Part 19 - Caste or classification of the eight poisons

(a) Brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya, and shudra are generally of the following colours, respectively:—(1) white, (2) red, (3) yellow, and (4) black.

A poison (visha) is of the Brahmana or wise caste, if it is white or tawny, is sweet or saltish in taste, and has got hair-like shoots over its body. The kshatriya (or warrior class) of the poisons is red in colour. The vaisya (merchant class) is yellow or grey and somewhat sweet in taste. The shudra (or the agricultural and serving class) is black in colour.

(b) The caste of a poison may also be ascertained by throwing it into milk. If the milk into which the poison has been immersed assumes a white colour, the poison is of the Brahmana caste; if the milk turns red in colour, the poison is of the kshatriya caste; if the milk is of yellow colour, the poison is of the vaisya caste; and if the milk is of black colour, the poison is of the shudra caste. The milk also grows warm at the touch of the poison.

Properties of poisons, according to caste.

The Brahmana (white-coloured) poison is a curer and preventer of diseases and senile decay. The kshatriya (red-coloured) is used in mercurial operations. The vaisya (yellow-coloured) is a curer of leprosy, and the shudra (black-coloured) is giver of death.

The Brahmana variety of poisons is to be used in diseases; the kshatriya variety to be given to a patient who has swallowed some poison; the vaisya variety is to be used in diseases of minor importance, and the shudra variety to be given to a man who has been bitten by a poisonous snake.

The following are the demerits of poisons in general:—(1) capacity for drying up the oily or fatty substance in the system, (2) causing heat, (3) violence, (4) capacity to enter into the minutest part of the body, (5) quickness of action, (6) capacity to spread through the whole of the system without being digested, (7) capacity to dry up the vital fluid which pervades the whole system, and to slacken the joints of the different limbs, (8) capacity to split up (9) lightness, and (10) incapacity for being digested.

A poison has the following functions on account of its possessing the ten demerits mentioned above, respectively:—It (1) increases vayu, (2) increases pitta and vitiates blood, (3) deprives the mind of consciousness and slackens the cohesion of the different limbs to one anothor, (4) spreads even through the minutest parts of the body and deranges them,(5) can take away life very quickly, (6) attacks the whole of the physical body without being digested at all, (7) destroys the three doshas (vayu, pitta, and kapha), the seven dhatus (chyle, blood, semen, flesh, bone, marrow, and fat), and the dirts (urine, stool, etc.), (8) causes much purgation, (9) is too light to be easily caught hold of and neutralized by medicines, and (10) incapacity for being digested which is the cause of the duration of the trouble due to it.

Any poison, whether organic, inorganic, or artificial, if endowed with all these demerits, has the power to kill life in a short time.