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

Causes of Sexual Incapacity :— A cessation of the sexual desire owing to the rising of bitter thoughts of recollection in the mind of a man, or a forced intercourse with a disagreeable woman (who fails to sufficiently rouse up the sexual desire in the heart of her mate) illustrates an instance of mental impotency. Excessive use of articles of pungent, acid, or saline taste, or of heat-making articles of fare leads to the loss of the Saumya Dhatu (watery principle) of the organism. This is another kind of impotency. Virile impotency resulting from the loss of semen in persons addicted to excessive sexual pleasure without using any aphrodisiac remedy is the merit form of virile impotency. A long-standing disease of the male generative organ (syphilis, etc.), or the destruction of a local Marma such as the spermatic cord) destroys the powers of coition altogether. This is the fourth form of impotency. Sexual incapacity from the very birth is called the congenital (Sahajai impotency. Voluntary suppression of the sexual desire by a strong man observing psrfect continence, or through utter apathy produces a hardness of the spermatic fluid, and is the cause of the sixth form of virile impotency. Of the six foregoing types of impotency, the congenital form as well as the one due to the destruction of any local Marma (spermatic cordi should be regarded as incurable, the rest being curable and amenable to the measures and remedies antidotal to their respective originating causes. 3.

Their Remedies :— Now we shall describe the different Vatji-Karana (aphrodisiac ^ remedies. Powders of sesamum, Jlds/ia-puhe, Viddri, or S'dH-rice should

512 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap, XXVI.

be mixed with Saindhava sail and pasted with a copious quantity of the expressed juice of the sugarcane o{ \hc Paundarika species. It should then be mixed with hog's lard, and UtkarikA should be prepared by cooking it with clarified butter. By using this (medicinal) Utkairika, a man would be able to visit a hundred women. 4.

The testes of a he-goat should be boiled in milk. Sesamum seeds should then be successively treated with this milk in the manner of a Bhavana saturation. Cakes should be made of these sesamum seeds with the lard of a porpoise. This medicine exerts the same action as the preceding one without producing any exertion whatever. By eating the testes of a he-goat with (an adequate quantity of) salt and powdered long-pepper (Pippali), fried in clarified butter prepared from churning milk (and not from curd), a man is enabled to visit a hundred women. 5.

Powders of Pippali, A/^W/t^-pulse, S'dli-nce wheat and barley, should be taken in equal parts. Cakes (Pupalikai should be prepared with this compound and fried in clarified butter. By taking these cakes and a potion of milk sweetened with (a copious quantity of) sugar, a man becomes potent enough, to enjoy the pleasures of love like a sparrow (Chataka). 6.

Powdered Viddri successively soaked in the expressed juice of the same and dried, should be licked with honey and clarified butter, whereby a man would be able to visit ten women successively (at a time). Similarly powders of (dried) Atnalaka successively soaked in its own expressed juice should be licked with honey, sugar* and clarified butter, after which a quantity of

* According to S'ivadasa it may also be taken with honey and clarified butter only.

Chap. XXVI.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 513

milk should be taken. This compound would make even an old man of eighty sexually as vigorous as ayouth. 7-8 The testes of a he-goat or of a porpoise mixed with salt and po^vdered long-pepper, and fried in clarified butter should be taken for speedy and effective aphrodisiac purposes. The eggs of a tortoise, of an alligator, or of a crab,* or the semcn-f of a male buffalo, of a he-ass, or of a he-goat should be similarly taken for the same purpose. 9.

Milk boiled and cooked witii the sprouts, bark, roots and fruit of an As'vattha tree, should be sweetened with sugar and honey, and taken ; this enables a man to enjoy sexual pleasures like a sparrow. The powdered bulbs of Viddri, weighing an Udicmbara (one Told) in measure, and taken with milk and clarified butter,^ would make an old man young again A Pala measure of the pulverised Mdsha pulse, mixed with honey and clarified butter should be licked and a potion of milk should then be taken ; this would make a man sexually as strong as a horse. Wheat and Atma guptd seeds should be boiled in milk, and taken, when cold, with clarified butter, and a potion of milk should then bs taken for the same purpose. 10-13.

Clarified butter should be boiled with eggs or the testes (as the case might be) of alligators, mice, frogs and sparrows. By lubricating the soles of the feet with this Ghrita, a man would be able to visit a woman with undiminished vigour so long as he would not touch the ground with his feet. 14.

* Some explain '-^^^1^'' as house-sparrows.

t Here semen would mean the testes, the receptacle of the semen.

+ Some read *'3|%«t" (boiled) in place of •'§?(?{". In that case the boiled milk only should be taken and no clarified butler should be added thereto.

p. 65

514 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVI.