English
Rivers, give us back that medicine! 296 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. kani and krtya-pratiharanani); 4. Charms pertaining to women (stri-karmant); 5. Charms to secure harmony, influence in the assembly, and the like (saumanasyani); 6. Charms pertaining to royalty (raja-karmani); 7. Prayers and imprecations in the interest of Brahmins; 8. Charms to secure property and freedom from danger (paustikant);9. Charms in expiation of sin and defilement (prayascittant) ; 10. Cosmogonic and theosophic hymns; 11. Ritual- istic and general hymns; 12. The books dealing with individual themes (books 13-18); 13. The twentieth book; 14. The kuntapa hymns!; of these we have here to deal briefly with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9, more or less in the order in which they appear in the Atharva-Veda. A.V. 1. 2 is a charm against fever (jvara), diarrhoea (atisara), diabetes (atzmiitra), glandular sores (na@di-vrana) ; a string made of munya grass is to be tied, the mud from a field or ant-hill is to be drunk, clarified butter is to be applied and the holes of the anus and penis and the mouth of the sore are to be aerated with a leather bladder and the charm is to be chanted. The disease asrava, mentioned in this hymn, is explained by Sayana as meaning diabetes (miitratisara)*. 1. 3 is a charm against stoppage of urine and stool (miitra-purisa-nirodha). Along with a chanting of the hymn the patient is to be made to drink either earth from a rat’s hole (miisika-mrttika), a piitika plant, curd, or saw-dust from old wood, or he is to ride an elephant or a horse, or to throw an arrow; a fine iron needle was to be passed through the urinal canal. This is probably the earliest stage of what developed in later times as the vasti-kriya®. 1.7 and 1. 8 are charms for driving away evil spirits, yatudhanas and kimidins, when a man is possessed by them. I. 10 is a charm for dropsy (jalodara): a jugful of water con- taining grass, etc. is to be sprinkled over the body of the patient. I. 11 is a charm for securing easy delivery. I. 12 is a charm for all diseases arising from disturbance of vata, pitta and slesman— fat, honey and clarified butter or oil have to be drunk. Head- disease (sirsaktz) and cough (Rasa) are specially mentioned. 1. 17 ' Mr Bloomfield’s The Atharva-Veda and Gopatha-Brahmana, p. 57. Bloomfield says that dsrdva means atisdra or diarrhoea (ibid. p. 59). The same physical applications for the same diseases are directed in A.V. 1. 3. Asrava denotes any disease which is associated with any kind of diseased ejection. Thus in 11. 3. 2 Sayana says that dsrava means atisdratimitra-nadi-vranadayah. * Pra te bhinadmi mehanam vartram vesantya iva eva te miitram mucyatam bahir bal iti sarvakam (I open your urinal path like a canal through which the waters rush. So may the urine come out with a whizzing sound—A.V. 1. 3. 7). All the verses of the hymn ask the urine to come out with a whizzing sound. XIII] Practice of Medicine in the Atharva-Veda 297 is a charm for stopping blood from an injury of the veins or arteries or for stopping too much hemorrhage of women. In the case of injuries a handful of street-dust is to be thrown on the place of injury or a bandage is to be tied with sticky mud}. 1. 22 is a-charm against heart-disease and jaundice—hairs of a red cow are to be drunk with water and a piece of a red cow’s skin is to be tied as an amulet. It is prayed that the red colour of the sun and the red cow may come to the patient’s body and the yellow colour due to jaundice may go to birds of yellow colour. 1. 23, which mentions kilasa or kustha (white leprosy) of the bone, flesh and skin and the disease by which hairs are turned grey (palita), is a charm against these?. The white parts are to be rubbed with an ointment made of cow-dung, bhriga-raja, haridra indravaruni and nilka until they appear red. The black medicines applied are asked to turn the white parts black. 1. 25 is a charm against takman, or fever—the patient has to be sprinkled with the water in which a red-hot iron axe has been immersed. The descrip- tion shows that it was of the malarial type; it came with cold (Sita) and a burning sensation (soci). Three types of this fever are described: that which came the next day (anyedyuh), the second day (ubhayedyuh), or the third day (trtiyaka)°. It was also associated with yellow, probably because it produced jaundice. Il. g and 10 are charms against hereditary (ksetriya) diseases, leprosy, dyspepsia, etc. Amulets of arjuna wood, barley, sesamum and its flower had also to be tied when the charm was uttered®. II. 31 is a charm against various diseases due to worms. The priest, when uttering this charm, should hold street-dust in his left hand and press it with his right hand and throw it on the patient. There are visible and invisible worms; some of them are called algandu and others saluna; they are generated in the intestines, head and eo iv. 12 is also a charm for the same purpose. VI. 135-137 is also a charm for strengthening the roots of the hair. Kaka- maci with bhrnga-raja has to be drunk. ‘ Namah sitaya takmane namo rirdya socise krnomi yo anyedyur ubhayedyur abhyeti trtiyakaya namo astu takmane. See aiso A.V. vil. 123. 