Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Throwing out the seeds the Amalakas should be reduced to pulv along with the Pippalis.

With the pulv should be mixed honey and ghee, each of four times the measure of the pulv.

Sugar then be added of one-fourth the measure of the pulv.

The compound should be kept in an earthen jar which has been allowed to suck or absorb as much ghee as possible.

The jar should be placed underground for six months. 18

After six months the medicine should be taken up.

One should take it in measure agreeable to one’s strength and appetite.

The morning is proper for the administration of the medicine.

After it has been digested, one should take such food as one can easily assimilate.

One should not, while continuing to take the medicine, take any food jh the afternoon or the evening. 19

* ‘Avaleha’ or Extract : to prepare it, decoctions after being strained, are again boiled down to the consistency of thick extract. This extract, when properly made, does not readily dissolve in water, can be drawn out into wires, and will receive impressions of coins on the surface. Extracts are administered with the addition of sugar, decoctions, or powders. Generally they arc licked by the patient. — T.

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

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The effect of the administration of this ‘Rasayana’ is that one lives for a period of hundred years without any sign of decrepitude.

As regards its other virtues, they agree with those of the ‘Rasayana’ spoken of before. 20

AMALAKA-CHURNA AM LAK A-PO WDERS. *

An ‘adhaka’ (or 8 seers) of Amlaka powder should be soaked in the ‘swarasa’ of a thousand Amalakas for one and twenty nights.

It should then be mixed with 2 adhakas (i. e., 16 seers) of honey and ghee.

To- it should then be added an eighth of an ‘adhaka’ ( i . e., 1 seer) of the powder of Pippali ( Piper longuni) ; and a fourth of an ‘adhaka" (2. 2 seers of sugar.)

The compound should then be placed in an earthen jar which has been made to suck or absorb as much ghee as possible.

The jar (thus filled) should be kept buried in a heap of ashes in the rainy season (2. e., in the month of Ashada or £ravana).

The jar should be taken up after the expiry of the rainy season.

The medicine should be administered after the manner laid down with respect to the ‘Avaleha’ or extract of Amalaka as above.

One should, while continuing to take the medicine, confine oneself to such regimen as easily assimilable.

The effect of the administration of this medicine that one lives for a period of hundred years without any sign of decrepitude.

As regards its other virtues, they are similar to those of the ‘RasSyana’ spoken of before.

VIDANGA-AVALEHA

EXTRACT OF VIDANGA.

The powder of the grains of Vidanga ( Embellia Ribes ), of the measure of an ‘adhaka’ (or 8 seers), and the powder of the grains of

* ‘Churna’ or powders are prepared by pounding dry substances in a mortar with a pestle and straining the powder through a cloth. — T.

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 1035

Pippali {Piper longum ), of the same measure, and an ‘adhaka’ and a half (/. e., 12 seers) of white (purified) sugar, and 4 ‘adhakas’ (32 seers) of ghee, 4 ‘adhakas’ (32 seers) of sesame oil, and 4 ‘adhakas’ (32 seers) of honey, — these six should be mixed together.

The compound should be dealt with as before, (that is, it should be placed in an earthen jar which has been made to absorb as much ghee as possible ; the jar should then be buried in a heap of ashes in the beginning of the rainy season ; it should be taken up after the expiry of the season of rains ; the medicine should be administered in a measure that is agreeable to one’s strength and appetite, &c, ; one should also, while taking it, confine oneself to a regimen that is easily assimilable ; the effects, again, are the same as those of the medicines mentioned above).*

ANOTHER EXTRAT OF AMALAKA.

A thousand Amlakas endued with attributes already mentioned, should be heated, placing them in a vessel made of raw ‘Palaga’ ( Butea frandosa ) wood.

The vessel should be so covered as not to let any vapour escape from it.

The fuel to be employed should be dried cowdung obtained from fields and forests.

When properly roasted, they should be allowed to cool, and their seeds should be thrown out.

The seedless fruits should then be reduced to powder.

With an ‘adhaka’ (8 seers) of the powder (thus prepared) of Amalakas, and an ‘adhaka’ (8 seers) of the powder of Pippali (P iper longum), and an ‘adhaka’ (8 seers) of the grains of Vidanga ( Embellia ribes), and

* The measure is not stated of ghee, oil, and honey. The only indication occuring is the plural ‘adhakaih.’ Gangadhara correctly explains that these being fluids, their measure should be double that of the powders and doubled again owing to the direction about time. Hence, the measure of ghee, as also of oil, and of honey, should be 4 ‘adhakas’ or 32 seers.