An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. III: Uttara-tantra — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1916)

somcness and it has also been asserted by eminent authorities on the physical science that some unintelligent persons have been misled into holding, through a mistake due to the identity of the names, that the author of the disease under discussion (Skanda) is no other than the invincible Skanda. 2.

On the effulgent god Skanda’s being elevated to the leadership of the armies of Heaven, the presiding deities of those diseases waited upon him and with folded palms asked him about the means of their subsistence. The god Skanda' in his turn, referred them to His Holiness the god Siva for the answer, whereupon they went to the latter in a body and made the same query. Mahâdeva, the Destroyer of Bhaga’s eyes, replied “Gods, men and other animals, O, ye Grahas, exist on the principle of reciprocal benefit*. The gods minister to the wants of men and beasts, etc., by marshalling different seasons of the year and by setting the air in motion and sending down the rain, and men, in their turn, propitiate the gods by duly and reverentially performing the sacrificial rites, by saying their prayers with blended palms, by bowing down in reverence, and by repetition of prayers, religious vows and other religious observances. All services and their emoluments in consequence have been filled up and settled and there remains nothing for you to fill. Your proper means of subsistence will, therefore, be in the life of an infant

(though the emoluments you shall receive shall be stained with the tears of many an anxious, watchful and night-worn parent). 3 A.

* Exchange or reciprocity of services underlies the foundation of all distinct and cognitive existences, whether beasts, men or gods. The worlds are linked to one another by bonds of service. Give-and-take is th$ law of the universe. Duty implies obligation.

Chap. XXXVII. ] UTTARA-TANTRA. t G$

Children of the families in which the gods, the Fitris (departed fathers), the Brahmans, the pious, the preceptors and the seniors and the guests are not properly worshipped and attended upon and wherein the rule* of cleanliness and virtues arc not observed and the members of which do not make daily offerings to the gods and give alms to beggars and live on food prepared by others and eat from broken bowls and plates of Indian bell-metal would be the proper persons whom you might strike with impunity, and by your malign influence lay them up with diseases peculiar to infant life. (It shall be your duty to see that iniquities of the parents are visited on their children. Attack them without least compunction of heart and ample means of subsistence will be thereby secured to you). There the parents of thore children will worship you in their calamities and you shall get plenty to live upon.” 3B.

Thus the Grahas came into being and began to attack the children (of iniquitious parents), and it is therefore that a child attacked by a malignant Graha becomes very hard to be cured. Death or permanent disfigurement of any limb or organ is sure to ensue from an attack of Skanda Graha, since he is the most dreadful of all the Grahas. A case of full-developed attack by any other Graha should be likewise held as incurable. 3.

Thus ends the thirty-seventh chapter of the Uttara Tanlra in the Sus'ruta Samhita which deals with the origin of the Grahas.

Chapter xxxviil

Now we shall discourse on the chapter which deals with (the symptoms and) the therapeutics of the diseases of the female* organ of generation (Yoni -vyfiCpftt -

Pratishedha). i.

Causes * — The bodily (as well as the local) VAyu of a girl of tender years, weakly constitution or build and dry organic temperament, is deranged and aggravated in consequence of her excessive indulgence with a man of abnormally developed reproductive organ, and on getting into her organ of generation (yoni) gives rise to different local vaginal diseases which become manifest through the presence of the symptoms of the aggravation of the three specific Doshas. 2.

In the chapter on the enumeration of diseases, the diseases which affect the female organ of generation (yoni) have been classified into twenty different kinds']*. The injudicious conduct of life which is usually found in females, menstrual disorders, the diseased or defective nature of the seed (of the parents of the girl), or any accidental cause may be fairly set down as causes of these female diseases. Now hear* them discussed separately. 3.

Enumeration and Classification

UdavartA (dysmenorrhcea), Bandhyd (sterility), Vipluta (introversion of the uterus), Paripluta (retroversion or retroflexion of the uterus) and Vatald are the five kinds

* The term << yoni ,> is here used in a very compichenj>ive sense and means the whole female organ of generation, *. e Uterus, Vagina, etc.

+ These three lines correspond verbatim with three lines in the Charaka Samhitd (vide Charaka Samhita, Chapter XXX, Chikitsita* sill ana).

Chap. XXXVIII.]

UTTARA-TANTRA.

p. 165