Chapter XLVI - Diet articles and regimen of diet

Now we shall discourse on the Chapter which treats of food and drink (Annapana-Vidhi-adhyaya).

Having made obeisance to the holy Dhanvantari, Sushruta said:—“You have stated before that food determines the origin of beings and forms the chief source of their bodily strength and complexion, as well as of the albuminous (Ojas) principle in their organisms. Food primarily depends upon the six different tastes. Moreover tastes are inherent in substances. Again the substances, with their specific tastes, virtues, potencies and reactionary or chemical transformations, tend to diminish or increase the deranged humours and the fundamental principles of the body, as also to bring about a normal equilibrium amongst them. Food is the primary cause of the origin, continuance and dissolution even of such beings as the divine Brahma, etc. Life is impossible without food. Food is the source of the growth, strength, and healthful glow of organic beings. It is food that imparts strength to the organs of sense and makes them operative in their respective fields of action. It is irregularity (Vaishamya) of diet which brings about ill-health. Diet may be divided into four kinds such as, solid food, (Ashitha) drink, Līdham (food taken by licking), and the Khadita (food that is chewn and assimilated only for the enjoyment of a specific taste). A variety of substances enters into the composition of our food, which admit of being grouped under various preparations and necessarily involve the co-operation of a large number of dynamical forces. I am eager to learn of the substances and their specific inherent properties, virtues, potencies and transformations (chemical reactions) which constitute the daily food of human beings, inasmuch as a physician, who is ignorant of them, is quite helpless in checking or curing any distemper and maintaining health in individuals. And since food (diet) determines the origin of all created beings, instruct us, O Lord, on the proper regimen of food and drink.”

The holy Dhanvantari, thus addressed by Sushruta, replied as follows:—“O child, hear me discourse on the proper regulation of food and drink as requested by you. There are several species of Shali rice such as, the Lohitaka, Shali, Kalama, Kardamaka, Panduka, Sugandhaka, Shakunahrita, Pushpandaka, Pundarika, Mahashali, Shita-Bhiruka, Rodhra-Pushpaka, Dirghashuka, Kancanaka, Mahisha-mastaka, Hayanaka, Dushaka, and Maha-Dushaka etc.

Metrical Texts:—

The several species of Shali rice are sweet in taste, cooling in potency, light of digestion, and impart strength to those who use them. They subdue the Pitta and slightly generate Vayu and Kapha. They are demulcent and tend to constipate the bowels and reduce the quantity of fecal matter. Of these the red species (Lohitaka) is the most efficacious, and subdues the deranged humours. It is diuretic, spermatopoietic, refrigerant, eye-invigorating, cosmetic, tonic and pleasant. It improves the voice. Its efficacy has been witnessed in cases of fever and ulcer, and in all other diseases. It is a good disinfectant and anti-toxic. The other species differ a little in their properties from the preceding one and are successively inferior in quality in their order of enumeration.

Shashtika Croup:—

The several species of Shashtika, Kanguka, Mukundaka, Pītaka, Pramodaka, Kakalaka, Asana-Pushpaka, Maha-Shashthika, Churnaka, Kuravaka, and the Kedaraka, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

They (Shashtikas) are sweet in taste and digestion, and pacify the Vayu and the Kapha. Their properties are somewhat identical with those of Shali rice inasmuch as they are constructive, tonic and spermatopoietic, and increase the Kapha. The Shashtika is pre-eminently the most efficacious of all the other species, and leaves an astringent after-taste in the mouth. It is light, mild, demulcent and imparts strength and firmness to the body. It is astringent and sweet in digestion, and exhibits properties similar to those of the red Shali. The remaining varieties are inferior in quality, each succeeding one being inferior to the one immediately following it.

Vrihi Dhanyas:—

The several species of Vrihis are known as the Krishna-Vrihi, Shalamukha, Jatumukha, Nandimukha, Lavakshaka, Taritaka, Kukkutandaka, Paravataka, and the Patala, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

They have a sweet and astringent taste, are sweet of digestion and hot in their potencies. They tend to slightly increase the secretions of the internal organs and bring on constipation of the bowels. Their general properties are nearly identical with those of the aforesaid Shashtikas. The species Krishna-Vrihi is the best of them all. It is light, and leaves an astringent after taste, the remaining varieties gradually deteriorating in quality from the one under discussion.

Shali rice, grown on burnt land, is light of digestion, has an astringent taste, is parchifying, tends to suppress the emission of urine and the evacuation of stool, and reduces the deranged Kapha. Shali rice grown in a Jangala country has a taste slightly blended of the pungent, astringent, sweet and has a shade of bitter. It subdues the deranged Pitta and Kapha, (generates Vayu —D. R.) and is a good digestant and stomachic. Shali rice grown in a Kaidara or marshy country has a sweet taste with a shade of the astringent. It is tonic and spermatopoietic, aphrodisiac and heavy of digestion. It reduces the quantity of excrement, subdues the Pitta, and increases the Kapha.

Rice of once transplanted paddy plants (Ropya) or of those transplanted several times in succession (Ati-ropya) is light, easily digested and comparatively more efficacious. It acts as a constructive tonic and is not followed by any reactionary acidity after digestion. It destroys the deranged humours and is diuretic. Rice of paddy plants, sprouting from the stubbles of a previous harvest, is parchifying. It suppresses the evacuations of stool, has a bitter and astringent taste, subdues the Pitta, is easily digestible and generates Kapha. I have fully described the good and bad species of grain belonging to the Shali group. Similarly, I shall speak of Kudhanyas, Mudgas and Mashas, etc.

The Genus Kudhanya:—

The several varieties of Kudhanyam are known as the Kora-dushaka, Shyamaka, Nivara, Shantanu, Varaka, Uddalaka, Priyangu, Madhulika, Nandimukhi, Kuravinda, Gavedhuka, Varuka, Todaparni, Mukundaka, and Venu-yava, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

They generate heat and have a sweet and astringent taste. They are parchifying and pungent of digestion, subdue the Kapha and tend to produce retention of the urine, and enrage the bodily Vayu and the Pitta. Of these the species known as the Kodrava, Nivara, Shyamaka and Shantanu have a sweet and astringent taste and prove curative in Sheeta pitta (urticaria). The four (black, red, yellow and white) varieties of Priyangus reduce the Kapha and produce a parched condition in the body, each preceding species being superior as regards its virtues to the one immediately following it in the order of enumeration. The species Madhulikas as well as the one known as the Nandimukhi is sweet, cool and demulcent. The species Varuka and Mukundaka are largely possessed of absorbing virtues. The species Venu-yava, is parchifying, and heat-making in its potency and is pungent of digestion, brings on retention of the urine, subdues the deranged Kapha, and tends to enrage the bodily Vayu. The several varieties of pulse (Vaidala) commonly used as food are known as the Mudga, Vana-Mudga, Kalaya, Makushtha, Masura, Mangalya, Chanaka, Satina, Triputa, Harenu, and Adhaki, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

They are generally cool and pungent of digestion, and have a sweet and astringent taste. They generate the Vayu, arrest the flow of urine and the evacuation of stool, and subdue the Pitta and Kapha. The species known as the Mudga does not excessively generate Vayu in the system but tends to purify and invigorate the organ of vision. The green species is the best of all the varieties of Mudga pulse. The properties of Vanya (Mudga) are similar to those of the common variety.

The species of pulse known as Masura is sweet of digestion and constipates the bowels. The species Makushthaka is vermigenous, while the species Kalaya generates Vayu copiously. The species Adhaki subdues the Pitta and Kapha, and does not excessively agitate the Vayu in the organism. The species known as the Chanaka generates Vayu and is cooling in its potency. It has a sweet and astringent taste, and produces a parched condition of the body. It subdues the Pitta and Kapha, corrects the deranged blood, and tends to bring on a loss of the virile powers. The species known as Satina and Harenu are astringent in their virtues and tend to constipate the bowels. All the varieties of pulse except the Mudga and the Masura tend to produce a distension of the abdomen caused by gas or air in the organism (Tympanites or Adhmana).

The pulse known as the Masha has a sweet taste, is heavy and pleasant, laxative, diuretic, demulcent, heat-making, aphrodisiac, and specifically spermatopoietic, tonic and galactogoguic. It subdues the Vayu and increases the Kapha. The species known as the Alasandra (Rajamasha) does not produce Kapha and is neither laxative nor diuretic on account of its astringent nature. It is sweet in taste and of digestion, pleasant, glactogoguic and improves a relish for food. The properties of Atmagupta and Kakanda seeds are similar to those of the aforesaid Masha pulse. The species known as the Aranya-masha is astringent in taste, produces a condition of parchedness in the system, and is not followed by any reactionary acidity after being digested. The pulse known as Kulattha has an astringent taste, is pungent of digestion and is possessed of astringent properties. It proves curative in cases of urinary calculi arising from seminal derangement (Shukrashmari), abdominal glands, catarrh, and cough. The species known as the Vanya-Kulattha subdues the deranged Kapha, and proves curative in cases of Anaha, obesity, piles, hic-cough and dyspnea. It may bring on an attack of hemoptysis, and proves beneficial in diseases affecting the eyes. Tilam has a taste blended of the sweet and the bitter with a shade of the astringent. It is astrigent, heat-making, and produces Pitta. It is sweet of digestion, demulcent, tonic, and curative as a plaster for ulcers. It is beneficial to the skin and teeth, improves the intellect and digestion, is anuretic and heavy, helps the growth of hair, and subdues the deranged Vayu.

Of all the different varieties of sesamum, the black species is the best in respect of efficacy. The white species occupies a middle position as regards its virtues, while the remaining varieties should be regarded as of inferior quality.

Barley (Yava) is cooling, sweet and astringent in taste, and pungent of digestion. It subdues the deranged Pitta and Kapha. It is anuretic, beneficial to ulcers; and like sesamum, increases the quantity of stool and the emission of flatus, imparts firmness to the body and improves the voice, complexion and digestion. It is slimy and produces a condition of extreme parchedness in the system, removes obesity, and subdues fat. It subdues the deranged Vayu, is refrigerant and soothes (purifies) the blood and Pitta. The Atiyavas (a species of barley) is inferior to the barley species in respect of the preceding qualities.

Wheat is sweet, heavy, tonic, rejuvicient, spermatopoietic, and improves the relish for food. It is demulcent and extremely cooling, subdues the Vayu and Pitta, and generates the Kapha. New wheat is laxative and brings about the adhesion of fractured bones or helps fermentation (Sandhanakrit).

The Shimvas (Beans) have an astringent taste and produce a condition of parchedness in the system. They are antitoxic, discutient, and reduce the Kapha and the power of sight. They are imperfectly digested and acquire a pungent taste in digestion, though ordinarily sweet in taste. They cause evacuation of the bowels and emission of flatus.

There are four variteies of Shimva such as, the white, the black, the yellow and the red, of which each preceding species is superior in virtues and qualities to the one immediately following it in the order of enumeration. The Shimvas are heat-making and pungent both in taste and digestion.

The two varieties of Saha, as well as the species of beans known as the Mulakashimvi and the Kushimvi, are sweet in taste and digestion, and strength-giving. They tend to subdue the action of the deranged Pitta.

Raw and unripe pulse beans (Vaidalika Shimvi) produce a condition of extreme parchedness in the system, are long retained in the stomach and but imperfectly digested. They are relishing but can be digested only with the greatest difficulty, causing the stomach to distend before being digested.

Kasumbha seeds are pungent in taste and digestion, and reduce the deranged Kapha. They are extremely unwholesome, owing to the fact of their being imperfectly digested. Linseed (Atasi) has a sweet taste, is heat-making in its potency, and pungent in digestion. It generates the Pitta and subdues the Vayu. White mustard (Shveta Sarshapa) is pungent in taste and digestion, strong and heat-making in its potency. It gives rise to a condition of parchedness in the system, and diminishes the Vayu and the Kapha. An excessive and continuous use of white mustard may bring on an attack of hemoptysis. The properties of red mustard seeds are similar to those of the white species.

A crop of Dhanyam grown in an unnatural season, or in any way diseased or blighted, or gleaned before it has ripened, as well as the one raised from a soil naturally uncongenial to its growth, or recently harvested, should be deemed to be of inferior quality.

The use of new (harvested within a year) rice tends to increase the secretions of the internal organs, while that of a year’s maturity is light.^[1]

Rice threshed out of paddy, which has commenced sprouting, is heavy, and is long retained in the stomach. It can be but imperfectly digested and tends to affect the organ of vision.

The maturity, preparations (Sanskara), and measures of corn from Shali rice to mustard seeds described in the present Chapter are as follows:—[Rice of two years standing should be regarded as well matured in time and excellent in quality. A thing, which is hard to digest like Vrihi, is made light by frying. Measures for use should vary according to the keenness of one’s appetite.]

The meat Group:—

Now I shall describe the properties of the different species of edible meats. The flesh of animals such as those which are aquatic in their habits (Jaleshaya), or frequent marshy lands (Anupa), or dwell in villages (Gramya), or are carnivorous in their habits (Kravyabhuja), or are possessed of unbifurcated hoofs (Ekashapha), or dwell on high ground (Jangala), is generally used as food. Of these each succeeding kind is superior to the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration.

Again these animals may be roughly grouped under two broad sub-heads such as, the Jangala (living in high ground and in a jungle) and the Anupa (living in marshy places, or near pools and water-courses). The Jangala group may be further divided into eight sub-species, such as the Janghala, the Viscira, the Pratuda, the Guhashaya, the Prasaha, the Parnamriga, the Vileshaya, and the Gramya. Of these the Janghala and the Viscira are the most important. The following animals belong to the Janghala (large-kneed) group—viz. the Ena (black deer), the Harina (red deer), the Rishya (blue deer), the Kuranga (antelope), the Karala, the Kritamala, the Sharabha, the Shvadanstra, the Prishata, the Citrila (Spotted deer), the Carushka, the Mriga-matrika, etc. These species of venison have a sweet and astringent taste, are light, keen, pleasant (palatable), laxative, and diuretic in their effect. They subdue the Vayu and the Pitta.

Metrical Text:—

The venison of the Ena species is sweet and astringent in taste, and palatable, and proves curative in diseases due to the deranged condition of the Pitta, blood and Kapha. It is astringent in its effect, imparts strength to the system, improves a relish for food and is a febrifuge. The venison of the Harina (red) species is sweet in taste and digestion, appetising, aromatic, cool, light, and suppresses the discharge of stool and urine and pacifies the deranged humours. Deer which are black are called Ena, while those which are red are called Harina. Those, that are neither red nor black, are designated as Kuranga. The venison of the Mriga-matrika species is cooling and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis, Sannipata diseases (due to the concerted action of the three deranged humours), consumption, dyspnea, cough, and hiccough and creates a relish for food.

Birds such as the Lava, Tittiri, Kapinjala, Vartira, Vartika, Vartaka, Naptrika, Vatika, Chakora, Kalavinka, Mayura, Krakara, Upachakra, Kukkuta, Saranga, Shata-Patraka, Kutittiri, Kuruvahuka and Yavalaka belong to the Vishkira species. [They are so called from the fact of their picking up their food after scattering it first with their bills and claws (Skr. kira, to scatter)]. The flesh of a bird of this group is light, cooling, sweet and astringent in taste and tends to pacify the deranged humours of the body.

