This section is from the book "The Sushruta Samhita", by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna. Also available from Amazon: The Sushruta Samhita.
The use of meat of which the essence has been previously extracted fails to contribute to the growth and strength of the organism, and is long retained in an undigested state in the stomach and impairs digestion. It is insipid, generates the Vayu in the organism, and tends to produce a state of parehedness in the body. The dish known as the Khanshka Mansa (a kind of dried meat) is very hard to digest (heavy of digestion) and proves wholesome only to men of strong digestive powers. The cooked meat called the Veshavara (boneless boiled meat subsequently pasted and cooked with treacle, clarified butter, black pepper, Pippali, and Shunthi, etc.) is heavy of digestion, demulcent, strength-giving, and alleviates diseases due to the action of the angry Vayu. The dish known as the Sauvira is soothing to all the fundamental principles of the organism. It specially removes parchedness of the mouth, allays thirst and hunger, and is palatable and cooling in its potency.
In the dish known as the Prataptam, the meat is first fried with clarified butter, then pasted and flavoured with the addition of curd, pomegranate-juice etc. and is again cooked with clarified butter, Ajaji, and Samudra salt over a charcoal fire, each of the preceding substances being added to it in succession during cooking over a gridiron. Meat luted with sesamum paste and cooked with the addition of flavouring condiments to a honey colour is called Kandupakkam, while the one soaked in asafoetida and water and cooked over a gridiron over a smokeless fire by sprinkling water over it with the addition of pomegranate juice, etc, is called Shulyam.
Mudga soup subdues the .Kapham, and is appetising and agreeable'. It forms the most wholesome diet to persons whose systems have been cleansed with the aid of purgative and emetic remedies, as well as to those suffering from ulcers. The soup known as the Raga-Shadava (which is another name for Mudga soup prepared with grapes and expressed pomegranate-juice) is light, and imparts a relish to food. It is not hostile to the deranged humours of the body but slightly subdues their action). The soup of the Masura, or of the Mudga, or of the Godhuma or of the Kulattha pulse, prepared with salt is inhostile to the Pittam and Kapham, and is specially recommended in nervous diseases (Vata-Vyadhi). The soup of the Masura etc., cooked and prepared with raisins and pomegranate-juice is beneficial to patients suffering from Vata-Vyadhi. It is relishing, appetising, agreeable, and light (of digestion). Soups of Mudga, etc., prepared with Patola or Nimva tend to reduce the quantity of fat and Kapham in the organism, subdue the Pittam, are appetising and agreeable, and prove curative in cases of Kushtha (cutaneous affections) and diseases of parasitic origin. Mudga soup prepared with Mulaka removes dyspnoea, cough, catarrh, water-brash, fever and a relish for food. It tends to reduce fat and Kapham in the organism, and proves curative in diseases affecting the throat.
The soup of the Kulattha pulse cures diseases due to the action of the deranged Vayu, as well as asthma, catarrh, and Tuni, Pratituni, cough, piles, abdominal glands (Gulma and Udavarta. Prepared with the expressed juice of the Dadima or Amalaka it acquires an agreeable taste, pacifies the deranged humours, and is light, appetising and strength-giving in its virtues. It proves curative in epilepsy and obesity, and subdues the deranged Vayu and Pittam. Mudga soup cooked with Amalakas acquires an astringent property, and proves beneficial in derangements of the Kapham and Pittam.
The soups of the Yava,Kola and Kulattha pulses destroy the Vayu and are beneficial to the larynx. Similarly, soups of all the pulses, which go by the name of Shami-Dhanyas, increase the strength and rotundity of the body. Khala and Kamvalika soups are respectively agreeable and subdue the Vayu and Pittam.
All soups cooked and prepared with the expressed juice of pomegranate should be known as strength-giving, demulcent, and heavy of digestion. They subdue the Vayu and Pittam. Soups, made and flavoured acid by the mixture of whey, produce the Pittam and tend to vitiate the blood and besides aggravate the effects of any imbibed poison lurking in the system.
The soups and gruels respectively known as the Kharayusha, * the Khara-Yavagu, † the Shadava ‡ and the Panaka should be prepared with the advice, and according to the instructions of a physician. The soup, which is cooked or prepared without the admixture of any salt, condiments (black pepper, pungent spices) or any oily or lardaceous substance, is called the Akrita-Yusha (unseasoned soup), whereas the one which is cooked and seasoned with the foregoing
* Mudga soup prepared with whey, horse-apple, Annul (onalis corniculata), cumin seeds, black pepper and the roots of Chita (Plumbago Zeylanica).
† Gruel prepared in the manner of Khara-Yusha.
‡ Mudga soup in the composition of which things of sweet, saline, astringent, acid and pungent tastes largely enter, spices and substances oil, clarified butter, etc., is called a seasoned soup (Krita Yusha). Of the soups and extracts of meat respectively cooked and prepared with the modifications of cow-milk (curd, whey, etc.), Kanjika and acid fruits (pomegranate, etc.) each succeeding variety should be deemed lighter and more wholesome than the one immediately preceding it in the order of enumeration. The soup cooked with the cream of the curd and the expressed juice of the Dadima is called Kamvalika soup. Articles of food prepared with sesamum and its levigated cake, or those in the composition of which dried pot herbs, rice threshed out of sprouting paddy or Sindaki (a species of potherbs described before) enter, should be considered as heavy of digestion. They subdue the Pittam and increase the Kapham. The Vatakas resemble the Sindakis in their properties, but are heavy of digestion and admit of being incompletely digested, giving rise to a kind of acid re-action. The varieties of soups known as the Raga * and Shadava are light, tissue-building, spermatopoietic, agreeable, relishing, and appetising in their properties. They alleviate thirst, epileptic fits, vertigo and vomiting, and remove the sense of fatigue or exhaustion.
The variety of food known as the Rasala † is constructive, tonic, demulcent, spermatopoietic and relishing. Curd sweetend with treacle is agreeable. It generates the Vayu in the system, and tends to increase the oily principle in the organism. Powdered barley soaked in clarified butter and made into a dough with water, which is neither too thick nor too thin in its consistency, is called Mantha, which acts as a tonic immediately on it being partaken of. It allays thirst and removes the sense of fatigue and exhaustion. The Mantha, treated with treacle and clarified butter, proves curative in cases of difficult urination and obstinate Udavarta. A Mantha prepared with sugar, raisins (Draksha) and the expressed juice of sugar-cane, removes diseases due to the derangement of the Pittam. Mantha, containing raisins and Madhuka fruit, successfully combats diseases brought about through the action of the deranged Kapham. A Mantha saturated with the three aforesaid substances (acid and lardaceous, sugar and raisins) tends to restore the stool to its normal condition.
* Is made of sugar, Saindhava salt, tamarind, Sarjikshara, Parushaka and the expressed juice of Jambuline fruits; while the Shadava soup is prepared with salt and acid and sweet fruits.
† A sweet aromatic preparation consisting of acid buffalo-curd, refined sugar, milk, powdered cardamom, camphor and black pepper.
 
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