Chapter XXXIII - Treatment of Andha-putana-graha

Now we shall discourse on the chapter which deals with the medical treatment of (an attack by) Andha-putana (Andha-putana-Pratishedha). 1.

The decoction of the leaves of the trees of the Tiktaka gana (trees of bitter taste) should be used in sprinkling (the body of the possessed child). Sura (wine), Sauviraka (a kind of acid gruel), Kushtha, Hatitala, Manah-shila and Sarjarasa (resin) should be used in due proportion in medicating the oil (for the child) and medicated Ghrita should be duly cooked with the Kalka and decoction of Pippali, Pippali-mula, the drugs of the Madhura group, Shalaparni and the two kinds of Vrihati with the addition of honey (as an after-throw). 2A.

Plasters of the drugs of the Sarva-gandha (Eladi) group should be applied to the body of the child and its eyes should be soothed with cold applications. The feces of the the cock, its feather and skin^[1], the cast-off skin of a snake and the ragged garment of a (Buddhist) monk^[2] should be used for fumigating the child’s body. The child should be made to wear (the roots of) Kukkuti, Markati, Shimbi and Ananta as a charm. 2B.

Offerings of meat, cooked or uncooked, and of blood should be made (to Andhaputana) at the crossing of roads or inside a house for the preservation of the child, which (with its nurse) should also be bathed with the decoction of the holy drugs of the Sarva-gandha group.

The Mantra runs as follows:—

“May the dreadful, brown-coloured, bald-headed, goddess Andha-putana, wearing a red-coloured garment be pleased to save this child.” 2.

 

Thus ends the thirty-third chapter in the Uttara-Tantra of the Sushruta Samhita which deals with the medical treatment of (an attack) by Andha-putana.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Some explain “śeśān” (hair) and “carma” (skin) as those of man and not of a cock.

[2]:

Bhāvaprakāśa reads “jīrṇañjābhīkṣṇaśo vāsaḥ” very old cloth. This reading does not suggest that the cloth to be used should have been worn by a Buddhist monk.