Fatal signs (arishta)

The commentary glosses riṣṭa as a sign indicating death and says such a sign always appears before death, so it is the physician's duty to search for these signs carefully and minutely.

Fatal signs (rishta) are described as signs that can arise even in healthy-looking people and lead to the destruction of life; the author describes them, following Lord Mahavira's words, for knowers of truth who seek liberation.

The appendix opens by promising to describe rishta, the signs indicating death that are found in healthy people and were specially set out by earlier teachers.

Any signs that appear wholly contrary to the body's real nature (prakriti) and disposition are what the Jinas call rishta, the text says.

A footnote explains samudraghosha as the kind of sound that is heard when the openings of the ears are covered with the fingers.

The physician should first judge from the groups of fatal signs how much life remains to the patient, and then treat the disease with the many kinds of therapeutic measures.

Leaving aside people with these many evil signs, and after carefully weighing their conduct, nature and qualities, the physician skilled in treatment should treat the curable diseases with great effort.

The verse says that no living being dies here without death signs (riṣṭa), which may show by a change of place or very subtly, and that the physician should carefully look for them, even the hard-to-see signs of past, present and future.

A footnote says death signs are not confined to particular limbs but can appear in any part of the body, so one part after another should be examined.

When the patient's vāta-pitta-kapha constitution, natural bodily disposition, shadow, form and the like turn contrary to their chief characteristics, this is to be understood as a death sign.

Derangement of the five senses and their objects, and faeces and phlegm sinking when put in water, are named as signs of the patient's death.

As abundant clouds make rain certain, the appearance of particular fatal signs is said to mean that death will surely come soon; the physician learned in all the texts should decide this in his own mind before speaking, judging life span from abnormal dreams, contrary behaviour and contrary signs.

A patient with a great disease complicated by marma involvement or tormented by severe marma disease, whose pains all subside suddenly without treatment, whose nature changes completely, whose teeth turn black, whose tongue and lips become black and hard, and whose eyes become stiff, sunken, red and uneven or protruding, is to be left untreated, as these are called certain signs of death.

A patient who sees all forms distorted, hears distorted sounds like cries of distress, smells odours distorted, calls every taste tasteless because his tongue has lost taste, does not perceive touch, raves and is weak is to be judged incurable and left by the physician.

A patient who perceives forms, tastes and smells contrarily, whose face loses its colour, whose eyes shed cold water without any eye disease, who feels sudden burning, or on whose nails, teeth and face white, black or red spots suddenly appear is said to be very near death.

Further fatal signs listed are sleeping day and night or not at all, raised veins on the forehead, passing much stool without eating, falling and raving while conscious, seeing the world full of smoke, frost or water and the ground full of lines and holes, dust on one's body, not feeling burns or cuts, not seeing one's reflection in a mirror, golden flies settling on the washed body, seeing the sun at night or fire and wind that are absent, and clearly seeing ghosts and demons.

Also listed are lice gathering on the forehead, dust on the head without cause, a jaw that looks sunken, a nose that has shrunk or become deformed (the verse speaks of a lost, weak or distorted voice), and perceiving everything with contrary qualities: white as black, porous as solid, day as night, large as tiny, soft as hard and cold as hot.

The text describes a person who sees the discs of the moon and the sun and the three parts of the earth in the five colours of a rainbow, or as if full of holes, as living only two years.

A person who sees a circular halo in the half moon and cannot see the pole star, the star Arundhati, the sky, the moon's rays or sunshine by day is said to be unable to live more than a year.

A person who sees or feels the moon's disc as very brilliant and the sun's disc as lustreless is said to go to heaven, that is, to die, in eleven months.

A person who, in a dream or awake, sees his own vomit, phlegm, urine, stool and semen in the colour of a rainbow, gold or the stars is said to live ten months.

A person who sees a golden tree come from heaven, men with dreadful dangling bodies bent very low, and dead men or pishachas in the sky is said to live only nine months.

