Part 24 - Usage of poisons

Killing of tuber poison.

Purified tuber poison is killed, if it is rubbed with an equal quantity of tankana. It may then be used in medicines without producing any disturbance in the system.

Persons fit to take poison.

Purified poison, which is an increaser of the properties of materials with which it is taken internally, should he used as an ingredient of medicines, meant for the cure of diseases only and of those meant for the cure and prevention of disease and senility. It may be applied in all sorts of diseases to one who takes clarified butter, salutary diet, milk, and observes the rules and regulations prescribed for taking a rasayanam.

Poison should not be administered to patients of the following description -those who are irritable; those who have an excess of pitta; those who are impotent; members of a royal family; those who are worn out by hunger, thirst, physical strain, perspiration, and travels; those who have got consumption; pregnant women, children, old men, and those whose skin and other parts of the body appear to be rough and devoid of oily substance.

Neither should poison be given or taken when there is a quarrel between the physician and the patient. In order to convince the disciple of the wholesomeness of poison, the preceptor himself should take it in the presence of the former.

Directions for taking poison.

One who wants to take poison as a medicine should take, first of all, a decoction of asva-gandha, gojihva, and triphala, mixed with mercury (either incinerated or in a state of compound with sulphur), and should commence taking poison from the next day, One who takes poison should observe the following directions during the period he takes the poison:—(1) He should abstain from, sexual intercourse; (2) should take his diet without any perturbation of the mind; (3) should take cow’s milk and clarified butter, with rice of shali paddy; (4) should drink cold water, meat of jangala animals, goat’s blood, madgura fish, sugar, honey, and milk—everything cold; and (5) whatever he should take should be salutary according to the Ayurveda.

The man who wishes to prevent or cure diseases as well as senility may take poison every day (in doses to be described below). Such a man should be of pure character, and should have previously refined his system by drinking clarified butter and taking salutary diet. Poison should be taken in the winter and spring. In cases of emergency, it may also be taken in summer, but should never be taken in the rainy season and in a bad weather.

Doses in which poison is to be taken.

The dose in which good and purified poisons are to he taken is one sarshapa on the first day; two sarshapas a day on the second, third, and fourth days; three sarshapas on the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth days; four sarshapas on the ninth day. The dose is to be increased by one sarshapa a day till it reaches one gunja or 36 sarshapas. A healthy man should not take more than one java or six sarshapas a day, but a leper should take one gunja in the maximum.

One month’s use of poison, in the prescribed way, cures kushtha (leprosy) of eight different kinds, viz. pundarika, kustha with bisphota, white kustha or leucoderma, audumbara, chhinna-bhinna, kapala, klinna, and shavagandhi.

(Note: These above should be compared with those given in Madhava Nidana etc.)

Six month’s use of poison makes a man beautiful. One year’s use cures all sorts of diseases. Two year’s use makes a man have a very beautiful complexion.

Taken in proper doses, poison acts like nectar. On the other hand, nectar or poison, taken all on a sudden, causes all sorts of troubles and even death.

Diets considered salutary at the time of taking poison.

The following are considered beneficial to one who takes poison:—

Clarified butter, milk, sugar, honey, wheat, rice prepared from boiling paddy and then drying it up and removing the husk in the usual way, maricha (black pepper), rock-salt, raisin, sweet and cold water, abstinence from sexual indulgence, residing in cold country, cold weather, and cold water.

Restrictions in diet in poison.

The following are to be avoided during the time poison is taken, even if one gets accustomed to it:—pungents, sours, saline food, oil, sleeping in day time, and heat of fire and of the sun. The man who, while taking poison, takes his diet without clarified butter being mixed with it, suffers from derangement of the eye-sight, diseases of the ears, and many other diseases due to the excess of vayu. Taking of poison by one who suffers from indigestion may lead even to one’s death.

Uses of inorganic poison.

Inorganic poison of a benefic nature (such as aconite) and duly purified, cures fever due to vayu, if taken with mastu (butter-milk). It cures fever due to pitta, if taken with milk, and that due to kapha, if taken with goat’s urine. Fever due to the three doshas is cured by poison taken with triphala water. Jirna-jvara (a kind of remittent fever) is cured by poison, taken with lodhra, chandana, bacha, sugar, ghrita, honey, and milk. Jirna-jvara, prameha, and skin diseases are cured by poison, taken with root of danti, root of trivrit, triphala, ghrita, and madhu (honey). Poison cures vishama-jvara (Malaria, kala-azar, etc.), if taken with the juice of shikhi-karna (nila-kantha vasaka),

Racta-pitta is cured, if poison is taken with jasti-madhu, rasona, ushira, and root of utpala (water lily), all rubbed with water dissolved with powdered rice.

Asthma and cough are cured, if poison is taken with rasona, viranga, triphala, deva-daru, trikatu, padma wood, and guruchi. Asthma and hiccough are cured, if poison is taken with sugar, mercury, milk, ashes of pravala (coral), and jasti-madhu. Poison cures nausea, if taken with milk, ushira, madhu, java-kshara, haridra, and bark of kutaja. It cures phthisis, if taken with chyavana prasa (a well-known medicine to be described in a subsequent volume).

Musta, indra-java, patha, chitraka root, trikatu, ati-visha, dhataki flower, mocha-rasa (exudation of kapock tree), kernel of the stone of a mangoe fruit, and poison, all combined, cure chronic diarrhoea. Poison, haritaki, chitraka roots (or bhallataka?), danti roots, draksa (raisin), haridra, and vasaka, all mixed together, can cure difficulty in urination. Shilajatu, poison, and trikatu, mixed together, can cure ashmari and udavarta.

Cow’s urine, java-kshara, saindhava salt, tuber poison, all mixed with the juice of pashana-bhedi can cure stone disease. Tuber-poison, mixed with triphala and svarji-kshara, can cure gulma (tumours in the belly). Tuber-poison with pippali roots can cure colic. Dravanti, madhuka, draksha, rasna, shathi, pippali, ati-visha, biranga, mishreyi (ani-seed) and java-kshara, all mixed with tuber-poison, can cure gulma and enlargement of the spleen. Sulpha, biranga, and tuber-poison, taken with milk, can cure enlargement of the spleen. Tuber-poison, taken with the decoction of the roots of kaka-machi, is a curer of leprosy.

Leprosy is cured, if tuber-poison is taken with decoction of arka-puspi, arag-badha, trayamana, bakuchi, bala, rohitaka, and gaja-pippali.