Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Disease, when it afflicts such men, increases in intensity. Medi¬ cines, if administered, produce no effect. Their food should not be eaten. Their drink should not be touched.-}- 25

If all the four, each endued with efficacious qualities, be united together, they would be utterly powerless in the presence of one the period of whose life has run short. There can be no exhibi¬ tion of properties when the substance is not present to which they inhere.:} 26 and ether (or space). The earth is supposed to have the property of smell ; water, of taste ; fire, of form ; air, of touch ; and ether, of sound. The four kinds of Yoga or cor¬ relation are Samayoga (harmony of correlation), Ayoga (absence of correlation), Atiyoga (excess of correlation)’ and Mithya-yoga (false correlation). Take the case of ear and and ether. Between the ear and sound (which is the property of ether) there is Samayoga when nothing but agreeable sounds enter it. When the ear is perfectly un exercised, that is, no sound is allowed to enter it or is heard, the case is one of Ayoga. The ear may, again, continually hear sounds. This is Atiyoga. Harsh and dissonant sounds, again, may enter it and destroy the very power of hearing. This is Mithya-yoga, It is practi¬ cally included in Atiyoga. Chakrapani explains that ‘ether and the rest’, as used in this verse, imply the relation between their properties and the respective senses by which they are seized.

What the Rishi, therefore, says here is this ; when a physician observes either Ayoga or Atiyoga in several of the senses at the same time, he should abstain from treating the patient. Simultaneous indications of Ayoga would be the incapacity of the ear to hear, of the eye to see, of the nose to smell ; &c. Similarly, simultaneous indications of Atiyoga would be excessive noises in the ear, various imaginary sights seen by the eye, and imagi¬ nary scents smelt by the nose, &c., &c. — T.

* ‘Samavartin’ is Yama. It literally means one whose behaviour is equal towards all. Yama being the great leveller of distinctions is fitly called ‘samavartin.’ — T.

f The food and drink of these men should not be eaten and touched. The sense is, they are very sinful. Hence, the food or drink they offer is polluted and should not be accepted. — T.

X In Sutrasthana, there are two Lessons, one called ‘Vrihatchatuspada’ and the other ‘Khudrachatuspada’, that is, ‘ aggregate of four in full’ and ‘aggregate of four in brief.’ For successful treatment these four should have desirable attributes, viz., physician, drugs nurses, and patient. The physician should be competent ; the drugs should be efficacious ;

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

9i5

The physician should examine the period of life of one that is hale as also of one that is ill.

The sum total of the fruits of Science of Life is the period of life.

He that is invested with body follows this period of Life.* 27 ( Here occurs a verse.)

When the three faults (viz., wind, bile and phlegm), trans¬ gressing the path of treatment, pervade the whole body and cause especial indications to appear, these latter are called by the name of ‘Arishta.’f 28

Thus ends the eleventh Lesson, called ‘Anujyotiyam’, in the Division called Indriya, of the treatise of Agnivega as revised by Charaka.

LESSON XII.

We shall, after this, expound the Lesson called ‘Gomayachurniyam’ in the Division called ‘ Indriyam.’

the nurses should be intelligent and obedient to the orders they receive ; and the patient should be obedient and trustful. If otherwise, success can hardly be achieved. What is said by the Rishi in this verse is that even if all these four, each possessed of efficacious attributes, exist together, yet if the patient’s period of life or vitality has run short, treat¬ ment cannot be successful. The physician may be competent ; the drugs may be good ; the nurses may be skilful and attentive ; and the patient himself thoroughly disposed to abide by the injunctions of the physician ; yet if there be no vitality in the patient, in other words, if his period of life has run short, he cannot be cured or saved from death.

It will be remembered that Charaka, following AgniveQa, does not believe in each man having an allotted period of life, called ‘ayus.’ The science of treatment would be unmeaning if any such thing as ‘ayus’ in this sense, be admitted. ‘Ayus’, therefore, as used in this verse, means vitality. — T.