Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

The treatment is expounded of diseases due to impure or vitiated blood.

The respective indications; of blood when it is vitiated by wind, bile, and phlegm, - separately or iiV combination.

- The indications of pure blood.

Vitiated blood leads to Insanity, Swoons, and Apoplexy. The indications of these diseases are set forth in detail.

The treatment to be followed in these respective diseases.

Lesson XXV is devoted to the discussion of the various theories of the creation of man. This discussion contains the essence of the different systems of Hindu philosophy in respect of the cosmogony of the world and living creatures. The objections to each system are also explained.

The unutility of such discussion is- shown.

In The use of beneficial food is the cause of the growth of a person ; while that of food that is injurious is the cause of disease.

\Vhat constitutes beneficial food and what constitutes food thafis injurious.

The regulations about diet are set forth in'detail.

The different classifications of food depending upon different considerations.

A detailed enumeration of the qualities of those substances that are used as food.

. The observations on diet, it will be seen, are extremely interesting.

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 249

mg his strength, he is said to have undergone judicious Stam¬ bhana.*37

Paleness of complexion, paralytic state of the limbs, lockjaw, suppression of stools and of the free action of the heart, are the in¬ dications of one who has undergone excessive Stambhana;38

The indications have thus been laid down, in brief, of the six (methods or processes, viz., Langhana, &c.,) when judiciously applied. Mention has also been made of the diseases in which they are resorted to as correctives, as also of the indications of failure to restore the faults to harmony (if Langhana, &c., be not sufficient) or of the aggravation of those faults (if Langhana, &c., be excessive).t39

Thus have the six (processes) been expounded which, as methods of treatment, are sufficient for all diseases. If considertions of measure and time be observed, they prove successful in the cure of all curable diseases.40

In conseqnence of the innumerable varieties of combination under which the faults manifest themselves the methods of treat¬ ment also are combined. However combined, they can never transcend their sixfold character, even as the (causes of disease, viz.,) wind and the rest, however combined, cannot transcend their threefold character. J41

* For Rukshana see Verses 8 and 12 ante ; for Stambhana see Verses 9 and 15 and 3t ante.- T.

f ‘ Tadaushadhanam ’ means, as explained by Gangadhara, 1 Tat aushadham yesham, i. e„ Vyadhinam that is, those diseases in which Langhana &c. are correctives. ‘Dhatunam ’ here implies the faults, viz., wind, bile and phlegm. ‘ Asama’ is ‘ a?anti ’ in case of Langhana, &c., being insufficient. — T.

t The methods of treatment are combined, i. e., Langhana may be combined with Stambhana, or Stambhana with Vrimhana, or Vrimhana with Snehana or Swedana, &c. However combined, those methods cannot transcend the six original methods mentioned in this Lesson. The illustration is well-chosen. Diseases are innumerable and are caused by diverse permutations and combinations of attenuation or aggravation of the three faults. However innumerable, they can never transcend the threefold faults. — T.

p. 32

p. 250

CHARAKA-SAMH 1 7 A.

Thus have the six methods, in. pursuance to which all treat¬ ment has been introduced, been expounded in this Lesson on Langhana (and the rest) by the illustrious son of Atri, agreeably to the questions (of his disciple Agniveca-)2

Thus ends the twenty-second Lesson called Langhana-Vrimhaniya in the treatise of Agniveca as revised by Charaka.

lesson xx'irr.

We shall now expound the Lesson called Santarpaniyav Thus said the illustrious son of Atri.*1

One who gratifies oneself with such things as are oily, or sweet, or heavy, or slimy, or with new rice, or new spirits and wines, or meat of aquatic animals or of those living in marshy regions, or with the juice of the cow (milk), or with cakes made with raw sugar or other ingredients, taken to excess, one that is averse to all exertion, or that indulges in sleep at day-time, and that habi¬ tually uses good beds and seats and other comforts, 3 gets numerous diseases in consequence of such indulgence, at once sedative and nutritive, in food and acts, called Tarpana.