The flesh of the Lava is light, has a sweet and astringent taste, is pungent of digestion, and possessed of astringent and appetising properties. It is highly efficacious in diseases due to the concerted humours of the body. The flesh of the Tittirs is slightly heavy, heat-making and sweet in taste. It is spermatopoietic, appetising and astringent. It improves the intellect and complexion, and subdues the three deranged humours. The flesh of the yellow (Gaura) Tittiri proves curative in hic-cough and dyspnea, and subdues the deranged Vayu. The flesh of the Kapinjala is light and cooling, and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis, and is recommended in diseases brought about through the deranged condition of the Kapha or Vayu (Manda-vata). The flesh of the Krakara or of the Upachakra is light, pleasant (palatable), spermatopoietic, and appetising. It subdues the Vayu and Pitta and improves the intellect. The flesh of the Mayura is astringent and saline in taste, and is beneficial to the skin, helps the growth of hair, improves the voice, intellect, appetite and relish for food, and imparts strength and vigour to the organs of sight and hearing.

The flesh of a wild cock is demulcent, heat-making, and spermatopoietic. It acts as a diaphoretic, imparts tone to the voice and the organism, subdues the deranged Vayu, and is useful as a good constructive tonic. The flesh of a domesticated cock or fowl is possessed of properties similar to those of its wild prototype with the exception that it is heavy, and proves curative in rheumatism, consumption, vomiting and chronic (Vishama-Jvara) fever.

Birds such as the dove, pigeon, Bhringaraja, cuckoo, Koyashtica, Kulinga, the domestic Kulinga, Gokshada, Dindimanaka, Shatapatraka, Matrinindaka, Bhedashi, Shuka, Sharika, Valguli, Girisha, Alahva, Dushaka, Sugrihi, Khanjaritaka, Harita, Datyuha, etc. belong to the group known as the Pratuda.

Metrical Texts:—

The Pratudas live on fruit, and their flesh has a sweet and astringent taste. It generates Vayu and produces a parched condition in the organism. It is cooling in its potency and reduces the Pitta and Kapha. It suppresses the discharge of urine and reduces the quantity of stool. Of these the flesh of the Bhedashi tends to vitiate the humours and to derange the three excrements of the body. The flesh of the Kana Kapota (wild dove) is heavy and has a palatable, saline and astringent taste. It proves beneficial in hemoptysis and is sweet of digestion. The flesh of the Kulinga is sweet, demulcent, and spermatopoietic, and increases the bodily Kapha. The flesh of the domesticated Kulinga is highly spermatopoietic, and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis.

Animals such as the lion, tiger, wolf, hyena, arboreal leopard (Vriksha dipi), cat, jackal, bear, and Mriga(-ervaruka?) (a jackal-shaped, deer-eating species of tiger) belong to the group of the Guhashayas (cave-dwelling mammals).

Metrical Texts:—

The flesh of animals belonging to this family is sweet, heavy, demulcent and strength-giving. It subdues the deranged Vayu. It is heat-making in its potency, and proves beneficial in diseases affecting the eyes and anus.

The Prasaha Group:—

Birds such as, the Kaka, Kanka, Kurura, Chasa, Bhasa, Shashaghati, Uluka, Chilli, Shyena, Gridhra, etc. belong to the family of Prasahas (Carnivorous birds that suddenly dart on their prey).

Metrical Text The flesh of birds belonging to this group is identical in its virtues, potency, taste and digestive transformation with those of the aforesaid carnivorous mammals, such as the lion, etc., and is specially beneficial in cases of consumption and kindred wasting diseases.

The Parna-Mriga Group:—

Animals such as the Madgu, the arboreal Musika, the Vriksha-Shayika, Avakusha, Puti-ghasa and the Vanara, etc. belong to the family of Parna-Mrigas (lit: tree-dwelling arboreal animals).

Metrical Texts:—

The flesh of animals of this group is sweet, spermatopoietic and heavy of digestion. It is invigorating to the eyesight and beneficial in cases of consumption. It is laxative and diuretic and cures cough, pile and dyspnea.

The Vileshaya Group:—

Animals such as, the Shvavit, Shalyaka, Godha, Shasha, Vrishadansha, Lopaka, Lomasha-Karna, Kadali, Mriga-Priyaka, Ajagara, Sarpa, Mushika, Nakula and Maha-Vabhru belong to the group of Vileshaya (hole-dwellers).

Metrical Texts:—

The general properties of the flesh of animals belonging to this species are to increase the consistency of stool and urine. They are heat-making in potency, sweet in digestion as those of the preceding group. They subdue the Vayu and generate the Pitta and Kapha. They are demulcent and beneficial in cough, dyspnea and cachexia. The flesh of the Shasha is sweet and astringent in taste. It reduces the Pitta and Kapha and neither produces nor subdues the Vayu owing to its moderately cooling potency. The flesh of the Godha is sweet of digestion and has a pungent, astringent taste. It is tonic and constructive and pacifies the Vayu and Pitta. The flesh of the Shalyaka is tasteful, light of digestion, cooling in its potency and anti-toxic, and subdues the deranged Pitta. The flesh of the Mriga-Priyaka proves a wholesome diet in diseases due to the action of the deranged Vayu (Vayu-Roga), while that of the Ajagara is beneficial in piles.

The flesh of a Sarpa (a species other than those specifically described) is curative in piles and derangements of the Vayu. It is a vermifuge and anti-toxic (a neutraliser of chemical or resulting poisons). It invigorates the eye-sight, is appetising and sweet and improves the intellect. Of these the flesh of the Darvicara is appetising, pungent in digestion, sweet in taste, and extremely efficacious in eye diseases. It is laxative and diuretic, and subdues the deranged Vayu.

Domestic Animal Group:—

Animals such as horses, mules, cows, bullocks, asses, camels, goats, sheep, and Medapuchas (fat tailed or Turkish sheep) etc., belong to the group of domestic animals (Gramyas).

Metrical Texts:—

The flesh of domestic animals is possessed of constructive, tonic and appetising properties, is sweet in taste and digestion. It destroys the deranged Vayu and produces the Kapha and Pitta. Of these the flesh of the goat is moderately cooling in its potency, does not increase the secretions of the internal organs, is heavy and demulcent, subdues the Pitta and the Kapha, and is beneficial in nasal catarrh. The flesh of sheep (mutton) is constructive, tonic and heavy, and generates the Pitta and Kapha. The flesh of the Medapucca is aphrodisiac and has properties similar to those of mutton.

Beef is holy and refrigerant, proves curative in dyspnea, catarrh, cough, chronic fever and in cases of a morbid craving for food (Atyagni), and destroys the deranged Vayu. The flesh of an animal with unbifurcated hoofs (Ekashapha such as, the horse and the mule etc.), has a slightly saline taste, and is possessed of properties similar to those of mutton. The flesh of an animal belonging to the Jangala group is said to increase the secretions of the internal organs.

The flesh of beasts or birds dwelling remote from a village or pool tends to slightly increase the secretions of the internal organs, while the flesh of an animal living in a village or near a reservoir of water, excessively increases that secretion.

The Anupa Group:—

Animals, which are generally found to frequent marshy places (Anupas) may be divided into five groups, such as, the Kulacaras (frequenting the shores of pools and lakes), Plavas (divers or swimmers), Koshastha (conchiferous aquatic animals such as, the molluscs etc.), the Padinas and the (piscatory) Matsya.

Of these, the elephant, the Gavaya, buffalo, Rum (an animal of the deer species which casts its antlers and wanders roaming about in the forests in autumn) Chamara, Srimara (an animal of the Zebra species with green and red stripes), Rohita (red deer), boar, rhinoceros, Gokarna, Kalapuccaka, together with the Nynku (a species of antlered deer) and the wild cow, etc., frequent the cool shores of swamps and lakes, and are accordingly included within the group of Kulacaras (shore-dwellers).

The Metrical Texts:—

The flesh of an animal of this group is spermatopoietic and destroys the deranged Vayu and Kapha. It is sweet in taste and digestion, cooling, tonic, demulcent and diuretic, and increases the quantity of Kapha.

The flesh of the Elephant tends to produce a state of extreme parchedness in the system, and is liquefacient and heat-making in its potency. It vitiates the Pitta and has a palatable acid and saline taste, and destroys the Vayu and Kapha. The flesh of the Gavaya is demulcent and sweet in taste, and proves beneficial in cough and is sweet of digestion. It tends to increase sexual capacity. The flesh of the Buffalo is demulcent, heat-making (in its potency), sweet, spermatopoietic, pleasant and heavy of digestion It increases strength and virility and imparts firmness to the tissues, and is hypnotic and galactagoguic. The flesh of the Ruru is slightly sweet and leaves an astringent after taste. It is heavy, spermatopoietic and pacifies the Vayu and Kapha.

Similarly, the flesh of the Chamara is demulcent, cures an attack of cough, is sweet in taste and digestion and subdues the deranged Vayu and Pitta. The flesh of the Srimara is heavy and spermatopoietic, leaves an astringent after-taste in the mouth and tends to subdue the deranged Vayu and Pitta. The flesh of the boar (Baraha) or common pig is constructive, tonic, spermatopoietic and diaphoretic, and imparts a greater strength to the system. It is heavy (as regards digestion), demulcent, cooling, refrigerant, and pleasant, and destroys the deranged Vayu. The flesh of the rhinoceros has an astringent taste, and is pleasing to one’s departed manes in the shape of an oblation (Pitryam). It is sacred, imparts longevity, tends to suppress the discharge of urine, produces a condition of parchedness in the organism, and destroys the deranged Vayu and Kapha. The flesh of the Gokarna is sweet, demulcent, mild (soft), sweet in digestion and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis, and generates Kapha in the system.

The Plava Group:—

Birds such as the Hansa, Sarasa, Krauncha, Chakravaka, Kurura (belong also to the Prasaha group) Kadamva, Karandava, Jivan Jivaka, Vaka, Valaka, Pundarika, Plava, Sarari-mukha, Nandimukha, Madgu, Utkrosha, Kachaksha, Mallikaksha, Shuklaksha, Pushkarashayika, Konalaka, Amvukukkutika, Megharava and Shvetacarana etc. belong to the Plava family. These birds are found to move about in large flocks.

Metrical Text:—

The flesh of any one of this family is cooling, demulcent, and spermatopoietic and destroys the deranged Vayu. It proves beneficial in cases of hemoptysis, is sweet in taste and of digestion, and is possessed of laxative and diuretic properties. The flesh of the Hansa is heavy (of digestion), heat-making, sweet and demulcent. It tends to improve the voice and complexion, and imparts strength to the system. It is spermatopoietic, tissue-building and tonic, and proves curative in nervous diseases (Vata-Vikara).

The Conchiferous (Koshastha) Species:—

Animals such as, the Shankha, Shankhanakha (a species of small bivalve molluscs), Shukti, Shambuka and Bhalluka, etc., belong to the Koshastha (conchiferous) group.

The Padina Species:—

Animals such as, the tortoise, alligator, crab, black crab, porpoise, etc., belong to this species.

Metrical Texts:—

The flesh of animals of the Shankha and Kurma orders is sweet in taste and digestion, cooling in its potency, demulcent, and beneficial to stool and the Pitta. It destroys the deranged Vayu and produces Kapha. Of these, the species of black crab is strength-giving and heat-making in its potency, and tends to destroy the deranged Vayu. The white species is laxative and diuretic in its effect, and tends to bring about an adhesion of fractured bones (or produces fermentation). It destroys the Vayu and Pitta.

The Piscatory Order:—

The piscatory group may be roughly divided into two broad subdivisions, such as the Marine and the River (fresh water) fish. The species such as the Rohita, Pathina, Patala, Rajiva, Varmi, Gomatsya, Krishna-Matsya, Vagunjara, Murala, Sahasra-danstra, etc., belong to the fresh water family.

Metrical Texts:—

The fresh water (Nadeya) fish (river fish) are sweet in taste, heavy of digestion, bring on hemoptysis and destroy the deranged Vayu. They are heat-making in their potencies, spermatopoietic and demulcent and tend to reduce the quantity of stool. Of these, the Rohita leaves an astringent after-taste, and destroys the deranged Vayu. This species lives on such aquatic plants and herbs as grow in fresh-water pools and do not inordinately generate Pitta. The Pathinas produce Kapha and are spermatopoietic. They are carnivorous and somnolent in their habits, tend to vitiate the blood and the Pitta, and originate dermal affections. The species of fish known as the Murala is constructive, tonic, spermatopoietic and galactagoguic. Fish bred in tanks or ponds are palatable to the taste and demulcent in their effect, while those reared in large lakes are usually found to gain in strength and size, while the species reared in shallow water is weak and stunted.

The Samudra (Marine) Species:—

The Timi, Timingila (a species of large whales) Kulisha, Paka matsya, Niralaka, Nandi-Varalaka, Makara, Gargarka, Candraka, Mahamina, and Rajiva etc., constitute the family of marine fish.

Metrical Texts:—

Sea fish are heavy, demulcent, and sweet, and do not inordinately produce Pitta. They are heat-making (in their potency), and spermatopoietic and beneficial to the stool, and destroy Vayu and generate Kapha.

Sea fish are extremely strength-giving in their effect owing to the fact of their living on animal food. Fresh water fish are possessed of greater tissue-building properties than their marine kindred, while those which are found in wells and Chuntis are said to be possessed of greater carminative (Vataghna) virtues than the two preceding orders. Fish reared in tanks (Vapi) are superior to the two preceding species owing to their greater demulcent and palatable properties. River fish are heavy at the middle, owing to the fact of their moving about with the help of their head and tail, while those which are cultured in tanks and ponds (Sarah and Tadaga) are specially light about their heads. Fish, which are found in hill streams or fountains, are extremely heavy about the parts a little below the region of their head, on account of their being confined within narrow limits and the consequent absence of any lengthy sweep. Fish reared in large tanks (Sarasi) are lighter in the foreparts of their body and heavy in their lower parts, as they put their entire pressure upon their breast at the time of swimming. Thus I have finished describing the specific properties of the flesh of animals that frequent swamps or marshy grounds and which increase the secretions of the internal organs of a person using them for food.

Dried or putrid flesh, as well as the flesh of a diseased, old, emaciated, poisoned, or snake-bitten animal, or of one of extremely tender years or struck with a poisoned dart or weapon, or of that which has fed on unnatural food, should be carefully avoided inasmuch as dried or putrid meat is shorn of all its potency. The flesh of a diseased or snake-bitten animal would be found to be poisoned or vitiated in its properties; that of a wounded animal is affected, that of an old animal is enfeebled in its potency, and that of an extremely young animal is immature in its virtue and hence would prove positively injurious to the system.

Metrical Texts:—

Dry meat is heavy, brings on catarrh and a non-relish for food. The flesh of an animal killed by poison is fatal. The flesh of an animal of tender years may produce vomiting. The flesh of an old animal produces cough and dyspnea, while the use of that of a diseased animal may be attended with a simultaneous derangement of the three fundamental humours of the body. Putrid meat produces nausea, while the use of that of an enfeebled or emaciated animal tends to aggravate the Vayu.

Meat falling under a category other than those described above should be deemed as good and wholesome. The flesh of a female quadruped, or of a male bird, or of a small-bodied creature of a large-sized genus, and vice versa, is principally recommended to be used amongst quadrupeds, birds, and animals. Similarly the flesh of a small-sized creature amongst large-bodied ones of the same species should be preferred as food.

