Chapter 15 - Symptoms and treatment of Chardi (vomiting)

Characteristics of vomiting:

Vomiting (chardi) is due to five different causes, viz., (a) vayu, (b) pitta, (c) kapha, (d) a combination of the three, and (e) abominable sight, odour, and taste.

This is generally the outcome of some of the following:—drinking in excess of liquids; taking in excess of food mixed or prepared with fat or oil, or unpalatable, or mixed with much of salt; taking meals at irregular hours; food taken in excess; food not accustomed to; physical and mental exertion; fear; anxiety; indigestion; worms, conception in the case of women; taking of food hastily; and abominable sight, food, and odour.

The following are the symptoms preceding vomiting nausea, stoppage of belching, saline water coming out of the mouth, and aversion to food and drinks.

Treatment of vomiting: Simple remedies.

(1) Four tolas, each, of amalaki, grapes, sugar, and honey, and sixteen tolas of water, pestled together and sifted through a piece of doth, is to be drunk for stopping vomiting (chardi),

(2) Stems of guduchi are to be cut into pieces, pestled a little, and immersed in cold water for several hours. This water, drunk with a little of honey, pacifies vomiting, even of a troublesome nature,

(3) Dried bark of ashvattha tree is to be burnt and immersed in water while still burning. Drinking of this water stops vomiting of a serious nature,

(4) Vomiting is put a stop to by drinking the real juice (i.e., juice prepared without water) of kapittha, mixed with pippali, maricha, and honey.

(5) Jastimadhu and red sandal are to be pestled with milk. Drinking of this liquid puts a stop to vomiting of blood.

Iatro-chemical remedies:

Incinerated mercury.

Vomiting is stopped by incinerated mercury mixed with jira, dhanya, haritaki, honey, and trikatu.

Vamanamrita rasa.

Equal quantities of sulphur, seeds of lotus flower, jastimadhu, shilajatu, rudraksha, borax, horn of deer reduced to ashes, white sandal, arrowroot, and gorochana (bastarous) are to be rubbed together, for three hours, with the decoction of the roots of bilva. Pills are then to be made, three raktis in weight, each. Taken with suitable anupana (adjuncts), this medicine Cures vomiting.

Vrishadhvaja rasa.

One part, each, of mercury, sulphur, iron, jasti-madhu, sandal wood, amalaki, small ela, lavanga, tangana, pippali, and jatamansi are to be mixed together and subjected to bhavana, for seven days, each, with the juices of vidari and ikshu (sugar cane). The compound is then to be rubbed for three hours with goat’s milk. Dose, two raktis, each, to be taken with the juice of the tuber of vidari. This medicine cures vomiting due to an excess of vayu or pitta or both, and even vomiting of blood.

Chardihara rasa.

Equal quantities of iron, incinerated with, sulphur, orpiment, and copper-pyrites, mixed together, and reduced to ashes, cure thirst and vomiting,

Diet and deeds salutary in vomiting.

Purgation, vomiting (chardi), fasting, bath, rubbing the body, paste prepared from fried paddy devoid of hush; shastika rice, shali rice, mudga grams, kalaya grams, wheat, barley and honey-all these (seven) of more than one year’s but not more than three years’ standing (except honey which should be as old as possible); soup of the meat of the following;—hare, peacock, tittiri, laba, beasts and birds called jangala (i.e., wild, viz. deer, etc.), syrups, fruit juice and other drinks of agreeable taste, smell, and appearance; sharaba raga, khara juice, kambalika juice (see page 117), wine, tender leaves of the cane plant, dhanya, cocoa-nut, ripe lemon fruit, amalaki, ripe mangoes, ripe kola fruits, ripe grapes, ripe kapittha; haritaki, pomegranates, citrus, jatiphala, balaka, nimba, vasaka, sugar, shatapuspa, nagakeshara, and other articles of food-stuff, healthy and pleasing; washing the face of the patient with cold water and smearing his face with musk and sandal, after he takes his food; enjoying the rays of the moon, smearing the body with sweet scents, pastes or unguents, inhaling sweet smelling flowers, being treated with sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches pleasing to the mind.

Diet and deeds injurious in vomiting (chardi).

taking of snuffs, application of douche, fomentation, drinking of clarified butter and other fatty substances; taking out of blood, cleansing the teeth by brushes made of wood-sticks, new rice, unpleasant sight, fear, anxiety, food of the following description;—hot, fatty, unaccustomed, disagreeable, and incongenial by combination (see page 9, Vol. IV), beans, bimbi fruits, koshataki, madhuka fruits, indravaruni, ela, mustard seeds, devadali, physical exercise, mushrooms, and application of collyrium in the eyes.