Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

The solidification of earth, fire, air, and the rest, brought about 'by the heat of fat, causes its hardness. From this are born the bones •df human beings.

The wind causes perforations (hollows) lin the bones. 29-30

The hollows of the bones are filled up with fat.

It is this oily matter {viz., fat) from which marrow is begot. v.

From the oily matter proceeding from the marrow is born the wital seed. 31

From the condition ©f there being air and ether and the rest, (perforations take place in the bones. Through those perforations the vital seed is emitted, like water through a new earthen rjar. 32

Impelled by joy (transports of delight) and obtaining an impetus from lustful desire born in the mind, the vital seed, collected (together, and borne through the seed-bearing ducts, escapes from the body. 33

Melting like gkee through the heat caused by exertion (of sexual ■congress), and falling from its own place, it becomes collected in the region about the testicles. Whence it escapes .like water from a ■higher to a lower .place, 34

The ‘dhatu’ called ‘Rasa’ (that is, the juicy matter into which food iis first converted) is continuously diffused through every part of the ■body simultaneously, by the life-breath called ‘Vyana’ whose function ■it is to diffuse. 35

If in .consequence df the "fault of ether (z. e., the hollo ws of the ■ducts), ‘Rasa,’ while it is being diffused (by the life-breath called

■verse; is ungrammatical. The sense of ■ the first line is not completed in the second. The explanation which Gangadhara gives is utterly unintelligible. The Bengali translators also ■skip the difficulty. The version I give is a tentative one. — T.

j 79

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

p. 1416

‘Vyana’), becomes immovable (i. <?., adherent), it causes diverse diseases, like clouds (when they mass together in the welkin owing to some obstruction) causing downpours below. 36

Even this is what happens in respect of faults when they become immovable (or adherent) in a particular place ; that is,, they become excited and cause diverse diseases.

Thus has been laid down the functions of the several kinds of heat which cook the ‘dhatus’ appertaining to earth and the other primal elements, as also the food that is eaten.* 37

That heat which cooks (digests) the food eaten is the prince of all heats whose function is cooking. Indeed, all the other heats have the food-cooking heat for their root. Their increase or decrease depends on its increase or decrease. 38

Hence one should heedfully maintain (keep up) that heat with the fuel of well-combined and beneficial food and drink ; since upon that heat being kept up, the period of life and strength are kept up. 39

That person who, through temptation, stuffs his stomach with food, disregarding the ordinances in that respect, gets all those diseases which are born of the vitiation of the ‘Grahani.’ Those diseases are spoken of below. 4°

From abstention from all food, from eating food that is indigest¬ ible, from eating to excess, from eating food consisting of inhar¬ monious ingredients, from eating food that is not assimilable, or is heavy, or cold, or excessively dry (unoily), or vitiated, from errors in the administration of purgatives, emetics, and oils, from affliction (t. e., weakness, emaciation, &c.,) by diseases, from absence of harmony in respect of place (habitat), time (age), and season, from suppression of the urgings (of nature), the (digestive) fire is vitiated. The vitiated fire cannot digest food that is even light. The food, again, that is not digested, causes acidity and even becomes poison. 4i-43

The following are the symptoms of indigestion (of the food taken): flatulence of the stomach, langour of the body, headache, swoons,

* GangSdhara explains the compound as ‘bhautikSnSm dh5tun5m annanancha paktSra ye agnayab,’ i, e., those heats which are cookers of ‘bhautika dhStus’ and of ‘anna.’ — T.

CHARAKA-SAMHITA.

*4i 7 vertigo, pains in the back and the waist, yawns, lassitude of the limbs, thirst, fever, vomiting, dysentery (white flux), disgust for food, and absence of transformation into healthy stools.

The food in the stomach that is not digested is a terrible' poison. 44-45

Combining with excited bile, this undigested food, which becomes poison, produces burning of the skin, thirst, diseases of the mouth, sour bile, and other ailments born of (excited bile). 46

Combining with (excited) phlegm, it produces phthisis* inflam¬ mation of the Schneiderian membrane, gonorrhcea, and other dieases born of (excited phlegm).

Combining with the (excited) wind, it producs diverse diseases that are born of the (excited) wind. 47