Now we shall discourse on the heavy or light character of flesh obtained from different parts of the body of an animal. Of the different fundamental principles of the body from the blood to the semen, each succeeding one is heavier than the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. Similarly, (of the different limbs or organs of a quartered animal such as), the thighs, the shoulders, the loins, the head, the legs, the fore-extremities, the waist, the back, the skin, the kidneys, the liver and the intestines, each succeeding one is respectively heavier than the one immediately preceding it in the order.

Metrical Texts:—

The head is heavier than the shoulders; the shoulders, than the waist; and the waist, than the back. Similarly, the upper parts of the Sakthi (thighs) are heavier than their lower ends. Of the seven fundamental principles of the organism (such as the lymph chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and semen) each succeeding one is heavier than the principle immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. The trunks of all animals are heavy. The lover part of a female frame and the upper one of a male are respectively heavier [than their upper (fore) and lower (hind) parts.]

The head and breast of a bird are heavier than its other limbs. The trunk or the middle part of a bird is so equipoised as to facilitate the movements of its pinions in flight. The flesh of a fruit-eating bird produces a state of extreme parchedness in the organism (of a person using it as food,) while that of a carnivorous one acts as a good constructive tonic. The flesh of a bird, which lives on fish, produces Pitta, while that of one, which lives on paddy (Dhanya), subdues the Vayu. Of the animals, that live in dry land or frequent marshy places, as well as of those which are domesticated, or are carnivorous in their habits, or are possessed of unbifurcated hoofs, or live by darting on their preys, or dwell in holes, or are possessed of long legs, or eat by pricking, or are in the habit of first scattering their food with their claws, the flesh of each preceding one is lighter and tends to give rise to a lesser secretion from the internal organs than the one immediately following it in the order of enumeration.

Of animals belonging to the same genus, the flesh of one, which attains to an abnormally large size, should be rejected as inferior in pith or substance, and heavy as regards digestion. The flesh about the region of the liver of all animals should be regarded as the very best in respect of its dietic properties, in absence whereof the flesh of a young animal not at all used up, or afflicted with any disease and just quartered that day, should be regarded as coming next best.

Authoritative verse on the subject:—

The age, body, development of limbs, temperament, nature, sex, constitution, size and habit of an animal should be taken into consideration before determining whether its flesh is wholesome or not. The measure in which it may be used as food with decided advantage to the organism and to what extent it will purify or improve its virtues, should also be considered.

The Fruit Group (Phala-varga):—

Now we shall discourse (on the specific virtues) of fruits, such as the Dadima, Amalaka, Kapittha, Vadara, Kola, Karkandhu, Sauvira, Shimvitikaphala, Matulunga, Amra, Amrataka, Karamarda, Piyala, Lakuca, Bhavya, Paravata, Vetraphala, Prachinamalaka, Tintidika, Nipa, Koshamra, Amlika, Naranga, and Jamvira, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

(We may describe the general properties of fruits by saying that) they are acid in taste and heavy of digestion, heat-making in their potencies, (expectorant) of (Kapha), generate Pitta and subdue the Vayu. Of the fruits enumerated in the above list the Dadima leaves an astringent after-taste and does not generate the Pitta to an inordinate degree.^[2] It acts as an appetiser, brings on flesh and a relish for food, is palatable to the taste, and tends to constipate the bowels by (imparting a greater consistency to the fecal matter). Dadimas may be classified into two distinct species according as they are sweet or acid to the taste. The sweet species subdues the three deranged bodily humours, while the acid one subdues the Vayu and Kapha. The fruit known as the Amalaka has a taste blended of the sweet, pungent and astringent ones with a shade of the bitter. It is laxative, spermatopoietic and beneficial to the eye-sight, and is capable of subduing all the three deranged humours The Vataghna virtue of this fruit should be ascribed to its acid taste; its power of subduing the Pitta, to its sweetness and coolness; and its efficacy in subduing the Kapha, to its affecting the tongue as a dry astringent substance. This fruit is by far the best known fruit as possessing high therapeutic properties. The Karkandhu, like the Kola or the Vadara, generates the Kapha and Pitta in its unripe or immature stage, while in its ripe or matured stage it is sweet, demulcent, purgative and subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The fruit known as the Sauvira is possessed of properties similar to those of the Vadara; moreover it is sweet, demulcent, and subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The Shimvitika-fruit is cooling, astringent and palatable and has an astringent taste. The Kapittha in its unripe stage produces hoarseness. It is astringent and subdues the Kapha and increases the Vayu, while in its ripe stage it subdues the Vayu and Kapha, is heavy, and has a sweet and acid taste. The fruit known as the Matulunga is light, acid, appetising, and pleasant. It proves beneficial in cough and asthma, brings on a relish for food, allays thirst and cleanses the throat. The rind of a Matulunga is a bitter vermifuge and is difficult to digest; it subdues the Vayu and Kapha. The layer of skin (lit. flesh), immediately underlying the rind of the Matulunga, is palatable, cooling in its potency, demulcent and heavy of digestion, and also subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The membranous or cellular covering, which envelops its seeds, is light, stomachic, astringent and palatable. It produces Kapha and proves curative in cases of piles, abdominal glands (Gulma) and vomiting. The expressed juice of the Matulunga is recommended to a person suffering from colic pain (gastralgia), indigestion, constipation of the bowels, iippaired digestion as well as from disorders brought about through the deranged condition of the Vayu and Kapha, and more so in cases where the patient has lost all relish for food. An unripe Amra, in its first stage of development, tends to generate the Vayu and Pitta, while one with closed pollen (Vaddha-keshara type) generates the Pitta. Ripe amra is pleasant, cosmetic, relishing and tonic, helps the formation of fresh blood, and leaves an astringent after-taste. It is sweet and heavy, is a tissue-builder and tends to increase the formation of semen and also subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The Amrataka (Hog-apple) is spermatopoietic, is surcharged with a kind of oily matter and tends to increase the Kapha in the system. The Lakuca tends to destroy the semen, is long retained in the stomach, and serves to derange the three fundamental humours of the body. The Karamardaka is relishing and acid in its taste, allays thirst, and generates the Kapha. The Piyala is heavy, cooling and spermatopoietic. The Bhavyam is pleasant, tasteful, astringent, and acid in taste. It cleanses the mouth and subdues the Pitta and Kapha. It is astringent, heavy, cooling and is long retained in the stomach.

The fruit known as the Paravata is sweet and relishing, and it destroys the Vayu and a voracious appetite. The Nipa, like the old Amalaka fruits, tends to neutralise the effects of poisons originated through the chemical combination of incompatible substances in the organism. Unripe Tintidika (tamarind) subdues the Vayu, and tends to generate the Pitta and Kapha in the organism, while in its ripe state it is astringent, heat-making and stomachic. It destroys the Vayu and Kapha and restores a relish for food. The Koshamra is possessed of properties nearly identical with those of the Tamarind. The properties of a ripe Amlika fruit are the same as those of the latter with the exception that it further acts as a purgative. The Naranga has a sweet and acid taste, is pleasant and refreshing, and gives a relish to food. It is heavy, difficult to digest and subdues the Vayu. The Jamvira tends to allay thirst and cures colic pain, \vater-brash, vomiting and asthma; it subdues the action of the deranged Vayu and Kapha, removes constipation of the bowels, and helps to create a healthy secretion of the Pitta. The Airavata and Dantaskatha (different varieties of Jamvira are acid and tend to bring on an attack of hemoptysis.

The fruit (of such trees as the Ashvatha, the Plaksha, the Audumvura, etc., which pass by the general name) of Kshira-Vrikshas as well as those which are known as the Jamva, Rajadana, Todana, Tinduka, Vakula, Dhanvana, Ashmantaka, Ashvakarna, Phalgu, Parushaka, Gangeruka, Pushkara, Varti, Villa and Vimvi, etc. are cooling, and astringent in their effect. They subdue the Pitta and Kapha, tend to produce a condition of parchedness in the system, and have a sweet and astringent taste.

Of these the fruit of trees which belong to the genus Kshiri-Vrikshas is heavy and cooling, and is long retained in the stomach in an undigested state. It has a sweet, acid and astringent taste and does not inordinately derange the Vayu. The fruit known as the Jamvava generates the Vayu. It is astringent, and subdues the Pitta and Kapha, while the Rajadana is demulcent, sweet, astringent and heavy. The Todana is acid, astringent, and sweet in its taste and is parchifying and subdues the Pitta and Vayu. It is (heat-making) in its potency, easily digestible (light of digestion), astringent, demulcent and appetising and further generates the Pitta. Unripe Tinduka fruit is astringent, and heavy in digestion and produces Vayu in the organism, while in its ripe or fulfy matured stage it is sweet, and subdues the Kapha and Pitta. The Vakula fruit has a sweet and astringent taste, is demulcent and astringent in its properties, imparts a greater firmness to the teeth, and removes the viscid condition of the membranes. The fruit of the Dhanvana has an astringent taste, and is cooling and palatable and subdues the Vayu and Kapha. The fruit of the Gangeruka and Ashmantaka is possessed of similar properties as the preceding ones. The Phalgu fruit is long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, has a sweet taste, and is heavy of digestion, refreshing, and demulcent in its effect. Raw or unripe Parushaka fruit is extremly acid in taste with a shade of the sweet, leaves an astringent after-taste, is light of digestion, generates the Pitta, and subdues the Kapha; while in its ripe state it is sweet in taste, subdues the Vayu and Pitta, is sweet in digestion and cooling in its potency and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis. The Pushkara fruit is sweet, and is long retained in the stomach in undigested state. It produces the Kapha and is tonic, and heavy of digestion (hard to digest). Raw and tender Vilva fruit subdues the Vayu and Kapha. It is keen, demulcent astringent, and appetising, has a pungent, bitter and astringent taste, and is heat-making in its potency, while in its ripe state it leaves a sweet after-taste. Further it is heavy of digestion, can be but incompletely digested, and is long retained in the stomach, causing it thus to distend and producing the emission of a fetid-smelling flatus. The Vimvi fruit, as well as that known as the Ashva-karna, is galactagoguic. They destroy the Pitta and Kapha and prove beneficial in cases of thirst, burning sensation of the skin, fever, hemoptysis, cough, asthma and consumption.

The fruits such as, the Tala, Narikela, Panasa and Maucha, etc. are sweet in taste and of digestion, and subdue the Vayu and Pitta. They are cooling in their potencies, and act as constructive tonics. Of these the fruit of a Tala is sweet in taste and heavy of digestion. It subdues the deranged Pitta. The pulp found inside its seeds is sweet of digestion and diuretic, and it subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The Narikela fruit is heavy of digestion, demulcent, anti-choleric, sweet, cooling in its potency, tonic, tissue-building, pleasant, laxative and diuretic. It subdues the Pitta. The Panasam is sweet and astringent in taste, demulcent and heavy of digestion. The Maucha has a sweet and astringent taste, not cooling in its potency, proves curative in cases of hemoptysis, acts as a spermatopoietic and improves the relish for food. It generates the Kapha and is heavy of digestion.

The fruits such as the Drakshas, Kashmaryas, Madhukas, Kharjuras, etc., have a sweet taste, are heavy of digestion and prove curative in cases of hemoptysis. Of these grapes are laxative, beneficial to the voice, sweet, demulcent, and cooling in their potency. They prove beneficial in cases of hemoptysis, fever, asthma, thirst, burning sensation of the skin, and consumption. The fruit known as the Kashmarya Phala is pleasant and diuretic. It purifies the blood, improves the intellect and growth of hair, and is rejuvenescent and subdues the Vayu and Pitta. Kharjuras are possessed of the virtue of arresting all bodily wastes. They prove beneficial in Urakshata, are pleasant, cooling in their potency, refreshing, heavy of digestion, sweet in taste, and prove curative in cases of hemoptysis. The flowers of Madhuka trees are tissue-building, unpleasant and heavy of digestion, while their fruit subdues the Vayu and Pitta.

Fruits such as the Vatama, Akshoda, Abhishuka, Nichula, Pichu, Nikochaka, and Urumana, etc. are demulcent, heat-making in their potency, heavy of digestion, constructive, tonic, and sweet in taste. They subdue the Vayu, Pitta and Kapha.

The fruit known as the Lavali is astringent and slightly bitter in taste, improves a relish for food, and is pleasant, aromatic and refreshing to the whole system. It subdues the Kapha and Pitta. The fruits such as the Vasira, and the Shitapakyam, as well as the stems of Bhallataka trees, are hard to digest and are long retained in the stomach in an undigested condition. They tend to produce a state of dryness in the organism, derange the Vayu, are cooling in their potency, sweet of digestion, and prove curative in cases of hemoptysis.

The fruits known as the Airavata and the Dantashatha have an extremely acid taste and tend to bring on an attack of hemoptysis. The fruit known as the Tanka is cooling in its potency, has a sweet and astringent taste, is heavy and generates the Vayu. The fruit known as the Ainguda is demulcent, and heat-making in its potency, has a sweet and bitter taste, and subdues the Vayu and Kapha. The Shami fruit is heavy, sweet and heat-making, produces a state of parchedness in the organism, and helps the falling off of hair. The Shleshmataka fruit is heavy of digestion, generates the Kapha, and is sweet in taste and cooling in its potency.

Fruits such the Karira, Akshaka Pilu and Trinashunya have a sweet, bitter and pungent taste, and are heat-making in their potency. They subdue the Vayu and Kapha. Of these the Pilu has a bitter and astringent taste. It generates the Pitta, acts as purgative, is pungent in digestion, keen, heat-making and oily. It subdues the Vayu and Kapha. The Arushkara and Tauvaraka fruits have an astringent taste, are pungent in digestion, heat-making in their potency and prove curative in cases of worms in the intestines, fever, constipation of the bowels (Anaha) and Meha. Fruits such as, the Karanja, Kinshuka, and Arishtaphala (Nimva) are vermifugenous and pungent in digestion, and prove curative in cases of Leprosy, Gulma (internal tumour), Ascites, Piles and Prameha. The Vidanga fruit produces a state of dryness in the body, is heat-making in its potency, light, and pungent in digestion, subdues the Vayu and Kapha and is slightly bitter and anti-toxic. The Abhaya (Chebulic Myrobalans) proves curative in cases of ulcers, is heat-making (in its potency), and acts as a purgative, tends to reduce corpulency and subdues the deranged humours. It is appetising and invigorating to the eye-sight, has an acid and astringent taste, and proves curative in edema and cutaneous affections. The Aksha fruit is possessed of purgative properties, is light (of digestion), and produces a state of dryness in the organism. It is heat-making in its potency, produces hoarseness Aphonia), is a vermifuge and is beneficial to the sight, has an astringent taste, is sweet in digestion and subdues the Pitta and Kapha. The Puga fruit subdues the Pitta and Kapha, produces a state of dryness in the organism, cleanses the mouth of all secretions and impurities, has a slightly sweet and astringent taste, and is possessed of laxative properties. The fruits and vegetables such as the Jatikosha, the Jati Phala, the Kataka Phala the Kakkolaka, Lavanga and the Karpura etc., have a bitter pungent taste, subdue thirst and Kapha, are light in digestion, and remove bad odours from the mouth and cleanse it of all impurities. The Karpura has a slightly bitter taste, is aromatic, cooling in its potency, and light in digestion. It is possessed of liquefacient properties and is specially recommended in dryness of the mouth and fetid breath. The Lata-Kasturika is similar in its virtue to the Karpura and is cooling and both laxative and diuretic. The pith of the Piyala fruit has a sweet taste, is spermatopoietic and subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The pith (the kernel found inside the seeds) of the Vaibhitaki fruit is intoxicating and subdues the deranged Vayu and Pitta. The pith or the kernel of the Kola fruit has an astringent sweet taste, subdues the Vayu and Pitta allays thirst and alleviates nausea and vomiting. The kernel of the seed of the Amalaka resembles the last named pith in its properties. The kernels of such fruits as the Vijapuraka, Shampaka and Koshamra are sweet in digestion, appetising, demulcent, and subdue the Vayu and Pitta. These kernels of seeds should be regarded as possessing identical properties as the pulps of the fruits from which they had been extracted. All fruits with the exception of Vilva are efficacious in their ripe and matured condition. The latter (Vilvas) have been enjoined to be eaten unripe for medicinal purposes as well as with a view to derive a greater efficacy from their use. Unripe Vilvas are astringent and appetising in their effect, heat-making in their potency, and have an astringent-pungent-bitter taste.

