The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna
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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.
The use of the milk of a Grishti (a cow delivered only once) with a grown up calf (one year old) and exclusively fed on the (fresh) leaves of the Mdshaparnay is recommended as a sexual tonic. All kinds of meat and milk, as well as the drugs of the Kdkolyddi group should be regarded as being highly possessed of the virtue of imparting tone and vigour (to the male productive organs). They should, therefore, be used (for that purpose). The medicinal remedies and compounds described in the present chapter should be taken in sound health and proper seasons, as they are exhilarating and invigorating, and help the procreation of children. 20-21.
Thus ends the Twenty-sixlh Chapter of the Chikitsita Sihanam in the
Sub'ruta Samhita which deals with the treatment of the virile impotency.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Now we shall discourse on the recipes and niodes of using elixirs and rejuvinators of the human organism which will make it invulnerable to the inroads of any disease or of decay (Sarvopaghstta —
^amaniya-Rasayanam). i.
Metrical Texts :— A wise physician should (invariably) prescribe some sort of tonic (Rasdyana) for his patients in their youth and middle age after having their systems (properly) cleansed by the applications of a Sneha and purifying remedies (emetics and purgatives). A person whose system has not been (previously) cleansed (Sodhana) with the proper purifying remedies (emetics and purgatives) should not, in any case, have recourse to such tonics inasmuch as they would fail to produce the wished-for result, just as the application of a dye to a piece of dirty cloth will prove non-effective. 2.
Now we shall describe the remedial measures and agents for the maladies due to the aggravated Doshas* both mental and physical, which have already been described (in several places). Old age and senile decay would be arrested (lit. perpetual or life-long youth would be secured) by drinking milk, cold water, honey and clarified butter, either severally or jointly (?>., in any combinationt taken one, two, three or four at a time\ in early life (just on or t There would be four combinations of one each, six of two each, four of three each and one of four jointly ; thus there would be fifteen combinations in all.
* The mental Doshas are Rajas and Tamas, whereas the physical Doshas are Vayu, Pitta and Kapha.
5l6 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVII.
just before the completion of the process of organic development). 3-4.
Vidanga-RaS^yana :— The powdered seeds of the Vidanga (Tandula) and pulverised Yashti-madhu should be mixed together and taken in cold water in an adequate dose (according to the strength of the patient), and a potion of cold water should then be taken. This medicine should be regularly continued for a month. The same pulverised Vidanga seeds should be similarly taken for a month through the vehicle of the decoction oiBhalldtaka mixed with honey ; or of the decoction of grapes mixed with honey ; or with the expressed juice of Amalaka sweetened with honey ; or through the vehicle of the decoction of Guduchi. Thus there are these five ways (of taking pulverised Vidanga seeds (Tandula) as an e^xir. A meal of boiled rice with a copious quantity of clarified butter should be taken with the soup of Amalaka and Mudga pulse unseasoned with salt and cooked with only a small quantity of Sneha (clarified butter) after the medicine has been well digested. These (Ras^yana) remedies prove curative in cases of haemorrhoids and in complaints of worms. They improve memory and the power of comprehension and their use for every month increases the life-time of the user by one hundred years. 5.
Vidanga-Kalpa :— One Drona measure of Vidanga (seeds) should be boiled in the way of preparing cakes in an Indian cake-pan. When the watery portion (of the cakes) have been removed (evaporated) and the Vidaitga-^x^va'^ well boiled, they should be taken down and well pasted on a stone-slab. They should then be kept in a strong iron pitcher after having been mixed with a copious quantity of the
Chap. XXVII.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 517
They should then be kept in a strong iron pitcher after having been mixed with a copious quantity of the
Chap. XXVII.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 517
decoction* of Yashti-madhu. The pitcher should be buried in a heap of ashes inside a closed room during the rainy season and preserved there during the four months of rain ; after that period the pitcher should be taken out (of the ashes). Its contents should then be consecrated with (appropriate) Mantras by uttering them a thousand times and should be taken every morning in suitable quantities after the system has been thoroughly cleansed (by appropriate emetics and purgatives, etc.). The diet should consist of cooked rice and clarified butter mixed with a copious quantity of the soup of Mudga pulse and -^w^/^/^^ cooked with a small quantity of Sneha and salt j and should be taken after the digestion of the medicine. The patient should lie on the ground (and not on a bedding). Worms would be found to have been issuing out of the body after the regular and continuous use of the medicine for a month, which should be extracted with the aid of a pair of bamboo tongs or forceps after the body had been anointed with the Anu-taila (described before) Ants would be coming out of the body during the second, and vermins (Yuka) in the third month of the use of the medicine which should also be removed as in the preceding manner. The hair, nails and teeth begin to fall off and become dilapidated in the fourth month of its use. In the fifth month the body beams with a divine glow, becomes resplendent as the midday sun, and exhibits features which specifically belong to the etherial being. The ears become capable of hearing the faintest and remotest sound (under its use), and the vision extends far into space and beholds objects at a great range
* Dallana explains the term Madhukodakottara to mean a large quantity of Madhuka and water, (and by water he means the decoction of Vidanga).
5l8 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVII.