Principles and therapies

Purgation is said to sharpen the sight, strengthen the senses, increase intelligence, bodily strength and the digestive fire, prolong life and remove diseases from faults of stool and…

Emesis is judged proper when first the medicine, then kapha and then pitta are expelled and the doshas and the disease subside.

Continuing the account of digestion, the introduction says the food is moved onward by a propulsive action, and samāna vāyu is needed for this and to keep the food moist; its actions of…

The introduction lists the qualities of kapha as stable (sthira), unctuous (snigdha), smooth (ślakṣṇa), clay-like (mṛtsna), cold (śīta), heavy (guru) and slow (manda), and says kapha, like…

A footnote defines nasya as medicine taken in through the nose.

Taking digestion as the example, the introduction says the pācaka pitta in the āmāśaya, pakvāśaya and similar organs is gross and can be seen directly, with qualities such as a raw smell…

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

The editor reports the author's explanation of the word vaidya (chapter 1, verse 18): vidyā is omniscience (kevalajñāna), which reveals the characteristics of the soul (jīva) and all other…

Bringing out sweat from the body by any means is called sudation.

The introduction says every medical system rests on an account of how the body works in health and how it is disordered in disease, and that in Ayurveda the body is made of the three…

The introduction says no definite time can be given for the origin of Ayurveda, the science of life, because the need for it begins wherever living beings have life; since it is essential…

The introduction calls surgery (śalya) one of the principal limbs of Ayurveda and says Suśrutācārya set it out in a systematic, scientific way; many surgical treatises existed earlier, by…

The introduction says that the treatment portion of the Kalyāṇakāraka resembles Caraka to a large extent, apart from the parts dealing with honey, wine and meat.

In its survey of the Vedic period the introduction says the story of the sage Cyavana supports a formula (yoga) that restores youth.

Snehana is defined as making the body unctuous by having the person take a fatty substance such as ghee or oil.

The text says curable diseases are to be cured with medicines and the like, manageable (yapya) diseases kept in check with skilled procedures, and incurable diseases that are hard to…

The body is said to have 107 vital points (marma).

The decoction enema is called niruha because it removes all the doshas, and asthapana because it preserves youth (vayasthapana).

The publisher's note opens with the saying 'the body is indeed the first means of dharma' and says that a healthy body is necessary for religious practice, and that only through a healthy…

Very sharp, fearsome instruments used in bloodletting are said to bring great comfort; quoting Sushruta (the chapter and verse numbers are garbled), the text gives the signs of blood…

The introduction says Ayurveda has used medicines on a very large scale, surely and without strain, drawing them from animal parts, plants, minerals and substances such as milk; in using…

Aggravated vata spread through the whole body is to be calmed by asthapana and anuvasana enemas given in due order.

The introduction says the secret of treatment is to perform the particular action by which the body's dhātus return to balance (a footnote quotes Caraka Sūtra to this effect); the whole…

The introduction says the digestion of the six tastes of food just eaten stimulates the pācaka pitta; in the āmāśaya the pācaka pitta and the kledaka kapha are released and gradually mix…

The quantity of enema fluid may be adjusted to age, strength, body, the state of the doshas and the heaviness or lightness of the drugs, but never beyond six kudava; medicated oil or ghee…

The commentary says gods born in the upapāda bed and those attaining a final or excellent body obtain, by their merit, long-lived bodies that poison, weapons and the like cannot cut short,…

Great diseases are said to arise from the excessive or wrong use (atiyoga, mithyayoga) of purification by emesis and purgation; the text promises their treatment together with the method of…

The introduction says Ayurvedic diagnosis mainly considers the vitiation of the doṣas, which arises from many different causes: the doṣas accumulate, become aggravated and spread (caya,…

During her period a woman should, like an ascetic, wholly give up violence and the other four sins and keep silence and similar vows; for three days she avoids garlands, ornaments and…

A footnote defines uttara basti as an injection with a syringe (basti) given into the penis or the vagina.

Every grain should be used after carefully examining the person's constitution, region, season, disease and so on, choosing what suits them.

The publisher's note says that disease coming to the body depends on karma, but that by the use of the pure medicines described in the book even asātā (painful experience) turns into sātā…

Among the factors to be weighed in treatment, the introduction says time (kāla) is of three kinds: cold, hot and rainy.

A footnote defines gandusha as holding a decoction of medicines in the mouth until kapha and the other doshas come out.

The publisher's note says that the speech of the Vītarāga Lord contains Ayurveda for the sake of religious practice, but that because of the faults of the present age many of those…

Ugraditya says he set out this science drawn from the Pranavada, with the doshas, the severe diseases they cause and their remedies, after learning it by the grace of Shrinandi Acharya, who…

Smoke (dhuma) is said to be of five kinds: oleating (snehana), prayogika, emetic (vamana), purgative (virechana) and cough-relieving (kasaghna); a footnote gives नस्यैः as a variant reading…

The introduction says the Yajurveda describes the mantra-accompanied offering of particular parts of sacrificial animals, and that its Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas, especially the Aitareya…

The verse says that a medicine given in a deficient or excessive measure is marked by faults beginning with failure.

The introduction says that doṣas accumulated in excess take the form of mala, and that substances useless for the body's work, which soil the body and cause distress, are also called mala;…

The introduction says the gross dhātus appear in increasing order as animal bodies become more complex: some creatures have only rasa and rakta, some rasa, rakta and māṁsa, and some rasa,…

Bandaging is said to cleanse the wound, make it heal and make it soft and painless; so bandaging is always proper, and the verse calls it the right course in all wounds.

In the petition to Ṛṣabhanātha, the people say that in the land of action they were afflicted by cold, heat and rain and in the course of time took to wrong food and conduct.

The introduction says vṛṣa-cikitsā, the eighth limb of Ayurveda, means vājīkaraṇa therapy.

The editor says one manuscript records a mantra to be recited when taking medicine, and quotes it: verses praying that, in a body much afflicted by disease, the medicine may be the supreme…

Footnotes give one prasṛti as 8 tolā and one āḍhaka as 256 tolā.