Omens (shakuna)

Prognosis9

• A messenger who comes to call the physician very emaciated, deficient or excessively dark, rough-bodied or sick, holding a sword or other weapon or a staff, weeping at twilight and trembling with fear is to be regarded as a messenger of Yama for the patient.

  Chapter 1 · p. 9 · v. 33Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• A messenger who comes riding a horse, donkey, elephant, chariot or other vehicle, or who comes breaking the grass in front of him or splitting wood, clods, stones or bricks, is also called inauspicious.

  Chapter 1 · p. 9 · v. 34Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• Recognising such death signs in the messenger, the physician should conclude that the patient will die and should not take up the treatment; the arrival of a calm messenger in clean clothes, of the same community as the patient, is called a good sign.

  Chapter 1 · p. 9 · v. 35Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• When the physician sets out for the patient's house, agitation, sneezing, hearing words of obstruction such as 'bind', 'stop' or 'shut', rivalry, stumbling, anger, great distress, a disturbance in the village, a quarrel and a fire are all called bad omens.

  Chapter 1 · p. 9 · v. 36Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• The commentary says such bad omens are to be avoided, and that on seeing them one should conclude that little of the patient's life remains.

  Chapter 1 · p. 9 · v. 36Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• Meeting, on the way to the patient, a cat, snake, hare, a bundle of wood, fire, boar, buffalo, mongoose, fox, a red garland, people with soiled clothes or bodies, people of low caste, a washerman's clothes or people accompanying a corpse is called a bad omen.

  Chapter 1 · p. 10 · v. 37Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

  Note: The commentary's list has 'आपत्ति' where the verse has शल्यक; left untranslated.

• At departure, calm quarters, the sounds of drums, kettledrums, conch, clouds, flute and mṛdaṅga, and, coming towards the physician, an umbrella, banner, prince, maidens in white, song, a soft fragrant breeze, white unbroken rice, lotus, cock, peacock, graceful women, elephants, pots full of clear water, bulls and horses are called auspicious.

  Chapter 1 · p. 10 · v. 38-39Sanskrit verseTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• The commentary says such auspicious omens foretell success for the physician.

  Chapter 1 · p. 10 · v. 38-39Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording

• 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 described as a sign that he will surely die within six months.

  Appendix: Rishta · p. 602 · v. 15Hindi commentaryTraditional descriptionOriginal wording