Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

The essence of the ashes of Malati ( Echites caryophillata), mixed with ichor of the elephant, forms another plaster that is beneficial in White leprosy. 164

Nilotpala ( Nympcea stellata ), Kushtha ( Aplotaxis auriculata ), and ‘Saindhava’ salt, reduced to paste with the urine of the elephant, forms a good plaster for White leprosy.

The seeds of Mulaka (garden radish) and those of Avalguja (otherwise called Somrâji, i. e., Serratula anthelmintica ), reduced to a.

CHAR A KA-SA MHITA.

*2 34 paste with the urine of the cow, form a beneficial plaster for White Leprosy. l65

Kakodumvarika ( Ficus oppositifolid), Vasa; (Justicia A dhatoda), Avalguja (seeds of Serratula antkelmintica), and Chitraka {Plumbago Zeylanica ), reduced to a paste with the urine of the cow, form another plaster that is- beneficial in this disease.

Manahgila (realgar), reduced to a paste with the bile of the peacock, forms another plaster that is beneficial in this disease. 166

The seeds of Avalguja ( Serratula anthelmentica ), lac, the bile of the ox, the two Anjanas (Rasanjana, i. e., galena or sulphide of lead ore, and Tuttha, i. <?., sulphate of copper), Pippali ( Piper longuni), and the dust of black iron, reduced to a paste, (and applied as a plaster), cure leucoderma. 167

Sometimes of a patient whose sins" have been washed off (by ■expiatory rites), White leprosy is cured by administration of the usual correctives, by the letting out of blood, and by eating those sorts of flour that are regarded as dry. 168

KilSsa (leucoderma) is known to be of three varieties, having three names, viz., 1. Darana, 2. ChSrana, and 3. £itra.

Each of these is characterised by excitement of the three faults. 169

When the faults affect the blood, the colour of the disease becomes red. When they affect the flesh, the colour becomes coppery. When they affect the adeps, the colour becomes white. Each succeeding variety of the disease is more difficult of cure than the .preceding one. 17°

That variety of White leprosy in which the patches are many and have a tendency to unite with one another, in which many hairs of a red colour appear, and which is of many years’ standing, is incurable. x7i

The causes of leucoderma are untruthful speech, an ungrateful disposition, evil speaking in respect of the deities, and humiliating seniors ; as also sinful acts (committed in this life), and (similar) acts* of previous lives. Inharmonious food also is another cause. 172

( Here are some verses containing a summary ).

The causes (of leprosy), the articles of food (from which it arises).

CHAR AKA- SA MBIT A.

*235 its symptoms, the faults, in brief, which characterise different varieties of the disease, the considerations of curability and incurability, those varieties that are difficult of cure, the well-tried combinations of drugs which cure the disease, the causes of leucoderma and its symptoms, the severity and lightness of the different varieties of this disease, and the methods of alleviation, — these have been compiled, in this Lesson on the cure of Leprosy, by the great Rishi, viz., Hutagavega, and declared unto his pupils for improving their memory and understanding.* 12

Thus ends Lesson VII, called Kushtha-chikitsa (treatment of Leprosy), in the Division called ‘Chikitsita’ of the treatise of Agnivega as revised by Charaka.

LESSON VIII.

TREATMENT OF PHTHISIS.

We shall, after this, expound the treatment of ‘Râja-Yakshma’ or Phthisis.

Thus said the illustrious son of Atri.

Of the deities who conversed with one another the conversation, which took place in days of yore, and which related to lust and calamity, on the subject of £agin (the deity of the moon), was heard by the Rishis. 1

Of Indu (the deity of the moon), who was excessively attached to Rohini one of his seven and twenty wives who were all daughters of

* ‘Hutagavega,’ that is ‘Agnivega.’ The fact is, all the synonyms of the word ‘Agni’ or fire may be used in indicating the Rishi. Thus ‘Hastinapura’, the capital city of the Kurus, is called ‘Gajasahvayam’, ‘Nagasahvayam,’ &c. The Rishi named ‘Parvata’ — a near rela¬ tion of Narada — is called ‘Adri’. All the synonyms of the word ‘Parvata’ which means a mountain, are applied to indicate this sage. — T.

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 1236

Daksha), and who took no care for preserving his body, the body became diminished, in consequence of the loss of oily ingredients. 2 At the neglect by Indu of the other daughters of that Lord of all creatures, {viz. Daksha), the latter’s wrath, in the shape of his breath, came out, in an embodied form, of his mouth.* 3

Angumat (he of bright rays) had taken for wives the seven and twenty daughters of that Lord of’ creatures {viz., Daksha), but did not love and live with all of them. 4

Into (^agin who behaved unequally towards his wives, who had been blinded by the quality of Passion, and who, cursed by his father-in-law, had become cheerless, phthisis entered. 5