Chapter 285 - The accomplished recipes that would revive the dead (mṛtasañjīvanī)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Dhanvantari said:

1. I shall describe to you the infallible recipes that would revive the dead [i.e., mṛtasañjīvanī]. They were expounded to me by (the sage) Ātreya. They are divine and are capable of curing all diseases.

Ātreya said:

2. A decoction of the five roots, such as those of bilva, (is an excellent remedy) for fever due to (deranged) wind. Otherwise (a decoction of) the root of long pepper, guḍūcī and dry ginger is purifying.

3-4. (A decoction of the herbs) emblic myrobalan, mustard, black pepper and vahni would cure all fevers. Bilva, agnimantha, śyonāka, Kāśmarī, pāṭalā, sthirā, trikaṇṭaka, pṛśniparṇī, bṛhatī and kaṇṭakārikā are remedies for fever, indigestion, pain on the sides (of the body) and cough. The root of kuśa (grass) (should also be added to this).

5. Guḍūcī, parpaṭī, musta, kirāta and dry ginger should be given in fever due to (deranged) wind and bile. This is known as pañcabhadra (the five beneficial things).

6. A decoction made of trivṛt, viśāla, kaṭukā, the three myrobalans and āragvadha is a purifier, loosens the bowels and has to be drunk to get relief from all fevers.

7. Devadāru, balā, vāsā, the three myrobalans, vyoṣa, padmaka, and viḍaṅga with an equal proportion of candied sugar made into a powder would conquer five kinds of cough.

8-9. Daśamūlī, śaṭī, rāsnā, long pepper, bilva, pauṣkara, śṛṅgīta, emblic myrobalan, bhārṅgī [bhārgī?], guḍūcī, nāgavallī and barley compounded well and a decoction prepared from that should be drunk. It would remedy cough, diarrhoea, (pain) on the sides, hiccough and difficult breathing.

10. The three kinds of salts (as well as) madhuka together with honey, long pepper together with sugar, and nāgara together with treacle would remove hiccough.

11. Kāravya, jājī, pepper, grapes, hog-plum, pomegranate, natrum, treacle and honey would remedy all kinds of loss of appetite.

12. One should be made to drink the juice of śṛṅgavera (ginger) together with honey. It would remedy loss of appetite, difficult breathing and cough. It would also remedy catarrh and excess of phlegm.

13. (The root of) banyan, śṛṅgī, red earth, (the bark of) lodhra, pomegranate, madhuka and honey should be taken with the scum. It would remove thirst and arrest vomitting.

14. Guḍūcī, vāsaka, lodhra and long pepper together with honey would remedy fever accompanied by thirst, cough and expectoration of phlegm together with blood.

15. Likewise the juice of vāsaka, the juice of tāmraja mixed with honey, and pepper infused in the juice of the śirīṣa flower would also be beneficial.

16. (The pulse called) masūra removes all kinds of pain. (The washings) of rice would remove excess of bile. Nirguṇḍī, śārivā, śelu and aṅkola would remove poisons.

17. Dry ginger, amṛtā, kṣudrā, puṣkara and granthika made into powder should be taken with decoction of long pepper when one suffers unconsciousness and intoxication.

18. Asafoetida, natrum and vyoṣa (dry ginger) and pepper (each weighing) two palas, an āḍhaka (a measure) of ghee soaked in four parts of cow’s urine would remedy insanity.

19. Śaṅkha flower, vacā and kuṣṭha soaked in the juice of brāhmī destroys long-standing epilepsy and insanity. It is also excellent for improving memory.

20-25a. The ghee made up of the five products got from a cow has also similar effects. The same with mustard is a remedy for leprosy. Snake-gourd, the three myrobalans, neem, guḍūcī, dhāvanī, vṛṣa and karañja boiled with ghee destroys leprosy and is known as vajraka (potent remedy). Neem, snake gourd, vyāghrī, guḍūcī and vāsaka should be taken ten palas each and pounded well. (The mixture) should then be heated in water vessel (with water) till it is reduced to one fourth (of its original volume). It should then be soaked in one prastha (a measure) ghee and boiled with the three myrobalans. This ghee is known as pañcatiktaka (five bitter things). This ghee is capable of curing leprosy. This excellent recipe would cure eighty varieties of diseases due to (deranged) wind, forty (diseases) due to (deranged) bile, twenty (diseases) due to (deranged) phlegm as well as cough, catarrh, piles, wounds and other diseases just as the sun (would remove) darkness.

