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

A kind of gelatinous substance is secreted from the sides of the mountains when they have become heated by the rays of the sun in the months of Jyaishtha and Ashadha. This substance is what is known as the Sildjatu and it cures all distempers of the body.

The presence of the six kinds of metal, such as tin, lead, copper, silver, gold and black-iron, in their essential form in the substance (Silajatu), may be detected by their respective smell and hence it is known to the people by the name of Shad-Yoni (lit. — having six different origins). The taste of this shellac-coloured substance has the same taste (Rasa) and potency (Virya) as the metal to whose essence it owes its origin. It should be understood that as tin, lead and iron, etc., are progressively more and more efficacious, so the different varieties of Silajatu, originated from the essence of tin, lead, iron, etc., are progressively more efficacious in their application.

All kinds of Sildjatu have a bitter and pungent taste with an astringent after-taste (Anu-rasa), are laxative, pungent in their digestionary reaction, heatmaking in their potency and possessed of absorbing and purifying (Chhedana) properties. Of these what looks

Chap. XIII.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 387

black and glossy, is heavy and devoid of sandy particles, as well as what smells like the urine of a cow, should be considered as the best. This best kind of Sildjatu should be infused with the decoction of the drugs of the ^ala-sdradi group after the manner of Bhavana saturation (for ten, twenty or thirty days). Then after cleansing the body (by the application of emetics and purgatives), it should be taken every morning (by the patient in adequate doses), well pasted with Sarodaka.* He should further be made to take a meal of boiled rice mixed with the soup of the flesh of animals of the Jangala group after the medicine had been fully digested. 3-4.

A Tula measure of this hill-begotten panacea (S'ilajatu), when gradually taken, (in adequade doses) tends to improve the strength and complexion of the body, cures an attack of Madhu-Meha and enables the user to witness a hundred summers on earth, free from disease and decay. Each Tula weight of this medicine, taken successively, adds a century to the duration of human life, while ten Tula measures extend it to a thousand years. The regimen of diet and conduct during the period of its use should be identical with that described in connection with the use of the Bhallaitaka compounds. Cases of Meha, Kushtha, epilepsy (Apasmara), insanity, elephantiasis, poisonbegotten distempers, phthisis, aedema, haemorrhoids^ Gulma (internal tumours), jaundice and chronic fever, prove readily amenable to the curative efficacy of Silajatu. Indeed there is no such bodily distemper

* It is evident from the reading of Chakradatta that "Sarodaka" means a decoction of the drugs of the SsCla-SSiretdi gfoup. But Dallana explains it as "Pancha-s^rodaka" which is quite unintelligible. In practice, also, Chakradatta is followed. — Ed.

p. 388

which does not yield to its highly curative virtues. It acts as a potent solvent in cases of long-standing Sarkard (gravel) in the bladder as well as of stone. Silajatu should be treated (soaked and dried) with appropriate medicinal drugs by stirring it up with the same. 5.

The IVIakShika Kalpa:— The metal known as Maikshika (iron-pyrites), which grows in the river Tapi and which copes with the divine ambrosia in its highly therapeutic properties, may be also used in the same way and under the same sort of preparation. The metal is divided into two classes according to its colour, as Svarna-Makshika (gold-coloured) and Rajata-Makshika (silver-coloured). Of these the first has a sweet taste while the second is acid. Both of them prove efficacious in cases of decrepitude, Kushtha, Meha, jaundice and consumption. A person using Sildjatu and Makshika (in the manner prescribed above) should refrain from taking pigeon-flesh and Kulattha pulse (during his life-time). 6.

The following measures should be adopted by an experienced physician in the case of a patient suffering from (Meha and) Kushtha and who has a firm faith in medicines and is desirous of existence (life) and in whose case the curative efficacy of Pancha-karma* has been baffled. 7.

The TU varaka Kal pa : —The Tuvaraka plants which grow on the shores of the Western Sea (Arabian Sea) are constantly tossed about by the winds raised by the waves of the sea. The pith or marrow of the seeds (lit.-~fruits) of these plants should be care-

* Some take ihe term in its ordinary sense to mean the five measures of emetics, purgatives, etc, ; but Dallana would explain it as the measures adopted in Ihe treatment of the Kushtha affecting the bone which is the fifth Dhalu in the aystem.