The Tilvaka-Ghrita

A paste (Kalka) of the following drugs, viz, Trivrit, Danti, Suvarna-kshiri, Saptalá, Samkhini, Triphalá and Vidanga, each weighing an Aksha (two tolás), and Tilvaka-roots and Kampillaka, each weighing a Vilva (eight tolas), a decoction of Triphalá and curd, each weighing two Pátras * (thirty-two seers) and clarified butter, weighing sixteen seers, should be duly cooked together. Medical authorities recommend this Tilvaka Ghrita as an oily purgative in cases of Váta-roga. As'oka-Ghrita and Ramyaka-Ghrita are prepared in the same manner, (viz., by substituting As'oka and Ramyaka respectively for Tilvaka). 21.

The Anu-Taila

The log of a long-standing wooden oil-mill should be cut into small chips and then thrashed and boiled in water in a large cauldron. The globules of oil that will be found floating on the surface of the boiling water should be skimmed off either with the hand or with a saucer. The oil thus collected should then be cooked with the Kalka of Váyu-subduing drugs as in the preparation of a medicated oil. This oil is known as the Anu-Taila The use of this oil has been advised by medical authorities in cases of Váta-roga. This oil is so named from the fact of its being pressed out of small chips of oily wood (as described above). 22.

The Sahasra-Paka-Taila

The wood of drugs belonging to the group of Mahá-pancha-mula should be collected in large quantities and burnt on a

* Pátra means 64 Palas, i e., 8 seers, but in cases of liquids the weight should be doubled, plot of land, so as to make the soil black. The fire should be kept burning one whole night; on the following morning on the extinction of the fire the ashes should be removed and the ground, when cool, should be soaked with one hundred Ghatas (six thousand and four hundred seers) of oil cooked with the drugs of the Vidári-gandhádi group and with the same quantity of milk and kept in that condition for one night more. On the next morning the earth should be dug up, down to the stratum found to have been soaked with the oil and the soil should then be dissolved in warm water in large cauldrons for the purpose. The oil that will be found floating on the surface of the water should be skimmed off with both hands and kept in a safe basin. Then the decoction of the Váyu-subduing drugs (the Bhadra-dárvádi group), meat-juice, milk, fermented rice-gruel (each taken in a quantity measuring a quarter part of that oil) should be taken one thousand times and each time should be boiled with the oil. Váyu-subduing and aromatic drugs and spices, in the northern (^trans-Himalaya) and southern (Deccan) countries, should be thrown into it and boiled with the oil. The boiling should be completed within the period during which it could be properly clone. Then after the completion of the cooking, conch-shells should be blown, Dundubhis should be sounded, umbrellas should be held open, chowries should be blown into it and a thousand Brahmins should be treated with repasts. The oil so sacredly prepared should be stored carefully in golden, silver or earthen pitchers. This oil is called the Sahasrapáka-Taila and is of irresistible potency and fit even for the use of kings. Satapáka-Taila is also prepared in the above manner (with the aforesaid ingredients) by cooking it one hundred times only. 23.