Metrical Texts

A wise physician should (invariably) prescribe some sort of tonic (Rasayana) for his patients in their youth and middle age after having their systems (properly) cleansed by the applications of a Sneha and purifying remedies (emetics and purgatives). A person whose system has not been (previously) cleansed (Sodhana) with the proper purifying remedies (emetics and purgatives) should not, in any case, have recouise to such tonics inasmuch as they would fail to produce the wished-for result, just as the application of a dye to a piece of dirty cloth will prove non-effective. 2.

Now we shall describe the remedial measures and agents for the maladies due to the aggravated Doshas * both mental and physical, which have already been described (in several places). Old age and senile decay would be arrested (lit. perpetual or life-long youth would be secured) by drinking milk, cold water, honey and clarified butter, either severally or jointly (i.e., in any combination † taken one, two, three or four at a time) in early life (just on or just before the completion of the process of organic development) 3-4.

* The mental Doshas are Rajas and Tamas, whereas the physical Doshas are Váyu, Pitta and Kapha.

† There would be four combinations of one each, six of two each, four of three each and one of four jointly; thus there would be fifteen combinations in all.

Vidanga-Rasáyana

The powdered seeds of the Vidanga (Tandula) and pulverised Yashti-madhu should be mixed together and taken in cold water in an adequate dose (according to the strength of the patient), and a potion of cold water should then be taken. This medicine should be regularly continued for a month. The same pulverised Vidatiga seeds should be similarly taken for a month through the vehicle of the decoction of Bhallátaka mixed with honey; or of the decoction of grapes mixed with honey; or with the expressed juice of Amalaka sweetened with honey; or through the vehicle of the decoction of Guduchi. Thus there are these five ways (of taking pulverised Vidanga seeds (Tandula) as an elixir. A meal of boiled rice with a copious quantity of clarified butter should be taken with the soup of Amalaka and Mudga pulse unseasoned with salt and cooked with only a small quantity of Sneha (claiified butter) after the medicine has been well digested. These (Rasáyana) remedies prove curative in cases of haemorrhoids and in complaints of worms. They improve memory and the power of comprehension and their use for every month increases the life-time of the user by one hundred years. 5.

Vidanga-Kalpa

One Diona measure of Vidanga (seeds; should be boiled in the way of preparing cakes in an Indian cake-pan. When the watery portion (of the cakes, have been removed (evaporated) and the Vidanga-grains well boiled, they should be taken down and well pasted on a stone-slab. They should then be kept in a strong iron pitcher after having been mixed with a copious quantity of the decoctions * of Yashti-madhu. The pitcher should be buried in a heap of ashes inside a closed room during the rainy season and preserved there during the four months of rain; after that period the pitcher should be taken out (of the ashes). Its contents should then be consecrated with (appropriate) Mantras by uttering them a thousand times and should be taken every morning in suitable quantities after the system has been thoroughly cleansed (by appropriate emetics and purgatives, etc.). The diet should consist of cooked rice and clarified butter mixed with a copious quantity of the soup of Mudga pulse and Amalaka cooked with a small quantity of Sneha and salt; and should be taken after the digestion of the medicine. The patient should lie on the ground (and not on a bedding). Worms would be found to have been issuing out of the body after the regular and continuous use of the medicine for a month, which should be extracted with the aid of a pair of bamboo tongs or forceps after the body had been anointed with the Anu-taila (described before) Ants would be coming out of the body during the second, and ver-mins (Yuka) in the third month of the use of the medicine which should also be removed as in the preceding manner. The hair, nails and teeth begin to fall off and become dilapidated in the fourth month of its use. In the fifth month the body beams with a divine glow, becomes resplendent as the midday sun, and exhibits features which specifically belong to the etherial being. The cars become capable of hearing the faintest and remotest sound (under its use), and the vision extends far into space and beholds objects at a great range (which is not usually given to mortal eyes to descry). The mind, shorn of the qualities of Rajas (action) and Tamas (nescience), becomes possessed of Sattva (illuminating principles or true knowledge). Things are permanently and indelibly impressed upon his (user's) memory at a single hearing and the faculty of invention wonderfully expands Old age and decay permanently vanish and youth returns to stay in him for good, bringing with it an elephantine strength and a horse-like speed, and he is enabled to live for eight hundred springs The medicated oil known as Anu-taila should be used in anointing (the body at this stage of treatment); a decoction of Aja-karna for Utsádana (washing) purposes, well-water saturated with Us'ira for bathing purposes, sandal paste in anointing (Anulepana) the body, and the regimen of diet and conduct as described in connection with the Bhallátaka treatment (Vidhána)should be observed. 6.

* Dallana explains the term Madhukodakottara to mean a large quantity of Madhuka and water, (and by water he means the decoction of Vidanga).