w:Sushruta

“ Such men are incapable of discharging the duties of their vocation, just as a one-winged bird is incapable of taking flight in the air. Even a panacea or a medicine of ambrosial virtues administered by an unpractised or ignorant physician, will prove positively baneful as a draught of poison, or a blow with a weapon, or a thunder-bolt. A physician, ignorant of the science and art of surgery and emollient measures Sneha-karma, etc. is but a killer of men out of cupidity, and who is allowed to carry on his nefarious trade only through the inadvertence of the king. ”

“ A physician (surgeon) making a wrong operation on the body of his patient either through mistake, or through the want of necessary skill or knowledge, or out of greed, fear, nervousness or haste, or in consequence of being spurned or abused, should be condemned as the direct cause of many new and unforeseen maladies. A patient, with any instinct of self-preservation, would do well to keep aloof from such a physician, or from one who makes a wrong or injudicious application of the cautery, and should shun his presence just as he would shun a conflagration or a cup of fatal poison. ”

“ It is the best of winds, gives vigour to the eyes, increases the strength, and soothes the blood and the Pittam without aggravating the bodily Vayu. The West wind:—The West wind is pure, non-slimy, dry, rough to the perception, and keen. ”

“ In proper season thou shalt pair thy nails and clip thy hair and put on the sacred cloth, dyed brownish yellow, live the life of a truthful, self-controlled anchorite and be obedient and respectful towards thy preceptor. In sleep, in rest, or while moving about—while at meals or in study, and in all acts thou shalt be guided by my directions. Thou shalt do what is pleasant and beneficial to me, otherwise thou shalt incur sin and all thy study and knowledge shall fail to bear their wished for fruit, and thou shalt gain no fame. ”

“ The nomenclature of a disease depends upon where the affection of the several elementary principles of the body by the deranged bodily humours lies, and which is accordingly styled as it is seated in the lymph-chyle, or in the blood or the flesh, or it is in fat, bone, or in the semen. ”

“ The physician who has learnt these both, is lit to be honoured by kings, Authoritative verses on the subject :— A physician, well versed in the principles of the science of medicine (Ayurveda) , but unskilful in his art through want of practice, loses his wit at the bedside of his patient, just as, a coward is at his wit's end to determine what to do when for the first time he finds himself in the ranks of a contending army. ”

“ The evils, which attend the oblique insertion of a surgical instrument, have been described before; and accordingly care should be taken not to leave any room for the occurence of those evils in connection with a surgical operation.
The patient, who may mistrust his own parents, sons and relations, should repose an implicit faith in his own physician, and put his own life into his hands without the least apprehension of danger; hence a physician should protect his patient as his own begotten child. ”

“ Now you may ask the question how can an acid substance, which is fiery in its virtue and heat-making in its potency, tend to subdue the effects of an alkali which is possessed of similar virtues and properties, instead of augmenting them, as can naturally be apprehended? Well my child, the question can be fairly answered by stating, that substances of all tastes enter into the composition of an alkali except the acid one. ”

“ Now listen, Sushruta, my dear child. The object or utility of the science which forms the subject of our present discussion, may be grouped under two distinct sub-heads such as (1) the cure of diseased persons, and (2) the preservation of health in those who are not afflicted with any sort of bodily distempers."
The etymological meaning of the term "Ayurveda" may be interpreted to denote either a science in the knowledge of which life exists, or which helps a man to enjoy a longer duration of life. ”

“ A strong and vigorous patient can easily endure a considerable amount of burning pain, etc. and does not feel distressed by a strict regimen of diet. A man of stupendous endurance and fortitude can sustain the fatigue and worry of even the most painful surgical operation. Accordingly, a boil or an ulcer, appearing in a patient of the above said description, is easily and speedily healed; whereas the one, which affects either an old, emaciated, or timid person or one of small strength and endurance, takes time to heal. ”

