The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

Of these what looks

Chap. XIII.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 387

black and glossy, is heavy and devoid of sandy particles, as well as what smells like the urine of a cow, should be considered as the best. This best kind of Sildjatu should be infused with the decoction of the drugs of the ^dla-sdrddi group after the manner of Bhavana saturation (for ten, twenty or thirty days). Then after cleansing the body (by the application of emetics and purgatives), it should be taken every morning (by the patient in adequate doses), well pasted with Sdrodaka.* He should further be made to take a meal of boiled rice mixed with the soup of the flesh of animals of the Jangala group after the medicine had been fully digested. 3-4.

A Tuld measure of this hill-begotten panacea (Sildjatu), when gradually taken, (in adequade doses) tends to improve the strength and complexion of the body, cures an attack of Madhu-Meha and enables the user to witness a hundred summers on earth, free from disease and decay. Each Tula weight of this medicine, taken successively, adds a century to the duration of human life, while ten Tuld measures extend it to a thousand years. The regimen of diet and conduct during the period of its use should be identical with that described in connection with the use of the Bhallaitaka compounds. Cases of Meha, Kushtha, epilepsy (Apasmara), insanity, elephantiasis, poisonbegotten distempers, phthisis, aedema, haemorrhoids, Gulma (internal tumours), jaundice and chronic fever, prove readily amenable to the curative efficacy of Silajatu. Indeed there is no such bodily distemper3^8 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. CChap. XlII. which does not yield to its highly curative virtues. It acts as a potent solvent in cases of long-standing Sarkari (gravel) in the bladder as well as of stone. Sildjatu should be treated (soaked and dried) with appropriate medicinal drugs by stirring it up with the same. 5.

* It is evident from the reading of Chakradatta that "S^rodaka" means a decoction of the drugs of the ^sCla-S££rs£di group. But Dallana explains it as "Pancha-sarodaka" which is quite unintelligible. In practice, also, Chakradatta is followed.— Ed,

It acts as a potent solvent in cases of long-standing Sarkari (gravel) in the bladder as well as of stone. Sildjatu should be treated (soaked and dried) with appropriate medicinal drugs by stirring it up with the same. 5.

The MakShika Kalpa:— The metal known as Ms^kshika (iron-pyrites), which grows in the river Tapi and which copes with the divine ambrosia in its highly therapeutic properties, may be also used in the same way and under the same sort of preparation. The metal is divided into two classes according to its colour, as Svarna-Makshika (gold-coloured) and Rajata-Makshika (silver-coloured). Of these the first has a sweet taste while the second is acid. Both of them prove efficacious in cases of decrepitude, Kushtha, Meha, jaundice and consumption. A person using SiMjatu and Mdkshika (in the manner prescribed above) should refrain from taking pigeon-flesh and Kulattha pulse (during his life-time). 6.

The following measures should be adopted by an experienced physician in the case of a patient suffering from (Meha and) Kushtha and who has a firm faith in medicines and is desirous of existence (life) and in whose case the curative efficacy of Pancha-karma* has been baffled. 7.

The Tu varaka Kal pa : —The Tuvaraka plants which grow on the shores of the Western Sea (Arabian Sea) are constantly tossed about by the winds raised by the waves of the sea. The pith or marrow of the seeds (lit.— fruits) of these plants should be care-

* Some take the term in its ordinary sense to mean the five measures of emetics, purgatives, etc. ; but Dallana would explain it as the measures adopted in the treatment of the Kushtha affecting the bcJne which is the fifth Dhatu in the system.

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; but Dallana would explain it as the measures adopted in the treatment of the Kushtha affecting the bcJne which is the fifth Dhatu in the system.

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fully collected in the rainy season while they ripen and should be subsequenly dried and pounded. The oil should be either pressed out of these seeds in a mill in the manner of preparing sesamum oil, or squeezed out (of a press bag) like that used in the case of Kusumhha flowers. The oil should be boiled over a fire so as to have its inherent watery particles completely evaporated. Then it should be taken down from the fire and kept in a pitcher and then buried for a fortnight in a heap of well dried cowdung. The patient (in the meantime) should be duly anointed, fomented and treated with cleansing remedies \^i.e., emetics and purgatives).* He should wait a fortnight (after the administration of the aforesaid measures) and wait for a period of four mealsf (i.e., two days) more ; and on the next morning he should drink a portion of the oil in adequate doses (two Tolds) under the auspices of favourable astral combinations in the lighted fortnight of the month. He should be made to recite, at the time of his taking the fourth dose, a Mantra which runs as follows : — "Cleansest and purifiest, O Thou potent essence of seedmarrow, all the essential principles of (my) vital organism. The deity who knows no decay and suffers no change and who weilds a discus, a mace and a conch-shell in his arms, commands thee on that behalf."

The Doshas in both the upper and the lower parts of a patient's body are cleansed with the help of this oil t On the sixteenth day after the administration of the cleansing measures, as well as on the morning of the seventeenth day, the patient should take his meals as usual. On the evening of the seventeenth day no meal should be taken. On the following morning the oil should be taken.

* The Kapha should be first reduced with emetics ; and after a fortnight, the Pitta with purgatives. A fortnight after the use of purgatives, a potion of the Tuvarka oil should be administered inasmuch as it is a Sams'odhaka (cleansing) remedy

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