Chapter 23 ends with a series of pastes, oils and nasyas said to turn white hair black, most of them containing iron powder and matured in iron vessels or pots buried in grain.
Names and synonyms
- Sanskrit
- पालित्य
- Hindi
- पालित्यबाल सफेद होनाअसमय बाल पकना
- English
- Premature greyingpremature greyinggrey hair
- Romanized
- palitya
What the text says
Each statement reports the source, with its chapter, page and verse. Traditional descriptions are not presented as proven medical facts.
Treatment principle10
After the procedures of the chapter the text turns to the best treatment for turning white hair, white like kasha grass, the moon or a conch, as black as nila or a row of bees.
A paste of mango-kernel powder, iron powder, triphala powder and nilanjana with triphala decoction and sesame oil, matured four months in grain and applied to the hair, is said to turn even moon-white hair black in a moment.
A paste of soft-stoned mango fruits, iron powder and jujube in sesame oil and triphala decoction, matured six months in grain, is said to turn white hair black.
Bhringaraja, iron powder and triphala in triphala decoction, taken in the morning as nasya and as a drink and rubbed on the hair, are said to turn kasha-white hair black like bees in a moment.
An oil of madanaphala, triphala, guduchi, lotuses and milky-tree bark, ground with iron powder, is said to make the hair intensely black.
After a triphala paste and wash, iron powder ground with the juices of champa, vidanga and kunduru and rice water is said to turn white hair black.
A paste of oil-fried haritaki, kamsa powder, iron powder and nilanjana with a paste of bhringaraja, mallika, sahachara, saireyaka, nili and turmeric, matured in an iron vessel in grain and applied after worship, is said to make white hair black like collyrium at once.
The shyamadi oil, applied to white hair and taken as nasya, is said to make all the hair black like a row of bees and nilanjana, with roots as firm as magnetic iron.
A preparation of nili, bhringaraja and triphala juices, sesame oil, an asana-heartwood distillate and copper, iron, nilanjana and bronze powders, applied after a triphala wash, is said to make the hair black and glossy like a heap of collyrium.
The great aksha oil is given as nasya, after purification by emesis and purgation, to a person whose body is overtaken by grey hair (palita), wrinkles and old age.
Questions and answers
How is the great aksha (bibhitaki) oil used, and what does the text say it does?
A person afflicted by grey hair, wrinkles and old age is first purified by emesis, purgation and the like, then given nasya of the oil with great care in a windless house, repeatedly for a month.
Detailed answer and sourcesWhat do the hair-blackening preparations of verses 88 to 101 have in common?
Every one of them contains iron powder, most also triphala and several nilanjana, bhringaraja, nili and sesame oil; most are matured in an iron vessel or a treated pot, often buried in a heap of grain, then worshipped and applied to the hair.
Detailed answer and sourcesAll references
Every page and verse of the source that this entry draws on.
Quick facts
- Content type
- Condition
- Categories
- Skin and hairElderly care
- Source pages with records
- 6
- Pages naming it
- 0
- Chapters
- Chapter 23
- Extraction tasks
- T26
- Record id
- condition_palitya