10, where the third-day fever, fourth-day fever and irregular fevers are referred to. 4 The word ksetriya has been irregularly derived in PAanini’s rule, v. 2. 92 (ksetriyac paraksetre cikitsyah). Commentaries like the Kasika and the Pada- mafijari suggest one of its meanings to be “‘curable in the body of another birth” (janmantara-sarire cikitsyah), that is, incurable. I, however, prefer the meaning “hereditary,” as given by Sayana in his commentary on A.V. I1. ro. 1, as being more fitting and reasonable. 5 Yaksman is also counted as a ksetriya disease (II. 10. 6). 298 Speculations in the Medical Schools [cH. heels ; they go about through the body by diverse ways and cannot be killed even with various kinds of herbs. They sometimes reside in the hills and forests and in herbs and animals, and they enter into our system through sores in the body and through various kinds of food and drink}. 1. 33 is a charm for removing yaksman from all parts of the body. 1. 7. 1 is a charm for removing all hereditary (ksetriya) diseases; the horn of a deer is to be used as an amulet. 1.11 is a charm against phthisis (ra@ja-yaksman)— particularly when it is generated by too much sex-indulgence ; the patient is to eat rotten fish. Iv. 4 is a charm for attaining virility— the roots of the kapittha tree boiled in milk are to be drunk when the charm is uttered. rv. 6 and 7 are charms against vegetable poisoning—the essence of the krmuka tree is to be drunk. v. 4 isa charm against fever (takman) and phthisis; the patient is to take the herb kustha with butter when the charm is uttered®. v. 11 is a charm against fever*. v. 23 is a charm against worms—the patient is given the juice of the twenty kinds of roots®. vi. 15 is a charm for eye-diseases ; the patient has to take various kinds of vegetable leaves fried in oil, particularly the mustard plant®. vi. 20 is a charm against bilious fever (susmino jvarasya) ; it is said to produce a great burning sensation, delirium and jaundice. vI.21 is a charm for increasing the hair—the hair is to be sprinkled with a decoction of various herbs. vi. 23 is a charm against heart-disease, dropsy and jaundice. vi. 25 is a charm for inflammation of the glands of the neck (ganda-maila)’. v1.85 is a charm against consumption (rajay-aksman) ; v1. go for colic pain (séla)®; v1. 105 for cough and 1 11.31. 5. I have adopted Sayana’s interpretation. 2 vit. 78 is also a charm for inflammation of the neck (ganda-mala) and phthisis (yaksma). 3 Kustha was believed to be good for the head and the eyes (v. 4. 10). “ Gandhara Mahavrsa, Mufijavan, and particularly Balhika (Balkh), were regarded as the home of fever; so also the country of Anga and Magadha. It was accompanied by cold (sta) and shivering (riirah). It was often attended with cough (kdsa) and consumption (valdsa). It attacked sometimes on the third or fourth day, in summer or in autumn.(sdrada), or continued all through the year. 5 This is one of the few cases where a large number of roots were com- pounded together and used as medicine along with the charms. ® Some of the other plants are alasdala, silanjala, nilagalasala. 7 Also vit. 78, where apacit appears as a name for the inflammation of the neck (gala-ganda). Three different types of the disease are described. Apacit is at first harmless, but when it grows, it continues more to secrete its discharges, like boils on the joints. These boils grow on the neck, the back, the thigh-joint and the anus. See further v1. 83, where conch-shell is to be rubbed and applied. vil1. 83 is also a charm for it. Blood had to be sucked off the inflamed parts by a leech or an iguana (grha-godhika). 8 A piece of iron is to be tied as an amulet. XII] Practice af Medicine in the Atharva-Veda 299 other such diseases due to phlegm (slesma); v1. 109 for diseases of the rheumatic type (vata-vyadhi!). v1. 127 is a charm for abscess (vidradha), phlegmatic diseases (valasa) and erysipelatous inflam- mation (visarpa). Various kinds of visarpa in different parts of the body are referred to. Heart-disease and phthisis are also men- tioned’. There are said to be a hundred kinds of death (mrtyu) (A.V. vil. 5. 7), which are explained by Sayana as meaning diseases such as fever, head-disease, etc. Several diseases are men- tioned in 1x. 18—first the diseases of the head, sirsakti, sirsamaya, karna-sila and visalpaka, by which secretions of bad smell come out from the ear and the mouth, then fever proceeding from head troubles with shivering and cracking sensations in the limbs. Takman, the dreaded autumnal fever, is so described.