Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

The patient loses his memory. His eyes become laved with tears. The eye-brows fall away from the forehead and become immovable. His speech becomes indistinct and delirious.

The ducts through which food and drink pass become obstructed.

The hiccup never stops for even a short while. 23-24

CHAR A KA-SA MHITA.

14 79

Such hiccup is loud-sounding ; its violence, energy, and strength are great. It is called ‘Maha-hikka’ (the most violent hiccup).

It is regarded as destructive of life within a short time of its appearance. 25

GAM BH I RA- H I KKA.

That person who, having become emaciated, and exceedingly cheerless of mind, gets a violent hiccup, whose chest has become very weak, and who with difficulty hiccups with deep sound, 26 who yawns frequently and contracts and extends his limbs, who swells both his flanks (by filling his chest with air when possible), coos (like a dove or pigeon), who is overtaken by stupefaction of the body, and who is greatly afflicted by the disease, whose hiccup arises from the region of the navel or of .the ‘pakkfigaya’ (z. e., that part of the stomach where digestion goes on), whose hiccup agitates (convulses) the whole body and bends it at times, and causes great suffering, and escapes with difficulty (the passage being obstructed), and whose strength and consciousness are gone, is said to be afflicted with the hiccup called ‘Gambhira.’ It is regarded as destructive of life * 27-29

VYAPETA-HIKKA OR YAMIKA-HIKKA.

That hiccup which arises after one has taken the four kinds of food (viz., that which is chewed, swallowed, licked, and drunk), and which gains strength after digestion takes place of the food taken, which appears with delirium, vomiting, diarrhoea, thirst, and uncon¬ sciousness, which afflicts one who yawns, whose eyes are laved with tears, whose face is dry, who has become bent, 3Q-31 whose stomach has become flatulent and produces a rumbling noise, that hiccup which rises from the region of the shoulders and which is not continuous, is called ‘Vyapeta.’

This variety also is destructive of life. 32

* It is very difficult to render such passages, retaining the grammatical construction of the original. I have reproduced the sense of many of the expressions, without endeavouring to reproduce the genetive forms. — T.

p. 187

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 1486

KSHUDRA-HIKKA.

When a small measure of wind, stirred by physical exercise, arises from the stomach and overtakes the throat, it generates a mild variety of hiccup. 33

This hiccup is not productive of much pain. It does obstruct (oppress) the chest, the head, and the vital parts of the body.

Neither does it exist, overwhelming the breath or the food and the drink bearing ducts. 34

This hiccup increases in consequence of physical exertion.

As soon as one eats some food (or takes some drink), it decreases in strength (and disappears).

That from which it first arises is, again, the cause of its stoppage (or disappearance). 35

This hiccup has for its seat the chest, the shoulders, the throat, and the palate.

This variety is mild. It is called ‘Kshudra-hikka’ and is easily curable. 36

ANNAJA-HIKKA.

Afflicted by excess of food and drink, or by spirits that cause excessive intoxication, the wind suddenly rises from the stomach and takes an upward course. 37

Then, through indulgence in excessive wrath, or loud speech, or loud laughter or walking long distances, or bearing heavy weights, the wind in the stomach, already afflicted by excessive food and drink, cuts the ducts in the chest and generates hiccup born of food and drink.

Sometimes, this wind, without vitiation by food and drink, causes sneezing and begins to escape as hiccup, 38-39

This hiccup does not obstruct or oppress any vital part of the body. Nor does it obstruct any of the organs of sense.

Verily, this hiccup, that is. born of food (and drink) becomes alleviated when the person eats and drinks. 4°

CHAR A KA - SA M HIT A .

[481

The hiccup of one in whom the faults (wind, bile, and phlegm) have become accumulated in excess, of also one who has become emaciated in consequence of abstention from food and drink (through disgust\ also of one who has been emaciated by disease, of one who is aged, of one who indulges in excess in sexual congress, soon destroys life.

That hiccup also which is called ‘Yamika’ (Vyapeta) and which is accompanied by delirium, excessive pain, swoons (unconsciousness), and thirst, (is destructive of life). 41-42

The hiccup, called ‘Yamika,’ of a person whose strength remains undiminished, who has not become cheerless, whose ‘dhatus’ have not undergone waste, and whose organs of sense also have not been weakened, is curable.

When the conditions are otherwise, it destroys life. 43 MAHA-gWASA.