Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

* All these technical words have been explained in full in course of this Lesson. 'Urging them’ is explained by the Commentators as having reference to the well-known custom of pupils never soliciting lessons from the preceptor but the latter’s lecturing the pupils of his own accord. — T.

f ‘ Kritakritativrittanam’ is explained as follows : ‘ Kritam’ is ‘ Samyak kritam’ ; • Akritam’ is ‘ Asamyak or mithya kritam’ ; and ‘ Ativrittam’ implies the » Atiyoga’ of application. — T.

CHA RA KA-SAMHITA.

p. 245

Such things as are light, warm, pungent, not slimy, dry, sub¬ tile, rough, unstable, and hard, are generally Langhana.*10

Such things as are heavy, cooling, soft, exceedingly oily, gross, slimy, mild stable, and smooth, are generally said to be Vringhaoa.t11

Such things as are dry, productive of lightness, pungent, warm, stable, not slimy, and hard, are generally Rukshana.12

Such things as are liquid, subtile, stable, oily, slimy, heavy, cooling, not pungent or mild, and soft, are generally regarded as Snehana.13

Such things as are warm, pungent, unstable, oily, dry, subtile, liquid, stable and heavy, are generally said to be Swedana.f1*

Such things as are regarded to be cooling, mild, soft, smooth, dry, subtile, liquid, unstable, and light, are generally said to be Stambhana.16

The four kinds of corrective processes {viz., administration of emetics, of purgatives, of errhines or cerebral purgatives, and dry enemata), as also bearing thirst and wind and the heat of the Sun, drinking the medicines called Pachana, fast, and physical ex¬ ercise, — -these are all included under Langhana^1 8

* Each of these attributes should be well understood. ‘ Laghu’ is light, in the sense of being easily digestible. ‘ Ushna’ is warm or hot, i.e>, producing heat in the body.

« Tikshna’ is pungent. Then ‘ Vishada’ is not slimy. ‘ Ruksha’ is productive of dryness in the whole system. ‘ Sukshma’ is subtile, implying that the drug itself is minute and has its operation on the minuter parts of the physical organism. ‘ Kshara,’ used with reference to a drug, implies productive of roughness. ‘ Sara’ means moving or unstable. ‘ Kathina’ implies hard, the thing itself should be so.— T.

t It should be noted that all these attributes are the reverse of those mentioned in the previous Verse. Laghu has its reverse in Guru ; Ushna in Cita ; Tikshna in Manda j Vishada in Pichcchila ; Ruksha in Snigdha ; Sukshma in Sthula ; Sara in Sthira ; Khara in Slakshma ; and Kathina in Mridu. — T.

J The Commentator Gangadhara points out that oily and dry are opposite, as also stable and unstable. The meaning, of course, is that either of such things may be taken for the operation called Swedana. — T.

§ ' Pachana’ is an infusion or decoction of various drugs which promotes digestion or brings bad humours into maturity. The drugs employed are chiefly carminatives or gentle stimuli.— T.

p. 246

CM A RA I<A SA MH l TA .

Those persons that have phlegm and bile as also blood and impurities in excess, and those that have got their wind in an excited or disordered state, as also those that have large bodies or strength in excess, are fit for Langhana through the four kinds of corrective processes (mentioned above.,)*17

They who are afflicted with diseases that are of middling strength and that have arisen from (disorders of) the phlegm and the bile, such as vomiting, diarrhoea, thoracic diseases, choleraic diarrhoea, tympanites, fever, suppression of stools and urine, heavi¬ ness of the limbs, eructations, hiccup, nausea or disgust for food; and other diseases of the kind, are generally treated at the outset, by the wise physician, with the aid of Pachana.t18-19

After this (it should be stated that) when persons get the dis¬ eases mentioned above in a weak form, then those diseases of theirs should be subjugated by means of fasts and by endurance of thirst without slaking it.20

All diseases that are of middling strength should be subju¬ gated by exercise and exposure to the sun (good light) and (fresh) air. As regards strong men again, what difficulty is there in sub¬ jugating their diseases, when these are weak, by the same means ?21

For those persons who have got skin-diseases or who are suffer¬ ing under the urinary affections known by the name of Meha, or who have become oily (in consequence of the administration of Oils), or whose systems have become full of impurities, or who have undergone the administration of Vring-hana, or who have got diseases due to disorders of the wind, the administration of Langhana has been laid down, in the season of dew.Jaa

Unpierced by envenomed arrows, undiseased, and obtained from full-grown animals, the flesh of such deer and fish and fowl as range of their free will in regions adapted to their own natures, is said to be Vringhana.23

* The ‘ Vhjuddhibhib’ here js the same as the ‘ San9uddhih’ of the previous Verse.- T.

t See note in p. 245 ante , under Verse 16.— T.

$ For Langhana see Verses 10 and 16 ante of this Lesson.— TV