Fruit, which is blighted or that affected by any other disease or tha't which has grown in an improper season, or raw or over-ripe, or worm-eaten, should be rejected as unfit for use. Here the description of the fruit-group is ended.

The group of Potherbs:—

Now we shall deal with the properties of potherbs. The fruits of such creepers as the Pushpaphala, Alavu and Kalindak destroy the Pitta, generate the Vayu, and slightly produce the Kapha. They tend to increase the discharge of the stool and urine, and are sweet in taste and digestion. Of these the tender Kushmandas are light in digestion, heat-making in their potency, and contain a greater proportion of alkaline matter. They are appetising, diuretic and pleasant in their effect, and tend to subdue the action of all kinds of deranged humours, and prove wholesome in cases of mental aberration, such as, insanity, etc. The Kalindak tends to reduce the quantity of semen and impairs the eye-sight. It generates both the Vayu and Kapha, while an Alavu is a purgative, produces a condition of parchedness in the system, is heavy in digestion and extremely cooling in its potency. The species, known as the bitter Alavu, is unpalatable and has an emetic property, and subdues the Vayu and Pitta.

The fruits such as the Trapusha, Ervaruka, Karkaru, and Shirna-Vrinta are heavy in digestion and long retained in the stomach in an undigested state. They are palatable, cooling in their potencv, generate Kapha, tend to facilitate the discharge of stool and urine, contain a little alkaline matter, and are sweet in taste. A green and tender cucumber subdues the Pitta, while one which is of a pale yellow colour acts as a stomachic. A ripe and yellow Trapusha tends to subdue the Pitta only in the event of its possessing an acid taste. Similarly, ripe Ervarukas and Karkarus generate the Vayu and Kapha, have a sweet taste, and are found to be charged with alkaline matter. They are appetising, relishing and do not inordinately generate the Pitta. A Shirna-Vrinta (water melon) contains a little alkaline matter, is sweet, and purgative. It generates the Kaphaj is pleasing and appetising in its property, and proves curative in cases of Anaha and Ashthila.

The spices and herbs include the Pippali, Marica, Shringavera, Ardraka, Hingu, Jiraka, Kustumvuru, Jamviraka, Sumukha, Surasa, Arjaka, Bhustrina, Sugandhaka, Kasamaraddka (Kasamarada?), Kalamala, Kutheraka, Kshavaka, Ksharapushpa, Shigru, Madhu-Shigru, Phanijhyaka, Sarshapa, Rajika, Kulahala, Benu, Gandira, Tilaparnika, Varshabhu, Citraka, Mulaka-Potika, Lashuna, Palandu and Kalaya, etc.

Metrical Texts:—

Potherbs have a pungent taste, are relishing, and heat-making in their potency, and subdue the Vayu and Kapha. They are variously used for seasoning food. Of the above-said spices and herbs, the unripe or immature Pippali is heavy in digestion, sweet in taste, cooling in potency and generates Kapha.

Dried Pippali subdues the Vayu and Kapha, acts as a spermatopoietic and slightly soothes the Pitta. Green or immatured Marica is sweet of digestion, heavy and phlegmagoguic in its effect. Dry Marica has a pungent taste, is light of digestion and heat-making in its potency. It is anti-spermatopoietic, destroys the Vayu and Kapha, and slightly subdues the Pitta. The white Marica is neither too cooling nor too heat-making in its potency, is more efficacious than the two preceding varieties and is specially invigorating to the eye-sight. The Nagara destroys the Vayu, has a pungent taste, and is sweet of digestion. It is heat-making in its potency, acts as a spermatopoietic and aphrodisiac, is pleasant and imparts a relish to food. It is appetising, light of digestion, and charged with an oily substance. The Ardraka has a pungent taste, is heat-making in its potency, acts as a pleasant spermatopoietic, subdues the Vayu and Kapha, proves beneficial to the voice, and relieves colic pain and suppression of the stool and distension of the stomach. The Hingu is light of digestion, heat-making in its potency, acts as a digestant, and is appetising. It subdues the Vayu and Kapha, has a pungent taste, is demulcent, laxative and sharp, and relieves colic pain, indigestion and suppression of stool. The Jiraka (whether white or yellow) is sharp and heat-making in its potency, pungent in digestion and imparts a relish to food. It has a pungent taste, is appetising and aromatic, increases the Pitta, and destroys the Vayu and Kapha. The species, known as Karavi and Karavi, like the Upakunchika, are possessed of properties similar to those of the aforesaid Jiraka, and are variously used in seasoning dishes and condiments. Raw or undried Kustumvari (coriander seeds) is sweet, aromatic and pleasant, while in its dried state it is sweet in digestion, acts as a demulcent, allays thirst, and alleviates the burning sensation of the skin. It has a slightly bitter and pungent taste, tends to subdue the deranged humours of the body and purifies its internal channels. Jamvira is digestant, sharp and acts as a vermifuge. It subdues the Vayu and Kapha, and is aromatic, appetising and pleasant. It tends to remove the bad taste in the mouth, and alleviates cough, dyspnea and diseases due to the action of the deranged Vayu and Kapha or due to poison. The Surasa generates the Pitta, relieves the colic and pain at the sides, while the Sumukha is said to be possessed of the same properties with the exception that it neutralises the effects of poisons brought about through the chemical combination (of several incompatible substances in the organism). The herbs known as the Surasa, Arjaka and Bhustrina destroy the Kapha, are light of digestion, and tend to produce a state of parchedness in the organism. They are demulcent, generate the Pitta, and are heat-making in their potency and pungent in taste and digestion. The herb called the Kasamardaka has a bitter and sweet taste. It subdues the Vayu and Kapha, is a digestant, cleanses the throat and specially subdues the Pitta. The Shigru has a pungent, alkaline, sweet and bitter taste and generates the Pitta, while the Madhu-Shigru variety is laxative, has a bitter and pungent taste; is appetising and removes edematous swelling of the body. The Sarshapa herbs, as well as those known as Gandira and Vega, can be but imperfectly digested. They tend to suppress the discharge of stool and urine, produce a state of dryness in the organism, are sharp and heat-making in their potency, and serve to derange the three fundamental humours of the body. The herbs called Citraka and Tilaparni are light (of digestion), and subdue the Kapha and edema. The herb known as the Varshabhu subdues the Vayu and Kapha. It proves beneficial in cases of edema, abdominal dropsy and piles. The Mulaka-Potika has a pungent bitter taste. It is pleasant, appetising, light and throat-cleansing, tends to impart a greater relish to food, and subdues the action of all kinds of deranged humours. Raw or immature Mulaka of the larger species is heavy in digestion and long retained in the stomach in an undigested state. It is irritating and tends to produce a derangement of the three humours of the body, while boiled with oil or butter it acts as a demulcent and subdues the Vayu, Pitta and Kapha.

Dried Mulaka subdues the action of the three deranged humours. It is anti-toxic and light (of digestion). All dried herbs with the exception of the preceding one generate the Vayu and take a long time to be digested.

The properties described in connection with the Mulaka bulb in its different stages of growth and conditions can also be attributed to its flowers, leaves and fruits respectively. Mulaka flowers subdue the Pitta and Kapha, while their fruit subdues the Vayu and Kapha. Rasona is demulcent, heat-making, sharp, pungent, slimy, heavy and laxative. It has a palatable taste and is tonic, spermatopoietic, and tends to improve the voice, intellect and complexion and to bring about an adhesion of fractured bones. It alleviates heart-disease, indigestion, fever, Vivandha, Kukshi-Shula, Gulma, a non-relish for food, cough, asthma, piles, Kushtha, dulness of appetite, swelling (Shopha), worms and diseases due to the Vayu and Kapha. Palandu is not excessively heatmaking in its potency, has a pungent taste, is heavy, tonic and appetising. It slightly generates the Pitta and Kapha. It subdues the Vayu.

The species, known as the Kshira-Palandu, is demulcent, cooling in its potency, and relishing, imparts a steadiness to the fundamental principles of the body, is tonic, promotes the growth of flesh, improves the intellect and increases the Kapha. It is palatable, heavy, slimy and proves beneficial in cases of hemoptysis. The potherbs called Kalaya subdue the Pitta and Kapha, generate Vayu, are heavy and sweet in digestion, and leave an astringent aftertaste in the mouth.

The leaves of plants and trees known as the Chuccu, Juthika, Taruni, Jivanti, Vimvitika, Nandi, Bhallataka, Chagalantri, Vrikshadani, Phanji, Shalmali, Shelu, Vanashpati-prasava, Shana, Karvudara and Kovidara etc., have an astringent, sweet and bitter taste, and prove curative in hemoptysis. They subdue the Kapha, generate the Vayu and are astringent in their action and light of digestion (easily digestible). Of these, the Chuccu is light of digestion, and acts as a vermifuge. It is slimy, proves beneficial to ulcers, is sweet and astringent in taste and action. It tends to subdue the action of the three deranged humours (Tridosha). The Jivanti herb is beneficial to the eyes and subdues all kinds of deranged humours. The leaves of the Vrikshadani plant subdue the Vayu. Phanji leaves are slightly tonic. The leaves of trees or plants belonging to the Kshira-Vriksha or to the Utpala group are cooling in their potency, astringent in their taste and action, and prove beneficial in dysentery, (intestinal Hemorrhage) and hemoptysis.

The leaves of the Punarnava, Varuna, Tarkari, Uruvuka (white castor), Vatsadani, and Vilva etc., are heat-making in their, potency, and have a sweet and bitter taste and pacify the deranged Vayu. Of these, the Punarnava are specially possessed of the virtue of removing edema (Shopha).

The potherbs, such as the Tanduliyaka, Upodika, Ashvavala, Chilli, Palankya, and Vastuka etc., are laxative and diuretic, and have a sweet and alkaline taste. They slightly generate the Vayu and Kapha, and cure hemoptysis.

Metrical Text:—

Of these, the species known as the Tanduliya is sweet in taste and digestion, and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis and somnolence (due to the effects of poison, wine or vitiated blood). It is antitoxic and extremely cooling in its potency, and produces a state of parchedness in the system. The Upodika species is sweet in taste and digestion. It is spermatopoietic, anti-narcotic, cooling, laxative, demulcent and tonic. It generates the Kapha, and subdues the Vayu and Pitta in the system. The species called the Vastuka is a pungent (in digestion), vermifuge, and is tonic. It improves the intellect and digestion and is alkaline, laxative and relishing, and tends to subdue all kinds of deranged humours of the body. The species Chilli resembles the Vastuka in its properties, while those of the Palankya is identical with those, of the Tanduliya. It generates the Vayu, produces a state of parchedness in the system, and tends to suppress the discharge of stool and urine. It proves remedial to the deranged Kapha and Pitta. The potherbs Ashvavala produces a condition of dryness in the organism and tends to suppress the discharge of stool and urine and Vayu (emission of flatus).

The potherbs (leaves of edible plants) such as the Mandukaparni, Saptala, Sunishannaka, Suvarchala, Brahma-suvarchala, Pippali, Guduci, Gojihva, Kakamachi; Prapunnada, Avalguja, Satina, Vrihati-phala, Kantakarika-phala, Patola, Vartaku, Kararellaka, Katukika, Kevuka, Uruvuka, Parpataka, Kiratatikta, Karkotaka, Arishta, Koshataki, Vetra, Karira, Ataru-shaka, Arkapushpi, etc., are light and palatable, and prove curative in hemoptysis, Kushtha, Meha, fever, dyspnea, cough and create a relish for food.

Metrical Texts:—

The Mandukaparni and the Gojihvika species are alike in their properties, the former being astringent and beneficial to the Pitta, sweet in taste and digestion, cooling in its potency and of easy digestion. The Sunishannaka species is easily digested and is unattended with any acid reaction. It is astringent in its action and tends to subdue the three deranged bodily humours, and it also arrests the evacuations of the bowels. The Abulguja has a bitter taste, is pungent in digestion and subdues the deranged Pitta and Kapha. The potherb Satina is slightly bitter and astringent in taste and tends to subdue the three deranged humours of the body. The Kakamachi herb is neither too cooling nor too heat-making in its potency and removes cutaneous affections. It subdues the deranged humours as the preceding species. The fruit of (the two species of) Vrihati plants has an astringent and bitter taste, and is light of digestion. It is vermicide and proves curative in cases of itch and cutaneous diseases (Kushtha), and subdues the deranged Vayu and Kapha. The leaves and fruit of the Patola creeper have a bitter taste. They are beneficial to ulcers, pungent in digestion, heat-making, spermatopoietic, relishing and appetising. They subdue the deranged Pitta and Kapha without producing the Vayu. The Vartaka subdues the Vayu and Kapha. It has a bitter and pungent taste, is light, relishing and appetising. Matured Vartaka is alkaline (in its taste) and generates the Pitta. The Karkotaka and the Karavellaka are possessed of properties similar to those of the preceding species (Vartaka). The herbs and creepers such as the Atarushaka, Kiratatikta, Parpataka and Guduci together with the tender shoots of the Vetra and the Nimva, have a bitter taste and subdue the Pitta and Kapha. The leaves of the Varuna and Prapunnada destroy the deranged Kapha and give rise to a condition of dryness in the system. They are light of digestion, cooling in their potency, and tend to enrage or agitate the bodily Vayu and Pitta. The potherbs known as Kalashaka are appetising and pungent in taste and tend to neutralise the effects of poison originated through the chemical action of two incompatible substances in the organism. The species called Kaushumbha has a sweet taste, and produces a condition of dryness in the organism. It is heat-making in its potency and light of digestion, and subdues the deranged Kapha. The species called Nalika-shaka has a sweet taste. It generates the Vayu and subdues the Pitta. The species called the Changeri has an acid, astringent and sweet taste. It is appetising and heat-making in its potency, proves beneficial in cases of deranged Vayu and Kapha and curative in cases of mesenteric disorders (Grahani) and piles.