25b-26a. One should sprinkle a wound with the decoction of the three myrobalans and the juice of bhṛṅgarāja for the cure of the venereal disease.

26b-28a. The powder of the leaves of snake-gourd and the five particles of the skin of pomegranate should be pounded with gaja (a variety of pepper) and the powder of the three kinds of myrobalans. Oil boiled with the three myrobalans, grains of iron, yaṣṭi, mārkava, blue lotus, pepper and rock-salt would remedy vomitting when used for bathing.

28b-29a. Oil boiled with milk, juice of mārkava, two prasthas each of madhuka and utpala made into one guḍava (a measure), if used as sternutatory would arrest greying of hair.

29b-30. The two compounds—neem, snake-gourd, the three kinds of myrobalans, guḍūcī, khadira and vṛṣa as well as bhūnimba, pāṭhā, the three kinds of myrabolans, guḍūcī and red sandal would remedy fever, leprosy, tumour and the like.

31. A decoction prepared from snake-gourd, amṛta, bhūnimba, vāsā, ariṣṭaka, parpaṭa and bark of khadira would appease the fever due to tumour.

32. The daśamūlī, chinnaruhā, mustard, dāru, punamavā, śigru and dry ginger are beneficial for (remedying) fevers, abscess and swelling.

33-34. Besmearing with (a paste of) madhūka and neem leaves would clean the wounds. A decoction of the three myrobalans and the leaves of khadira, dārvī, nyagrodha, atibalā, kuśa (grass), neem, and mūlaka are beneficial in cleaning (wounds). The juice of karañja, ariṣṭa and nirguṇḍī would destroy the parasites of wounds.

35. Besmearing with a paste (made up) of dhātakī, sandal, balā, maṅgā, madhuka, blue lotus, dārvī and meda mixed with clarified butter would heal a wound.

36. Guggulu, the three myrobalans, dry ginger, pepper and long pepper in equal proportions mixed with ghee would heal wounds due to affected arteries and painful fistula.

37. The yellow myrobalan boiled in cow’s urine with oil and salt should be used every morning. It would remove excess of phlegm and wind.

38. A decoction of dry ginger, pepper, long pepper and the three myrobalans should be drunk with alkali and salt as a purgative in (deranged) phlegm and wind. It arrests the increase of phlegm.

39. The decoction of long pepper, the root of long pepper, vacā, citraka and dry ginger should be drunk to remedying constipation.

40. One should drink the great remedy—rāsnā, guḍūcī, root of castor and devadāru in case of rheumatism (that affects) all the limbs, joints, bones and marrow.

41-43. Otherwise one may drink a decoction of daśamūla together with dry ginger and water. By the use of a decoction of dry ginger and gokṣuraka every morning one would get back digestive power that has been impaired and would get relief from rheumatic pain in the hip. The oil extracted from the roots, leaves and branches of prasāriṇī, an extracted juice or paste or powder or decoction of guḍūcī would relieve one from acute gout when used for a long time.

44-45a. Long pepper and castor-oil may be used. One would conquer quickly acute gout accompanied by burning sensation by drinking snake-gourd, the three varieties of myrobalans, tivrakaṭuka and amṛta boiled with mustard or treacle.

45b-46. Rheumatic pain would be relieved at once by (drinking) guggulu in warm water or drinking guḍūcī with the three myrobalans in water together with balā, punarnavā, castor seed, the two kinds of bṛhatī, gokṣura, asafoetida and salt.

47-50a. A kārṣika (a measure of weight) each of the root of long pepper, the five kinds of salts, long pepper, citraka, dry ginger, the three varieties of myrobalans, trivṛt, vacā, two sorts of alkali, śādvala, dantī, svarṇakṣīrī and viṣāṇikā (should be ground well) and kola (a measure of weight) measure of pill should be drunk with jujube. (This would remedy) swelling. It is an excellent remedy with trivṛt for indigestion and enlargement of the abdomen etc. Milk together with dāru, varṣābhū and dry ginger would be excellent for removing swelling. Sprinkling with a decoction of arka, varṣābhū and bhūnimba would remove swelling.

50b-51. Piles would go without any doubt if the clarified butter boiled with three parts of ashes of dry ginger, pepper and long pepper mixed with palāśa dissolved in water is used. Viṣvakṣena, lotus flower and nirguṇḍī boiled with salt would also have similar results.

