called puruṣa, which is the ground on which treatment and its great benefits rest.
The soul, whose nature is knowledge and perception, is said to be bound since beginningless time to a body made by its own karma, and so to be in some respects formless and in some respects…
The soul is said to be always the doer of all its acts and the one who itself experiences the fruit of its own past karma, to be without beginning or end, to stay within the size of its own…
- Chapter seven: the section on the principles of treatmentअथ सप्तमः परिच्छेदः / अथ चिकित्सासूत्राधिकारःOtherp. 90
Opening lines of the seventh chapter, whose running head calls it the outline of diseases (vyādhisamuddeśa) and which begins the section on the principles of treatment. It opens with the…
The soul is said to be neither the size of an atom, nor of a grain, nor of a thumb, nor a yojana in extent, nor spread through the whole world; it is always the size of its own body.
Though permanent and indestructible, the soul is said to change through modes such as birth, old age and death, and so is also impermanent. It has many excellent qualities, is the seat of…
Only a physician whose doctrine describes the soul in this way can give treatment that brings happiness: if the soul were wholly permanent no treatment would be needed, and if wholly…
The living being is said to experience, without any effort, the fruit of the merit and sin earned by its own karma, and the aggravation and calming of vata, pitta and the other doshas are…
All disorders of the body are said to have causes, which must be sorted into primary and secondary. The primary cause of disease is one's own karma done before; all other causes are its…
Nature, time, the planets, karma, fate, the creator, merit, God, fortune, sin, destiny, the ender, necessity and Yama are all said to be other names for karma done in past births. So when…
Diseases are said not to arise from the anger of the elements such as earth, nor from aggravation of the doshas, nor from a bad year or the anger of planets such as Mars, but only from the…
- The practice that calms karma is the real treatmentकर्मोपशांति करने वाली क्रिया ही चिकित्सा हैPrinciplep. 93
Therefore the wise are said to call the practice that calms one's karma, such as worship of the deity and meditation, the real treatment that calms disease. One's karma ripens in two ways:…
Ripening by means (upāyapāka) is forcing karma to rise before its time through excellent, severe austerities and other pure practices, and it gives its fruit at once; ripening by time…
Ripening the doshas by giving medicines that remove the unripe state (āma) of the disease is called ripening by means. Ripening by themselves within their own period, without medicine, is…
The author says he will now describe the good conduct proper for a person who is to be treated, beginning with the house the patient should live in, set out with the rules of building…
The house should stand in an auspicious direction and place, in the best part of the chief direction, and be protected by mantra, yantra and tantra rites done by those versed in them. It…
In such a house the patient should be given a good cot with bedding that is new, wide and pleasing, with curtains all round and a canopy (mosquito net) above.
The patient should be watched over by friends and relatives who are steady, alert and calm, and, seeking comfort, should lie on that bed with the head towards the east or the south.
Each morning the patient should plan which medicine and food to take and when, keep faith and alertness and follow the physician fully in diet and conduct; keep vows, recite mantras such as…
Dharma is said to be the internal cause of the calming of disease and external treatment only an auxiliary cause, which is what this book goes on to describe; so all treatment is of two…
Following substance, place, time and condition (dravya, kṣetra, kāla, bhāva), the suitable procedures such as oleation, sudation, emesis and purgation, and in diseases that call for them…
Treating the sick is said to destroy sin, increase dharma and bring happiness in this world and the next; there is no austerity higher than treatment.
The physician should never treat out of desire or delusion, greed for money, attachment to friends, anger at enemies, regard for kin or other mental impulses, nor to win honour or fame; a…
Treatment done with these aims is said to give the physician every reward by itself, wealth and fame without asking, just as well-done farming yields its harvest through effort and fortune;…
Through treatment the physician is said to gain sometimes merit (dharma), sometimes wealth, sometimes happiness, sometimes friendship, sometimes fame and sometimes greater practice in…
There is no land without people, no person who does not eat and no one who eats who stays free of disease; therefore, the text says, a learned physician always gains wealth.
A fit physician is said to be truthful, steady, forgiving and light-handed, accomplished and himself healthy, to have seen great treatments, to have learned the meaning of the whole…
The patient should be wealthy, long-lived and intelligent, have an agreeable wife, sons, friends, relatives and servants, be strong and self-controlled, and wish for his own well-being.
