Medicines (j): Scented Substances

Apart from the above well-categorised medicines, there are yet some other medicinal substances in the Chapters on Medicine or Vinayas that do not form obvious groups. Not stated explicitly, these drugs very likely are for use by a sick monk/nun throughout his/her whole life. The data for these medicines are not abundant, and they will be enumerated and briefly described in this section.

Scented substances were allowed by the Buddha for use in certain illnesses. The facts are as follows:

Dharmaguptaka:—“… The physician instructed [him] to use sandalwood for the purpose of relieving the illness. The monk informed the Buddha [about this]. The Buddha said: ‘[I] allow the use.’ [Things] like agarwood, sandalwood, gum guggul, kālānusārya^[1] –the Buddha said: ‘[I] allow using [these] to anoint the body.’”^[2]

Mahāsāṃghika:—“The Buddha said: ‘From today, [I] allow a sick monk to use scented powder. Scented powder is: powder of vetiver, powder of common gurjun tree, powder of Indian devil tree (?), powder of sandalwood, powder of costus, powder of anbaluo 菴拔羅屑 (powder of nut grass or mango tree?), powder of yanfushili 閻浮尸利屑 (?), azhun-powder 阿淳屑 (powder of ashoka tree or arjun terminalia tree?), [or] powder of camphor tree–such as these examples, all are not allowed. … a need of powder for anointing and bathing [so as] to relieve [the illness], it can be used [and] there is no offence.’”^[3]

Many scented substances have been named in the above sources. These substances were prescribed for external application on skin, often as powders. There are also powdered collyria which were used for treating eye diseases, and several aromatic substances are mentioned as ingredients for making such drugs. These will be described in Chapter Five. These above-mentioned scented substances are all found in use in Āyurveda, but there is no distinct category of scented drugs. Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 5. 96 tells us that use of fragrance can have multiple effects, such as producing good odour in the body, enhancing longevity and attractiveness, feeling well in the mind, stimulating sexuality, and preventing inauspiousness.

Scented substances as medicines have no therapeutic role in modern medicine, though they may be used as fragrant additives to dermatological preparations. In complementary and alternative medicine, aromatic essential oils are employed in aromatherapy to improve physical and psychological well-being (FordMartin and Odle 2009, 136).

The following table enumerates the scented substances in the abovementioned Vinaya sources:

	Original name	English name	Botanical name
Dharmaguptaka	栴檀	sandalwood	Santalum album
	沈水	agarwood	Aquilaria agallocha
	畢陵祇	gum guggul	Commiphora mukul
	伽羅[少/兔]婆羅	?	?
Mahāsāṃghika	於尸屑	powder of vetiver	Vetiveria zizanioides
	馬耳屑	p. of common gurjun tree	Dipterocarpus turbinatus
	七色屑	p. of Indian devil tree (?)	Alstonia scholaris (?)
	栴檀屑	p. of sandalwood	Santalum album
	俱哆屑	p. of costus	Saussurea lappa
	菴拔羅屑	p. of nut grass or mango tree (?)	Cyperus rotundus or Mangifera indica (?)
	閻浮尸利屑	?	?
	阿淳屑	p. of ashoka tree or arjun terminalia ree (?)	Saraca asoca or Terminalia arjuna (?)
	伽頗羅屑	p. of camphor tree	Cinnamomum camphora

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

伽羅[少/兔]婆羅 should be a corruption of 伽羅[少/兔]娑羅, which is kālānusārya (Pāli: kāḷānusāriya). There is no consensus on what it is. There are several renderings: Pali-English Dictionary suggests that it is a kind of black sandalwood (“kālānusārī” in s.v. “kāla”); A Sanskrit-English Dictionary gives the possibilities that it is Indian rosewood (Dalbergia sissoo) (s.v. “kālānusārya”) or gum benzoin (s.v. “kālānusāryaka”); in Kan'yaku taishō Bon-Wa daijiten 漢譯對照梵和大辭典 (Compared with the Chinese Translations: The Sanskrit-Japanese Dictionary), it is said as a kind of Persian incense (benzoin); in Bhāvaprakāśa 1. 6.iii. 28, this term is said to be synonymous with tagara (Indian valerian, Valeriana wallichii); Woodward, based on Benfey’ Sanskrit Dictionary, states in a footnote in his translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya that it is benzoin and he translates it as “black gum” (The Book of Gradual Saying, vol. V, 17n1); in Cone’s A Dictionary of Pāli: Part I and an endnote of Zysk (1991, 159n24), based on several statements relating to this term (and similar terms such as kāḷānusārī and kāḷānusārika), this substance is understood as “the best of scented roots” (Aṅguttara Nikāya V. 22 and Saṃyutta Nikāya V. 44: “ye keci mūlagandhā, kāḷānusāriyaṃ tesaṃ aggam akkhāyati”;see also Majjhima Nikāya III. 6, Saṃyutta Nikāya III. 156); Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, in their own translations of the Nikāyas, render the term as black orris. Hence, with much confusion, the exact plant or substance for kālānusārya is not yet certain.

[2]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1428. 870c10-13: “...醫教用栴檀，為差病故。比丘白佛，佛言：「聽用。」若沈水、若栴檀、畢陵祇伽羅[少/兔]婆羅，佛言：「聽用塗身。」” 沈水 should be 沉水香, which is agarwood. The Sanskrit term should be aguru or agaru. 畢陵祇 should be palaṅkaṣa, which is synonymous with guggulu.

[3]:

Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425. 482c25-29: “佛言：「從今日聽病比丘用香屑。香屑者，於尸屑、馬耳屑、七色屑、栴檀屑、俱哆屑、菴拔羅屑、閻浮尸利屑、阿淳屑、伽比羅屑，如是比一切不聽。...須屑末塗浴差者，得用無罪。」” 於尸 should be uśīra. 馬耳 is a literal translation of aśvakarṇa. 七色 is saptavarṇa in Sanskrit, but no such plant is known. It is likely a corruption of saptaparṇa. 俱哆 should be kuṣṭha. 菴拔羅 may be abhra, which is synonymous with bhadramusta (nut grass). The root and tuber of this plant is aromatic. Another possibility is āmra, which is mango or mango tree. There is no plant identified for 閻浮尸利. It seems to be a phonetic transcription of “jambuśri,” but again there is no plant for that. 尸利 may be sāra, which means essence according to A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Then it may represent the essential oil or some derivative of jambu, the black plum tree. 阿淳 may refer to aśoka (the ashoka tree) or arjuna (the arjun terminalia tree). 伽頗羅 should be karpūra.