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

should be made spacious and kept clean and pure, and none but the trusted ones should have access thereto. The physician should get the food or diet prepared by experienced cooks (so as to impart to it the ta^ie and the colour he desires), and have it kept at a clean and pure spot, concealed from the -view of the public. After that, the food having been made innocuous by the admixture of anti-toxic medicines, and freed from all poison by reciting (an Arthavan) mantra over it, and having been besprinkled with the water of mystic incantation, should be served (to the king).

Serving of a IVIcal : — Now I shall describe the mode of serving out the different dishes. Clarified butter should be served out in a vessel of steel (KantaLoha) ; Peya, in a silver bowl ; and all kinds ot fruit and confectionary (such as the Laddukas), on leaves. The preparations of meat known as the Parishushka and Pradigdha Mansam should be served on golden plates ; fluid edibles and meat essences in silver bowls; Katvaras and Kharas in stone utensils ; and cool boiled milk (Payah) in copper vessels. Other drinks, wines and cordials should be given in earthen pots ; and RagaSh^davas and Sattakas, in cool pure glass bowls, or in vessels made of crystal and Vaidurya gems. The cook should ]ilace the bowls containing preparations of pulse, boiled rice and lambatives on clean, spacious trays

Chap. XLVI. ] SUTRASTHA'NAM.

p. 557

of fanciful" design, and spread them out in front fof the king/ All kinds of desserts, confectionary and dry viands should be served on his right, while all soups etc., meat- essences, drinks, cordials, milk, KhadaYusha, and Peya should be placed on his left. Bowls containing preparations of treacle, Raga-Shadava, and Sattaka should occup)- a place midway between the two sets of bowls described above.

The intelligent physician, well conversant with the rules of serving dishes as above laid down, should attend upon the king at his table, and spread out on the purified level floor of a solitary, beautiful, spacious, blissful, perfumed and flower-decorated chamber, and the king should partake of those sacred and pleasant dishes, served neither hot nor cold, and cooked and seasoned in the desired mode, and possessed of their specific tastes. „

The physician in attendance should see that the king first partakes of the sweet dishes, then of the acid and saline, and of the pungent and other ones at the close of the meal.* First or at the forepart of a meal, such fruit as the pomegranate, etc., should be eaten, after that, Peyas and boiled rice and prepared dishes, as

* The lasle of sweel viands ealeii al the outset would naturally go to subdue llie Vdyu located in the stomach ; acid or saline taste partaken of at the middle of a meal would rouse u|) the fire of digestion located in the pancreas (x\gnyashaya), while the pungent taste enjoyed at its close would lend to subdue the Kupham.

p. 558

well as confectionary. Certain authorities maintain that solid or thick viands should be eaten at the outset, while others a^er that the contrary should be the rule. Of fruits, the Amalaka has the greatest humourdestroying properties, and is the most harmless of them all. Amalaka (fruit) is therefore recommended at the outset, middle and the close of a meal. Such things as the Mrinalam (the stem of a lotus plant), the Visham (the lotus bulb), Shaluka, Kanda and sugar-cane should be eaten at the beginning of a meal, and never at its close. A man, who is well-read in the Science of medicine (Ayurveda), should sit during his meal in an easy posture on a high seat and partake, at the right time, with his body erect and his whole mind engaged in the act of eating light, wholesome emollient and warm viands, which are congenial to his temperament and abound in fluid preparations, with an adequate quantity of boiled rice, neither too hurriedly nor too slowlv, even when feehng the pinch of a keen and piercing hunger.

Food eaten with a good appetite tastes pleasant and relishing. The food which is congenial to one's temperament begets no discomfort after the eating. Light food is soon digested. Emollient food gives tone and vigour to the system. Warm food improves the appetite. Food eaten neither too slowlv nor too hurriedly is uniformly digested. Food abounding in

Chap. Xl.VI.j SUTRASTHAXAM.

p. 559

fluid components is not iniperfecth' digested, nor is attended by any acid reaction. Moderation in food leads to a happy and perfect digestion and tends to maintain the fundamental ]irinciples of the bodv in tlieir normal state. *