Chapter 9 - Treatment of an abnormal excess of Pitta

Drinking of decoction of dhanya and madhurika (or water in which these two have been kept immersed for sometime), mixed with sugar, pacifies pitta.

Pittaghnaka rasa.

Equal quantities of incinerated mercury, mica, munda iron, copper, tiksna iron, copper pyrites, orpiment, and sulphur are, to be rubbed together, and subjected to bhavana for one day each, with the juice or decoction of each of the following:—jastimadhu, grapes, guduchi, jalamandapika (kumbhi), vasaka, and bhumikusmanda. Pills are then to be made one fourth of a tola, each, to be taken with sugar and honey. This medicine cures pitta (biliousness), fever due to the same, waste, sensation of heat, and vertigo.

Dhatri lauha.

Thirty two tolas of powdered amalaki, sixteen tolas of iron, and eight tolas of jastimadhu are to be rubbed together seven days with the decoction of amalaki, and dried in the intense heated the sun. The compound is then to be rubbed again and kept in a suitable pot. This medicine is to be taken with clarified butter and Honey, thrice a day, viz. at the commencement, middle, and end of a meal. Taken at the commencement of a meal, it cures all the ailments caused by an abnormal excess of pitta. Taken at the middle of a meal, it cures intestinal obstruction and flatulence; taken at the end of a meal, it cures slowness of digesting beat and hemoptysis.

Pittantaka rasa.

One part, each, of jatikosa, jatiphala, jatamanshi, kustha, talishapatra, svarnamaksika, iron, mica, and realger; and nine parts of silver are to be rubbed together with water, and made into pills, two raktis in weight, each. This medicine cures an abnormal excess of pitta, shula, amlapitta, anemia, jaundice, piles, vertigo, and vomiting.

Mahapittantaka rasa.

If in the composition of pittantaka rasa, gold is substituted for silver, the medicine is called mahapittantaka rasa.

Pacifiers of pitta:—

Bitters, sweets, astringents, coldness, exposure to cold wind, shades, night, mild wind raised by fan, moon-light, underground rooms (in hot weather in the tropics), water sprinkled through artificial fountains, touching of water plants and women’s bodies, drinking of clarified butter and milk, purgation, smearing the body with cold water, milk, etc. letting out of blood and smearing the body with sandal-paste, ushira-paste, and other cooling unguents.

Increasers of pitta:—

Pungents, sours, hot things, vidahi (see page 7, Vol. IV), acrid food, salt, anger, fasting, exposure to the sun, sexual intercourse, thirst, hunger, physical exercise, drinking of liquor, eating of masa-grain, sesamum, kulattha, fish, mutton, and curd and butter-milk prepared from cow’s milk. Pitta naturally increases at the time of taking and digestion of meal, in the hot weather, and at mid-day and mid-night.