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

The following kinds of wine should always be rejected viz., such as are thick, bad smelling, or insipid or full of worms, or heavy and acid in digestion, unpleasant, new, strong and heat-making in their potency, or which have been preserved in an improper vessel, or which have been prepared with a comparatively lesser number of ingredients or have been iTecanted over-night, or are extremely slimy or transparent, as well as the dregs of all kinds of wine.

The wine prepared from a comparatively lesser number of ingredients, or that which is slimy, heavy and takes a long time to be digested, should be deemed as an agitator of the bodily Kapham. The wine which is marked by a deep yellow colour is strong and hot, is only imperfectly digested and followed b}^ a kind of acid re-action. It tends to aggravate the Pittam. The wine, which is frothy or putrified, heavy or insipid or is marked by the germination of worms in its body, or is decanted over-night, tends to enrage or agitate the bodily Vayu. The wine which is well-matured, and possessed of its characteristic taste, and the virtue of improving the appetite and bringing on a relish for food, and which subdues the Vayu and Kapham, and is mild, good, aromatic and exhilarating, should be re464 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Chap. XLV.

garded as the only wine fit for use. Wines may be divided into a variety of species according to their different tastes and strength. The potency of a wine promoted by the bodily heat of a man courses upward through the arteries, and ultimately reaches the heart ; and thence, through its own subtility and expansiveness, permeates the entire organism and gradually attacks and overwhelms the organs of sense perception, dethrones the mind from her throne of reason, usurps the permanent seat of intellect, and thus brings on intoxication.* A man of phlegmatic temperament (Kapha-prakriti) can carry his wine well, and symptoms of intoxication usually appear later in him. A man of bilious temparament (Pitta Prakriti\ under such circumstances, gets easily intoxicated, while the man whose temperament is marked by a predominance of Vayu is often found to be tipsy after his first cup. A man of a Sattvika frame of mind exhibits under the influence of wine, a decided predilection for fine dress, jollity, and acts of purity and compassion. He sings, or reads, or evinces a strong desire for female company. A man of a Rajasika frame of mind becomes extremely melancholy or pugnacious in his cups, indulges in despondent reveries, and evinces suicidal tendencies ; while wine in a subject of a Tamasika cast of mind exhibits the latent and innate

* These couplets emphatically prove that the framers of ancient -Ayurveda were fully conversant with the circulation of the blood — Tr,

Chap. XLV.] SUTRASTHANAM.

p. 465

vileness of his soul. Such a person generally sleeps when intoxicated, falsely boasts of his own excellence, and evinces a de5ire for women with whom connection is forbidden by both social and canonical laws.

Fermented liquors known as the Shukta (treacle, honey, fermented rice gruel, and curd cream kept in a new and clean vessel underneath a bushel of paddy for three consecutive days) bring on an attack of haemoptysis. They disintegrate the lumps or knots of accumulated Kapham, are digestant and prove curative in jaundice and diseases due to the derangement of Kapham. They are light and vermifugenous, and strong and heat making in their potency. They act as diuretic, are pleasant, and pungent in digestion. Bulbs and roots pickled in Shukta acquire the properties of the latter. Of the Shuktas prepared with treacle, juice of sugar-cane, or honey, each preceding one should be deemed heavier and as giving rise to greater secretions of internal organs than the one immediately following it in the order of enumeration.

The different kinds of fermented rice gruel known as the Tushamvu and Sauvira are pleasant and appetising beverages. They prove efficacious in cases of jaundice, worms in the intestines, dysentery, piles, and in diseases affecting the heart. They are possessed of purgative (Bhedi) properties.

The fermented gruel known as the Dhanyamlam is a good appetiser (tonic — D. R) owing to the fact 59

^66 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Chap. XLV.