Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna
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The translator’s English as printed (Avinash Chandra Kaviratna). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
That is called Pratipatti (means of cure) which consists in the adoption of such expedients as alleviate disease, in the manner in which they are best calculated to bring about alleviation. 154
The cases where emetics and the rest should be administered, and those where they should not be administered, will be laid down in detail in that division of the work which is called Siddhi-sthana.J
* The ‘‘Kriya’’ or action of the patient is not a happy expression; what is meant is that treatment is said to commence when the physician, the patient, medicines, and attendants or nurses, are all brought together. The word ' pravitti ’, implying the commencement of treatment, is a technical term. — T.
f This is as literal a version as possible of the original. What is stated here is this : the chief characteristic of that which is called ' upaya’ or means, as regards treatment, consists in the administration of such medicine as is possessed of the capacity for achieving success. That capacity is dependant on place, time, measure, assimilability, and the natural virtues of the drug, as also upon the physician and the rest, viz., physician, patient, and attend¬ ants, possessing all those attributes which have been spoken of in the Lesson called “ KhuddUka-chatuspada." (Lesson IX, Sutra-sthana, ante). — T.
J The last division of the work is called Siddhi-sthâna (Practice of Medicine). — T.
6 1 6 charaka-samhitA.
When cases happen in which the symptoms exist in such a state of union that while some point to the propriety of adminis¬ tering purgatives and the rest, and others point to the propriety of abstaining from them, the physician should judge of the gravity or lightness of both classes of symptoms, and then regulate his treatment for allaying those that are grave.*
Diseases are manifold. In medical treatises, courses of treat¬ ment are laid down for their alleviation, by rejection and pre¬ ference^
Hence, ascertaining the gravity or lightness (of symptoms of opposite characters), the physician, it is said, should exert himself.
Those articles that are fit to be used as drugs for bringing about vomiting and the rest, shall now be laid down.
They are Phala (a), Jimuta (£), Ikshaku ( c ), DhamSrgava (d), Kutaja ( e ), Kandikari (f), and Kritabedliana (g). The fruits of these should be taken.
* The original being exceedingly terse, I am constrained to give a some¬ what free rendering. — T.
t The methods of rejection and preference are thus explained. The patient is suffering under a disease that presents symptoms opposed in cha¬ racter ; some of these may indicate purgatives as the best remedy, while others indicate that purgatives should be abstained from. What should the physician do ? The gravity or lightness of the symptoms shouldbe first carefullyascertained. Those that are grave should then be attended to, to the exclusion of those that are light. Here, the principle of selection and rejection has its play, for some symptoms are selected for alleviation while others are rejected, or dismissed from attention for the time being. Then, again, several diseases may co-exist. Some one among them may be most serious, the others not so. The physician, in such cases, should proceed by the principle of selection and rejection. He should select the graver complaint for alleviation first and then proceed in due order. In the text, the word ‘Utsarga’ implies rejection, while ‘ ApavidS ’ implies selection. — T.
a. Otherwise called Madanaphala. Randia dumetorum.
b. It is a variety of Ghosakalta, as explained by Gangadhara.
c. A variety of bitter gourd.
d. A variety of Ghasa-kalta. It is otherwise called Pita-ghosaka.
e. Holarrhena antidysenterica, syn. Echites antiysenterica.
f. The betel-nut.
g. Luffa amara, Roxb.
p. 617
The leaves and flowers of the following are used, viz., Jimutaka ( h ) Ikshaku it), Kutaja (/), and Kirtabedhana ( k ).
Infusions (or decoctions) are used of the following : —
Aragbadha (/), Vrikshaka ( m ), Madana («), Swadukantaka (0), Patha (/>), Patali (7,) £arngashtha ( r ), Murva Saptaparna ( t ), Naktamâla («), Pichumarda (v), Patola (w), Sushuvi (x), Guduchi (y), Somavalka ( z ), Chitraka {a), £atavari (3), Dwipi (<r), and the roots of Sigru ( d ).
h. Vide b in page 616.
i. Ditto c in page ditto.
Ditto e in page ditto.
k. Ditto g in page ditto.
l. Called (in Bengali) Sondalu. Cassia fistula, Linn ; syn. Cathartocarpus fistula, Pers.
m. This word is used to express the bark of Kutaja, or Holarrhena antidysenterica, Wall ; syn. Echites antidysenterica, Roxb.
n. Randia dumetorum, Lamk ; syn. Prosequeria dumetorum, Roxb.
o. Gangadhara takes it to mean the Flacourtia sapida, Roxb. Called in Bengali, Bainch.
p. Stephania hernandifolia, Walp ; syn. Cissampelos her nandi folia, Linn.
q. Stereospermum suave-olens, D. C. ; syn. Bignonia Suave-olens, Roxb.
r. The red variety of Gunja is implied, that is, Abrus precatorius, Linn.
s. Sanseviera zeylanica, Willd ; syn. Sanseviera Roxburghiana, Schult.
t. Alstaria scholaris, R. Br. ; syn. Echites scholaris, Roxb.
u. Pongamia glabra, Vent ; syn. Galedupa Indica, Lamk.
v. Gangadhara takes it to mean Nimba or Melia Azadirachta, syn. Aeadirachta Indica, fuss.
■w, Trichosanthes dioica, Roxb.
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