Treatment of Apvā disease (Jalodara or Dropsy)

In Rigveda and Atharvaveda, there is mention of Apvā disease, it is called Jalodara disease or dropsy. In this disease, there is water in the stomach. Heart disease is the result of Jalodara disease. The Atharvaveda says that lying too much and misbehaving causes Jalodara disease. Apāmārga is used as a medicine for Jalodara disease.

The practices associated with Jalodara are simple. In a purely symbolic practice, the patient is sprinkled over the head with water using twenty-one tufts of Darbha grass together with reeds taken from the thatch of a house by the priest while reciting I.10^[1].Again, while reciting VI. 24, water is drawn from a stream and sprinkled upon the patient^[2].Again, the priest while reciting VI.127 anoints the patient with the powder obtained from pulverizing a chip of Palāśa wood of the width of four fingers; dregs of ghee are poured upon the head of the patient during the recitation of VI.127^[3].

In the Atharvaveda, the word Udaradāra has been applied for sharp-bellyache. In the three sūktas of Atharvaveda, the virtues of applying Apāmārga or Circiṭā and Laṭajīrā are discussed. Apāmārga is a very important medicine in the prevention of colic. There is also a Śveta-Punarṇavā in the Atharvaveda. Śveta-Punarṇavā relieves stomach ailments, Pāṇḍu-roga and various ailments.