“ A physician is at liberty to exercise his own skill and wisdom, and to devise his own original means for the extraction of a Shalyam with the help of any surgical instruments when the abovesaid measures would prove abortive. A Shalyam, not removed from the body and left in its place of lodgment, brings on swelling, suppuration, mortification of the affected part, and a sort of excruciating pain, and may ultimately lead to death. Hence a physician should spare no pain to extract a Shalyam from its seat of lodgment. ”

“ Because the monsters and demons of mighty prowess, who are the attendants of the gods Pashupati, Kuvera and Kumara, roam about in quest of prey, and visit the bedside of an ulcer-patient out of their fondness for flesh and blood, being attracted thereto by the smell of the secreted and morbid matter in the ulcer. These evil spirits come to take away the life of a patient in a case which is doomed to terminate fatally, while in a successful case their advent is due to the desire of extorting sacrificial oblations from him. ”

“ The secretions from an ulcer, affecting any vital part of the body, need not be separately described, as such a part naturally involves the organic principles of skin, flesh, etc.; and hence an ulcer, invading it, must necessarily exude a secretion, which is peculiar to any of the aforesaid bodily principles (skin, flesh, etc.) that has become affected. ”

“ Diseases affecting a Brahmana well versed in the Vedas, or a king, or a woman, or an infant, or an old man, or a timid person, or a man in the royal service, or a cunning man, or a man who pretends to possess a knowledge of the science of medicine, or a man who conceals his disease, or a man of an excessively irascible temperament, or a man who has no control over his senses, or a man in extremely indigent circumstances of life or without any one to take care of him, are apt to run into an incurable type though appearing in a common or curable form at the outset. ”

“ The food is fully digested with the help of the internal heat and ultimately assimilated in the system, giving rise to lymph chyle (Rasa) which is extremely thin or attenuated in its consistency and which forms the essence of the assimilated food.* [1]
The lymph chyle (Rasa) , though running through the whole organism, has its primary seat in the heart, whence it flows through the twenty-four vessels which branch off from the latter (heart) to the remotest parts and extremities of the body. ”

“ The blood, in its turn, increases the healthful glow of the complexion, leads to the increased formation of flesh and muscles and maintains vitality in the organism. The flesh contributes towards the stoutness or rotundity of the limbs and occasions the formation of fatty matter in the system. The fat gives rise to the glossiness (formation of oily or albuminous matter) of the body and primarily contributes towards the firmness and growth of the bones. The bones, in their turn, support the body, and contribute to the formation of marrow. ”

“ A person with an uniformly healthy digestion, and whose bodily humours are in a state of equilibrium, and in whom the fundamental vital fluids course in their normal state and quantity, accompanied by the normal processes of secretion, organic function, and intellection, is said to be a healthy person .
An intelligent physician should preserve the state of health in a healthy individual, while he should increase or decrease the quantity of the bodily humours, vital fluids, or excrements in a sick patient according to the exigencies of the case until his health is perfectly restored. ”

“ An obese or excessively corpulent person is likely to be afflicted with any of the following diseases such as, urethral discharges, eruptions, boils, carbuncles, fever, fistula in ano, or with any of the diseases which are caused by a deranged state of the bodily Váyu; and such attacks are invariably found to terminate in death. Any disease in such a person is apt to develop into one of a violent and dangerous type owing to the obstruction of the internal channels with deposits of fat. Hence all things or conditions which foster the growth of abnormal fat should be carefully avoided. ”

“ The swelling seems as if it is being pricked with needles, or bitten or wandered over by a host of ants, or cut with a knife, or pierced with a spear, or thrashed with a club, or pressed with the hand, or scraped round with fingers, or burnt with a fire or an alkali. The patient complains of a sort of sucking, burning pain in the swelling of a fixed or shifting character. The patient, as if stung by a scorpion, does not find comfort in any place or position. The hue of the local skin is changed and the swelling goes on increasing like an inflated leather bag ”