52-53a. Oil (prepared) with viḍaṅga, anala, rock-salt, rāsnā, agrakṣāra and dāru boiled with four times water saturated with a pungent material would remove inflammation of the glands of the neck and would remedy goitre if used as an unguent.

53b-54a. Decoction of śaṭī, kunāga and valaya together with the juice of kṣira boiled with the paste of payasyā, long pepper and vāsā would be beneficial for consumption.

54b-55. (A compound of) vacā, viḍ, mustard, dry ginger, asafoetida, kuṣṭha, agni, dīpyaka (mixed in the proportion of) two, three, six, four, one, seven parts and a fiftieth part respectively, if drunk would destroy tumours in the abdomen, (abdominal) colic and coughs.

56. Pills made of pāṭhā, nikumbha, pepper, dry ginger, long pepper, the three kinds of myrobalans and agni boiled with cow’s urine would remedy abdominal tumour, spleen and the like.

57. Vāsā, margosa, snake-gourd and the three myrobalans would destroy (deranged) wind and bile. Powdered viḍaṅga if licked with honey would destroy worms.

58-59a. The yellow myrobalan together with viḍaṅga, rock salt, kṣāra (alkaline salt) and cow’s urine (will also produce the same effect). The barks of sallakī, jujube, rose apple, piyāla, mango and arjuna (trees) soaked in honey and taken with milk separately would arrest haemorrhage.

59b-60a. Equal proportions of the juice of bilva, mango (bark), dhātakī, pāṭhā, dry ginger and mocā when taken with treacle or butter-milk would arrest severe dysentery.

60b-61a. The drinking of a decoction of aṅgerī, kola, curd water, dry ginger and kṣāra (an alkaline salt) together with ghee would remove pain due to inflammation of anus.

61b-62a. Viḍaṅga, ativiṣā, musta, dāru, pāṭhā and kaliṅga (taken) together with black pepper would cure dysentery (accompanied by) swelling (of the limbs).

62b-63. One would live for a hundred years happily by eating two yellow myrobalans (everyday) together with sugar, rock-salt and dry ginger or long, pepper, honey and treacle. The same would be the result of taking the three kinds of myrobalans and long pepper together with honey and clarified butter.

64. One should lick powdered emblic myrobalan soaked in (the juice of) the same with honey, clarified butter and sugar and drink milk if desirous of enjoying women.

65-66. Powdered black gram, long pepper, śāli (a variety of rice), barley and wheat in equal proportion should be fried with long pepper. One should eat them and drink sweet milk with sugar. (Such a person) would gain strength to enjoy women ten times like a sparrow.

67. Maṅgā, dhātakī flower, lodhra and blue lotus should be given to women together with milk. It would remedy pradara (a disease) of women.

68-69a. (A mixture of) bīja, kauraṇṭaka, madhuka, white sandal, the roots of lotus and blue lotus, sugar and sesamum is excellent for arresting miscarriage and causing pregnancy.

69b-70. An unguent of devadāru, nabha, kuṣṭha, nalada and dry ginger mixed with sour gruel and oil would remedy headache. If rock salt mixed with water is poured (into the ear) after gently heating and filtering through a cloth, it would remove ear-ache.

71. The juice of garlic, ginger, śigru or plantain (may be taken) separately. One may drink them with (the mixture of) balā, śatāvarī, rāsnā and amṛtā together with sairīyaka (?).

72-74a. Clarified butter together with the three myrobalans is an excellent remedy against blindness. One should drink ghee boiled with the three myrobalans, dry ginger, pepper, long pepper and rock-salt. It would strengthen eyesight, loosen bowels, strengthen heart, stimulate digestion and remedy cold. The filament of blue lotus together with cowdung and water is (known as) collyrium. It would be beneficial for day or night blindness.

74b-77. Yaṣṭimadhu, vacā, long pepper and seeds of kuṭaja made into a paste mixed with a decoction of neem is a good emetic. Glossy and greasy barley water should be given as a purgative. If it is (used) otherwise it would impair the digestion, make the body heavy and cause loss of appetite. A pulverised (compound of) mustard, rock-salt and long pepper should be drunk with warm water. This is an excellent purgative that would remedy all diseases. This is known as nārāca (destructive). The infallible compositions that have been expounded by Ātreya to the sages are capable of curing all diseases and are declared by Suśruta as conferring all boons.