Medicines (i): Salts (Loṇa/Lavaṇa)

Many versions of the Chapter on Medicine comprise a list of salts as medicines. They are recorded in the following passages:

Theravāda:—“… the salt medicines [are]: sea salt, black salt, rock salt, earth salt, artificial salt, or whatever other salt medicines there are; neither they serve as hard food among the hard food, nor as soft food among the soft food. Having accepted them, [one has] to take care of [them] for the duration of one's life, [and] to use [them] when there is a reason.”^[1]

Dharmaguptaka:—“At that time a monk was sick [and he] needed salt as medicine. The Buddha said: ‘[I] allow the usage. Herein, salt is: mings alt 明鹽 (artificial salt?), black salt, pill salt, salt from the Sambhar Lake, zhitoubis alt 支頭鞞鹽 (?), saline earth salt, ash salt, rock salt, shilubisalt 施盧鞞鹽 (?), sea salt. If a monk has a reason of illness, [he] is allowed using [these] for the duration of one’s life.’”^[2]

Mahīśāsaka:—There was a monk [afflicted] with wind disease [and] he should consume red salt, white salt, [and] various salts. The Buddha was informed with this [matter]. The Buddha said: ‘[I] allow the use.’”^[3]

Sarvāstivāda:—“There are five kinds of salt: black salt, purple salt, red salt, saline earth salt, [and] white salt. [They are] for the duration of one’s life, [and one can] stay with them in the same room overnight.”^[4]

Mūlasarvāstivāda (Sanskrit):—“Which are the five salts? [They are] rock salt, artificial salt, sauvarcala, salt from Sambhar Lake, [and] sea salt.”^[5]

Mūlasarvāstivāda (Chinese):— “Five kinds of salt are: black salt, red salt, white rock salt, earth salt, [and] sea salt.”^[6]

Mahāsāṃghika:— “… all salts …”^[7]

Various salts have been named in the Chapters on Medicine and many of them are common in these texts. Almost all these salts can be identified, except the few in the Dharmaguptaka list.

The Samantapāsādikā provides explanations for the salts in the Theravāda list:

“Marine salt: it remains like sand on the seashore. Black salt: it is a natural salt. Rock salt: it is white in colour [and] it arises in the mountain. Earth salt: it arises as a sprout from earth. Artificial salt: it is cooked with all requisite ingredients [and] it is red-coloured.”^[8] These exegetical data are helpful for recognising certain salts which are described only by colours in the Chinese sources: red salt may refer to artificial salt (Pāli: bila; Sanskrit: viḍa), white salt to rock salt or sea salt (which, as we know, is also white in colour), and black salt to kāḷaloṇa/kālalavaṇa or saurvarcala, the latter being a dark colour salt (Dutt 2012, 85).^[9] Purple salt in the Sarvāstivāda list thus may be sauvarcala.

Abundant information pertaining to salts is found in the classical Āyurvedic treatises. All salts in the Chapters on Medicine (except those which are uncertain or unidentified) are well elaborated in Āyurveda, which includes even more salts. Details of different salts, with their individual properties and effects, can be read in Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 1. 88-92, 27. 300-304; Vimānasthāna 8. 141; Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46. 313-321; Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 6. 143-149. “Salts in general are palatable, promote of digestion [sic], laxative and alleviator of vāta” (Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 27. 304).

According to modern chemistry, salt is a compound formed as a result of the chemical reaction between an acid and a base. The most common salt is sodium chloride. Salt is needed for the survival of most animals and plants. It has many uses such as adding flavour to foods, preserving meat, acting as a source of sodium and chlorine, producing soaps, and so on (Lerner and Lerner 2008b, 3779-3780). Nowadays, salt is obtained from seawater, natural brines, and rock salt deposits in salt beds, rock masses, or salt domes (Encyclopӕdia Britannica Online, s.v. “salt (NaCl)”).^[10]

Salts mentioned in the Chapters on Medicine are summarised in the table below:

