Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

An Association of Kavirajes has been established in Calcutta .under the name of “Ayurvedic Institute.” The immediate object is a diffusion of the knowledge of the Hindu Medical Scrip¬ tures by means of popular lectures. The proceedings of the first meeting are circulated herewith. The ultimate object of the Insti¬ tute is the establishment of an Ayurvedic College, with an Hospital attached to it where patients may be treated according to the Ayurvedic method and the results published in a journal. A garden for the cultivation of the plants, &c., which furnish the ingredients' of Ayurvedic medicines, is also in contemplation.

We respectfully invite expressions of opinion from the thinking portion of the Indian community. We shall, indeed, be greatly obliged if men of culture kindly communicate their views to us on this all-important subject.

Calcutta 1 *

200 Cornwallis Street , [AVINASH CHANDRA KAVIRATNA,

10-6-1902. J

THE AYURVEDIC INSTITUTE.

We are very glad to see that in response to our invitation to the thinking portion of the community to favour us with expres¬ sions of opinion on the proposed Ayurvedic Institute, we have received several letters from different parts of India, and Europe as well. We select two from among those, one of them is from an eminent physician who is certainly qualified by his knowledge and experience to give an opinion on this all-important subject. His letter will speak for itself far better than anything we can say. The other' is from a distinguished patient whose name is a house¬ hold word in every part of India. His intelligence and culture have already placed him at the head of his profession.

We shall feel highly obliged if others among our countrymen favour us with their opinions.

Calcutta, j

200 Cornwallis Street,] AVINASH CHANDRA KAVIRATNA.

1 2-9- 1 902. J

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

That man goes to the world hereafter who, in his dreams, dances with Rakshasas and sinks in water. 20

He who sees darkness when there is no darkness, and who, in his waking hours, hears many sounds ©F: various kinds, is carried off by epilepsy. 21

Death, with epilepsy as his harbinger, bears away that man who, in his dreams, is borne away, head downwards, while dancing in intoxication, by a person that is dead.* 22

Tetanus seizes and kills, without doubt, that man who is attack¬ ed, while awake, by any of these diseases, viz paralysis of the cheeks, wryneck, and paralysis of the eyelids. 23

That man dies who having eaten, in his dreams, cakes of ses¬ ame seeds and rice, vomits something like them upon waking from sleep. 24

The physician who is well acquainted with these premonitory symptoms becomes conversant also with the diseases which they bring about and their result (viz., death). 25

Certain other dreams, of a fierce kind, mentioned below, should be attended to as they also prognosticate either death or severe sufferings of diseased persons. 26

He who, in his dreams, sees bamboos, clumps of plants and trees, and creepers growing in his head, and birds coming into them, or who sees his head clean-shaved, 27

Or who, in his dreams, sees himself surrounded by vultures, owls, dogs, crows, and other carrion birds, or by Rakshasas, dead men, Pi^achas, women, Chandalas and Asuras of the class called 'Dravita Andhakas’, 28

Or who, in his dreams, finds himself surrounded by pathless forests of bamboos, of canes, of creepers, as also of grass and prick¬ ly plants, and confounded in their midst, and falling down while endeavouring to come out, 29

Or who, in his dreams, falls down on the bare ground covered with dust, or upon an anthill, or upon ashes, or upon a cremato¬ rium, or into a hole, 3°

Or who, in his dreams, sinks in a ditch or pond of dirty water, or into a mire, or in a dark well, or who is borne away by a rapid current, 31

Or who, in his dreams, drinks oily drinks (such as ghee, milk,

* ‘Avidhya’ implies ‘head downwards/ that is, seized by the hair and dragged away with head bent down, — T.

p. 892

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

&c.), or rubs his body (or causes to be rubbed) with oil, or under¬ goes defeat and capture, or gets gold, or engages in a quarrel, or vomits, or defecates, 32

Or who loses both his shoes and sandals, or sees the skin of his feet peeling off, or feels joy, or gets a severe rebuke or chiding from his deceased ancestors, 33

Or who sees, in his dreams, the fall or destruction of (his own) teeth, or of the moon or the sun, or the stars and constellations, or of (burning) lamps, or of (images of) Daityas, or of (his own) eyes, or the cracking of a mountain, 34

Or who, in his dreams, enters a forest of trees with red flowers, or a place where sinful acts are perpetrated, or the . funeral pyre, or a place where his progress is obstructed by thick darkness like to what occurs in a cave, 35

Or who, in his dreams, sees himself proceeding towards the south, himself decked with garlands of red flowers, laughing aloud, and perfectly naked, or who enters a terrible forest, riding on a vehicle drawn or borne by apes, soon meets with death, or is plunged into great distress. 36