Remedies and procedures

Seeing the purified mercury shining with a lustre like the sun, the physician bows to the siddhas and worships it with care, then puts into it a quarter part of suitable, very red bija…

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,…

A second kind of oleating nasya, pratimarsha (also called avamarsha, says a footnote), is used at nine times, listed in a footnote: on rising in the morning, on leaving the house, after…

A strong patient is prepared with oleation, sudation, emesis, purgation and the like, fed a small light, unctuous, warm meal, and on a clear, mild day in a secluded place laid in an…

The text says the bound, purified and perfected king of mercury (rasaraja) is transferred (sankramati) by beeswax mixed with svarnamakshika, crow dung (kakavit), nalika (the commentary: a…

After purification by emesis and the like the digestive fire is usually weak and is rebuilt by a graded diet. Purification is of three grades. After the best grade the person, bathed in…

Head-purging nasya is used in the many kapha diseases above the collar bone (the commentary: throat, nose, eyes and so on), and can also be given with dry drugs. Four drops of the purging…

Every morning the teeth are cleaned with a faultless tooth-stick suited to the doshas, which the commentary explains as sticks of neem, babul, karanja, arjuna and the like that counter…

The external kind of kshara, applied to or dripped on outer parts of the body, is to be used in skin diseases, tumours, sinus tracts, nyaccha, fistula-in-ano, external worms and poisons,…

The procedure for preparing the pot in which, the text says, all nectar-like preparations (all arishtas, in the commentary) are made: a ghee pot is fired, cleansed with boiled leaves and…

A group of drugs named as beneficial for cleansing wounds: karanja, cumin, turmeric, sariva, neem, patha, kutki, ingudi, amaltas, indrayava, indravaruni, wild patola and jasmine.

A group of drugs named as beneficial for healing wounds: sesame, lodhra, liquorice, arjuna bark, palasha, young shoots of the milky trees, kadamba, jamun, mango, wood apple, tinduka and…

The text says mercury is killed (marana, made into bhasma) with the juice of wood-apple (kapittha) fruit, and is killed quickly with gobandhana, the sticky juice of palasha seeds, cumin or…

The potable kind of kshara is said to be used in compound poisoning (gara), abdominal enlargement, gulma, weak digestion, urinary stone and gravel, various nodules, piles, severe internal…

Exercise is to be taken daily. It is said to kindle the digestive fire, free the body of disease, remove sleepiness, lethargy and obesity, and give lustre, nourishment, health and long…

The text says that in the juice of sarpakshi, sharavarini, sahachari, patha and kakadani mercury is well fixed and does not run here and there, and that steamed (samsveda) with oil combined…

The fluid (decoction, oil, ghee or the like) is at most one prasrita. The urethral opening is cleared with a camphor-smeared probe and the parts are rubbed first; a man sits in the cock…

The daily conduct set out for a patient under treatment: on rising, plan the day's medicines and food, keep faith and alertness and follow the physician in everything; keep vows and…

The regimen for taking chandramrita: a secluded house is built, the drug is drunk alone in its inner chamber, and the person then keeps silent and fasts, drinks cold water, undergoes emesis…

The verse speaks of bright red lamps with layers dyed with lac (alaktaka); the commentary says the lamp vessels are first smeared with lac juice, the sulphur group and the poison group…

The throat, ears and forehead are first sweated; the gargle liquid is then held in the mouth, filling it only halfway, and kept still until the medicine is enveloped in kapha; when the eyes…

In the five great disorders of semen, oleation, emesis, purgation, niruha and anuvasana are applied and then the uttarabasti. In disorders of menstrual blood the procedures from oleation up…

Cautery is applied to the brows and temples in head disorders and adhimantha, and to the eyelid hair follicles in eyelid disorders with the eye covered by a wet cloth; it is also named for…

To strengthen (brimhana) mercury the text says it should always be made fire-resistant (agnisaha) by tapana, vasana and kasana, in the order of the Jina doctrine, by which it becomes very…

