Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Those curds that are not properly formed (congealed) are pro¬ vocative of the three faults.

When, however, properly formed, they are destructive of wind and increase the semen.

The cream of curds is destructive of phlegm and wind.

The barm of curds cleanses all the ducts of the body.231

Butter-milk should be administered in cases of intumescence, piles, ailments of the Grahani, difficulty of micturition, stomachic and abdominal diseases, disgust for food, in maladies brought about by excessive oiling, chlorosis, anaemia, and jaundice, and in vomiting.232

Cheese, newly extracted, operates as an inspissant, promotes the appetite, induces cheerfulness and relish, and alleviates diseases of the Grahani, piles, facial paralysis, and disgust for food.233

Ghee strengthens the memory and the understanding, the digestive fire, the element called ojas, phlegm, and serum. It is destructive of wind, bile, poisons, intoxication and insanity, waste, ill-luck, and fever. It is the foremost of oily substances, cool, and sweet in both taste and assimilation. When mixed, agreeably to the ordinance, with the proper substances, it becomes endued with a thousand kinds of energy, and operates in a thousand ways.234-3*

Old Ghee alleviates vertigo, delusions, epilesy, intumescence, insanity, ailments due to poisons, fevers, and sharp pains in the genital organs (of women), the ears, and the head.23'

CHA RA KA-SAMHITA.

37:

The Ghee prepared from the milk of goats, sheep, and buffaloes should be regarded as possessing the same virtues as the milk from which it is preparedPiyusha(a), Morata(^), and Kilata(c), and such other varieties, are very beneficial for such persons as have a keen digestive fire or as sleep very little.

These are heavy, operate as emollients, increase the semen, promote nutrition and corpulency, and are destructive of wind.®37-38

Inspissated butter-milk is clear, heavy, and dry. It dries up the humours or fluids of the body.

Thus has been declared the ninth Group consisting of the different kinds of Milk.839

The Group about Sugar-cane.

The juice of the sugar-cane, if the stalk is chewed with, the aid of the teeth, increases the semen, is cool, purges the intestines, is oily, promotes nutrition and corpulency, is sweet, and excites the phlegm.

If the juice is taken after extraction with the aid of some machine, it leads to a burning sensation of the skin.840

That variety of sugar-cane which is known by the name of Vansaka is superior to that which is called Paundra, in properties of coolness, purity, and sweetness.

Treacle is aboundantly productive of worms, marrow, blood, serum, and flesh.841

Thick black treacle, called Kshudra, that in which only a fourth part of the juice of sugar-cane remains, that in which a third thereof remains, and that in which only half remains, possess the property of heaviness in the order in which they are mentioned, {i.e.j the first is heavier than the second, the second than the third, and the third than the fourth).

a. The milk of a cow during the first seven days after calving. — T.

b. Milk of seven days’ standing, that is, when it has lost its milky nature. _ T.

c. Inspissated milk, i.e., coagulated with the aid of some sour substance. — T.

p. 372

CM A RA KA -SA MHI TA.

Treacle that has been washed creates less impurities than the others.*242

Clearer than treacle are Matsyandika, and Khanda and Sarkara (so that the second is superior in clearness to the first, and the third to the second). The coolness, again, of these is proportionate to their clearness.f243

All varieties of sugar manufactured from treacle, are oily, increase the semen, and are beneficial for persons that are weak or that have sustained injuries.

The sugar that is called Yasha is bitter in taste, as also astringent-sweet, and possessed of cooling properties.:]:244

The sugar made from honey is dry, alleviates vomitting and diarrhoea, and operates as a Cchedana.§

AH kinds of sugar are beneficial in thirst, hemorrhages due to excitements of the bile, and in all diseases characterised by a burping sensation of the skin.215

Makshika, Bhramara, Kshaudra, and Pauttika are the four varieties of honey.

Among them all, Makshika is the foremost. In consequence of its speciality, Bhramara is heavy.||245

The honey called Makshika is of the color of oil.

* Impurities, that is, in the form of faeces and other excreta that escape from the body. — T.

t MatsyandikS is coarse sugar. When refined a little, it is called Khanda. The latter, when further refined, is called Sarkara or sugar. — T.

t YSsha is sugar manufactured from the decoction of DurSlabhS. or Hedysarum Alhagi, Linn. ; syn. Hedysarum Maurorum, D. C.

§ ‘‘Cchedana are medicines which remove by force, as it were, and discharge from the body, adherent phlegm or other humours. Emetics, expectorants, errbines, caustics, &c. would probably come under this head.” — U. C. Dutt’s Mat. Mad. of the Hindus.