“ A body which is neither too stout nor too lean, but strikes the mean as regards plumpness, is the best. A lean frame should have the preference to a stout one. The enraged or aggravated bodily humours dry up the fundamental principles of the body, such as the lymph chyle etc., just in the same way as a well-kindled fire will evaporate the water contained in a basin placed over it. ”

“ A medicinal plaster should be regarded as the general and most important remedy in all cases of (inflammatory) swelling. We shall presently discuss the nature of plasters to be used in each specific form of disease. A bandage plays a more important part (than a medicinal plaster) as regards its healing and curative efficacy, inasmuch as it materially contributes to the purification and healing of an ulcer and keeps the joints steady. A medicinal plaster should be applied from down upward or in a direction contrary to that of the local hair (Pratiloma) . ”

“ Just as a tree, that has grown old and that has spread its roots deep into the soil, can not be uprooted, so a disease can not be eradicated that has gained in strength and maturity with the process of time, and that has gradually invaded the different essential principles of the body. ”

“ An excess of Kapham in the body is marked by such symptoms, as the whiteness, coldness and numbness of the body, heaviness of the limbs, a sense of drowsiness and languor, somnolence, and a feeling of looseness of the bone-joints.
Similarly, an increased germination of lymph chyle (Rasa) in the body is manifest by such characteristics as, nausea, water-brash, and an increased flow of salivary secretion. A plethora of blood in the system gives a reddish glow to the complexion and the white of the eyes, and imparts fullness to the veins. ”

“ Bits of gold, silver, copper, brass, zinc, or lead, anyhow inserted into a human organism, are soon melted by the heat of the Pittam and are assimilated and transformed into the fundamental principles of the body. ”

“ An ulcer-patient should avoid all things that retard the progress of a rapid cure, such as wind, dust, smoke, exposure to heat and cold, over-eating, unpleasant sounds and sights, envy, humiliation, fear, anger, grief, scheming, keeping of late hours, sitting or lying in an uneven posture, fasting, garrulousness, physical exercise, leaping or a standing posture, locomotion, exposure to cold winds, ingestion of unwholesome, in- compatible or indigestible substances, and flea-bites on the affected locality. ”

“ The semen gives rise to valour and courageousness, makes a man amorously disposed towards the female sex, increases his strength and amativeness, is the sole impregnating principle in the male organism, and is possessed of the virtue of being quickly emitted.
The excreta or the fecal matters of a man are indispensably necessary for the preservation of the body. They contain the wind and digestion (being primarily connected with the movements of the bodily Vayu and the feeling of hunger) . ”

“ An attempt to cure a doomed patient is only repaid by failure and the ridicule of the world, and hence an intelligent physician should make it worth his while to carefully observe and study these fatal indications. A contrariety of the natural smell, colour, taste, (sensation, sound, touch, etc.) of an ulcer indicates a near and fatal termination of the disease. ”

“ On the other hand a physician, experienced in his art but deficient in the knowledge of the Ayurveda, is condemned by all good men as a quack, and deserves capital punishment at the hands of the king. ”

“ A vein* [3] (Shira) any way severed or injured is attended with a copious flow (haemorrhage) of deep red blood, resembling the hue of the cochineal insect, from the ulcer; and the deranged local Vayu readily exhibits all its essential characteristics, and ushers in diseases which have been enumerated under that head in the chapter on the description of blood.)
Similarly, an injured ligament gives rise to a crookedness or bending of, as well as to a gone feeling in the injured limb or organ, attended with pain and loss of function, and the incidental ulcer takes a long time to heal. ”

“ The partaking of food, composed of substances which are heavy, slimy, sweet, acid or saline in their taste, or of one consisting of substances which increase the mucous secretions from the fissures of the body, may be likewise set down as aggravating factors. The use of food grains, which are called the Hayanaka, the Yavaka, the Naishadha, the Itcata, the Masha, the Mahamasha, the Godhuma, the Tilam, or of rice cakes may lead to its aggravation. ”