Treatment of Kṣetriya disease

In Atharvaveda the disease Kṣetriya is treated in the hymn II.8, 10 and III.7. Since there is a great uncertainty regarding the nature of Kṣetriya disease, some hymns are addressed to a plant called Kṣetriya–Nāśanīvīrut along with a prayer addressed to the stars to liberate the ties of the disease and it is believed that the above-mentioned plant successfully destroys the disease. The disease is also called Yakṣma^[1]. This disease is also regarded as family disease or hereditary disease^[2]. For the cure of Kṣetriya, the practices of the Kauśika Sūtra are both lengthy and arcane^[3]. The priest washes the patient outside the house while reciting II.8.1-2 at dawn. Then while reciting II.8.3 he pulverizes the plant mentioned in the stanza, natural mud and mud from an anthill, sews this up into the skin of a freshly slain animal and fastens it as an amulet upon the patient.

The patient is then placed in the ditch and the priest gives him the water to drink and lets him wash with water. Again, in Kauśika Sūtra, a different method of treatment is recorded: While reciting III.7 the priest fastens an amulet made from the horn of an antelope on the patient, gives him water to drink and lets him wash himself water which has been warmed by quenching in it a kindled piece of an antelope’s skin pierced by pegs. The patient is then offered as much barley as can be taken up by a single grasp of his hand. Then food is given to him^[4].The splinters of the holy Kāmpīla wood are also used against Kṣetriya^[5].