A person who without any cause quickly becomes very stout, or of himself becomes very thin, or whose nature suddenly becomes deranged without cause, is said to live only eight months.

If the footprint a person leaves in mud looks half cut off at the front or the back instead of whole, and the mud on the foot stays wet of itself without particular cause, he is said not to live beyond seven months.

Owls, crows, fierce vultures, kaushika, kangu, pingala and similar birds flying over a person's head, or coming to sit on it by force, are said to mean that he will surely die within six months.

Dusty water or plain dust found rubbed on one's head without knowing how, or the head seeming pervaded by smoke and frost, is said to mean death in five months.

Constantly seeing in the southern sky, the quarter of Yama, a fierce and restless sky lit by lightning when there are no clouds is said to mean going to heaven, that is dying, within four months.

Not seeing one's own body on looking at it, dreaming of riding a buffalo, camel or donkey, and appearing dead by day in the company of crows are said to mean that the person lives only three months.

A person to whom a rainbow seems to appear plainly in the midst of water and vanish in a moment is said to have two months of life left; knowing this, the wise man should give up all his possessions.

A person who cannot see curls of hair or even the bright light of the moon and the sun, and who sees their reflection before him in a distorted form, is said to have only one month left.

When a person's form is not seen clearly in the eyes of others and he does not perceive even a strong smell, he is said to live no more than fifteen days (three times five).

Perceiving the smell of a corpse in one's own body, complaining of bodily pain without any cause, and seeming to others to be dreaming while awake are said to mean that the person lives only twelve days from then.

The body suddenly turning weak and dark, the ordinary face suddenly becoming round and charming like a lotus, and a mark like an indragopa insect appearing on the cheek are said to mean that the person lives only seven days.

Needle-like pain in the body from aggravated vata, intense pain even in the vital points, and constant distress like that of one stung by a fierce scorpion are said to mean that the person lives only three days.

Getting no horripilation even when sprinkled with water as cold as ice, and not perceiving any of the body's actions, are said to mean that the person lives no more than two days.

Not hearing the samudraghosha and, even with great effort, not seeing the light at the corner of the eye or the tip of the nose are said to mean that the person lives only one day and no more.

The text matches parts of the body that a person can no longer see (the verse speaks of not seeing them in his own shadow) with the time left: foot three years, shank two years, knee one year, thigh ten months, waist seven months, belly four months and neck one month.

Continuing the list, not seeing the hand is said to leave fifteen days, the arm eight days, the shoulder three days, and the chest, head and one's own shadow two days.

Deformity of both eyebrows is said to leave nine days of life, a sound like the samudraghosha in the ears seven days, deformity of the nose five or four days, disorder of the light of the eyes three days and deformity of the sense of taste one day.

Visual confusion, darkness before the eyes, twitching of the eyes with heavy tears, much sweating of the face, stillness of the life-bearing vessels (explained by the commentary as the channels carrying blood and rasa, whose movement stops), excessive appearance of hair (romodgama) on the feet and hands, excessive passing of stool, intense fever and stopping of the breath are said, if they appear suddenly, to mean that the person's death is near.

The teaching is said to have come down through the canon composed by Ganadharas and other ascetics who knew the highest truth, and to be set out for good people devoted to auspicious contemplation, not for beings caught in worldly delusion, who can neither perceive the signs nor make use of them.

The introduction says the work includes a section on fatal signs (riṣṭādhikāra), full of secrets known through the yoga practice of great sages.

The commentary says that people who have grown very old always live with the fear of death.

For those who fear the sufferings of the four states of existence and seek liberation, the news of death should certainly be told, and they should hear the signs of their own time of death gladly.

The description of fatal signs closes by saying that the best of sages, having understood these signs in healthy people revealed by Ugradityacharya's words, should keep firmness of mind, reflect on birth, old age, death and the impermanence of the body, and always advance in the austerity that leads to liberation.