The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

The diet should consist of (boiled rice well-mixed with) Kulattha soup (Yusha), profusely seasoned with powdered Trikatu, or of Payasa ; and the abdomen should be frequently fomented. 6.

Treatment of Dushyodara :— in a case of Dushyodara, the patient should be treated without giving any hope of a positive cure. Purgatives with clarified butter, cooked with the expressed juice of the Saptald and S'amkhini, should be first administered (continuously) for a fortnight or even a month ; or clarified butter, cooked with the milky juice of the Mahdvriksha^ and with wine and cow's urine, should be similarly used as a purgative. A Kalka made up of the roots of the As'vanidraka, Gunjd and Kdkddani mixed with wine (Sura), should be given after the bowels had begun to move freely. As an alternative, a Krishna- Sarpa (black lance-hooded cobra) should be enraged to bite a sugarcane and this piece of sugarcane should be given to the patient to chew (and suck) ; or the fruits of creepers (Valli-phala) should be used (in the preceding manner) ; or poisonous* roots and bulbs should be prescribed, whereby the disease may be cured or may take a different turn. 7.

IVIemorable Verse:— A case of abdominal

dropsy (Udara) of whatsoever type should be presumed to have its origin in an' aggravation of the bodily Vdyu and an accumulation of faecal matter in the bowels ; hence frequent use of Anulomana (purgatives, etc.) is recommended in this disease. 8,

* If this be not done, the patient is sure to die j but it is not certain whether he would get any relief from this treatment. It being, however, possible in some cases to save the life of a patient by the application of this medicine, it should be used, as the last resort with the permission of the king.^Dallana.

p. 395

General Treatment :— Now we shall

p. 395

General Treatment :— Now we shall

describe a few general medicinal compounds (which may be used with advantage in cases of Udara). They are as follows ; — Castor oil with milk or with the urine of a cow should be taken for a month or two. No water should be taken during the period, or the patient should forego the use, of water and all other food, but drink only the urine of a she-buffalo and (cow's) milk ; * or he should live upon the milk of a she-camel alone, foregoing the use of rice and water and submit himself to a course of Pippali for one month in the manner described before (under the treatment of Mahd-Vatavyddhi),-|* or take the oil of the Nikumbha with Saindhava-salt and powdered Ajamodd dissolved in it. The said oil (of Nikumbha), cooked with a hundred Pdtra weight of the expressed juice of A'rdraka and S'ringavera (fresh ginger), should be applied in the event of there being any Sula (colic pain), due to the action of the deranged and aggravated Vdyu. Milk, boiled with the expressed juice of S'ringavera (fresh ginger), should be taken. A paste-compound of Chavya and S'ringavera, or a paste-compound of Sarala^ Deva-ddru and Chitraka (with milk), or a paste-compound of Murangi, S'dlaparni, S'ydmd and Punarnavd (with milk), or the oil of Joytishka seed, mixed with milk, Svarjikd and Asafoetida, should be administered to the patient. 9.

He should take Haritaki with treacle, or a thousand Pippali soaked (twenty one times) with the milky juice of the Snuhi plant \ys\ the manner of Bhavand saturation), should be gradually consumed. Powdered Pippali and t The Pippalis shohld be taken with milk only in the present instance,

* The milk here, says Dallana on the authority of Jejjata, should be buffalo's milk. But, according to Vagbhata and S'ivadasa, the commentator of Chakradatta, cow's milk should be used.— Ed.

396 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XIV.

Haritaki should be soaked with the milky juice of the Snuhi plant (and dried in the sun). Utkarika should now be preapared with this compound and given to the patient. lo.

[Chap. XIV.

Haritaki should be soaked with the milky juice of the Snuhi plant (and dried in the sun). Utkarika should now be preapared with this compound and given to the patient. lo.

The Haritaki Ghrita:--A Prastha measure of powdered Haritaki should be mixed with an Adhaka measure of clarified butter and heated over a charcoal fire by stirring it up quickly with a ladle ; when well mixed, the compound should be poured into an earthen pitcher, which should be kept well corked and buried in a heap of barley for a fortnight. The pitcher should then be taken out and the compound should be strained and cooked again with an adequate * quantity of the decoction of Haritaki, Kdnjika (fermented rice-gruel) and curd. The patient should use this medicine for a month or a fortnight in proper doses and with adequate vehicles, ii.

The MahaL-vriksha Ghrita:— A quantity

of the milky juice (one fourth of the cow's milk in quantity) of the Mahd-vriksha (Snuhi plant), should be boiled with cow's milk. Then it should be removed from the oven, cooled down and churned (with a churning rod). The butter thus prepared and cooked again with the milky exudations of the Mahd-vriksha (and an adequate quantity of water) should be given to the patient for a month or a fortnight in adequate doses and with proper vehicles. 12.

The Chavy^di Ghrita :— Half aKarsha (one Tola) measure of each of the following drugs,z'2>., Chavya, Chitraka^ Danti, Ativishd, Haridrd, S'amkhiniy Trivrit and Trikatu, together with an eight Karsha measure of the inner pulps of the fruit (seeds) of the Rdja-vriksha,

* Each of the three things (liquids) should be four times as much ag the clarified butter.

p. 397

two Pala weight of the milky juice of the Mahd-vriksha^ eight Pala weight of cow's milk and eight Pala weight of cow's urine, shpuld be cooked* with a Prastha measure (four seers) of clarified butter. The medicated Ghrita, thus prepared, should be given in convenient doses to the patient for the period of a month or a fortnight. 13.

The aforesaid three Ghritas (Haritaki-Ghrita, Mahdvrlksha-Ghrita and Chavyddi-Ghrita) and the Tilvaka- Ghrita (mentioned in the chapter dealing with Vdtavyddi) should be employed, whenever purgatives would be necessary in cases of Udara, internal tumour (Gulma), abscess, AshthiU, Anaha, Kushtha, insanity and epilepsy. 14.