The leaves of the Lonika, Jatuka, Triparnika, Pattura, Jivaka, Suvarchala, Kuruvaka, Kathinjara, Kuntalika, Kurantika etc., are sweet in taste and digestion and cooling in their potency. They subdue the Kapha and do not inordinately generate the Pitta. They leave a saline after-taste in the mouth and produce a condition of dryness in the organism. They are alkaline and laxative, and generate the Vayu. The potherbs known as Kuntalika have a sweet and bitter taste. The species Kurantika has an astringent taste. The species called the Rajakshavak-Shaka, as well as the one called Sathi-Shaka, is astringent in its property, cooling in its potency, easily digestible and is not hostile to (does not enrage or aggravate), (subdues D.R.) the humours. The species known as the Harimanthaja is sweet in taste and digestion but is difficult to digest. The species known as Kalayam (leaves of the Matara pulse) is purgative and sweet in taste. It produces a state of dryness in the organism and extremely generates the' Vayu. It tends to dislodge the deranged humours from their locations in the upper part of the body (Sramsana). The Putikaranjas are heat-making in their potency and alleviate edema and anasarca. They are pungent in digestion, easily digestible and subdue the Vayu and the Kapha. The leaves of the Tamvula are sharp, heat-making (in their potency; and bitter, astringent and pungent in taste. They tend to aggravate the Pitta, are aromatic, prove beneficial to the voice, and remove viscidness in the organism. They pacify the Kapha and Vayu in the system, are appetising, pungent in digestion and deodorant, and tend to remove the fetid smell in the mouth, cleanse it of all impurities and alleviate all itching sensations experienced inside its cavity. This ends the description of potherbs.

The Flower Group:—

The flowers of such trees as the Kovidara, Shana, and Shalmali are sweet in taste and digestion and prove curative in cases oi hemoptysis The flowers of the Vrisha and Agastya have a bitter taste, are pungent in digestion and alleviate a wasting cough (Phthisis). The flowers of the Madhu-shigru and Karira are pungent in digestion. They destroy the Vayu and increase the discharge of stool and urine. The Agastya flower is neither too cooling nor inordinately heat-making in its potency and proves specially beneficial in cases of night-blindness (Nyctalopia). The flowers of the Rakta-Vriksha, Nimva, Mushkaka, Arka, Asana and Kutaja trees subdue the Pitta and Kapha, and prove curative in skin diseases (Kushtha).

The Padma has a bitter and sweet taste, is cooling in its potency, and subdues the deranged Pitta and Kapha. The Kumuda has a sweet taste, and is slimy, demulcent, pleasing and cooling in its potency. The two varieties of the same species known as the Kuvalayam and the Utpala, slightly differ from the preceding varieties in their properties. The Sindhuvara is renowned for its virtue of destroying the Pitta. The Mallika and Malati flowers have a bitter taste and subdue the Pitta owing to their sweet scent. The Vakulas, like the Patala flowers, are sweet smelling and pleasant, their pleasing and odoriferous property instantaneously permeates the whole system. The Nagam (flower), like the Kumkumum, is antitoxic and subdues the Pitta and Kapha. The Champaka is curative in cases of hemoptysis. It is both cooling and heat-making in its potency and subdues the deranged Kapha. The Kinshuka, like the Kurantaka, subdues the Kapha and Pitta.

A flower should be understood as possessed of the same properties which are natural to the tree or plant on which it grows. The (tefider stem) of the Madhu-Shigru is pungent in taste and subdues the deranged Kapha.

The Kshavaka, the Kulechara, and the tender sprouts of Vansha, etc., generate the deranged Kapha, and tend to increase the discharge of stool and urine.

Metrical Texts:—

The Kshavaka helps the germination of worms in the intestines. It is slimy and sweet in taste, and tends to increase the secretions of the internal organs. It generates the Vayu and does not inordinately increase the Pitta and Kapha in the body. The tender sprouts of Venu generate Kapha and are sweet in taste and digestion. They can be but imperfectly digested and produce the Vayu in the organism. They have a slightly astringent taste and tend to produce a state of extreme parchedness in the system.

The Udbhida Group:—

Mushrooms are generally found to grow on stacks of straw (Palala), or are seen vegetating on the stems of bamboo (Venu) or sugar-cane (Ikshu), or as sprouting up from beneath the surface of the ground (Udbhida), or growing on a heap of decomposed cow-dung (Karisha.) Of these, those which grow on stacks of (decomposed) straw (Palala) are sweet in taste and digestion and tend to produce a state of dryness in the organism. They subdue the three deranged humours of the body. Those which vegetate on the stems of sugar-canes (Ikshujam) have a sweet pungent taste. They leave an astringent after-taste in the mouth and are cooling in their potency. Mushrooms growing on decomposed cow-dung (Karisha) should be regarded as possessed of properties similar to those of the preceding class. They aggravate the Vayu, are heat-making in their potency, and have an astringent taste. Those which vegetate on the stems of bamboos (Venuja) have an astringent taste and tend to enrage or aggravate the bodily Vayu. Mushrooms which grow on the ground (Bhumija) are heavy of digestion and do not inordinately generate the Vayu, their tastes varying according to the soil they grow on.

Pinyaka Group:—

The Pinyaka (levigated powder or cake of linseed or mustard pressed in an oil-mill), the Tilakalka (the levigated powder of sesamum of which the oil has been similarly pressed out), and the Sthunika-shuska-Shaka (leaves and stems of plants pasted and made into pills or balls) tend to enrage all the deranged humours.

Metrical Texts:—

Sthunika balls are long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, thus giving rise to a distension of that organ, and tend to enrage or aggravate the bodily Vayu. Moist Sindakis are the (leaves and stems of the Mulaka, etc. slightly boiled and pasted with pungent and aromatic spices and then made into balls.) There are two kinds of Sindakis the dry and the moist. They generate the Vayu and are appetising, and tend to impart a greater relish to food. All sweet or palatable potherbs are purgative and heavy of digestion, produce a state of dryness in the organism, are generally indigestible and long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, causing it to distend. They are marked with a shade of the astringent in their taste.

Of flowers, leaves, fruits, stems and bulbs, each succeeding one is heavier (of digestion) than the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. Potherbs and leaves of edible plants which are found to be rough or putrified or worm-eaten, as well as those growing on an improper or incongenial soil, or making their appearance in an unnatural season of the year, should be rejected as unfit for use. This ends the description of the Pushpa-shakas.

The Bulb Croup:—

Now we shall discourse on the virtues of edible bulbous plants or herbs (Kandas). The bulbs of plants and creepers such as the Vidari-kanda, Shatavari, Visha (bulbs of the lotus plant), Mrinala (the upper stem of the lotus plant), Shringataka, Kasheruka, Pindaluka, Madhvaluka, Hastyaluka, Kasthaluka, Shankhaluka, Raktaluka, Indivara and Utpala etc. alleviate hemoptysis, are cooling in their potency, sweet in their taste and heavy of digestion. They tend to increase the semen in large quantities and augment the quantity of milk in the breast of a human mother. The bulb known as the Vidari-Kanda has a sweet taste, and acts as a constructive tonic and is spermatopoietic. It is cooling in its potency, beneficial to the voice, and imparts strength to the system. It is extremely diuretic and subdues the Vayu and Pitta. The Shatavari has a sweet and bitter taste and is spermatopoietic. It subdues the Vayu and Pitta, the one belonging to the largesized species being palatable and appetising and tonic. The latter improves the intellect and proves curative in cases of mesenteric diarrhea (Grahani) and piles, and is spermatopoietic, rejuvenating, restorative, and cooling in its potency. The under-sprouts of this creeper (large-sized Shatavari) have a bitter taste and subdue the Pitta and Kapha. The Visha^[3] proves curative in cases of hemoptysis, and is long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, though it falls under the category of substances which can be but partially digested. It is tasteless or insipid, generates the Vayu, and is hard to digest, producing a condition of dryness in the organism. The bulbs known as the Shringataka and the Kasheruka are heavy of digestion, are long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, and are cooling in their potency. The Pindaluka generates the Kapha, is heavy of digestion, and tends to enrage or agitate the bodily Vayu. The Surendrakanda is pungent in digestion, generates the Pitta and subdues the Kapha. The sprouts of the Venu are heavy of digestion, and tend to enrage the Kapha and Vayu.

The bulbs (Kanda) known as Sthula-Kanda, Shurana-Kanda, and Manaka, etc. have a slightly astringent and pungent taste, and tend to produce a state of dryness in the organism. They are heavy of digestion, and subdue the Pitta, and are long retained in the stomach in an undigested condition.

Metrical texts:—

The species known as the Manaka is sweet, and cooling in its potency and heavy of digestion, while the one called the Sthula-Kanda is not inordinately heat-making in its potency. The species Surana is usually found to be curative in cases of piles and rectal polypi and condylomata. The bulbs of such aquatic plants as the Kumuda, Utpala and Padma have an astringent taste and are sweet in digestion. They are cooling in their potency and tend to enrage the Vayu and pacify or subdue the deranged Pitta. The bulb known as the Vrahakanda is pungent in taste and digestion, and is possessed of spermatopoietic, tonic, rejuvenating and restorative properties. It subdues the Kapha, and proves efficacious in cases of Meha, skin diseases (Kushtha), and in ailments due to the presence of parasites in the intestines. The top-piths of such trees, as the Tala, Narikela, Kharjura etc., are sweet in taste and digestion. They prove curative in cases of hemoptysis, and are spermatopoietic. They subdue the Vayu and generate the Kapha in the body. Edible bulbs, which are extremely tender or immature, diseased, decomposed or sprouting in an improper season of the year, or are worm-eaten, should be rejected as unfit for use. This finishes the description of the bulb group.

The Salt Group (Lavana Varga):—

The different varieties of salt such as the Saindhava, the Samudra, the Vida, the Sauvarchala, the Romaka and the Audbhidam (prepared from vegetable alkali), etc., should be successively deemed as more heat, Vayu, Kapha, and Pitta making, and more demulcent, sweeter and more purgative and diuretic, considered in the inverse order of enumeration.

Saindhava salt is beneficial to the eyes, palatable, relishing, light, appetising, demulcent, slightly sweet in digestion, spermatopoietic and cooling in its potency. It is one of the most potent auxiliaries in combating the action of the deranged humours of the body. The variety called the Samudram (sea-brine) is sweet in digestion, and not inordinately neat-making in its potency. It is not indigestible, but purgative, slightly demulcent, and does not inordinately generate the Pitta, and is good in attacks of colic pain (Simla). The variety known as Vida salt is a little alkaline (in its taste) and is appetising. It tends to produce a condition of dryness in the organism, and proves beneficial in cases of colic (Shula,) and in diseases affecting the heart. It imparts a relish to food, is sharp and heat-making in its potency, and restores the deranged bodily Vayu to its normal state (restoring or setting aflow the nerve-current by removing any obstruction). Sauvarchala salt is light of digestion, heat-making in its potency, and pungent in taste. It is appetising, has an agreeable aroma, removes any viscidness from the internal organism, and proves curative in cases of abdominal glands, colic pain and incarceration of scybala in the bowels. Romaka salt is sharp and intensely heat-making. Its action permeates the whole system immediately after its use, and is pungent and light of digestion. It subdues the Vayu, tends to increase the secretion of the internal organs, enters into the minutest capillaries of the body, and is purgative and diuretic. Audbhida salt is light, sharp, and heat-making in its potency. It acts as a moistener to the internal organs, has a pungent bitter taste, and is charged with a small quantity of alkali. It permeates the minutest capillaries, and tends to restore the deranged Vayu to its normal condition. Gutika salt destroys the deranged Vayu and Kapha, and is vermifugal, appetising, digestant and purgative. It tends to aggravate the Pitta and acts as an internal liquefacient or antifat. The salt quarried from a salt mine situated at the foot of a hill (Shailamulaja), or from a sandy (Valukelam) or alkaline soil (Ushakshara) has a pungent taste, and helps the disintegration of Kapha, etc. (Chedi). It is also called pungent (Katu) salt.

The group of Alkalis:—

The different varieties of alkali (Kshara) such as the Javakshara (Carbonate of potash), the Svarjikakshara, the Pakima and the Tankana cure abdominal glands, piles, mesenteric diarrhea, and gravel and stone in the bladder. All these varieties of alkali should be regarded as possessed of digestant or stomachic properties. Their abuse is known to have brought about cases of hemoptysis. Of these, the varieties known as the Javakshara and Svarjikakshara are inflammatory as fire, and they tend to reduce Kapha, remove Vibondha (suppression of stool etc.), piles, and abdominal glands and prove curative in cases of enlarged spleen. They are anti-spermatopoietic. The alkali known as Usharakshara is heat-making in its potency, and subdues the deranged Vayu. It tends to increase the slimy (mucous) secretions in the organs and is detrimental to the strength of the body. The variety called Pakima tends to reduce obesity, causes a free and increased discharge of urine, thus fully relieving the bladder of all its contents (lit: bladder-cleanser). The alkali known as the Tankanakshara (borax) tends to produce a condition of dryness in the organism, generates the Vayu, subdues the Kapha, and is appetising in its property. It is moreover known to bring about a derangement of the Pitta, and is sharp in its potency.

The Metal group:—

Gold has a sweet and agreeable taste, acts as a tonic or restorative elixir, imparts rotundity to the body, and subdues the action of all the three deranged humours of the body. It is cooling and antitoxic in its potency and invigorates the eyesight. Silver has an acid taste, is laxative and cooling (in its potency), presents a glossy or oily aspect, and destroys the Pitta and Vayu. Copper has a sweet and astringent taste, and acts as a liquefacient and corrosive agent. It is laxative and cooling in its potency. Kansya (Indian bell metal) has a bitter taste, and acts as a liquefacient agent. It subdues the Kapha and Vayu, and is beneficial to the eyesight. Iron generates Vayu, is cooling in its potency, allays thirst and subdues the deranged Pitta and Kapha. Zinc and lead are vermifugal, as well as liquefacient and corrosive. They have a saline taste. Pearls, corals, diamonds, sapphires, Vaidurya (lapis lazuli), crystals, etc. are beneficial to the sight, and cooling in their potency. They are antitoxic and act as liquefacient or corrosive agents. They are possessed of sacred prophylactic virtues, and bring good luck to men who wear them, and cleanse their wearers from all impurities. Thus the description of the salt group is ended.

Metrical texts:—

The intelligent shall determine the properties of cereals, flesh, fruits, potherbs, etc., (other than those described under their respective heads in the present chapter), which should be determined with the help of their respective tastes, as well as from the nature of the predominant material principles which enter into their composition. The Shastika, barley, wheat, Rakta-Shali, and the pulses such as the Mudga, the Adhakia, and the Masura should be regarded as the best and by far the most nutritious of the cereals which fall under the respective heads of the Paddy Group (Dhanyavarga). The flesh of the Lava, Tittiri, Saranga, Kuranga, Ena, Kapinjala, Mayura (peacock), Varmi and Kurina (tortoise) should be regarded as the best of those of all other animals respectively belonging to their own species. Of fruits, those called Dadimva, Amalaka, Draksha, Kharjura, Parushaka, Rajadana and Matulunga should be considered as the most commendable and efficacious. Of potherbs those known as the Satina, Vastuka, Chuccuka, Chilli, Mulaka-Potika, Mandukaparni, and Jivanti should be regarded as possessed of the most commendable properties. Cow’s milk is the best of milks, and similarly, clarified butter made from the milk of a cow should be considered as pre-eminently the best and the most efficacious of clarified butters.

Saindhava salt is the best of all other salts. Dhatri and Dadimva fruit are the best of all the acid kinds; Pippali and Nagara of all pungent, and Patola and Vartaka of all bitter vegetable substances. Honey and clarified butter occupy the highest place in the list of all sweet articles. Pugaphala and Parushaka are the best of all astringent fruit. Sugar is pre-eminently the best of all the modifications of the sugar-cane juice, while Madvirka and Asava (grape-juice) are the best of all cordials. Similarly, the com (lit: paddy) of a year’s standing or matured for a year after being harvested, is the most efficacious. The flesh of a young animal, as well as well-cooked rice prepared, that day, fully ripe fruit, and fresh and tender potherbs should be deemed as the best of their respective kinds.

