Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

The person afflicted frequently evacuates stools that are oily, white in colour, slimy, thready, consisting of mucus, heavy, of foetid smell, characterised by ‘Cula’ pains, and of small measures. 22

While evacuating, the person has to strain excessively. He feels heaviness in the stomach, the rectum, the pubic region, and the groins. As regards the stools, they are sometimes hard and some¬ times otherwise.

He feels nausea, and overcome by drowsiness and incapacity for physical efforts.

His hair stands on end. He becomes cheerless, and entertains an aversion for food.

Even these are the indications of diarrhoea born of phlegm. 23

§ The language of these verses wants the usual terseness and brevity of Charaka’s style. ‘Saumya-swabhSva’ means ‘lunar character,’ i. e., the character of water which always travels downward.— T,

CHAR A K A-S AM HIT A.

*5«

In consequence of taking food that is exceedingly cool, oily, 'dry, heating, heavy, pungent, hard, discoloured, irregular (in respect of time), consisting of hostile ingredients, and nnassimilable, or, of total abstention from food, or, of taking food after the usual hour has passed away, 24 or, of talking food that is insufficient in measure,

■or, of drinking wines and other drinks that are vitiated,

■or, of drinking wines and other drinks in excessive measures, or, of not taking correctives (i. e., emetics and purgatives), when they are necessary, 2S ■or, of deviations in treatment, or, of absence of treatment, (or of proper nursing)), or, of excessive exposure to fire, or sun, or wind, or water, i or, of total abstention from sleep., or of excessive sleep,

-or, of suppression of the urgings of nature,

■or, of contrarieties of season (such as presence of summer in the season of winter, ©r of cold in the season of heat, &c.,), 26 -or, of improper exertion of strength («. <?., attempting feats for which one’s strength is unequal),

•or, of excessive accession of fear, or grief, or anxiety of mind, r or, of the digestive fire having been weakened by excessive afflic¬ tion of such ailments as intestinal worms, dropsical swellings, fever, and piles, the three faults ( viz ., wind, bile, and phlegm) become provoked, and entering the stomach extinguish the digestive fire, and generate diarrhoea characterised by the indications of every one of the faults.*2?

Further, the three faults (provoked simultaneously), vitiating the already vitiated ‘dhstus’ such as blood and the rest, show in the

* Gangadhara reads ‘vigada’ between ‘kathina’ and ‘vishama’ in aphorism .24. I take ■it in the sense of ‘discoloured.’ ‘Khara’ in the same line means pungent. In aphorism 25, ^occurs ‘madyapRniya.’ This means ‘wines and other drinks.’

- In aphorism 26, ‘pratikarmanam vishamagamanat’ means ‘deviations in treatment that is, errors in treatment. . The administration of wreng. remedies, &cJ, is- implied. — X. -

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CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

evacuations the colours caused by their own nature as well as the nature of ‘dhfitus.’* 2S

In this connection (it should be said that) upon the blood and the other ‘dhatus’ becoming vitiated, the person evacuates stools that are yellow, green, blue, reddish like the decoction of Manjishta (Rubia cordifolia), of the colour of the water in which meat has been washed, red, dark, white, and of the hue of porcine adeps.

The evacuations are accompanied by pain or painlessness.

The colours named above may be presented together or separately.! 29

If the stools (in diarrhoea born of three faults excited together) be copious, hard (/. e., consisting of scybalse), and raw (consisting of undigested matter), or copious, hard, and ripe (consisting of digested matter), and if the patient be not excessively weakened in flesh, blood and strength, and if his mouth has become tasteless through loss or weakness of the digestive fire, the physician should then regard him as curable though the cure is to be effected with difficulty.j3Q

One who evacuates stools of such colours, accompanied by such supervening symptoms as are laid down below, should be regarded as incurable. 31

The colours and supervening symptoms (to which reference is made above) are these :

The colour of decoctions, or of blood, or of the fleshy ball Called the liver (V. e., dark-red as explained by the commentators), or of water in which meat has been washed, or of curds or ghee

* ‘Caused by their own nature,’ i. e., the nature of the faults themselves. The faults have colour ; the ‘dhatus’ also have colour. These colours appear in the evacuations. — T.

f That is, a few of the colours, or all, or only one of them, may appear in the evacua¬ tions.— T.

X ‘Mahat’ is explained as ‘copious’ in quantity. ‘Granthila’ is hard or consisting of scybalse. ‘Amam va’ and ‘pakkam va’ mean whether raw or ripe ; that is, ‘consisting of undigested or digested food.’

Some texts take ‘mandagni’ as separate from ‘vihatamukharasa.’ Gangadhara takes it as compounded with ‘vihatSmukharasa.’ Hence, he explains it as ‘become tasteless through loss or weakness of the digestive fire and not through any other cause.’— T.

CHARAKA-SAMUH A.

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