Chapter 279 - The description of the potent remedies (siddha-auṣadha)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Fire-god said:

1. I shall describe the science of medicine, that was propounded by lord Dhanvantari to Suśruta, the essence that would revive the dead.

Suśruta said:

2. Describe to me the science of medicine that would cure the diseases of men, horses and elephants and also the potent combinations and potent charms that would revive the dead.

Dhanvantari said:

3-7. One that is having fever should be made to fast by the physician protecting his strength and then feed him with gruel made of fried paddy and dry ginger. The patient having thirst at the end of the fever (should be given) water boiled with musta (cyprerus rotundus), parpaṭa (oldenlandia), uśīra (the fragrant root of a plant), sandal, udīcya (a kind of perfume) and dry ginger. After six days, (the patient) may be made to drink pungent food certainly. After the disorder has subsided, (medicated) oil should be rubbed (on the body). Then purgative should be given. Old nīvāra (rice grown without cultivation), ṣaṣṭika (a kind of rice), red paddy and pramodaka (a kind of rice) and similar things and barley converted into any form are the favourite (food) at (the time of) fever. Green gram, masūra (a kind of pulse), chick-pea, horse-gram, saussurea, āḍhaka (a kind of pulse), nāraka (?), karkotaka (a kind of paddy), kaṭolbaka (?), snake-gourd, neem together with the fruits, parpaṭa and pomegranates (could safely be used by a patient) having fever.

8. An emetic is commended in the case of downward hemorrhage and a purgative in upward (hemorrhage). The six constituents^[1] except the dry ginger (should be given) as the drink.

9-10. Flour of barley, wheat, fried paddy, barley, Śāli (a kind of rice) , masūra, makuṣṭha (a kind of rice), chick-pea, green-gram and eatables (made) of wheat mixed with ghee and milk are beneficial. Honey and the juice of vṛṣa (a kind of drug) are good. Eating old śāli rice is beneficial in dysentry.

11. The food that does not cause excessive (motion), and that mixed with the barks of lodhra (a kind of tree) are commended. One should avoid taking food that causes excess of wind. One should always make (extra) efforts in (treating) the enlargement of spleen.

12. (Those suffering from dropsy) should take fried barley with milk. Vāstūka (chenopodium album) mixed with ghee, wheat, śāli rice and bitter things are beneficial for those having dropsy.

13-14a. Wheat, śāli rice, green gram, cow’s urine, ṛkṣa, khadira, abhayā, pañcakola (the five spices—long pepper etc.), venison, neem, dhātri [dhātrī?] (a variety of myrobalan), snake-gourd, the juice of citron, nutmeg, dried radish and saindhava (a kind of rock-salt) (are good for dropsy).

14b-16. Water (boiled) with khadira is commended as a drink for those affected with leprosy. (Similarly) masūra (a kind of pulse) and green-gram (with water should be given) for drinking. Old śālī rice may be eaten. The juice of venison (mixed) with neem and parpaṭaka and vegetables, viḍaṅga (embelia ribes), black pepper, musta, kuṣṭha, lodhra, natron (are also good). Paste of red arsenic and vacā (a kind of aromatic root) with (cow’s) urine cures leprosy.

17-19a. Cakes, kuṣṭha, kulmāṣa (black barley) and barley etc. are beneficial for diabetes. Things made out of cooked barley, green gram, horse-gram, old śāli rice, vegetables that are bitter and astringent, bitter green things, oils (extracted) from sesamum, śigru (the leaves of a kind of tree), vibhītaka (a kind of myrobalan) and iṅgudī and greengram, barley, wheat and grains stored for a year (are also good).

l9b-21. The juice of venison is commended as food for those suffering from pulmonary consumption. Horse-gram, green-gram, black pepper etc. and dry radish compounded with venison or cakes or bird’s flesh or compounded with curd and pomegranade juice, dressed with the juice of citron, honey, grapes and vyoṣa (dried ginger, long and black pepper) and cooked barley, wheat and śāli rice should be given as food to an asthma patient.

22. Decoction made of the ten kinds of drugs (such as bṛhatī etc.), bala, rāsnā and horse-gram should be drunk with cakes in order to get relief from breathing (difficulty) and hiccough.

23. One should take dry radish, horse-gram, mūla (the root of long pepper) and juice of venison mixed with cooked barley, wheat and śāli rice and old uśira [uśīra?].

24. One who is having a swelling should eat molasses together with pathyā (the long pepper) or molasses with dry ginger. Both buttermilk and citraka (a kind of root) are excellent remedies for diarrhoea.

25-26. Old barley, wheat, sāli [śāli?] rice, juice of venison, greengram, āmalaka (one variety of myrobalan), dates, grapes, jujube fruits, honey, clarified butter, milk, sakra [śakra?], neem, parpaṭaka, vṛṣa, buttermilk and ariṣṭa are always commended for rheumatic patients.

27-28a. Purgatives should be given to those having heart disease. Long pepper is beneficial for those having hiccough. Buttermilk, gruel made from the fermentation of boiled rice, spirit distilled from molasses together with cold water (are also beneficial). Muktas, natron and wine are commended in any distemper due to drunkeness.

28b-30a. A person who has been injured (on the chest) should drink lac together with honey and milk. Wasting diseases could be cured by eating the essence of meat and by protecting the digestive power. One should eat red śāli, nīvāra and kalama varieties of rice, cooked barley, meat, vegetables, natrum and śaṭī.

