Materials Of The Pipes

The pipe should be made either of gold, silver, copper, iron, brass, ivory, horn, gems or wood. It should be straight, smooth and firm, tapering at the top like the tuft of hair in the tail of a cow, and bulbular (i.e , not pointed) at its mouth. The Vasti * should be (prepared with) the

* The Vasti is so called from its being prepared with the bladder (Vasti) of an animal. Dallana notes in this connection that the bladder bladder (Vasti) either of a full-grown ox, buffalo or a sheep nor should it be soft (flexible) and firm, neither too thick nor too thin and of adequate dimensions. 7.

Metrical Text

In the absence of a pipe, a reed, bamboo, or horn might serve the purpose. In the absence of the bladder of any of the foregoing animals, the Vasti should be made of skin or of thick linen. 8.

Construction Of The Vasti

The bladder diatheses) from the system and from its curing the diseases of the body; while Asthápana is so named from its virtue of rejuvenating the organism or producing longevity. The process of Madhu-tailika would be described in connection with the mode of applying a Niruha-vasti. 10.

(of which a Vasti should be made) should be cleansed, tanned and dyed (disinfected). It should be softened and repeatedly lubricated with a Sneha. It has generally a wide mouth which should be bent and lightly fitted to the butt end of the pipe (Netra). The mouth of the bladder should then be tied above the (Karniká). The whole bladder should be heated with a piece of hot iron (in order to polish the surface and remove the pores therein, if any). The mouth of the bladder should then be folded and again tied (below the Karniká). The whole should then be carefully preserved. The Asthá-pana or the oily (Snaihika) Vasti should be applied, as the case may be, with the help of such a Vasti. A mild Vasti should be applied specially to infants and old men, since a strong one is likely to injure their health and strength. 9.

Vastis may be grouped under two heads - Nairuhika (dry or oilless) and Snaihika (oleaginous). The term Asthápana is synonymous with Niruha. The Vasti known as the Madhu-Tailika is only an alternative of a Niruha-vasti. The terms Yápana, Yukta-ratha, and Siddha-vasti convey also the same meaning. A Niruha-vasti is so called from the fact of its expelling the Doshas (morbific of an ox, buffalo, or a hog, should be used in the Asthápana and Anuvá-sana measures, and the bladder of a goat or a sheep should be used in the Uttara-vasti.

The Anuvásana is only an alternative of a Sneha-Vasti, but (with this difference that) the quantity of the fluid to charge with should be three-fourths, and the amount of the good effect therefrom would also be three-fourths. An Anuvásana vasti is so called from the fact of its not injuring the system even in the event of its being retained in the bowels a whole day, or from the fact of its being adapted to daily application. The Mátrá-vasti again which is applicable in all cases, is an alternative to an Anuvásana-vasti, but should be charged with only a half part of the fluid of that used in an Anuvasana-vasti. 11.

Metrical Texts

A Niruha-vasti acts as a cleanser of the system (Sodhana). It is anti-fat (Lekhana), emulsive (Snehana) and constructive (Vrim-hana). Oleaginous matter (Sneha) may freely enter into the organism when all its ducts and channels have been previousiy cleansed by the application of a Niruha-vasti. As water will freely run through channels previously cleansed of all refuse matter, so does an Anuvasana tend to cleanse the organism of all Doshas (morbific diatheses) and to increase the vitality of the organism. A Sneha-vasti should, therefore; be applied to a person previously purged of all Doshas by the application of a Niruha-vasti. 12.

Both the Anuvásana and the Asthapána Vastis should be regarded as forbidden in cases of insanity, in the mental conditions of terror and grief, of a thirsty state of the body, of aversion to food and of indigestion, jaundice (Pándu), giddiness, delirium, epilepsy, vomiting, Kushtha, Meha, ascites, obesity, asthma, cough, dryness of the throat and oedema as well as in respect of a Kshata-Kshina patient and a pregnant woman in (and before) the third or the fourth month of her gestation, in the case of a person suffering from dulness of appetite, impatient and incapable of bearing the least pain as well as in respect of infants, old men and persons emaciated by a bodily distemper other than one due to Váyu 13.

Metrical Text

The Asthápana-vasti should be exclusively applied in cases of ascites, urinary complaints (Meha), Kushtha and obesity. The application of an Anuvásna-vasti is entirely forbidden in those cases inasmuch as it might make the disease run into an incurable type, and a great amount of lassitude of the organism would be the consequence. 14.

Medicine duly injected (through the rectum) with the help of a Vasti remains in the intestines (Pakvás'aya), in the region of the pelvis and below the umbilical region. The potency of the Vasti (medicine) spreads over the whole organism from the intestines (Pakvás'aya), just as the potency of the water poured at the root of a tree tends to permeate the whole tree (through its minutest cells and fibres). The liquid part of the Vasti is emitted out through the rectum either by itself or with the fœcal matter, etc. *, but its potency acts over the whole organism through the intervention of the Apána and the other Váyus. The potency of the Vasti in the Pakvás'aya acts on the whole organism from top to toe, like the sun in the heavens acting on the humidity (Rasa)

* Srikantha Dutta in his commentary quotes this sloka, but he reads thereConstruction Of The Vasti 200183 (with Kapha) in the place of (with the foecal matter, etc.). The reading in the text, however, is preferable inasmuch as Kapha is included in Mala.

of the earth below. The Vasti, if duly applied, tends to eliminate completely from the system all the Doshas (morbific diatheses) accumulated in the regions of the back, waist and the abdomen (Koshtha). 15-A.

As the aggravation of all the Doshas (morbific principles) of the body is principally dependent on the derangement of the bodily Váyu; an aggravated condition of the latter may hence lead to the dissolution of the body, and consequently the application of a Vasti, and nothing else, is the only means of coping with the aggravation of the Vayu (by subduing and restoring it to its normal condition), just as the sea-coast is the only barrier to the swollen and wind-agitated surf of the sea. A well-applied Vasti contributes to the growth, health, strength and longevity of the body and to the improvement in its complexion. 15.