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

I This decoc'ion should be specially iH'd for 'w.ishing the uterus (^'oni).— F.d.

Chap. XV.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 409

Diet and regimen of conduct :— The mother should always be neat and clean and subjected to a course of a small quantity of wholesome and emollient diet and to daily anointments and fomentations ; and she should be advised to renounce all anger. Milk cooked with the Vayu-subduing drugs should be used for the first ten days. Meat-soup should then be prescribed for another such period, after which a diet should be prescribed according to the patient's health and nature. This regimen should be observed for a period of four months, after which, the patient would be found to have regained her health, strength and glow of complexion, without any complications, when the medical treatment, etc , should be discontinued. 12-14.

The following Vala-Taila should be used for applying into the Yoni (Vagina, etc.), for anointing the body and for drinking and eating purposes (i.e., along with other food) as well as for Vasti-Karma, as the oil is highly efficacious in curbing the action of the deranged and aggravated bodily Vaiyu. 15— A.

The Vala Taila : -* An adequate quantity of sesamum oil should be cooked with eight times as much of the decoction of each of the following ; viz., Va/d roots, Das'a-mtila and the three combined drugs of Yava, Kola and Kulattha and with eight times as much of milk and (one-fourth as much of) a paste (Kalka) compound of the drugs included in the Madhura group as well as with Saindhava-sdXt, Agut-u, Sarfa-rasa, SaralaKdsJitha^ Deva-ddru, Manjishthd, Chandana, Kushtha,

* P'our seers of sesamun oil, thirty-two seers of the decoction of the Vala-roots, thirty-two seers of the decoction of Das'a-niula, thirty-two seers of the decoction of the drugs Yava, Kola and Kulattha taken together, thirty-two seers of milk and one seer of the paste compound (Kalka) should be taken in the preparation of the oil.

p. 52

p. 410

Eld, Kdldmisdrivd, Mdnsi, S'aileya, Teja-patra, Tagara, S'drivd, Vachd, S'atdvari, As'va-gandhd, S'dta-pushpd and Punarnavd. After the completion of its cooking the oil should be kept carefully in a golden, silver, or earthen pitcher with its mouth well-stoppered. This oil is known as the Vala-Taila and proves curative in all diseases due to the action of the deranged Vayu. A newly delivered woman should use this oil in adequate doses, according to her physical condition. Women wishing to be mothers and men seeking the blessings of fatherhood should use this Taila, which proves equally beneficial in cases of an emaciation of the body due to the action of the deranged Vayu, weariness of the body through hard labour, and also in cases of hurt or injury to any vital and vulnerable part of the body (Marma), in cases of fractured bones, convulsions, VataVyadhi, hiccough, cough, Adhimantha, Gulma and dyspnoea. A case of hernia would likewise yield to the continuous use of this oil for six months. The essential and vital principles (Dhatus) of the organism of a man are strengthened through its use and his youth will suffer no decay. It should be used alike by kings^ kinglike and wealthy persons, as well as by those of a delicate and ease-loving temperament. 15 — B.

The Vala-Kalpa :— Seeds of sesamum should be successively soaked a number of times in a decoction of Vald roots* and then dried (in the manner of a Bhavana saturation). The oil pressed out of such sesamum should be successively cooked a hundred times with the decoction of Va/d-roots. This being done, the oil should hd poured into an earthen pitcher and the

* Vala wou'd be the Kalka in this oil, says Dallana. But he also says that some authorities hold that the Kalkas used in the Vala-Taila should be used as the Kalka in this oil as well.

Chap. XV.] CHIKITSA STHANAM, 41I

patient, while taking it in adequate doses, should live in a lonely chamber protected from the wind. After its digestion, the patient should partake of milk and boiled Shashtika rice. A Drona measure of the oil, should in this way, be gradually taken and the regimen of diet (milk and Shashtika rice, etc.) should be observed for double that period. This oil is efficacious in improving one's strength and complexion and adds a century (of years) to the duration of one's life, and at the same time absolves him from all sins. It is said that the use of each succesive Drona measure of this oil adds a century to one's days on earth. 16.

Oils may similarly be prepared with each of Ativishd, Guduchi, Aditya-parni, Saireyaka, Virataru, S'atdvari^ Tri-kantaka, Madhuka and Prasdrani, and may be prescribed by an experienced and erudite physician. 17.