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

decoction* of Yashti-madhu. The pitcher should be buried in a heap of ashes inside a closed room during the rainy season and preserved there during the four months of rain ; after that period the pitcher should be taken out (of the ashes). Its contents should then be consecrated with (appropriate) Mantras by uttering them a thousand times and should be taken every morning in suitable quantities after the system has been thoroughly cleansed (by appropriate emetics and purgatives, etc.). The diet should consist of cooked rice and clarified butter mixed with a copious quantity of the soup of Mudga pulse 2.\\^ Amalaka cQoVt^ with a small quantity of Sneha and salt ; and should be taken after the digestion of the medicine. The patient should lie on the ground (and not on a bedding). Worms would be found to have been issuing out of the body after the regular and continuous use of the medicine for a month, which should be extracted with the aid of a pair of bamboo tongs or forceps after the body had been anointed with the Anu-taila (described before) Ants would be coming out of the body during the second, and vermins (Yuka) in the third month of the use of the medicine which should also be removed as in the preceding manner. The hair, nails and teeth begin to fall off and become dilapidated in the fourth month of its use. In the fifth month the body beams with a divine glow, becomes resplendent as the midday sun, and exhibits features which specifically belong to the etherial being. The ears become capable of hearing the faintest and remotest sound (under its use), and the vision extends far into space and beholds objects at a great range

* Dallana explains the term Madhukodakottara to mean a large quantity of Madhuka and water, (and by water he means the decoction of Vidanga),

5 [8 THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA. [Chap. XXVII.

(which is not usually given to mortal eyes to descry). The mind, shorn of the qualities of Rajas (action) and Tamas (nescience), becomes possessed of Sattva (illuminating principles or true knowledge). Things are permanently and indelibly impressed upon his (user's) memory at a single hearing and the faculty of invention wonderfully expands. Old age and decay permanently vanish and youth returns to stay in him for good, bringing with it an elephantine strength and a horse-like speed, and he is enabled to live for eight hundred springs The medicated ( il known as Anutaila should be used in anointing (the body at this stage of treatment) ; a decoction of Aja-karna for Utsddana .washing) purposes, well-water saturated with Us'ira for bathing purposes, sandal paste in anointing (Anulepana) the body, and the regimen of diet and conduct as described in connection with the Bhallataka treatment (Vidhana^ should be observed. 6.

Kasmarya Kalpa ;— The use of huskless

Ka'smaryaja seeds for rejuvinating purposes, is similar to the preceding one, except that it requires a separate kind of diet and does not require the use to lie on the ground. Under this treatment, the diet should consist of (boiled) rice and well-boiled milk and the beneficial effects that would result from its use, are identical with those of the foregoing one. These remedies should b3 employed in diseases originating through the vitiated blood and Pitta of the system. 7.

Yala-KaSpa :~ A Pala or half a Pala weight of the (powdered) roots of the Vala should be well-stirred in cow's milk and taken (every da)'\ and the patient or the user should not be allowed to stir out of his roam as prescribed before (during the entire course of taking the medicineX He should be advised to take a meal conChap. XXVII. ]p. 519

sisting of boiled rice, milk and clarified buttsr after the medicine had been fully digested. Premature old age and senile decay would be arrested for a period of twelve years by taking this elixir continuously for twelve days in the foregoing manner, whereas an extension of its course to a hundred days would add a hundred summers to the duration of his > outhful age. Ati-valsi, Naga-valat, Vidari, Satavari may be similarly taken for the same purposes, with this distinction that the (powders ofj the Ati-vald should be taken with water, those of the Ndga-vald, with honey, whereas Viddrz aud the S'atdvari powders should be taken with milk. The regimen of diet and conduct as well as the beneficial results produced therefrom should be the same (as from the use of Vala). The present remedies are recommended to persons seeking strength or suffering from an attack of Hoematemesis or Hoematochczia.* 8.