Oleating nasya (marsha)

Oleating nasya is said to strengthen the throat, blood, head, shoulders and chest and to sharpen the sight; it is used in head disorders from vata, loose teeth, falling of hair and beard, the hard disease darunaka, ear diseases, timira, hoarseness, dryness of the mouth, premature greying, for prolonging life and in mouth diseases from pitta and vata. For its application the cheeks, throat, ears and forehead are sweated by warming the hand, the head is laid with the face tilted down and the nostrils upward, and eight drops of lukewarm oil are let into each nostril with cotton or the like; these sixteen drops are the first dose, the second dose is double and the third double again, and the three doses are given as the doshas require. A footnote defines a drop as the thick drop that falls from the index finger dipped in fat up to two joints, and another calls this kind marsha nasya, as distinct from pratimarsha.