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

Authoritative verses on the subject.— Atmospheric or rain water is the best of all drinks and cordials. That kind of water is wholesome to a person to which he is habituated from his birth. Hot water is beneficial in derangements of the Vayu and Kapham, and cold water is good in diseases which have their origin in the vitiated blood, or in the deranged Pittam. An excessively heavy meal, as well as the one which usually tends to derange the fundamental humours of the body, may be easily and speedily digested with the help of a suitable afterdrink. A proper after-potion taken after a meal brings on a fresh relish for food, increases the bulk of the body, acts as a spermatopoietic beverage, disintegrates the combination or accumulation of the deranged bodily humours, soothes the organism, increases the softness of the body, removes the sense of fatigue and exhaustion, brings on pleasurable sensations in its train, stimulates the appetite, subdues or pacifies the deranged bodily humours, allays the thirst, improves the complexion, and imparts tone and vigour to the system.

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THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XLVI.

Any beverage resorted to at the commencement of a meal tends to produce a gradual emaciation of the frame; the one taken during the course of a meal guards against both its thinning and corpulency, while the one drunk at the close of a meal serves to greath' add to its growth and rotundity. Hence, drinking at meals should be most judiciously determined and taken with the greatest forethought and discretion. The food carried down into the stomach of a person unused to such liquids long retains undigested and resists being converted into chyme or being digested, and becomes a positive source of discomfort. Hence, the use of an afterpotion is imperatively obligatory on all human beings, except those suffering from dyspnoea, cough, ulcerative endocarditis ( Urahkshata), ptyalism, aphonia, and from diseases affecting the part of the body situated above the clavicles.

After the use of an after-potion, a long walk, a lengthy conversation, singing, sleeping and reading should be refrained from, in order that the im.bibed potion may not affect the stomach, and (aggravate the bodily humours) which taking lodgment about the regions of the throat and chest may give rise to a secretion of mucous, impair the appetite, develop such distressing symptoms as vomiting etc., and produce many other distempers as well.

The lightness or heaviness of a food stuff does not

Chap. XLVI. ] SUTkAS'l'HANAM.

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go contrary to nature.* These properties depend more upon the mode of cooking or preparing them than upon the nature of tl?e substances themselves;* more upon the quantity in which they are taken than the mode ol their cooking or preparation ;t and more upon the food (ht. boiled rice) itself than upon the quantity of its use, I and more upon the time (of its maturity) than upon the food.§

The question of lightness or heaviness of a food stuff affects the idle, the unhealthy, the luxurious, and men of delicate constitution and impaired appetite, and such nice discernment of the properties of an article of food is not imperatively obligatory on strong, healthy men of active habits and good healthy digestion, who are habituated to hard and solid fares, and who can tolerably afford to dispense with such thoughts , altogether. Here ends the description of the group of after-potions. •

Hear me, O my child, discourse on the rules to be observed in connection with eating. The kitchen

* If it be asked why the flesh of an animal of the Janigh^l?, family is light ? The answer would be because il is naturally so.

* As for example, Wihi corn is naturally heavy of digestion, but* fried Vribi seeds are light, t As for instance, a heavy food should be taken till the appetite is but half satisfied, while an article which is light with regard to digestion may be eaten to satiety. J As for instance, of the varieties of food such as the Manda, Peya, X'ilepi, Bhakta and Pishtaka, each succeeding one is heavier than ihe one immediately preceding it.§ As for example, newly hanested rice is heavier than the one of a year's standing.

556 THE SUSHKUTA SAMHITA. [Ch»p. XLM.