Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Generally, it is with respect to those persons that are of little strength, that are not of active habits, that are in ill health, that are delicate, or that are nurtured in happiness, that heaviness or lightness (in the matter of food) is necessary to be ascertained.845

With regard to those that are of blazing digestive fires, that are habituated to hard and heavy food, that are devoted to active work, that are of large stomach, it is not at all necessary to look into the question of heaviness or lightness (of food).846

Man, reflecting on measure and time, with concentrated atten¬ tion, should every day pour beneficial food as libations on the internal fire fed by the fuel of Anupana.f847

That man who, having established his sacrificial fire, silently recites every day the syllable OM, makes gifts (according to the best of his power), and pours beneficial food on his internal fire,848 unto that man who is thus engaged in (achieving) what is for his highest good and who in the matter of food and drink is well acquainted with the laws of assimilation, no diseases ever attach themselves, not even in his future lives, for want of cause. t949

The man who is habituated to beneficial food lives for six and thirty thousand nights in perfect health, with soul under his control and winning the esteem of those that are good and pious.850

( Here are some verses containing a summary. )

The qualities of food and drink, and twelve principal Groups (of food and drink), have thus been laid down.

* ‘Ayus’ is period of life. By ‘prS.n5h’ is meant the life-winds called PiSna, Apana, SamSna, Udana, and Vvana. These life-winds support the physical organism, and when they move in harmony, the result is perfect health and vigour. — T.

f The figure here is borrowed from the ritual of sacrifice. Every good man should perform the daily sacrifice of Homa, that is, pour libations of clean Ghee on his sacred fire which is fed by sacred fuel. The digestive fire is the sacrificial fire within the body. Anupanas are the fuel which feed that fire. Upon that fire should every day be poured libations of good food. — T.

+ ‘AntarSdrite’ is 'in the absence of cause’ ; that is, of those causes that bring about diseases. ‘Bhavinah’ simply implies future (diseases). Hence the meaning is, as Chakrap5.ni explains, that so great is the merit achieved by such a man that not even in his future births (in course of his transmigrations) diseases ever eome to him. — T.

CHA RA KA-SA MHITA.

39 !

(Articles used for) Anupana, with their qualities, and heaviness and lightness (of food and drink) in brief, have been spoken of in this Lesson on the Ordinances about Food and Drink.

The instructions laid down- should be particularly observed.

Food is said to be the very Life of all living creatures. The whole world (of living creatures) pursues food.

Clearness of complexion, melodiousness of voice, prolongation of existence, lustre of intelligence, happiness, contentment, growth, strength, memory, are all established in Food.

Whatever worldly acts have to be done for the support of life, and whatever Vedic (religious) acts for attaining to Heaven, and whatever acts have been laid down for achieving Empancipation, are all established in Food.*1-1

Thus ends the seven and twentieth Lesson, called the Ordi¬ nances about Food and Drink, forming one of the four Lessons on Food and Drink, in the treatise of Agnivefa as revised by Charaka.

LESSON XXVIII.

We shall next expound the Lesson on diverse kinds of Food and Drink.

Thus said the illustrious son of Atri.f1

Swallowed, drunk, licked, and chewed, diverse kinds of food, beneficial for a living creature, and taken seasonably, being properly digested by their respective fires whose strength is excited by the internal fire, bring an accession of growth, strength, com¬ plexion, happiness, and prolongation of existence, to that body which is free from sin, in which a development into all upholding ingredients is ceaselessly going on, and in which the action is never obstructed of those ingredients, of heat, of wind, and of all

* The Hindu idea of Emancipation is a cessation of separate or individual cons¬ ciousness by its being merged in the Supreme universal consciousness of Brahman or Supreme Godhead.— T.

t ChakrapSni observes that in the previous Lesson it has been said that Food is the Life of living creatures. In this Lesson, it is the object of the author to explain how Food is the Life of living creatures. — T.

p. 392

the fluicl-curferttS. Food does all this by strengthening the physical ingredients*

Having themselves for the food upon which they subsist* those ingredients (thus supported) follow'in the track of health.*4

From that, (viz., the food thus taken), arises a juice which is called Aharaprasdda or food-substance, as also a Refuse called dregs or dross.

From the Refuse arise urine, sweat, faeces* wind, bile, and phlegm ; as also those excrements which have for their sources the ears and eyes and nose and mouth, the hair-cells of the body and the genital organs, and such limbs of the body as hair, beard, bristles, nails, &c.t3