An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)
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The translator’s English as printed (Kunja Lal Bhishagratna). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Clarified butter cooked with an admixture of the pasted Yashti-madJiii and with the decoction of Padma and Nilotpala should be regularly taken with gold, and then a potion of milk cooked with the foregoing drugs should be taken. It invariably removes the evil features (of both mind and body , and gives a good turn top. 529 fortune. It increases longevity and makes the user (fortunate like) a king. 22-A.
The Tri-padi (lit. three-footed) Gayatri should be recited in connection with the use of any of these elixirs whefe no Mantra would be found to be specifically mentioned. The use of the foregoing medicinal compounds improves one's beauty, surrounds a man with the majesty and effulgence of the gods and makes him as strong as an elephant. Constant study, disquisitions (on philosophical and scientific topics), discussions in other subjects, and residence with professors or men learned in the respective branches of knowledge, are the best means for improving memory and expanding one's intellect. Eating after the digestion of a previous meal, non-repression of any natural urgings of the body, annihilation of all killing propensities, perfect continence, self-co ntrol and refraining from rash and hazardous undertakings, should ba deemed the keys to a long life. 22.
Thus ends Ihe Twenty-eighth Chapter of the Chikitsita-Sthanam in the Sus'ruta Samhita which deals with elixirs and remedial agents for improving the memory and intellect and increasing longevity.
6;
CHAPTER XXIX.
Now we shall discouise on the restorative and on the constructive agents (Rashly ana) which arrest innate morbific tendencies and decay :^ (SvabhavikaVyadhi Pratishcdhaniya Rasayana) i.
IVIetrical Text : -in the days of yore the gods such as Brahm^, etc created a kind of Amrita ambrosia) which is known by the epithet of Soma, for the prevention of deathf and decay of the b :dy. We shall now deal with the mode of using this (ambrosia). 2.
The one and the same di\inc Soma plant nay be classified into twenty- four species according to the difference of their habitats, structures, epithets and potencies. They are as follows: — Ams'uindn, Munj'avdtt, ChandramdJi, Rajataprahha^ Dufvd Soma, Kaniydn, S'vetdkslia, Kanaka prahha^Pratdnavdn^ Tdla vrifita, Karavira, Ains'avdn, Svaya7n-prahha, Mahd-soma, Garuddhrita, Gdya trya, Traishtuhha, Pdmkta, fdgata, S'dmkara, Agnishtoma, Raivata, Yathokta and Cdtipati. All these kinds of Soma secure for the user a mastery of the Gdyatri (and hence in the Vedas), and are known by the above auspicious names mentioned in the Vedas |
* These are decrepitude, death, hunger, thirst, sleep, etc. t Here death may mean, according to some authorities, the death of tissues as well.
% The whole of the hymns in the gih Book of the Rig-veda, besides a few in other places, are dedicated to the honour of Soma, but these twentyfour names do not occur there. The plant is there represented as a god, and his worship must at one time have attaired a remarkable popularity. The extraordinary properties of the exhihraling juice of the Soma are frequently mentioned in the Rig-veda and the language throughout in which it is behymned could not be more eulogistic. As an instance of
Chap. XXIX.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 53 1
Their virtues and methods of using them are identical with each other and are described below. 3 4.
lYIode of using the Soma :— A room or an inner chamber (^Agara) in a commendable site protected with three walls on each side and provided with all kinds of accessories and attendants, should be first secured before taking (the expressed juice of) any of the aforesaid Soma plants. Then at an auspicious hour on an auspicious day marked by favourable astral combinations and lunar phase, the person desirous of using the Soma should enter the inner or central Chamber after having had his system cleansed ^^with the proper emetics, purgatives, etc ) and having had his diet in the proper order (of Peya, etc.). A (whole) plant of the Ams'umdn (or of any other kind of) Soma should be procured in the manner to be observed at the time of collecting the Soma for an (Agni-shtoma) sacrifice and (all) the (preliminary) rites of Homa should be performed (in the usual orthodox way). After that the bulb (of the Soma plant) should be pricked with a golden needle and a quantity of the secreted milky exudation should be collected in a golden vessel. The patient (with the auspicious rites of protection, this we might refer to Rig-veda VIII. 48.3 which has been metrically translated by Muir as follows : —
We've quaffed the Soma bright,
And are immortal grown ;
We've entered into light,
And all the gods have known.
What mortal now can harm,
Or foeman vex us more ?
Through thee, beyond alarm.
Immortal god, we soar. It should be mentionedj however, that as far as our knowledge goes, th'u Soma is now-a-days not within our reach, — Ed.
532 THE SUSIIRUTA SAMHITA. tC^ap. XXIX.
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