The kritanna varga:—

Now we shall fully deal with the properties of cooked and prepared food (Kritannas). A gruel (Manda) of fried paddy seasoned with powdered Pippali and Nagara proves a wholesome diet to a patient after the exhibition of purgatives and emetics, inasmuch as it is digestant appetising and agreeable, and tends to restore the bodily Vayu to its normal condition. Peya is diaphoretic, appetising, light of digestion, diuretic (lit: bladder-cleanser). It allays thirst and hunger, and tends to remove the sense of fatigue and exhaustion. It serves to rekindle an impaired appetite and restore (lit: soothes down) the deranged Vayu to its normal condition. Vilepi acts as an emulcent food and soothes the entire organism. It is tonic, and imparts strength and rotundity to the frame. It is light, astringent, appetising, agreeable, quenches thirst and satisfies hunger. The Yavagu, when cooked with meat, potherbs and fruit, is hard to digest. It is otherwise agreeable, soothing, spermatopoietic, tissue-building, and tonic. Manda is prepared by carefully excluding all the residuary shreds of its component substances, while Peya is cooked without any such exclusion. A gruel, which abounds with such seedy shreds, is called Vilepi, while the variety, which is slightly fluid and extremely seedy in its consistency, is named Yavagu. The preparation known as the Payasa (a sort of porridge cooked by boiling rice with milk and sugar) is long retained in the stomach in an undigested state and is heavy of digestion, though it tends to impart strength to the body, and generates fat and Kapha in the organism.

The dish called Krishara (a gruel cooked by boiling rice with flesh and sesamum) generates the Kapha and Pitta, imparts strength to the body, and subdues the Vayu. A meal consisting of white coloured, well threshed, sweet smelling rice, which has been washed with care and properly boiled, and well strained afterwards, is digested with ease and in the shortest space of time, in the event of it being eaten hot or warm. On the contrary, a meal consisting of uncleansed and unwashed rice improperly boiled and taken cold without having been properly strained takes a longer time to be digested. Fried rice is light and aromatic, and generates the Kapha. Rice boiled and cooked with clarified butter or any such fatty substance, as well as with meat, acid fruits, or with any kind of pulse, forms a rich and heavy food which helps to build up new tissues, and imparts strength and rotundity to the body. Rice boiled and cooked with milk (in a manner other than that of preparing the Payasa) acquires properties similar to those of the preceding one. A soup made of any sort of fried pulse (such as the Mudga, etc.) without its husks is light and wholesome. Similarly, potherbs (Shakas) well boiled and well squeezed and subsquently cooked with oil or any ohter lardaceous substance are wholesome, while those which are cooked in a different manner should be considered as possessed of contrary virtues.

Meat is naturally spermatopoietic and imparts gloss and strength to the system. Moreover, that which has been cooked and prepared with clarified butter, curd, sour gruel (Kanjika), acid fruits (as the pomegranate etc.) pungent and some aromatic condiment, (as black pepper, etc.) should be considered as a very wholesome diet, though heavy of digestion. It is possessed of relishing, strength-giving and tissuebuilding properties.

The condensed soup or extract of the afore said meat, thickened with milk curd and clarified butter, and seasoned and cooked with such aromatic condiments (as black pepper, asafetida, etc.), tends to aggravate the Pitta and Kapha, and acts as an appetising, constructive tonic. The meat, which has been several times fried with clarified butter and then boiled in warm water and afterwards prepared dry with such condiments as Jiraka, etc. (so as to have all the butter and seasonings fully absorbed in its body—Parishushka-Mansa) should be considered as a toothsome, exhilarating, emulcent food, though heavy of digestion. It imparts firmness to the limbs and increases a relish for food, improves the appetite and intellect, builds up fresh tissues, gives rotundity to the frame, and produces an increased quantity of semen and (ojas) albumen in the organism. The meat cooked and prepared in the foregoing manner, when minced and made into cakes, is called Ullupta-Mansam, which resembles the above-said Parishushka-Mansam in its properties, though it is lighter than the latter owing to the fact of its having been cooked over a charcoal fire. The same meat, cooked on an iron rod over a charcoal fire, becomes a little heavier as far as digestion is concerned, inasmuch as it is roasted with clarified butter, etc.

The varieties of cooked meat such as, the Ullupta (minced meat), the Bharjita (fried), the Pishta (made into balls or cakes), the Pratapta (roasted with clarified butter over a charcoal fire), the Kandupacita (dipped in mustard oil and powdered aromatic condiments and roasted and done to a honey colour over a charcoal fire), the Parishuska and the Pradigdha go by the general name of Shulyam (cabob). Of the varieties of Shulyam, those which are boiled with oil should be considered as heat-making in their potency, heavy of digestion and as generating the Pitta, while those, which have been fried with clarified butter, should be regarded as light, appetising, agreeable, relishing, beneficial to the eyes, and cooling in their potency. They also subdue the Pitta and are pleasant to the taste.^[4] A thin meat soup is a pleasant tonic, and proves beneficial in cases of dyspnea, cough, and consumption. It subdues the Pitta and Kapha, destroys the Vayu, and has an agreeable taste. It is wholesome to persons of weak memory and reduced semen, as well as to those suffering from cachexia peculiar to chronic fever, from general emaciation of the body, from ulcerative endocarditis (Urakshata), or from diseases affecting the voice or the albumen (ojas). It is known to bring about an adhesion and reduction of fractured and dislocated bones, and increases the quantity of semen and oja (albumen) in subjects found wanting in those two important principles of life. Meat-soup, prepared with the juice of the Dadima, etc., and seasoned with pungent condiments, increases the quantity of semen and tends to subdue the action of all the three deranged humours of the body.

The use of meat of which the essence has been previously extracted fails to contribute to the growth and strength of the organism, and is long retained in an undigested state in the stomach and impairs digestion. It is insipid, generates the Vayu in the organism, and tends to produce a state of parehedness(?) in the body. The dish known as the Khanshka Mansa (a kind of dried meat) is very hard to digest (heavy of digestion) and proves wholesome only to men of strong digestive powers. The cooked meat called the Veshavara (boneless boiled meat subsequently pasted and cooked with treacle, clarified butter, black pepper, Pippali, and Shunthi, etc.) is heavy of digestion, demulcent, strengthgiving, and alleviates diseases due to the action of the angry Vayu. The dish known as the Sauvira is soothing to all the fundamental principles of the organism. It specially removes parchedness of the mouth, allays thirst and hunger, and is palatable and cooling in its potency.

Mudga soup subdues the Kapha, and is appetising and agreeable. It forms the most wholesome diet to persons whose systems have been cleansed with the aid of purgative and emetic remedies, as well as to those suffering from ulcers. The soup known as the Raga-Shadava (which is another name for Mudga soup prepared with grapes and expressed pomegranate-juice) is light, and imparts a relish to food. It is not hostile to the deranged humours of the body but (slightly subdues their action). The soup of the Masura, or of the Mudga, or of the Godhuma or of the Kulattha pulse, prepared with salt is inhostile to the Pitta and Kapha, and is specially recommended in nervous diseases (Vata-Vyadhi). The soup of the Masura etc., cooked and prepared with raisins and pomegranate-juice is beneficial to patients suffering from Vata-Vyadhi. It is relishing, appetising, agreeable, and light (of digestion). Soups of Mudga, etc., prepared with Patola or Nimva tend to reduce the quantity of fat and Kapha in the organism, subdue the Pitta, are appetising and agreeable, and prove curative in cases of Kushtha (cutaneous affections) and diseases of parasitic origin. Mudga soup prepared with Mulaka removes dyspnea, cough, catarrh, water-brash, fever and a relish for food. It tends to reduce fat and Kapha in the organism, and proves curative in diseases affecting the throat.

The soup of the Kulattha pulse cures diseases due to the action of the deranged Vayu, as well as asthma, catarrh, and Tuni, Pratituni, cough, piles, abdominal glands (Gulma) and Udavarta. Prepared with the expressed juice of the Dadima or Amalaka it acquires an agreeable taste, pacifies the deranged humours, and is light, appetising and strength-giving in its virtues. It proves curative in epilepsy and obesity, and subdues the deranged Vayu and Pitta. Mudga soup cooked with Amalakas acquires an astringent property, and proves beneficial in derangements of the Kapha and Pitta. The soups of the Yava, Kola and Kulattha pulses destroy the Vayu and are beneficial to the larynx. Similarly, soups of all the pulses, which go by the name of Shami-Dhanyas, increase the strength and rotundity of the body. Khala and Kamvalika soups are respectively agreeable and subdue the Vayu and Pitta.

All soups cooked and prepared with the expressed juice of pomegranate should be known as strengthgiving, demulcent, and heavy of digestion. They subdue the Vayu and Pitta. Soups, made and flavoured acid by the mixture of whey, produce the Pitta and tend to vitiate the blood and besides aggravate the effects of any imbibed poison lurking in the system.

The soups and gruels respectively known as the Kharayusha,^[5] the Khara-Yavagu,^[6] the Shadava^[7] and the Panaka should be prepared with the advice, and according to the instructions of a physician. The soup, which is cooked or prepared without the admixture of any salt, condiments (black pepper, pungent spices) or any oily or lardaceous substance, is called the Akrita-Yusha (unseasoned soup), whereas the one which is cooked and seasoned with the foregoing spices and substances oil, clarified butter, etc., is called a seasoned soup (Krita-Yusha). Of the soups and extracts of meat respectively cooked and prepared with the modifications of cow-milk (curd, whey, etc.), Kanjika and acid fruits (pomegranate, etc.) each succeeding variety should be deemed lighter and more wholesome than the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. The soup cooked with the cream of the curd and the expressed juice of the Dadima is called Kamvalika soup. Articles of food prepared with sesamum and its levigated cake, or those in the composition of which dried pot herbs, rice threshed out of sprouting paddy or Sindaki (a species of potherbs described before) enter, should be considered as heavy of digestion. They subdue the Pitta and increase the Kapha. The Vatakas resemble the Sindakis in their properties, but are heavy of digestion and admit of being incompletely digested, giving rise to a kind of acid reaction. The varieties of soups known as the Raga^[8] and Shadava are light, tissuebuilding, spermatopoietic, agreeable, relishing, and appetising in their properties. They alleviate thirst, epileptic fits, vertigo and vomiting, and remove the sense of fatigue or exhaustion.

The variety of food known as the Rasala^[9] is constructive, tonic, demulcent, spermatopoietic and relishing. Curd sweetend with treacle is agreeable. It generates the Vayu in the system, and tends to increase the oily principle in the organism. Powdered barley soaked in clarified butter and made into a dough with water, which is neither too thick nor too thin in its consistency, is called Mantha, which acts as a tonic immediately on it being partaken of. It allays thirst and removes the sense of fatigue and exhaustion. The Mantha, treated with treacle and clarified butter, proves curative in cases of difficult urination and obstinate Udavarta. A Mantha prepared with sugar, raisins (Draksha) and the expressed juice of sugar-cane, removes diseases due to the derangement of the Pitta. Mantha, containing raisins and Madhuka fruit, successfully combats diseases brought about through the action of the deranged Kapha. A Mantha saturated with the three aforesaid substances (acid and lardaceous, sugar and raisins) tends to restore the stool to its normal condition.

The Panakas:—

Well diluted treacle (Panaka), no matter whether it has been rendered acid or not with the admixture of Amla (lemon juice), is diuretic and heavy in respect of digestion. Water saturated with treacle, Khanda (unrefined sugar), sugar or grapes, and made acid with the admixture of any acid substance, and scented with camphor, should be deemed the best of refreshing beverages. Water saturated with the (expressed juice of) grapes removes the sense of fatigue, allays thirst, and alleviates epileptic fits, and burning sensation of the body. Water potion flavoured with the (expressed juice of) Kola or Parushaka is agreeable and long retained in the stomach in an undigested state. The lightness or heaviness of a potion (Panaka) should be determined according to the quantities, properties and preparations of the articles and substances that enter into its composition. Here ends the description of the specific properties of varieties of prepared food, etc. (Kritanna).

Now we shall describe the virtues of the articles of confectionary according to their tastes, potencies, and digestive reactions.

Confectionary:—

Such as is made with the modifications of milk is called the Kshira Bhakshyas (flour dissolved and stirred in milk with sugar, etc.). It is tonic, spermatopoietic, agreeable, appetising and aromatic, and tends to impart rotundity to the frame. It subdues the Pitta and does not belong to the group of incompletely digestibles. Of these, the variety known as the Ghritapuras (articles of food prepared by putting clarified butter in doughs of corn-flour) is strength-giving and agreeable. It subdues the Vayu and Pitta, is spermatopoietic, and heavy of digestion, and tends to create new flesh and blood.

The articles of food known as the Gaudikas prepared by putting treacle into doughs of corn-flour) are flesh-making, spermatopoietic, and heavy in respect of digestion. They subdue the Vayu and Pitta and generate the Kapha and do not give rise to any reactionary acidity after digestion.

The articles of food belonging to the groups of Madhumastakas, Sanyavas, and Pupas, are heavy in respect of digestion but are flesh building in their properties.

Modakas are extremely indigestible. Sattakas (curd cream saturated with unrefined sugar and powdered Trikatus, and then filtered through a piece of clean linen, and seasoned with camphor and pomegranate seeds) impart a relish to the food. They are appetising, beneficial to the voice, heavy in respect of digestion, extremely palatable and strength-giving. They subdue the Vayu and Pitta (Kapha according to others).

Vishyandana^[10] is agreeable, aromatic, sweet and demulcent. It destroys the Vayu, and generates the Kapha and is heavy, and strengthgiving.

Articles of food or confectionary made of powdered wheat (Samita) act as constructive tonics, and subdue the Vayu and Pitta. Of these, the variety known as the Phenaka (Khaja of our present-day confectioners) is agreeable, extremely wholesome and light.

Cakes stuffed with Mudga-Veshavaras are long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, while those containing minced and pasted meat (Veshavaras) are heavy and flesh building in their properties.

Confectionary known as the Palalas (a preparation of treacle, pasted sesamum and corn flour) generates the Kapha; while the Shashkulis (Luchis and Kachuris of our modern confectioners) tend to increase the Pitta and Kapha in the organism. Cakes made of powdered rice (Pishtakas) are heat-making in their potency and tend to enrage or aggravate the Kapha and Pitta. They further give rise to a reactionary acidity after digestion, and are specially heavy in respect of digestion, and are slightly strength-imparting.

Confectionary made of Vaidalas (such as the Mudga pulse etc.) has an astringent taste, is light in respect of digestion, subdues the Vayu and Kapha, is purgative, and tends to restore the Pitta to its normal state, though apt to be long retained in the stomach in an undigested state.

Cakes made of Masha pulse are tonic, spermatopoietic and heavy of digestion. Similarly, those that are made of Kurchika are heavy in respect of digestion and do not inordinately generate the Pitta.

Articles of confectionary made of sprouting Mudgas, etc., are heavy of digestion, generate the Vayu and Pitta, give rise to a reactionary acidity after digestion, and tend to bring on nausea and waterbrash (Utklehsha), besides producing a parched condition in the organism, and also affecting the eye-sight.

Confectionary fried in clarified butter has an agreeable taste and aroma, is light, spermatopoietic, and tonic, subdues the Vayu and Pitta, and tends to improve the complexion and invigorate the eyesight. Similarly, that which is fried in oil is heavy as regards digestion, pungent in its digestive reaction, and heat-making in potency. It destroys the Vayu, generates the Pitta and tends to affect the sight and produces cutaneous affections.

