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

Authoritative verse on the subject : —These honour-seeking evil spirits should be worshipped and propitiated with the whole heart ; and offerings of burning incense sticks, edibles and sacrifices, etc. should be made to them with the greatest humility.

The evil spirits, worshipped and propitiated as above, spare the life of a self-controlled patient ^out of compassion '. Hence he shall be kept in a chamber furnished with flowers, garlands, weapons, fried paddy, and lamps kept continuously burning. His friends and relations should regale him with fond and loving topics to drive away the feeling of sleepiness with the prospect of a speedy cure.

Metrical Texts :— A patient, constantly cheered with the suggested prospects of a speedy

Chap. XIX.] SUTRASTHANAM. l8l

recovery, and beguiled with pleasant and congenial discourses, soon gets rid of his complaint.

Morning and evening, the physicians and the Brdhmans should perform the rites of benediction, over him^ as laid down in the Rik, Yajuh, Saman and the Atharva Vedas.

IVIetrical Texts : — For ten consecutive days, the room of the patient should be diligently fumigated, morning and evening, with the fumes of mustard, Arishta-leaves, clarified-butter and salt made into a kind of incense stick.

Drugs such as Chhatra, Atichhatra, Languli, Jatil^, Bramhacharini, Lakshmi, Guh^^ Atiguha, Shata-viryaya, Sahasra-viryaya and white mustard seeds should be placed on the head of the patient.

Metrical Texts :— The patient should be fanned with blowing chowries so that the ulcer may not be in any way thrashed or lacerated during the fanning. The ulcer should not be scratched or pressed. The patient should be carefully watched, while asleep. Demons, that get abroad in the night, fly from the presence of an ulcer-patient protected as above, as herds of deer fly from the forest where lions are found. •

Regimen of diet and conduct :— An ulcer-patient living on a diet consisting of old and igo THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [ Chap. XIX.

boiled Shall rice, not extremely liquefied, and treated with clarified-butter, and taken with the cooked meat of animals of the J^ngala species, soon gets rid of his disease. A diet consisting of boiled rice, the pot-herbs known as the Tanduliyakam, Jivanti, Sunishannaka, V^stuka, immatme Mulaka, Vartaku, Patola and K^ravella, fried with Saindhava (rock-salt) and clarified-butter, and seasoned with the expressed Juice of Dhadima and Amalakam, or of Mudga soup treated as above, should be prescribed for the patient. Barley powder, Vilepi, Kulm^sha and boiled water, should be likewise given to the patient for food and drink. Fatigue or physical exercise causes the ulcer to swell, while the keeping of late hours increases the local redness. A sleep during the day under the circumstance would give rise to pain in the affected part, while a coitus may bring on the death of the patient.

An ulcer-patient, not given to sleep in the day, and ^ing in a room protected from gusts of wind, and strictly following the instructions of his physician, (surgeon) is healed in the course of a very short time and will enjoy a long life through the observance of the abovesaid regimen of diet and conduct. This is the dictum of Dhanvantari.

Thus ends the nineteenth Chapter of the SutrasthSnam in the Sushruta SamhitS which treats of the nursing or management of an ulcer-patient.

CHAPTER XX.

Now we shall discuss the Chapter which treats of the salutary and non- salutary effects of regimen, etc. (H ita'h itiya- madhyayam) .

According to certain eminent medical authorities, an article or a substance which is beneficial in derangements of the bodily Vayu may prove positively injurious in a Pittaja affection ; hence it is impossible to name an article or substance which is absolutely or universally wholesome (^irrespective of the nature and type of a disease, and of the deranged bodily humours involved therein}.

But we cannot subscribe to the foregoing hypothesis, since by nature or combination, things (substances are, or become endued with properties, which prove absolutely beneficial or unconditionally harmful or exert a mixed virtue (both beneficial and injurious) according to the difference in the natu^ and type of the disease in which they are employed. Things or articles such as, clarified- butter, water, milk and boiled-rice, etc. may be denominated as absolutely beneficial owing to their congeniality to, or natural suitableness to the human organism.

Similarly, substances such as fire, alkali and poison, may be designated as unconditionally harmful in virtuep. 184 of their burning, suppurating lit : boiling) and fatal effect upon the organic bodies in general. A substance, which is innocuous by nature, may prove equally injurious as any active poison through an injudicious or incompatible combination ; whereas a substance or an article, which proves beneficial in a derangement of the Vayu, ma}^ prove otherwise in a disorder of the Pittam.