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

belonging to the groups of Vidarigandha and major Panchamulam, as well as Murva, Sh^rngashta, Sudha, Haimavati, Triphala, Ativisha and Vacha should be mixed together and then set apart in two equal parts. A decoction should be made of one of them, while the other should be reduced to a state of powder. After that, a quantity of well thrashed and huskless barlej^ should be soaked in the aforesaid decoction for seven days, and should be subsequently dried and fried a little. Then three parts of the latter and one part of the aforesaid powder (powdered Trivrita roots etc.) should be mixed together and soaked in the aforesaid cold decoction of those drugs. The mixture should be then kept into an earthen pitcher of the foregoing type and administered in adequate doses as soon as the characteristic winy smell of the mixture (Jatarasa) would be detected. The preparation is called the purgative Sauvirakam.

Preparations of purgative Tushodakam (fermented liquors of barley with husks): — The drugs enumerated in connection with the foregoing preparation should be mixed together and di^•ided in halves and kept in two separate vessels. One half of the mixture should be well-thrashed and tied up in a piece of clean linen with a quantity of unthrashed barley in husks and should be boiled with a decoction of Ajashringi in a separate basin. Then barley in husks

p. 409

should be separated from the rest of the components of the mixture after it has been thoroughly cooked. Then three parts of these barley grains subsequently thrashed should be again soaked in their decoction, and a fourth part of the aforesaid pulverised drugs 'such as the roots of Trivrit, etc.) should be added to it, and the entire mixture should be kept in an earthen pitcher of the before mentioned type. This preparation is called Tushodakam (lit: Washings of husks , and should be used as soon as the characteristic smell of fermentation (Jatarasa) would be emitted from the pitcher. The processes of preparing Sauvirakam and Tushodakam have been described. They should be used after the expiry of six or seven nights from the date of their being in the pitcher.

The rules and processes regarding the preparation of Tri\Tit compounds hold good in cases of similar preparations made of the rest of purgative drugs (such as, Danti, Dravanti, etc.)

The roots of Danti and Dravanti should be first pulled up and collected, after which they should be dried in the sun. After that, they should be mixed with honey and pasted Pippali and placed in a box of Kusha grass firmly tied up and plastered with a layer of clay. The box should be put into a fire of dried cowdung cakes. The compound inside the plastered grass box should be cooked according to the process of Putapaka,

p. 52

4IO THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA'. [ Chap. XLIV.

and should be taken out and used in diseases due to the action of the deranged Kapham and Pittam and in combination and through vehicles described in connection with the purgative compounds of Trivrit.

Pastes (Kalkas' and decoctions of Danti and Dravanti should be boiled with clarified butter, and Chakra Tailam (sesamum oil pressed in an oil mill). The clarified butter, thus cooked and prepared, would prove curative in cases of Erysipelas, Kaksha, burning sensation of the body and Alaji, while cases of Meha, Gulma, retention of flatus, (kapham) and obstruction of the bowels would prove amenable to the oil above described. Diseases due to the retention of urine, semen and Vavu or fecal matter readily yield to one of the four oily substances (Chatuh-sneha, oil, clarified butter, lard and marrow) cooked and prepared with the paste and decoction of Danti and Dravanti.

A compound consisting of Danti, Dravanti, Maricha, Kanakahvaya, Yavasaka, \'ishs^a-veshaja, Mridvika, and Chitraka powdered together and successi^"ely soaked in cow's urine for seven days, should be administered for purgative purposes, through the medium of clarified butter. A diet of powdered barley, stirred in honey, should be given to the patient after the assimilation of the abovesaid medicine. Diseases such as indigestion, pain at the sides, jaundice, enlargement of the spleen as well as those due to the combined action of theChap. XLIV. ] SUTRASTHA'NAM. 41 j deranged Kapham and Pittam readily yield to the curative efficacy of this purgative remedy.