Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Food consisting of the (boiled) grains of ‘£ali,’ ‘£yamska,’ and ‘Kodrava’ (different varieties of paddy) should be taken by the patient, with (half) boiled milk, or with the soups of Masura ( Vicia lens), Mudga ( Phaseolus Mungo), Adhakr ( Cajanus Indicus ), and Makushtaka ( Phaseolus aconitifolius ), or with sour juices, j-234

If there is copious discharge of blood from the Piles of one in whose body the wind is predominantly excited, one should then take the boiled grains of ‘CaliJ &c., paddy, with the meat-juice of the flesh of fowl, peacocks, and francoline partridges ; or of the two-humped camel, or of that variety of jackals which is known by the name of ‘Lopaka’ ; mixed in each case with sweet and sour juices. 236

Onions mixed with the meat-juices, the ‘Kharas’, the pot-herbs,, and gruels (Peyas), or onions alone (2. e., without any of these accom¬ paniments), conquer copious discharges of blood from Piles, as also the (excited) wind. 237

* ‘Khara’ is butter-milk boiled with acid vegetables and spices. — T. t Gangadhara reads ‘Satilamudgadhakimasuranam’ as the last foot of the first verse. The reading of the Calcutta edition, viz., ‘masuramudgadhakimukushtanam’ is evidently better. ‘Sritena payasa’ is taken by Gangadhara as meaning ‘half-bo\\eA milk.

p. 1404

CHAR AKA -SA MHITA.

The trunk of a young goat (that is, the meat of the body divested of the head and the legs), with the blood not let out, cooked with many onions, should be given to the patient when his stools and blood become scanty, mixed respectively with sweet and sour juices.* 238

Blood-discharging Piles disappear through eating cheese and sesame seeds, or the flowers of Mesua ferrea and cheese and sugar, or the cream of curds and waterless (undiluted) whey.f 239

Ghee raised from cheese, the flesh of the goat, rice obtained from ‘Shashthika’ as also ‘£ali’ paddy, new ‘manda’ of wine, and new wine,, conquer discharges of blood from Piles.J 24°

Generally, when the discharges of blood become copious, the Piles are to be regarded as characterised by predominance of wind. Even if the phlegm and the bile be vitiated, still, if the discharge of blood be copious, the Piles should be held as characterised by predomi¬ nantly excited wind. 241

When the physician sees that blood-bile 'is predominant in the patient afflicted with Piles, and that the symptoms of excited phlegm and wind are not pronounced, those cooling operations which have already been spoken of, as also those which we shall presently speak of, should be applied. 242

In Piles characterised by predominance of blood-bile, the decoc¬ tions of the following drugs should be used for sprinkling over the Piles, viz., Madhuka (liquorice), Panchavalka (i. e., the five barks, vut.T those of Ficus Bengalensis , Ficus religiosa, Ficus infectoria, Calamus rotang, and Mimosa sirissa), the bark of Vadara ( Zizyphus jujuba)t Udumvara ( Ficus glomerata), Dhava ( Conocarpus latifolia), Patola

* Gangadhara explains that the meat is mixed with sweet juices when the stools become scanty, and with sour juices when the blood becomes scanty. The word ‘Vatyasat’ here is, according to him, used in the sense of ‘respectively’. Generally, however, it implies contrariety or a reversal of the usual order. If the word is taken in this sense, the meaning would be ‘sweets are given in loss of blood, and sours in scantiness of stools’. — T. f ‘Ke^ara’ may also be taken as implying the filaments of the lotus. — T. t Each of these possesses the virtue of stopping bloody discharges.— T.

CHA RA KA -SAM Hi T A.

p. 1405

\Trichosanthes dioica), Vrisha ( Jusiicia Adhatodd), Kakubha (. Pentap - tera Arjuna ), Yavasa ( Hedysarum Alhagi }, and Nimba ( Melia Aza~ dirachta). 243

When the discharge of blood is copious, and a burning sensation is felt in. the Piles, and the presence is detected of filthy secretions, the patient should be made to bathe (steeping his body therein) in the decoction of Madhuka (liquorice), Mrinala (lotus-stalks), Padmaka (flowers of the lotus), Chandana (red sandal wood), Kuga ( Saccharum spontaneum). 244

Or, rubbing his body first with cold oil, he should be made to bathe in the decoction of Madhuka (iquorice) and Vetasa ( Calamus rotang), mixed with the expressed juice of the sugarcane, or in cold water.* 245

For stopping the discharge of blood, the following styptic should be applied, viz., water, rendered cool by exposure to the night-dew, gently poured, after ghee with sugar has been applied to the region of the genital organ, the anus, and the lower part of the spine.f 246

Covering the Piles repeatedly with new (meaning soft) leaves of Kadali ( Musa sapientum), drenched with cold water ; or with similar leaves (similarly drenched) of Pushkara ( Nymphcea stellata ), or with the petals (similarly drenched) of the flowers of Padma and Utpala (varieties of Nympheea stellata ). 247

The following also quickly check the discharge of blood, viz., plasters of ghee boiled with the expressed juice of Durva ( Panicum Dactylori), or the application of ghee that has been washed a hundred times, or of gheie that has been washed a thousand times ; or the cool breeze produced by fanning. 248