A good medicine is said to be grown in a good region, gathered at the proper time, small in amount, pleasant, of excellent appearance, taste and smell, and able to destroy the disease as…
The attendants who stay with the patient should be very strong, forgiving, steady, intent on helping others, tolerant, affectionate and skilful.
Physician, patient, medicine and attendant, each with the qualities described, are called the four unequalled limbs (pāda) of treatment; through them together the mass of diseases is…
A virtuous physician versed in the principles of the scriptures, helped by the other three chief limbs (medicine, attendant and patient), is said to bring quick relief even to a gravely ill…
The patient is said to look with suspicion (in the matter of medicine) on mother, father, sons, friends, relatives and wife alike, but to keep his trust in the physician who wishes his good…
Because the patient has placed his trust in him and is an object of compassion, the physician should treat him as his own son, as a father lovingly protects his son, and a good physician…
One should study the science of Ayurveda under a teacher and also see and experience the whole of treatment along with the compounding of medicines; only one who knows the texts and has…
Even when a physician who knows only the texts and one who knows only the practice work together, they cannot treat, just as two one-legged men (Devadattas) tied together cannot walk.
- Only a physician skilled in both is fit to treatउभयज्ञ वैद्य ही चिकित्सा के लिए योग्यPrinciplep. 100
The physician who is skilled in both practice and theory, intelligent, and knows all uses of medicines, instruments (yantra), surgical instruments (śastra) and the texts is said to be fit,…
One who, out of ignorance or excessive greed and delusion, undertakes treatment without knowing the texts is said to kill all living beings; kings should stop such physicians from…
Even when an ignorant physician's treatment succeeds, the learned do not praise it, just as letters that happen to be carved by a wood-boring insect or by an ignorant man are not read by…
Treatment arranged by ignorant people is said to cause many calamities: even good medicines, even nectar-like ones, become as dangerous as a sword's edge or lightning in their hands and…
A skilled, qualified physician approved by the king should begin treatment on a suitable lunar day, weekday, lunar mansion, yoga, karaṇa and muhūrta, while the moon and stars are strong,…
By touch the physician should learn whether the patient's body, affected by the aggravated doshas, is hot or cold, hard or soft, unctuous or dry, light or heavy or clear (viśada), and many…
By questioning, the physician learns the patient's region, family and lineage, natural bodily state, digestive fire and how much food he can digest, the force of the disease (for fever, how…
By looking at the patient's shade (chāyā), form, marks and signs, whether the body is deformed or unusual in some way, and whether his temperament is very fierce or calm, the physician is…
Many great and dangerous diseases can look slight from outside, and slight diseases can look like incurable ones, so a clever and accomplished physician should consider everything by…
Diseases are said to fall into two divisions, incurable (asādhya) and curable (sādhya), taught by Samantabhadra according to the verse and commentary. The incurable are of two kinds,…
Diseases that are held down by continued suitable medicine and wholesome diet, so that they do not kill at once but kill in the course of time, are incurable and called manageable (yāpya);…
Diseases that calm only with great effort, elaborate arrangements and great formulations are to be known as hard to cure (kṛcchrasādhya); those that subside with little effort, in a short…
Diseases have thus been described in four kinds, and all of them hinder the body. The body is the chief means of achieving the four aims of life (dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa), since without…
If treatment is not given promptly and properly, by the method of the texts, easily curable diseases become hard to cure, hard-to-cure ones become manageable, manageable ones become…
This work is said to be like a drop drawn from the ocean of scripture that came from the mouth of the Jina, an ocean whose waves are all substances, principles and things and whose two…
- Colophon of chapter 7: the outline of diseases (Vyādhisamuddeśa)इत्युग्रादित्याचार्यकृत कल्याणकारके चिकित्साधिकारे व्याधिसमुद्देश आदितः सप्तमः परिच्छेदः।Otherp. 104
Thus ends the seventh chapter from the beginning, the outline of diseases, in the section on treatment of the Kalyāṇakāraka by Ugrādityācārya. The Hindi colophon adds that this chapter of…