An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

Powders of purgative drugs taken in adequate measures and soaked in their own juice should be boiled with their roots and made into pills (Gutikd) with clarified butter and administered as occasion would arise. As an alternative, powders of purgative drugs pasted with clarified butter boiled with their roots should be made into boluses, and the intelligent ph5^sician should administer them through the medium of clarified butter, prepared as above, whenever necessary. A quantity* of treacle should be kept boiling over an oven, and a (halt part) of the pu'verised purgative roots should be cast into it, a little before it is completely boiled. Then the basin should be taken off the fire, and powders of aromatic drugs known as Trij^ta strewn over it, and the compound subsequently made into boluses (Gutika) of adequate size according to the requirements of the case under treatment.

One part of any of the pulverised purgative drugs (such as the Trivrit roots, etc.) should be boiled with four parts of their own decoction, and one part of powdered wheat steamed in the fumes of a separate quantity of a similar boiling decoction, should be pounded with a quantity of clarified butter boiled and prepared with

* The quantity of old treacle should be equal to the aggregate weight of the other drugs in the compound under similar circumstances.

Chap. XLIV. ] SUTRASTHANAM. ^O^?

the same decoction. Then having cooked a quantity of thin treacle in a separate utensil, powders of wheat and purgative drugs prepared as above, should be cast into it, immediately before being completely cooked, and the vessel should be taken down from the oven and allowed to cool. Then this confection (Modaka) should be perfumed with aromatic drugs and regarded as ready for use. In short, this purgative Modaka is good food as well.

Purgative preparations of lYIudga, etc.: — The soup of Mudga pulse saturated with the decotion of a purgative drug, and taken with clarified butter and rock salt, acts as a good purgative as well. Similarly, soups of other pulses (such as the Musara, etc.) soaked in a decoction of any of the purgative drugs and drunk with the aforesaid adjuvants, exert purgative virtues. Drugs possessed of emetic properties may be used through the preceding media of pulsesoups as well.

A bit of sugar-cane should be longitudinally split, and then paste of Tribhandi should be placed in its middle ; then it should be tied up (with the blades of Kusha grass), and plastered over with a coat of clay, and inserted in a gentle fire of dung cake. After that, it should be taken out of the fire, fully roasted ; the juice squeezed out and cooled, would prove a good purgative to a patient laid up with a Pittaja distemper.

p. 404

THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA'. [Chap. XLIV.

A compound consisting of equal parts of sugar and powdered Ajagandha, Tvakkshiri, Vidari and Trivrit and licked with honey and clarified butter, proves curative in a fever with thirst and a burning sensation of the body.

A compound consisting of one part of pulverised Trivrit and a quarter part each of the drugs known as Tvak, Patram and Maricha, and administered with an adequate quantity of honey and sugar, should be regarded as a good purgative for delicate persons.

A Pala weight of sugar should be boiled with a half Kudava weight of hone)', and Trivrita powders to the weight of a quarter part (of the combined weight of honey and sugar) should be added to the boiling compound at the later part of the cooking. The remedy should be administered cool, and looked upon as a good purger of Pittam.

A compound consisting of equal parts of powdered Trivrit, Shyama (Vriddha-Daraka), Yavakshara, Shunti and Pippali, and taken with honey, acts as one of the most effective purgatives in diseases due to the action of the deranged Kapham.

Over-ripe Pathya, Kdshmari, Dhatri, Dadima and Kola fruit taken with their seeds or stones, should be boiled (with a quantity of water weighing sixteen times their combined weight). The decoction thus obtained should be boiled with (castor)

Chap. XLIV. ] SUTRASTHANAM. ^oc

oil, and the juice of Amlaphala etc. (to the weight of a quarter part thereof), should be added to it. The whole should be boiled together until reduced to a considerable consistence. The powders of the three aromatic drugs (Trisugandha) and Trivrit* should ' be then added to it, which should be administered to a patient as an electuary with hone)". This remedy will prove a good purgative in respect of a delicate person of Kaphaja temperament.