Medicines (h): Alkaline Ashes (Kṣāra)

Alkaline ashes were used as medicines in ancient India. Their use is mentioned in several versions of the Chapter on Medicine.

Dharmaguptaka:—“At that time a sick monk needed ash-medicine. The Buddha said: ‘[I] allow the use of ash-medicine. Herein, ash-medicine is barilla,^[1] binnaashes 賓那灰 (ashes of common yellow nail dye plant?), boluono-ashes 波羅摩灰 (ashes of flame of forest?). A monk with a reason of illness is allowed to use [these] for the duration of one’s life.’”^[2]

Mūlasarvāstivāda (Sanskrit):—“What are the five alkaline ashes? [They are] ashes of barley, ashes of barley-awns, ^[3] barilla, ashes of sesame, and ashes of Malabar nut tree.”^[4]

Mūlasarvāstivāda (Chinese):— “Five kinds of ashes are: ashes of barley, ashes of sesame, ashes of barley-husk fragments,^[5] ashes of prickly chaff flower,^[6] [and] ashes of Malabar nut leaves.” ^[7]

Mahāsāṃghika^[8] :—“Except eight kinds of ashes, all remaining [kinds of] ashes.”^[9]

Certain alkaline ashes are mentioned in the Chapters on Medicine as medicines. The list of ashes found in the Dharmaguptaka Bhaiṣajyaskandhaka is very different from that in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu. Besides, the lists in the Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the latter text are not identical: the sequence of items is not the same between the two lists, and barilla in the Sanskrit list is replaced by ashes of prickly chaff flower in the Chinese one. The Dharmaguptaka source also mentions the use of containers for ash-medicines: As ash-medicines were not easily held in hands, the Buddha allowed the making of containers to hold the ash-medicines; then due to easy damage of the containers, the Buddha permitted the use of horns for making the containers (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428. 871a18-20).

Āyurveda does not contain much information about this group of substances. Only a few examples of ashes are given. Ashes of barley and barilla are the most commonly mentioned ones. Interestingly, although this group of substances has therapeutic usages, they are chiefly described in the chapters dealing with food materials in the classical Āyurvedic treatises (Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 27. 305-306; Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46. 322-325; Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 6. 151-152). Srikantha Murthy, in his translation of the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā (2010-2012), supplements that the alkaline substances are of two kinds: natural, which include minerals; and artificial, which are prepared from ashes of certain plants and animal products (such as urine and excreta). Both kinds are chiefly used due to their alkaline and caustic property (notes to Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 6. 151-152).

Ashes are produced when plants or wood are burned. The properties of ash depend, at least partially, on the type of plant and the part of the plant being combusted. The main constituents of ash are carbon (from incomplete burning) and mineral compounds such as oxides, hydroxides, and carbonates of calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and so on, with calcium carbonate being the major one. Hence, ashes of plants serve as a liming agent and a source of minerals (Demeyer, Voundi Nkana, and Verloo 2001; Ohno and Erich 1990). It may be why ashes are used in Āyurveda and other medical traditions. Modern medicine, however, no longer employs ashes as a tool for alkalinity or minerals.

The following table lists the ash-medicines recorded in the Vinayas:

	Original name	English name	Major component
Dharmaguptaka	薩闍灰 (sarjikā-kṣāra)	barilla	sodium carbonate[10]
	賓那灰	ashes of common yellow nail dye plant (Barleria prionitis) (?)	?
	波羅摩灰	ashes of flame of forest (Butea monosperma) (?)	?
Mūlasarvāstivāda (Sanskrit)	yavakṣāra	ashes of barley	potassium carbonate[11]
	yāvaśūkakṣāra	ashes of barley-awns	potassium carbonate
	sarjikākṣāra	barilla	sodium carbonate
	tilakṣāra	ashes of sesame	?
	vāsakākṣāra	ashes of Malabar nut tree	?
Mūlasarvāstivāda (Chinese)	[麩-夫+廣]麥灰	ashes of barley	potassium carbonate
	油麻灰	ashes of sesame	?
	[麩-夫+廣]麥[麥*弋]灰	ashes of barley-husk fragments	potassium carbonate
	牛膝草灰	ashes of prickly chaff	?
		flower (Achyranthes aspera)
	婆奢樹葉灰	ashes of Malabar nut leaves	?
Mahāsāṃghika	除八種灰餘一切灰	all ashes except eight kinds

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

薩闍灰 seems to be sarjikakṣāra or svarjikākṣāra, which is barilla (ashes of saltworts) according to Dutt (2012, 88-89).

[2]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428. 867b16-19: “爾時病比丘須灰藥，佛言：「聽用灰藥。是中灰藥者，薩闍灰、賓那灰、波羅摩灰，比丘有病因緣盡形壽聽用。」” 賓那 may be bāṇa (common yellow nail dye plant).

Khare (2007, 82) points out that the ash of this whole plant mixing with honey is used for curing bronchial asthma. 波羅摩 may be palāśa (flame of forest). Dutt (2012, 21-22) lists the ashes of some plants which were used for preparing caustics and palāśa is one of these.

[3]:

Modern Āyurvedic scholars seem to equate yavakṣāra with yāvaśūkakṣāra. For instance, Sharma, in his translation of the Suśruta Saṃhitā (2010), states that it is obtained from the awns of barley (translator’s notes to Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46. 322-325). Dutt (2012, 87) also says it is the ashes of the green spikes of barley.

But śūka means the awn of grain (A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. “śūka”). Hence yavakṣara should refer to the ashes of barley plant or grains, while yāvaśūkakṣāra to the ashes of barley-awns. If they meant the same thing, then the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu would not have considered them as two out of the five ashes. They should be two separate kinds of ashes. Probably at a certain stage in history, these two have been regarded as the same or the former being substituted by the latter.

[4]:

Gilgit Manuscripts III. 1.iv: “pañca kṣārāḥ katame| yavakṣāraḥ yāvaśūkakṣāraḥ sarjikākṣārastilakṣāro vāsakākṣāraśca|”

[5]:

Kangxi zidian 康熙字典 (The Kangxi Dictionary) explains this character “[麥*弋]” as the fragments of barley-husk (Zhang 2005, 1440).

[6]:

The Chinese term 牛膝草 is hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), which actually is another species than the Sanskrit apāmargā. Apāmargā, which is often named as 牛膝草 in Buddhist literature, should be 土牛膝 in Chinese and prickly chaff flower (Achyranthes aspera) in English.

[7]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1448. 1b25-26: “五種灰者，謂[麩-夫+廣]麥灰、油麻灰、[麩-夫+廣]麥[麥*弋]灰、牛膝草灰、婆奢樹葉灰。”

[8]:

The Chapter on Medicine parallel of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya does not contain any data on alkaline ashes as medicines. Elsewhere in this Vinaya it briefly mentions that ashes are part of the medicines for use throughout one’s whole life. Hence it is included here as an information. Moreover, elsewhere in the Vinaya the use of ashes and ashes of bone and animal hairs is recorded. Such information will be covered in Chapter Five when such remedies are discussed.

[9]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 245a1: “除八種灰餘一切灰”. But this Vinaya does not inform us which eight kinds of ash are not allowed.

[10]:

See Dutt 2012, 88.

[11]:

See Dutt 2012, 87.