Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

( From Dr. D. Hooper, F. I. C., Government Quinologist , Mussuri ).

W4.LNUT Grove, Mussuri, N. W. P.

" My dear Sir, — I have received the English translation of Charaka, arid I must apologize for not acknowledging it before. I have pleasure in sending you a Currency Note for Rs. * * * towards the expenses connected with the undertaking of translating and publishing this ancient Sanskrit work. I have read with much pleasure the portions of the book already received, and it is very interesting to know how the Hindus studied and practised Medicine in the olden time. The plants, mentioned in the book, are most of them known to me, and I have been engaged for the last five years in examining some of them chemically * * *

“ Your work will ever be a monument of industry and research and appre¬ ciated by all. who study the history of Medicine.

I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

D. Hooper, F. I. C., ■'

Government Quinologist. ”

( From Professor A. V. Williams Jackson, the great Sanskrit and Zend Scholar, Columbia College, New York, U. S. A. )

"Dear Sir, — Part XII of your 'Charaka Samhita’ I have heartily welcomed.

and I watch with pleasure the steady advance your work is making. 1 can well imagine the heavy labour such a task must entail. Believe me, you have my hearty encouragement and best wishes as well as always my thanks for your very kind thought of me. It. is cordially appreciated.

Yours very sincerely,

A. V. Williams Jackson.”

ABSTRACT OF CONTENTS

OF

FASCICUL US XIII

The concluding portion of Lesson XXVII completes the twelve groups, of food and drink. Articles used as Anupana (*. e., as vehicles for medi¬ cines and as drinks with which a dinner or act of eating is to be concluded), and the heaviness and lightness of food and drink in brief, have also been treated of in this Lesson.

Lesson XXVIII is very important. It deals with food and drink more particularly and shows what purposes are served by the juice or fluid into which food is changed in the stomach and what by the refuse of food.

How the body has food. for the source of its growth is also explained.

Health and disease are due to. wholesome and unwholesome food and drink, as also to causes unconnected with food and drink.

Those bodies which are particularly liable to disease, and those which are capable of resisting disease are indicated.

Then are mentioned the different diseases which arise in different' parts of the body owing to the excitement of Wind, Bile, and Phlegm, individually, or in two’s, or all together.

The treatment fs indicated in bricf of these different diseases. «

The difference is set forth between men that 'are wise and those that are foolish or ignorant.

Things which are beneficial for some are not so for others.

Lesson XXIX deals principally with who are good physicians and who bad ones. A summary is given of the contents of the previous Lessons. The whole of this Lesson is exceedingly important.

The observations on bad physicians or killers of Life and helpers of disease are very curious. Many of them apply to the quacks of the present day.

CHA RAKA-SA MHITA.

p. 377

Those varieties of food that are prepared by being mixed with fruit, flesh, fat, potherbs, powdered sesame.- and honey, increase the semen, improve strength, are heavy, and operate as tonics.*270

Vesavara(«) is heavy, cooling, and increases one’s stock of strength.

Cakes prepared with milk and the juice of the sugar-cane are heavy, soothing and sedative, and increase the vital seed.271

Those kinds of food that are prepared with treacle, sesame, milk, honey, and sugar, increase the vital seed, act as tonics, and are exceedingly heavy.272

Food made of wheat and prepared with oil and Ghee, or boiled or fried in oil and Ghee, is possessed of diverse virtues. It is heavy, soothing and sedative, increases the vital seed, and promotes cheerfulness.

Cakes made of wheat, if prepared in a particular way, become light of digestion-t

Dhana, Parpata, and Pupa and other food of the same kind, should be prescribed after ascertainment (of their virtues). J273-7*

Prithuka(5) is heavy. A little of it may be taken, after frying it first.

That variety of it which is made of barley causes heaviness of the stomach and suppresses urine and faeces before it can be digested.

If mixed with husk or chaff, it purges the intestines (without producing watery motions). §27S a. A kind of food made of rice or barley or wheat and flesh and spices of diverse kinds.— T.

* ‘Palala’ is powdered sesame. — T.

f 'If prepared in a particular way,’ i.e , if properly corrected. The Commentators observe that if wheat cakes are cooked with heat applied on every side, they become light. — T.

f These, though ordinarily heavy, may become light in consequence of especial methods of preparation. Hence, in prescribing them, the physician should be guided by the method of their preparation. — T.