An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)

t According to Gayadasa mustard-oil should be used.

36o THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. (Chap. IX.

name of Maha-Vajraka oil and is possessed of supreme and unquestionable efficacy. 35.

The drugs which constitute the Ldkshddi group should be pasted with an adequate quantity of cow's urine and cooked* with scsamum-oil and mixed with Pitta cow's bile). The oil, thus prepared, should be preserved for a week inside the body of a A'<7/«/^rt7^z;«. The oil should be taken out (after this period) and the patient should use it both internally and externally (in an adequate quantity). After doing this, he should expose himself to the heat of the sun whereby all the Doshas would be eliminated from his organism. After the complete elimination of the Doshas from the system, the patient should be removed from the sun and bathed with a dccoctionf of Khadira, and a gruel, prepared with the decoction of Khadira., should be given him as diet. Similarly, oil or clarified butter boiled and prepared with the drugs constituting the Sams' odhana group (mentioned in chap, xxxix, Sutra.) or with the drugs possessing anti-Kushtha properties should be used as hot plasters and rubbings (in the diseased localities) Purgatives should be administered every morning with good results. The preceding remedies should be taken and continued for five, six, seven, or eight days, or till the Doshas of the system producing the disease are not perfectly eliminated. As an alternative, camel's urine and after its full digestion, camel's milk should be taken. Even parasitic types of Kushtha are sure to disappear within six months (under the course of this treatment). 1(3.

* In cooking the oil, cow's urine weighing four times of oil should be taken.— Dallana.

t The decoction of Khadira in the bath as well as in the preparation of thegtuelshouldbe prepared after the manner of Sbadanga-Kalpa. — Dallana,

p. 361

A Kushtha-patient desirous of being perfectly cured should constantly use preparations of Khadira in his drinks, food, bath, etc. Khadira, if properly used, is potent enough to curb the virulence of the disease in the same proportion as the latter is in invading the successive strata of the human organism and ultimately in bringing on the death of the patient. IJ .

The paring of the nails and shaving the hair off, light physical exercise, the use of wholesome food, regularity in using medicines, abstinence from wine, women and meat-diet arc the rules of conduct which should be strictly observed by a patient affected with Kushtha. With the strict observance of the above rules a Kushthapatient may be expected to recover. 38.

Thus ends the ninth Chapter of the Chikitsita Sthdnam in the Sus'ruta Samhila which deals with the medical treatment of Kushtha.

p. 46

CHAPTER X.

Now we shall discourse on the medical treatment of major cutaneous affections (IVIaha-KuShtha).* I.

lYletrical Text : — An intelligent physician should have recourse to the folh-wing medicinal compounds in virulent types of Kushtha, urinary complaints (Meha), di eases due to the action of the deranged and aggravated Kapha and general oedima of the body and also in respect of inordinately corpulent persons wishing to reduce their obesity. 2.

IVIantha-KalpaS : -Pounded barley-corn

should be saturated with the urine of a cow and kept in a large bamboo basket (Kilinja) for the whole night ; and should then b^ dried in the sun on the following day. This process should be continued for seven consecutive days. At the close of this period it should be fried in an earthen vessel (Kapdla) and then ground to fine powder (Saktu). The powder, thus prepared should be given every morning to a person afflicted with Kushtha (leprosy\ or any urinary complaint (Prameha) through the medium of a decoction of the drugs included within the S'd/asdrddz group, or of the Kantaki (thorny) -}* trees, and mixsd with a pulverised compound of Bhalldtaka, Prapunjidda, Avalguja, Arka, Chitraka, Vidar.ga and Musta weighing a fourth part of the S'aktu. Barleycorn should, in the same manner, be soaked in a

* Kushtha which affec's the deeper tissues and fundamental principles of the body is called Maha-Kushiha.

Gayi interprets the term " M iha-Kushlha " as signifying those seven types of Kushtha which cannot be attributed to any detectable cause, t Vadara, Khadira, Arimeda, Snuhi, etg.

p. 363