Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

One afflicted with ‘Prameha’ arising from indulgence in cooling and oily and nutritive food and drink, should check it by eating the meat, roasted on sticks, of animals and birds of different kinds, as also diverse kinds of food made of barley, and by means of correctives, and various spirits, and decoctions and lickables (that are laid in the Division called Kalpa). 46

One who eats fried barley and the diverse edibles prepared with barley, and dried ‘£aktu,’ never gets any kind of ‘Meha.’ Nor does such a man get any kind of white leprosy, or tubercular leprosy born of phlegm. One that eats diverse kinds of food also that are pre¬ pared with'Mudga ( Phaseolus Mungo), or Amalaka (fruits of Phyllanthus Emblica), does not get these diseases. 47

Those medicinal preparations, which have been laid down by me for drying up the system in diseases arising from indulgence in cool¬ ing and oily food as also in diseases to which persons having excess of fat are subject, are highly efficacious, and should, therefore, be administered in all those varieties of ‘Prameha’ which arise from (excited) phlegm and bile. 48

All kinds of ‘Meha’ may be kept off by diverse kinds of physical exercise, by having one’s body strongly rubbed, by baths and washing of the body, and by the use of unguents made of the roots of Sevya ( Andropogon muricatus), Tvach ( Cinnamomum Zeylanicum ), ElS {Elettaria cardamomum), Aguru ( Aquilaria Agallocha ), Chandana (red sandal wood), and other articles of the kind. 49

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

[205

Seeing that impurities, fat, and phlegm, when increased, are the causes of ‘Prameha,’ the physician should, at the outset, admi¬ nister, in those varieties of ‘Prameha’ that are born of phlegm and bile, those drugs (including food and drink) which are known by the name of ‘Apatarpana’.* 5°

That treatment which has, before this, been laid down for ‘Prameha’ born of wind is ordained also for those kinds of phlegm-born and bile-born ‘Prameha’ which are distinguished by inordinate excite¬ ment of the wind. In persons who are greatly attenuated (by (‘Apatarpana’) when afflicted with ‘Meha,’ the wind becomes greatly excited.

As regards those varieties of (phlegm-born and bile-born) ‘Pra¬ meha’ which are incurable, there is no need of puzzling the brain about their treatment. 51

Persons should not indulge in (or expose themselves to) those causes from which arise the kinds of ‘Meha’ that afflict them. Verily, non-indulgence in (or non-exposure to) that cause is the treatment ordained for that disease which arises from it. 52

When a person, without manifesting the incubatory symptoms of ‘Prameha’, passes such urine as is either of a yellow or red colour, that disease should not be called ‘Prameha’. It is only an excite¬ ment of the blood and bile. S3

When the urine is seen to be slimy and is as sweet as honey, there should arise two kinds of consideration : when the ‘doshas’ (meaning, these ingredients of the body which are subject to vitiation, viz., blood, adeps, flesh, marrow, &c.,) are greatly attenuated, the disease should be regarded as having the excited wind for its cause ; if (on the other hand) the result has been brought about by indulgence in ‘Santarpana’ (or food and drink that are cooling, oily, and nutritive), it should be set down as born of (excited) phlegm. 54

Those cases of ‘Meha’ born of phlegm, as also those born of bile, which linger on with their incubatory symptoms manifested, also those cases of ‘Meha’ born of wind that present the same peculiarity, are not curable.

* ‘Apatarpana’ is the reverse of ‘Santarpana’. The latter is used to mean cooling, oily, and nutritive food and drink. Hence ‘Apatarpana’ means fasting, or such drugs and such regimen as have attenuating properties. — T.

p. 1206

CHAR A KA - SA M HIT A .

As regards those cases of ‘Meha’ born of bile which do not present the peculiarity noted above (viz., the presence of the incubatory symptoms even after their development), they are suppressible. If, however, the fat be not vitiated, then even those cases become curable. 55

A person suffering from congenital ‘Prameha1 owing to the fact of his birth from a father afflicted with ‘Madhumeha,’ cannot be cured for the primary defect in the seed. Similarly all other hereditary or congenital maladies do not yield to treatment. 56