	Original name	English name
Theravāda	sāmudda	sea salt
	kāḷaloṇa	black salt
	sindhava	rock salt
	ubbhida	earth salt
	bila	artificial salt
Dharmaguptaka	明鹽	artificial salt (?)
	黑鹽	black salt
	丸鹽	pill salt
	樓魔鹽	salt from Sambhar Lake
	支頭鞞鹽	?
	鹵鹽	saline earth salt
	灰鹽	ash salt
	新陀婆鹽	rock salt
	施盧鞞鹽	?
	海鹽	sea salt
Mahīśāsaka	赤鹽	red salt
	白鹽	white salt
	諸鹽	various salts
Sarvāstivāda	黑鹽	black salt
	紫鹽	purple salt
	赤鹽	red salt
	鹵土鹽	saline earth salt
	白鹽	white salt
Mūlasarvāstivāda (Sanskrit)	saindhava	rock salt
	viḍa	artificial salt
	sauvarcala	—-
	romaka	salt from Sambhar Lake
	sāmudraka	sea salt
Mūlasarvāstivāda (Chinese)	烏鹽	black salt
	赤鹽	red salt
	白石鹽	white rock salt
	種生鹽	earth salt
	海鹽	sea salt
Mahāsāṃghika	一切鹽	all salts

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Theravāda Vinaya Piṭaka I. 202: “... loṇāni bhesajjāni sāmuddaṃ kāḷaloṇaṃ sindhavaṃ ubbhidaṃ bilaṃ yāni vā pan’ aññāni pi atthi loṇāni bhesajjāni, n’ eva khādaniye khādaniyattaṃ pharanti, na bhojaniye bhojaniyattaṃ pharanti, tāni paṭiggahetvā yāvajīvaṃ pariharituṃ, sati paccaye paribhuñjituṃ.”

[2]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428. 867b13-16: “爾時比丘病，須鹽為藥，佛言：「聽服。是中鹽者，明鹽、黑鹽、丸鹽、樓魔鹽、支頭鞞鹽、鹵鹽、灰鹽、新陀婆鹽、施盧鞞鹽、海鹽，若比丘有病因緣盡形壽聽

服。」” 明鹽 literally means “bright salt,” but there is no such salt known. The Chinese character 明 can be vida in Sanskrit, and it may be a misinterpretation of viḍa, which is artificial salt (Pāli: bila). 丸鹽 is guṭikā. This kind of salt is mentioned only in the Suśruta Saṃhitā, but not in the Caraka Saṃhitā or Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā. 樓魔(鹽) should be a phonetic transcription of romaka, which is a kind of salt extracted from the Sambhar Lake near Ajmere (Dutt 2012, 85; A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v. “romaka”).

[3]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1421. 147c3-4: “有比丘風病應服赤白諸鹽，以是白佛，佛言：「聽服。」”

[4]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1435. 194a11-12: “有五種鹽：黑鹽、紫鹽、赤鹽、鹵土鹽、白鹽，盡形壽共房舍宿。”

[5]:

Gilgit Manuscripts III. 1.iv: “pañca lavaṇāni katamāni| saindhavaṃ viḍaṃ sauvarcalaṃ romakaṃ sāmudrakam|” Sauvarcala has no English common name. It is often rendered as sochal or sonchal salt in Sanskrit dictionaries or English translations of Āyurvedic texts, but these are not well accepted English terms.

[6]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1448. 1b27-28: “五種鹽者，謂烏鹽、赤鹽、白石鹽、種生鹽、海鹽。” The Chinese list is not identical to the Sanskrit one. 種生鹽 literally means “growing salt,” and it likely refers to audbhida (Pāli: ubbhida) which sprouts from earth.

[7]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 245a1: “...一切鹽...” There is no mention of salts as medicines in the Chapter on Medicine parallel in the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya. Elsewhere in this Vinaya, when listing various kinds of medicines for the length of one’s life, there briefly mentions that all salts can be utilised.

[8]:

Samantapāsādikā V. 1090: “sāmuddikā’ti samuddatīre vālukā viya santiṭṭhati. kāḷaloṇan ti pakatiloṇaṃ sindhavan ti setavaṇṇaṃ pabbate uṭṭhahati. ubbhidan ti bhūmito aṅkuraṃ uṭṭhahati. bilan ti sabbasambhārehi saddhim pacitaṃ, taṃ rattavaṇṇaṃ.”

[9]:

Sharma (2010), in his translation of the Suśruta Saṃhitā, comments that sauvarcala and kālalavaṇa are alike except that the latter has no smell (translator’s notes to Sūtrasthāna 46. 313).

[10]:

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. “salt (NaCl)” [accessed February 12, 2015, http://academic.eb.com/EBchecked/topic/519712/salt-NaCl/].