30b-31. In the same way pathyā (is beneficial) for piles. Its scum (should be used) with buttermilk and water. Musta should be repeatedly used. Ointment with turmeric and citraka should be applied. Modified forms of boiled barley, śāli rice, vāstūka (chenopodium album) and natrum (are also beneficial).

32. Water-melon, cucumber, and wheat mixed with milk, (j'ṃce of) sugarcane and ghee are commendable for painful discharge of urine. Scum and wine etc. (are commended) for drinking.

33-34. Fried paddy, flours of fried barley, honey, flesh roasted on a stick, brinjal and gourd are drinks for remedying vomitting. Cooked śāli rice, water and milk simply heated or boiled (would be beneficial for the same). Pills of musta and molasses held in the mouth would remove thirst.

35-37a. Modified forms of cooked barley, cakes made of dried radish, vegetables, snake-gourd and tender shoots of cane would remedy the stiffness of thigh. One should take food consisting of old wheat, barley, śāli rice together with soup made of green-gram āḍhaka and masūra (different kinds of pulses), sesamum, juice of venison, saindhava (a kind of rocksalt), ghee, grapes, dried ginger, āmalaka (a kind ofmyrobalan) and black pepper.

37b-38. One who is having a dry spreading itch (should use) juice of pomegranate together with candied sugar, honey and grapes. Red paddy, wheat, barley, green-gram and other such light (eatables are also beneficial). Kākamārī, shoots of cane, vāstūka and natrum (may also be used).

39. Water, candied sugar and honey are commended for remedying acute gout. Dūrvā (a kind of grass) soaked in ghee is beneficial in nasal diseases.

40. Oil made up of the juice of bhṛṅgarāja (a kind of shrub) or the juice of dhātrī (a variety of myrobalan) (may be used) as sternutatory in all diseases relating to the head.

41-42. O Brahmin! The eating of sesamum and drinking cold water and eating cold food are said to strengthen teeth and also give supreme satisfaction. Gargling with sesamum oil would also strengthen teeth. The powdered viḍaṅga (mixed with) goat’s urine is used in destroying all worms.

43. The fruits of dhātrī (a variety of myrobalan) and clarified butter are excellent as an ointment for head for the destruction of all diseases relating to head. The food should consist of oily and hot things.

44. Filling ear with oil or the urine of goat is excellent for the destruction of pain in ear. O Brahmin! All kinds of oysters (may also be used).

45-48. A wick made by compounding red chalk, sandal, lac and buds of mālatī (a kind of jasmine flower) would cure the whiteness in eye. Vyoṣa (dried ginger), long pepper and black pepper) mixed with the triphalā (the three myrobalans taken collectively), and water with blue vitriol would cure all eye diseases. The collyrium of blue vitriol will also produce the same result. (If collyrium) fried in ghee, ground on a stone together with lodhra, sour gruel and natrum is sprinkled, it would be beneficial in all the diseases of eyes. Application of ointment of red chalk and sandal is commended for the external eye. One should always use triphalā (the three kinds of myrobalans) for curing the diseases of the eyes.

49-51a. One who desires to have a long life should take (a mixture of) honey and clarified butter every night. Milk and ghee boiled with the juice of śatāvarī are known to be the givers of vitality. Similarly kalambikās, black-gram, milk and ghee increase vitality. Triphalā is known to be the giver of long life (when used) with madhuka as before. (The same) together with the juice of madhuka would arrest all senile degeneration.

51b-52. O Brahmin! Ghee heated with vacā would destroy the defects due to goblins. Food offered to manes would give intellect and secure all objects. A decoction made of the paste of balā is beneficial when besmeared.

53. Oil together with rāsnā and sahacaya (is good) for deranged wind. Food that does not cause excessive phlegm is commended for abscess.

54. Flours of fried barley made into balls as well as amlā are commended (for making the abscess) to ripen. The pulverised neem (is used) to make (the ripened abscess to) open and for healing.

55. The treatment of women after delivery consists mainly of offering oblations to all the creatures. The use of amulet for women after the delivery as well as for animals is always beneficial.

56-60a. Chewing the leaves of neem is the remedy for one bitten by a snake. The (shoots of) palmyrah, keśya, old oil, old barley and old ghee (are also good for the same). A fumigation with the plumes of peacock with ghee (is good) for one bitten by a scorpion. A plaster of the seeds of palāśa ground with the juice of arka (plant) (is also beneficial). Black pepper or yellow myrobalan with the three kinds of myrobalans (is beneficial) for one bitten by a scorpion. If the juice of arka (plant), gingelly oil, flesh and molasses in equal proportion is drunk, it would at once destroy the poison due to (the biting of) a dog that is difficult to cure. The root of rice (if ground) with equal part of trivṛt (three kinds of myrobalans) and clarified butter and drunk, it would destroy quickly the poisons due to snakes, and other insects even if they are very powerful.

60b-61. (A mixture of) sandal, padmaka, kuṣṭha, latāmbu (?), ūśīra, pāṭalā, nirguṇḍi [nirguṇḍī?], śārivā and selu (?) would destroy the poison due to spiders. O Brahmin! Molasses and dried ginger are commended as eliminator (of toxic matter) from head.

62. Nothing excels oil or ghee for anointing, as a drink or as diuretic. Fire is the best sweating agent. Cold water is the best astringent.

63. The trivṛt (the three myrobalans) is the best purgative. So also madana is the best emetic. Oil, clarified butter, and honey are the best remedy for (deranged) wind, biles and phlegm, as diuretic, and emetic.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

These are musta, parpaṭaka etc. noticed in verse 4 above.