Confectionary made of fruit, meat, modifications of sugar-cane juice (treacle, sugar, etc.), sesamum and Masha pulse is tonic, heavy of digestion, tissuebuilding and palatable.

Articles of food fried in broken vessels of baked clay, or cooked over a charcoal fire should be considered as light in respect of digestion and as possessed of the virtue of aggravating the bodily Vayu, while those that are prepared with lumps of curdled milk should be considered as heavy (of digestion) and as increasing the Kapha.

Kulmashas (half boiled Chanakas or gram) generate the Vayu, produce loose stool, and are heavy of digestion, and tend to produce a condition of parchedness in the organism.

Articles of food made of fried barley (Vatya) prove curative in cases of Udavarta, cough, catarrh and Meha.

Dhana (fried barley) and Ulumva (Mudga pulse etc., boiled over a fire) are light of digestion and absorb the excess quantity of fat and Kapha in the body.

Barley powder (dissolved in water so as to form a sort of thin, pasty potion) is flesh-building and spermatopoietic. It allays thirst, acts as an instantaneous tonic, subdues the Pitta, Kapha and Vayu, and is possessed of purgative properties. Made into thin pasty balls or lumps they become heavy as regards digestion, while transformed into a thin potion with the addition of a copious quantity of water they are known to acquire a contrary virtue (light).

Barley powder used as lambative is easily and speedily digested owing to the softness of its consistency.

Fried paddy alleviates vomiting and dysentery, and has an astringent sweet taste. It is appetising, tonic, and light of digestion, allays thirst, constipates the bowels, and tends to restore the deranged Kapha to its normal condition.

Pulverised fried paddy alleviates thirst, vomiting, and a burning sensation of the skin, arrests perspiration, and proves curative in cases of hemoptysis and Dahajvara (a type of bilious fever characterised by unquenchable thirst and hyperpraxia).

Prithuka (thrashed or pasted paddy) is heavy of digestion, demulcent and flesh-building, and increases the Kapha in the system. Taken with milk it acts as a tonic and is laxative and destroys the Vayu.

Immature or newly-harvested rice has a sweet taste, is hard to digest and acts as a tissue-builder. Old or well matured rice brings about the adhesion of fractured bones and proves curative in cases of Meha. As a large variety of substances enters into the composition (of our daily food), a physician should prescribe a course of diet for his patient after carefully considering the nature of the food stuffs and the properties they acquire through combination and seasoning, as well as the natural longings of a person for a certain kind of food during the preponderance of certain deranged humours of the body.

Anupana or After-Potions:—

Now we shall discourse on drinks and potions which are found to be beneficial when taken after a certain kind of food (Anupanas.)

Certain people oppressed with an acid taste naturally long for sweets, while others in full satiety of sweet articles have a relish for acid things. Hence something acid is good for the eater of sweets, and sweets are good for men who have partaken of an acid food.

Cold water and warm water, Asava (wine), Madya (spirits), the soup of Mudga pulse etc., the juice of acid fruits, sour paddy gruel, milk and essence of meat are generally used as drinks after a full meal. Of these, that alone which would prove beneficial to a person should be given him in an adequate quantity. The intelligent physician should determine the kind of after-drink (potion) required in each case after taking into consideration the nature of the disease under treatment, the season of the year, and the properties of the solid or liquid substances that enter into the composition of the diet. Of all kinds of after-potions, clear heavenly (atmospheric) water, kept in a pure vessel, should be deemed the best, inasmuch as such water contributes in every way to the welfare (is conducive to the bodily growth) of a person throughout his life, and all the six different tastes are inherent in that heavenly fluid. Briefly we have stated the rule to be observed in respect of after-potions, now we shall dilate upon their specific properties. Hot water should be taken after any oily or lardaceous substance other than those known as the oils of Bhallataka and Tauvaraka. Certain authorities hold that the soup of Mudga pulse and sour rice gruel (Kanjika) should be respectively taken (in summer and winter) after having taken a large quantity of oil in the course of a meal. Cold water should be taken after cakes and honey, as well as after curd, Pavasa porridge, and also in cases of poisoning and derangements due to the effects of wine. According to several authorities tepid water should be taken after any kind of cake (preparation of rice paste etc.)

Milk or meat essence should be prescribed as an after-potion to persons habituated to meals of Shali-rice or Mudga pulse, or who have become fatigued with the labours of a battle or of a long journey, or who are oppressed with the heat of the sun or of a blazing fire, as well as to those who would be found to be overcome from the effects of poison or wine. Sour rice gruel, or cream of curd should be drunk after having taken Masha pulse, etc. Wine (Madya) is the proper after-drink for persons addicted to it, which is also recommended after a meat diet. Cold water or acid fruit juice (such as that of the pomegranate, etc.) forms the best after-drink for those who are not in the habit of taking wine. Milk is ambrosia to persons enfeebled with arduous study, or excessive sexual intercourse, and to every one after an exposure to the sun after a long troubled journey. Wine (Sura) is the afterdrink for enfeebled subjects, and water saturated with honey is the potion for corpulent persons. Healthy persons may use a variety of desserts and beverages during and after meals. Things which are demulcent in their virtues and heat-making in their potency should be considered as a wholesome diet in diseases due to the deranged Vayu. Substances, which are heatmaking in their potency and tend to produce a condition of parchedness (Ruksha) in the organism, should be prescribed as a wholesome diet in diseases brought about through the action of the deranged Kapha. Similarly, those which are sweet and cooling in their potency, prove wholesome in Pittaja distempers. Milk and the expressed juice of sugar-cane are beneficial to persons suffering from hemoptysis. The Asavas (wines) of the Arka, Shelu, and Shirisha are beneficial to those suffering from the effects of any poison.

Now we shall separately describe the after-drinks to be taken after having used the articles of food dealt with under the several groups discussed before. The acid soup of Indian Jujubes (Kola) should be taken after a meal consisting of any of the afore-said cereals such as, the Shukadhanyam, Kudhanyam, etc. Sour gruel should be used after a meal of Mudga pulse, or of any similar grain. The Asava (wine) of the Pippali should be used after a meal of the long thighed venisons, or of the flesh of those of the Dhanvaja family. Kola and Vadara wines should be used after having taken the cooked flesh of the fowls of the Vishkira species. The wine of Kshira-Vriksha should be used after a meal consisting of the flesh of the Pratuda species. Cocoanut and date palm wines should be used after having eaten the flesh of the cave-dwelling (guha-shaya) species. Krishna Gandha wine should be used after the flesh of the Parna-Mriga (arboreous) family. Ashvagandha wine should be taken after the flesh of the Prasaha species. Phalasara wine should be taken after the flesh of any of the holedwelling (Vileshaya) animals. Triphala wine should be taken after the flesh of an animal with unbifurcated hoops (Ekashapha). Khadira wine should be taken after the flesh of an animal with bifurcated hoofs.

The Asava (wine) of Shringataka or Kasheruka should be taken after having eaten the flesh of an animal of the Kulechara (frequenting the shores of lakes etc.) species. The same wines should be regarded as proper after-potions after a meal consisting of molluscs (Koshastha), or of the flesh of an animal of the Padi (lizard) family. asava of sugar-cane (vinegar) should be taken after having eaten the flesh of an animal of the Plava (diving) family. Mrinala wine should be taken after any Nadeya fish (whose habitat is the river). Matulungu wine should be taken after the flesh of any of the sea fish (Samudra). Padma (lotus bulb), wine should be taken after acid fruits. Pomegranate, or Vetra wines should be taken after astringent fruits. The Asava of Kanda [Khanda—D. R.] treated with the three pungent drugs known as the Trikatus should be taken after sweet fruits. Sour and fermented rice gruel should be taken after Tala fruits, etc. The wine of Durva, Nala, or of Vetra should be taken after pungent fruits. The Asava of Shvadanstra or of Vasuka should be taken after Pippalis, etc. Darvi, or Karira wines should be taken after Kushmandas, etc. The Asava of Lodhra should be taken after taking the Chuccu (Chuchehu?), potherbs etc. Triphala wine should be taken after the Jivanti, potherbs, etc., and the same rule should be observed in respect of Kusumbha potherbs.

The Asava (wine) of the drugs known as the Maha Pancamula should be taken alter such potherbs as the Manduka-parni, etc. Wines of acid fruit should be taken after the pith or marrow of such trees as the Date-palm, Tala, etc. The wine known as the Surasava, or fermented rice gruel should be taken after an excess of Saindhava salt, etc. Water may be taken in absence of the proper after-drink in all cases.

Authoritative verses on the subject:—

Atmospheric or rain water is the best of all drinks and cordials. That kind of water is wholesome to a person to which he is habituated from his birth. Hot water is beneficial in derangements of the Vayu and Kapha, and cold water is good in diseases which have their origin in the vitiated blood, or in the deranged Pitta. An excessively heavy meal, as well as the one which usually tends to derange the fundamental humours of the body, may be easily and speedily digested with the help of a suitable afterdrink. A proper after-potion taken after a meal brings on a fresh relish for food, increases the bulk of the body, acts as a spermatopoietic beverage, disintegrates the combination or accumulation of the deranged bodily humours, soothes the organism, increases the softness of the body, removes the sense of fatigue and exhaustion, brings on pleasurable sensations in its train, stimulates the appetite, subdues or pacifies the deranged bodily humours, allays the thirst, improves the complexion, and imparts tone and vigour to the system.

Any beverage resorted to at the commencement of a meal tends to produce a gradual emaciation of the frame; the one taken during the course of a meal guards against both its thinning and corpulency, while the one drunk at the close of a meal serves to greatly add to its growth and rotundity. Hence, drinking at meals should be most judiciously determined and taken with the greatest forethought and discretion. The food carried down into the stomach of a person unused to such liquids long retains undigested and resists being converted into chyme or being digested, and becomes a positive source of discomfort. Hence, the use of an afterpotion is imperatively obligatory on all human beings, except those suffering from dyspnea, cough, ulcerative endocarditis (Urahkshata), ptyalism, aphonia, and from diseases affecting the part of the body situated above the clavicles.

After the use of an after-potion, a long walk, a lengthy conversation, singing, sleeping and reading should be refrained from, in order that the imbibed potion may not affect the stomach, and (aggravate the bodily humours) which taking lodgment about the regions of the throat and chest may give rise to a secretion of mucous, impair the appetite, develop such distressing symptoms as vomiting etc., and produce many other distempers as well.

The lightness or heaviness of a food stuff does not go contrary to nature.^[11] These properties depend more upon the mode of cooking or preparing them than upon the nature of the substances themselves;^[12] more upon the quantity in which they are taken than the mode of their cooking or preparation;^[13] and more upon the food (lit. boiled rice) itself than upon the quantity of its use,^[14] and more upon the time (of its maturity) than upon the food.^[15]

The question of lightness or heaviness of a food stuff affects the idle, the unhealthy, the luxurious, and men of delicate constitution and impaired appetite, and such nice discernment of the properties of an article of food is not imperatively obligatory on strong, healthy men of active habits and good healthy digestion, who are habituated to hard and solid fares, and who can tolerably afford to dispense with such thoughts altogether. Here ends the description of the group of after-potions.

Hear me, O my child, discourse on the rules to be observed in connection with eating. The kitchen should be made spacious and kept clean and pure, and none but the trusted ones should have access thereto. The physician should get the food or diet prepared by experienced cooks (so as to impart to it the taste and the colour he desires), and have it kept at a clean and pure spot, concealed from the view of the public. After that, the food having been made innocuous by the admixture of anti-toxic medicines, and freed from all poison by reciting (an Arthavan) mantra over it, and having been besprinkled with the water of mystic incantation, should be served (to the king).

Serving of a Meal:—

Now I shall describe the mode of serving out the different dishes. Clarified butter should be served out in a vessel of steel (Kanta-Loha); Peya, in a silver bowl; and all kinds of fruit and confectionary (such as the Laddukas), on leaves. The preparations of meat known as the Parishushka and Pradigdha Mansam should be served on golden plates; fluid edibles and meat essences in silver bowls; Katvaras and Kharas in stone utensils; and cool boiled milk (Payah) in copper vessels. Other drinks, wines and cordials should be given in earthen pots; and Raga-Shadavas and Sattakas, in cool pure glass bowls, or in vessels made of crystal and Vaidurya gems. The cook should place the bowls containing preparations of pulse, boiled rice and lambatives on clean, spacious trays of fanciful design, and spread them out in front (of the king). All kinds of desserts, confectionary and dry viands should be served on his right, while all soups etc., meat-essences, drinks, cordials, milk, Khada-Yusha, and Peya should be placed on his left. Bowls containing preparations of treacle, Raga-Shadava, and Sattaka should occupy a place midway between the two sets of bowls described above.

The intelligent physician, well conversant with the rules of serving dishes as above laid down, should attend upon the king at his table, and spread out on the purified level floor of a solitary, beautiful, spacious, blissful, perfumed and flower-decorated chamber, and the king should partake of those sacred and pleasant dishes, served neither hot nor cold, and cooked and seasoned in the desired mode, and possessed of their specific tastes.

The physician in attendance should see that the king first partakes of the sweet dishes, then of the acid and saline, and of the pungent and other ones at the close of the meal.^[16] First or at the forepart of a meal, such fruit as the pomegranate, etc., should be eaten, after that, Pevas and boiled rice and prepared dishes, as well as confectionary. Certain authorities maintain that solid or thick viands should be eaten at the outset, while others aver that the contrary should be the rule. Of fruits, the amalaka has the greatest humour-destroying properties, and is the most harmless of them all. Amalaka (fruit) is therefore recommended at the outset, middle and the close of a meal. Such things as the Mrinala (the stem of a lotus plant), the Visha (the lotus bulb), Shaluka, Kanda and sugar-cane should be eaten at the beginning of a meal, and never at its close. A man, who is well-read in the Science of medicine (Ayurveda), should sit during his meal in an easy posture on a high seat and partake, at the right time, with his body erect and his whole mind engaged in the act of eating light, wholesome emollient and warm viands, which are congenial to his temperament and abound in fluid preparations, with an adequate quantity of boiled rice, neither too hurriedly nor too slowly, even when feeling the pinch of a keen and piercing hunger.

Food eaten with a good appetite tastes pleasant and relishing. The food which is congenial to one’s temperament begets no discomfort after the eating. Light food is soon digested. Emollient food gives tone and vigour to the system. Warm food improves the appetite. Food eaten neither too slowly nor too hurriedly is uniformly digested. Food abounding in fluid components is not imperfectly digested, nor is attended by any acid reaction. Moderation in food leads to a happy and perfect digestion and tends to maintain the fundamental principles of the body in their normal state.

During the cold months, when the nights are longer, substances, which tend to subdue the bodily humours which are naturally deranged during that season, should be eaten in the morning, while during the seasons, when the days are inordinately long, things which are congenial in those seasons should be eaten in the afternoon. (In spring and autumn) when days and nights are equal, the meal should be taken just at the middle part of the day and night.^[17]

A meal should not be eaten before the appointed time, nor before the appetite has fully come. Similarly, over or insufficient eating should be equally refrained from. Eating at an improper time and before the system feels light and free brings on a large number of diseases, and may ultimately lead to death. A meal eaten at an hour long after the appointed time tends to aggravate the bodily Vayu, which affects the digestive fire, and offers serious obstacles in the way of its digestion. The food thus digested with difficulty in the stomach creates discomforts and destroys all desire for a second meal. Insufficient diet gives but inadequate satisfaction, and tends to weaken the body. Over eating, on the contrary, is attended with such distressing symptoms, as languor, heaviness of the body, disinclination for movements, and distension of the stomach, accompanied by rumbling in the intestines, etc. Hence it behoves a man to take only as much food as he can easily digest, which should be well cooked and made to possess all the commendable (adequately nutritive) properties. Moderation in diet is the golden rule, besides taking into consideration the demerits of a particular food before partaking thereof and the nature of the time (day or night) it is eaten.