The text says the juices of five plants, kanta, meghaninadika, shravanika, tambula and sankshirini, which the commentary names musta, palasha, gorakhmundi, betel and milky-sap trees, always…

Orange or lemon, cane shoots, chickpea alkali, citron, jambira lemon, tamarind and the rest of the sour group, together with the three pungents and the five salts (rock, black, sea, vida…

Quoted as part of the comparison of medicine with religious discipline: people who have undergone oleation, sudation, emesis, purgation, oil and decoction enemas, head purgation or…

The patient, fit for bloodletting, is fed cool food and seated; an unbroken site is roughened with powdered earth and cow dung or a dry paste and washed with cold water. The leeches are…

After eating, the mouth is rinsed well and astringent, bitter and pungent things are taken (the commentary names areca nut, catechu, clove, musk and betel), or a pleasant smoke, to remove…

In every kind of fainting, cold things are used in bathing, pastes, food, clothing, drinks and breeze, and foods such as licorice, dhataki flowers, grapes, milk, ghee, chironji, sugarcane…

After purification, a powder of kushtha, nili, kantakari, white punarnava, the three pungents, brihati, nirgundi and arka is drunk with the alkali water of shirisha, musta, rava, apamarga…

Massage with oil is said to destroy kapha and vata, and massage with ghee pitta and blood disorders (the commentary: raktapitta). Entering through the hair pores, it is said to nourish (the…

Mercury is ground well in a stone mortar with brick powder and milk (the verse: milk from the breast) and washed with kanji, which purifies it. The purified mercury is mixed with dry…

After oleation, sudation, emesis, purgation, oil and decoction enemas, bloodletting or head purgation, the text tells the patient to keep away for one month from unsuited, dosha-provoking…

The text names nine eye diseases that the ancient sages declared curable by scraping (lekhana).

Bathing is said to give contentment, nourishment, lustre, health and long life, purity and balance of the doshas, to kindle the digestive fire, remove lethargy and sleepiness, calm sin and…

When smoking has been excessive, with ringing in the ears, headache, weak sight, loss of taste, burning and thirst, the complications are overcome with nourishing of the head…

The enema apparatus has a leak-proof bag of strong, soft leather holding eight kudava and a nozzle 6, 8 or 10 angula long for children, youths and young adults. Near the tip it has a round…

After purification the prameha patient is fed on priyangu, wild kodo millet, rice flour, foxtail millet, wheat and barley, with astringent, bitter and pungent things, and with pigeon pea,…

Yellow mica (hemabhraka), patalika and patuvajraka are mixed with rock salt, borax, dry ginger, black pepper and long pepper and ground well with the juice of punarnava (vishakhapara); this…

Rubbing the body with paste is called always good when there is skin discolouration, a kapha or fat disorder, itching, emaciation, affliction by vata, or raktapitta. Rubbing with a paste of…

A healthy man may have intercourse once a day in the cold season and, in the hot season, keeping his strength in mind, once in five to eight days. Only a man free of disease, young and…

Jihvalasaka is scraped (lekhana) until blood flows and the blood is cleansed away; then it is rubbed with mustard, rock salt, pippali, vacha, patola leaves and nimba mixed with ghee and oil.

The text says the digestive fire troubled by vāta, pitta and kapha is to be corrected, in that order, with enema therapy, purgation, and suitable emesis together with nasal therapy.

Vata lodged in the head is treated by oil massage of the head and an oil-soaked pad kept on it, nasya with a medicated oil, pastes of the same drugs, warm sudation with nut grass, bitter…

External treatment, which the text calls only an auxiliary cause of the calming of disease (dharma being the internal cause) and which is the subject of the rest of the book. Following…

Rules for the house a patient under treatment lives in, given first among the patient's good conduct because it matters most and set out with the rules of building (vāstu). It should stand…

The ripe swelling, once opened and cleansed, is bandaged with three degrees of tightness according to the site: loose (shithila) at the joints and eyes; medium (sama) at the face, hands and…