The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

Chap. XXVI.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 51I

and a meny careless heart, these are the best aphrodisiacs in life. 2.

Causes of Sexual Incapacity :— A cessation of the sexual desire owing to the rising of bitter thoughts of recollection in the mind of a man, or a forced intercourse with a disagreeable woman (who fails to sufficiently rouse up the sexual desire in the heart of her mate) illustrates an instance of mental impotency. Excessive use of articles of pungent, acid, or saline taste, or of heat-making articles of fare leads to the loss of the Saumya Dhatu (watery principle) of the organism. This is another kind of impotency. Virile impotency resulting from the loss of semen in persons addicted to excessive sexual pleasure without using any aphrodisiac remedy is the merit form of virile impotency. A long-standing disease of the male generative organ (syphilis, etc.), or the destruction of a local Marma such as the spermatic cord) destroys the powers of coition altogether. This is the fourth form of impotency. Sexual incapacity from the very birth is called the congenital (Sahaja,) impotency. Voluntary suppression of the sexual desire by a strong man observing perfect continence, or through utter apathy produces a hardness of the spermatic fluid, and is the cause of the sixth form of virile impotency. Of the six foregoing types of impotency, the congenital form as well as the one due to the destruction of any local Marma (spermatic cord) should be regarded as incurable, the rest being curable and amenable to the measures and remedies antidotal to their respective originating causes. 3.

Their Remedies:— Now we shall describe the different Vayi-Karana (aphrodisiac) remedies. Powders of sesamum, Mdska-ipulsQ, Viddri, or S'dli-ricQ should

512 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVI.

be mixed with Saindhava salt and pasted with a copious quantity of the expressed juice of the sugarcane of the Paundarika species. It should then be mixed with hog's lard, and Utkarik^ should be prepared bycooking it with clarified butter. By using this (medicinal) Utka'rika^, a man would be able to visit a hundred women. 4.

It should then be mixed with hog's lard, and Utkarik^ should be prepared bycooking it with clarified butter. By using this (medicinal) Utka'rika^, a man would be able to visit a hundred women. 4.

The testes of a he-goat should be boiled in milk. Sesamum seeds should then be successively treated with this milk in the manner of a Bhavand saturation. Cakes should be made of these sesamum seeds with the lard of a porpoise. This medicine exerts the same action as the preceding one without producing any exertion whatever. By eating the testes of a he-goat with (an adequate quantity of) salt and powdered long- pepper (Pippali), fried in clarified butter prepared from churning milk (and not from curd), a man is enabled to visit a hundred women. 5.

Powders of Pippali, Mdsha-'^yA's>^, S'dli'v'icQ wheat and barley, should be taken in equal parts. Cakes (Pupatlikai) should be prepared with this compound and fried in clarified butter. By taking these cakes and a potion of milk sweetened with (a copious quantity of) sugar, a man becomes potent enough, to enjoy the pleasures of love like a sparrow (Chataka). 6.

Powdered Viddri successively soaked in the expressed juice of the same and dried, should be licked with honey and clarified butter, whereby a man would be able to visit ten women successively (at a time). Similarly powders of (dried) Amalaka successively soaked in its own expressed juice should be licked with honey, sugar* and clarified butter, after which a quantity of

* According to S'ivadasa it may also be taken with honey and clarified butter only.

Chap. XXVL] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 513

milk should be taken. This compound would make even an old man of eighty sexually as vigorous as ayouth. 7-8 The testes of a he-goat or of a porpoise mixed with salt and powdered long-pepper, and fried in clarified butter should be taken for speedy and effective aphrodisiac purposes. The eggs of a tortoise, of an alligator, or of a crab,* or the semenf of a male buffalo, of a he-ass, or of a he-goat should be similarly taken for the same purpose. 9.

The eggs of a tortoise, of an alligator, or of a crab,* or the semenf of a male buffalo, of a he-ass, or of a he-goat should be similarly taken for the same purpose. 9.

Milk boiled and cooked with the sprouts, bark, roots and fruit of an As'vattha tree, should be sweetened with sugar and honey, and taken ; this enables a man to enjoy sexual pleasures like a sparrow. The powdered bulbs of Viddri, weighing an Udumbara (one Tola) in measure, and taken with milk and clarified butter,! would make an old man young again. A Pala measure of the pulverised Mdsha pulse, mixed with honey and clarified butter should be licked and a potion of milk should then be taken ; this would make a man sexually as strong as a horse. Wheat and Atmaguptd seeds should be boiled in milk, and taken, when cold, with clarified butter, and a potion of milk should then be taken for the same purpose. 10-13.

Clarified butter should be boiled with eggs or the testes (as the case might be) of alligators, mice, frogs and sparrows. By lubricating the soles of the feet with this Ghrita, a man would be able to visit a woman with undiminished vigour so long as he would not touch the ground with his feet. 14.

* Some explain "q|f^T" as Louse-sparrows.

t Here semen would mean the testes, the receptacle of the semen.

X Some read "3?^^" (boiled) in place of •''§^»r". In that case the boiled milk only should be taken and no clarified butter should be added thereto.

p. 65

$14 THE ^USHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVI,

The use of pulverised Atmaguptd and Ikshuraka (Kokilaksha) seeds mixed with sugar and taken with milk just milched enables a man to indulge in the pleasures of youth for the whole night without any sense of fatigue. The powders of the Uchchatd should also be taken similarly (with milk and sugar). S'atdvari and Uchchatd roots should also be similarly taken by a man wishing to have (sexual) vigour. A soup of Atmaguptd seeds and i^<^V/^-pulse (boiled together) should be taken. Atmaguptd'Secds,Gokshura seeds a.nd Uchchatd should be boiled wiih milk and constantly stirred with a ladle. The use of this preparation (with an adequate quantity of sugar) enables a man to enjoy the pleasures of love all the night long. Likewise the milk boiled with Mdsha-puhe, Viddri, or Uchchatd should be taken with honey, clarified butter and sugar. By using this a man may indulge in the pleasures of the bed for the whole night like a sparrow. 1519.