Boiled rice food (Anna) which is impure and dirty, infested with poison, or out of which another has eaten a portion as well as that which is full of weeds, pebbles, dust etc., which the mind instinctively repels, or cooked on the previous day or which has been kept standing over-night, as well as that which is insipid or emits a fetid smell, should be similarly rejected. Also food which has been cooked long ago, or has become cold and hard, and has been rewarmed or which has been imperfectly strained, or is burnt and insipid should also not serve as food. More and more palatable dishes should be successively taken in the course of a meal. During the course of a meal, the mouth should be frequently rinsed or gargled inasmuch as the palate thus constantly being cleansed becomes more susceptible to taste, and anything eaten thereafter is relished the better and gives all the pleasures of a first morsel. The palate affected with a sweet taste at the outset fails to appreciate the tastes of the successive dishes. Hence, the mouth should be washed at intervals during the meal. Sweet food eaten with a relish pleasurably affects the mind, brings joy, energy, strength, and happiness in its train, and contributes to the growth of the body; whereas the one of a contrary character is attended with opposite effects. The food, which does not satiate a man even after repeated eating, should be considered as agreeable (Svadu) to him. After finishing a meal water should be drunk in a quantity which would be beneficial. Food adhering to the teeth should be gently drawn out by means of a tooth-pick, inasmuch as if not removed a kind of fetor is produced in the mouth.

The Vayu is increased after the completion of digestion, the Pitta, during the continuance of the process, while the Kapha is increased immediately after the act of eating. Hence, the Kapha is to be subdued after the close of a meal, and the intelligent eater should attain that end by partaking fruit of an astringent, pungent, or bitter taste, or by chewing a betel leaf prepared with broken areca nut, camphor, nutmeg, clove, etc., or by smoking, or by means of anything that instantaneously removes the viscidity in the cavity of the mouth, and permeates it with its own essence.

Then the eater should take rest, like a king, till the sense of drowsiness incidental to eating is removed. After this he should walk a hundred paces and lie down in a bed on his left side. After eating, a man should enjoy soft sounds, pleasant sights and tastes, sweet perfumes, soft and velvety touch, in short anything that ravishes the soul and enwraps the mind with raptures of joy, since such pleasurable sensations greatly help the process of digestion. Sounds, which are harsh and grating, sights, which are abominable, touches, that are hard and unpleasant, smells, which are fetid and disagreeable, encountered after a meal, or the eating of impure and execrable boiled rice, or a loud sidesplitting laugh after a meal is followed by vomiting.

The after-meal siesta should not be long and continuous; basking before a fire, exposure to the sun, travelling, driving in a carriage, swimming, bathing etc., should be avoided just after the close of a full and hearty meal. A diet which abounds in fluid courses should be refrained from. Only a single taste should not be enjoyed in the course of a meal. Cooked potherbs, boiled rice of inferior quality, and a course of diet abounding in acid taste should be avoided. Articles of one taste should not be eaten in large quantities at a time, nor articles of various tastes should be constantly indulged in. A second meal should not be eaten on the same day in the event of the appetite having become dulled by a previous meal. Eating with a previous meal only partially digested seriously impairs the digestive functions. A man of dull or impaired appetite should refrain from eating heavy articles of food, as well as from partaking of large quantities of light substances. Cakes should never be eaten, and a double quantitiy of water should be taken if they are eaten at all out of hunger, by which their safe digestion would be ensured. Of drinks, lambatives and confectionary (solid food), each succeeding one is heavier than the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. Heavy articles of food should be taken in half measures only, while the lighter ones may be eaten till satiety. Liquid food, or that which abounds in liquid substances should not be taken in large quantities. Dry articles of food taken in combination with a large number of other substances fail to do any injury to the stomach. Dry food (Anna) taken alone can not be completely digested. It is transformed into lumps in the stomach, is irregularly chymed, and produces deficient gastric digestion followed by a reactionary acidity. The injested food, whether of a character that stamps it as belonging to the Vidahi group or not, is but incompletely digested and gives rise to a reactionary acidity in the event of the Pitta being confined in the stomach, or in the intestines. Dry food (cakes, etc.), incompatible food combinations (milk with fish and so on), and those, which are long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, tend to impair the digestive functions (Agni).

The Kapha, Pitta, and Vayu respectively produce the types of mucous indigestion of chyme (Amajirna), acid indigestion (Vidagdhajimam), and indigestion due to incarcerated fecal matter (Vishtabdhajirna). Certain authorities aver that there is a fourth class of indigestion, known as the indigestion of unassimilated chyle (Rasa-shesha). Drinking of an abnormal quantity of water, irregular eating, voluntary suppression of any natural urging of the body, sleep in the day, keeping of late hours in the night, partaking of a light food with a strong appetite are the factors which interfere with the proper digestion of food and develop symptoms of indigestion. The food taken by a person under the influence of envy, passion, greed, or anger, etc., or by a man suffering from a chronic distemper, is not properly digested.

Types of Indigestion:—

A case of indigestion in which the undigested food matter acquires a sweet taste is called chymous (or mucous) indigestion (Amajirna), that in which the undigested food acquires an acid taste in the stomach is called Vidagdha indigestion. The form in which the food matter brought down into the Stomach is partially or irregularly digested (one portion being digested, the other being not) followed by a pricking or piercing pain in the stomach and entire suppression of the flatus, is called Vishtabdha indigestion. The type known as indigestion of unassimilated chyle is characterised by the absence of any acid or sour eructations, but the patient feels no inclination for food inspite of the normal character of the eructations, if any. The type is further characterised by pain about the region of the heart, and water-brash. The unfavourable symptoms of indigestion are sudden loss of consciousness, delirium, vomiting, water-brash, languor with a gone-feeling in the limbs, and vertigo, etc., which may end in death.

Fasting is beneficial in a case of Amajirna indigestion. Ejection of the contents of the stomach gives relief in a case of Vidagdha indigestion. Fomentation will alleviate a case of Vishtabdha indigestion, while in an indigestion of unassimilated chyle, the patient should be confined to bed and fomentations and digestive medicines should be administered as well. In a case of Vidagdha indigestion the patient should be made to vomit the contents of his stomach with the help of warm water saturated with salt, while in a case of chymous indigestion the patient should forego all food till he is restored to his natural condition. A patient suffering from indigestion whose system has been cleansed and lightened with the abovesaid appliances should go fasting till he is restored to his natural condition as regards the strength and humours of the body.

The eating together of both wholesome and unwholesome articles of food is called promiscuous eating (Samashana). Over or insufficient eating at intervals and at improper seasons goes by the denomination of irregular eating (Vishamashana). Eating before a former meal is thoroughly digested in the stomach is called Adhyashana. These three kinds of eating are injurious, and speedily give rise tp a variety of diseases, or may be ultimately attended with fatal consequences. The drinking of cold water helps the speedy digestion of a partially digested food, which has already been attended with a reactionary acidity, inasmuch as the coldness of the imbibed water tends to subdue the deranged Pitta, and the food thus moistened by the water naturally gravitates into the intestines.

The man, who complains of a burning sensation in the stomach, throat or heart, shall find relief by licking a paste made of honey and powdered Haritaki, or of pulverised Haritaki and Draksha. The man, who, though strong and effulgent with the glow health, apprehends an attack of indigestion in the morning, may??? partake of a wholesome mid-day meal after??? taken powdered Abhaya and Shunti. Appetite???? be experienced even in a state of indigestion, wh???? chyle or food matter, accumulated in the stoma???? pressed upon by the deranged humours, is confined???? corner of the viscus without obstructing the passage o?? heat of the local fire. This vicarious appetite kills its duped victims with the swiftness of a poison.

Specific properties of matter:—

N ow we shall deal with the actions of several properties of matter, and from them should be inferred the nature of the properties which are inherent in various kinds of matter.

Coldness:—

is pleasurable, exercises styptic virtues, alleviates epileptic fits, thirst and a burning sensation of the body, and arrests perspiration. Heat is the reverse in its action to coldness. It greatly helps to set in the process of suppuration in boils and abscesses. Oleaginousness imparts a gloss or oiliness, and acts as an emollient tonic, and cosmetic. Parchedness is the opposite of oleaginousness; it produces stypsis and makes a thing rough to tactual perception. Sliminess is vitalising, tonic, heavy as regards digestion, and tends to produce Kapha, and brings about the adhesion of fractured bones. The quality of absorption (Vishad) wa? the opposite of sliminess. It absorbs or soaks up chyn?ou?us secretions and helps the process of healing till he?e or ulcer. Keenness or sharpness begets suffering and suppuration, and arrests secretions.?? cleansess or softness is the opposite of sharpness.?? should??ess produces languor, increases excrements, and??cop???onic, pleasing and flesh-building. Lightness is the??? opposite of heavines It acts as a liquefacient and? healing agent. The ten virtues with their actions have now been described.

Now hear me describe the other ten properties of matter with their specific actions. Fluidity is moistening. Compactness is thickening and obstructive. Humidity is like sliminess. Roughness is like absorption. Odoriferousness is pleasurable, subtile, mild and relishing. Fetidness is the opposite of odoriferousness, produces nausea, and brings on a non-relish for food. Laxativeness restores the normal condition of the humours. Narcotism changes the condition of vitality. Expansiveness (like that of wine) is the property in virtue of which a drug or a substance instantaneously permeates the whole organism and is subsequently digested. Evolution or Emanativeness is somewhat identical in its virtue with expansiveness with the exception that it permeates the organism in its undigested state, aud tends to disintegrate the root principles of the body. Instantaneousness, like the expansion of a drop of oil cast into a bowl of water, helps to permeate the whole organism simultaneously with the use of a drug. Subtility is the quality in virtue of which a thing can penetrate into the smallest capillaries and channels of the body. These twenty qualities or virtues have been described as they are.

Now we shall describe the transformations which the food stuffs undergo in the organism. This animated organism is composed of the five fundamental material principles, and the food of a living organic being necessarily partakes of the character of its corporeal components. The food, which consists of five fundamental material principles (elements), is digested, in its turn, by the five elemental heat or fire, and each of its constituent principles goes to augment its own kindred in the human organism.

The food, which is followed by a sweet, digestive reaction, goes to increase the quantity of Pitta, while the one, which is completely digested, contributes towards the augmentation of the bodily Vayu (nerve force). The stool and the urine are the excreted portion of the well-digested food, the lymph chyle is the substance drawn from the well-matured chyle, (as has been described in the chapter on the description of Blood, Chap. XIV. of the present work). The lymph chyle carried away by the vital Vayu known as Vyana tends to strengthen all the fundamental principles of the body.

Kapha is the excreted portion of the lymph chyle, the Pitta is that of the blood, the waxy impurities found in the tympanum, etc., are the excreted portions of flesh. Perspiration is the excreted matter of fat. Nails and hair are the excreted portions of the bones. The waxy deposits found in the corners of the eyes, and the oily secretions which sometimes mark the skin are the excreted portions of marrow. With the dawn of day a man wakes from sleep, and his heart unfolds like a lotus flower, and so remains till sleep folds up his eyelids. Hence, the root principles of the body continue non-humid during the state of waking. Accordingly, a man may partake of a meal at night, even if the food eaten in the day continues till then undigested, without the fear of committing the physical sin of Adhyashana (super-eating). But the reverse is the case in respect of a similar conduct in the night when man has recourse to sleep and his heart remains constricted in a state of unconsciousness, and the root principles of his body become loose and charged with humidity. Hence, it is beneficial to fast on the following day in the event of the food taken overnight being found to be not properly digested.

He, who carefully peruses these rules regarding the regimen of diet as approved of by the holy-sage Dhanvantari, the greatest of all the Rajarshis (royal hermits), becomes great in wisdom, and is sure to be glorified with the proud distinction of being the medical adviser of his king or his nobles.

 

Thus ends the forty-sixth Chapter of the Sutrasthana in the Sushruta Samhita which treats of Food and Drink.

Here ends the Sutrastharna

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Rice of more than two years standing becomes divested of all its nutritive elements.

[2]:

Charaka and Bhattaraka Harishcandra exclude Dadima (pomegranate) from the list of Pittakara agents, while Jejjadacarya is of opinion that it neither generates nor subdues the Pitta.

[3]:

Bulbs of lotus plants—though certain authorities aver that the inner lining or membranous fibres of a lotus-stem are called Visha, the outer covering being known as the Mrinalam.

[4]:

Additional text:—In the dish known as the Pratapta, the meat is first fried with clarified butter, then pasted and flavoured with the addition of curd, pomegranate-juice etc. and is again cooked with clarified butter, Ajaji, and Samudra salt over a charcoal fire, each of the preceding substances being added to it in succession during cooking over a gridiron. Meat luted with sesamum paste and cooked with the addition of flavouring condiments to a honey colour is called Kandupakka, while the one soaked in asafetida and water and cooked over a gridiron over a smokeless fire by sprinkling water over it with the addition of pomegranate juice, etc, is called Shulyam.

[5]:

Mudga soup prepared with whey, horse-apple, Amrul (oxalis corniculata), cumin seeds, black pepper and the roots of Cita (Plumbago Zeylanica).

[6]:

Gruel prepared in the manner of Khara-Yusha.

[7]:

Is made of sugar, Saindhava salt, tamarind, Sarjikshara, Parushaka and the expressed juice of Jambuline fruits; while the Shadava soup is prepared with salt and acid and sweet fruits.

[8]:

[9]:

A sweet aromatic preparation consisting of acid buffalo-curd, refined sugar, milk, powdered cardamom, camphor and black pepper.

[10]:

Powdered wheat treated with milk, clarified butter and treacle, and made into a paste neither too thick nor too thin in its consistency is called Vishyandana.

[11]:

If it be asked why the flesh of an animal of the Jamghal family is light? The answer would be because it is naturally so.

[12]:

As for example, Vrihi corn is naturally heavy of digestion, but fried Vrihi seeds are light.

[13]:

As for instance, a heavy food should be taken till the appetite is but half satisfied, while an article which is light with regard to digestion may be eaten to satiety.

[14]:

As for instance, of the varieties of food such as the Manda, Peya, Vilepi, Bhakta and Pishtaka, each succeeding one is heavier than the one immediately preceding it.

[15]:

As for example, newly harvested rice is heavier than the one of a year’s standing.

[16]:

The taste of sweet viands eaten at the outset would naturally go to subdue the Vayu located in the stomach; acid or saline taste partaken of at the middle of a meal would rouse up the fire of digestion located in the pancreas (Agnyashaya), while the pungent taste enjoyed at its close would tend to subdue the Kapha.

[17]:

This rule holds good in the case of persons, who eat a single meal in the course of a day and night. Those, who are in the habit of eating two meals a day, should eat a light half meal at one and quarter Prahara in the morning and another between the third and the fourth Praharas in the afternoon (Panjikakara). According to Jejjada, the meals should be between the third and the fourth Prahara both in the day and night.