൨൬. ക്ഷീണബലീയവാജീകരണമ്

Meaning of the śloka

Now the treatment chapter on vājīkaraṇa for a person of diminished strength will be explained, as taught by the revered Dhanvantari.

Key terms

kShINatA (kṣīṇatā)

Diminution or reduced strength, explained here as hīnaśaktitva.

vAjIkaraNa (vājīkaraṇa)

The subject of the chapter, concerning measures traditionally associated with sexual vigour and reproductive capacity.

dhanvantariH (Dhanvantariḥ)

The revered authority to whom the teaching is attributed.

Meaning of the śloka

For a healthy young person using vājīkaraṇa measures, the text says that sexual intercourse need not be prohibited every day in any season. It then describes such measures as beneficial for older men who desire sexual relations and wish to be pleasing to women, for those considered depleted through frequent relations, for those described in the text as having impaired sexual capacity or little semen, for affluent pleasure-seekers endowed with youth and appearance, and for men with many wives.

Key terms

kalya

Healthy or free from illness, according to the commentary.

udagravayasaH (udagravayasaḥ)

Of youthful age; the commentary glosses it as taruṇa.

vAjIkaraNa (vājīkaraṇa)

Measures presented in this passage as supporting sexual vigour.

alparetasAm (alparetasām)

Of those described as having a small quantity of retas or semen.

Meaning of the śloka

A measure is called vājīkaraṇa because, when used appropriately, it is said to make a man exceedingly vigorous like a stallion and able to satisfy a woman. The passage also lists varied foods and drinks, pleasing speech and touch, a moonlit night, a youthful beloved, delightful music, tāmbūla, alcoholic drinks, garlands, agreeable fragrances and sights, beautiful gardens, and freedom from mental obstruction as factors that arouse or sustain such vigour.

Key terms

vAjIkaraNa (vājīkaraṇa)

Measures traditionally described as producing stallion-like sexual vigour.

janaka

The category said to generate or nourish śukra through bodily nourishment.

pravartaka

The category said to promote the movement or discharge of śukra.

shukra (śukra)

The reproductive dhātu discussed in the commentary; the context includes semen but should retain the technical term.

prabhAva (prabhāva)

A specific effect invoked to explain the claimed rapid action of vṛṣya substances.

riraMsuH (riraṃsuḥ)

A person desiring sexual union.

Meaning of the śloka

The passage presents six traditional explanations for klaibya. It describes a mental form arising when the mind of a person desiring intercourse is disturbed by disagreeable factors or by union with a disliked woman. Another form is attributed to excessive use of pungent, sour, hot, and salty substances and the resulting depletion of a cooling or saumya constituent. A third is linked to frequent intercourse without using vājīkaraṇa measures and consequent depletion of śukra. A fourth is attributed to severe disease of the penis or injury to vital structures and is described as damage to masculine capacity. A condition present from birth is called sahaja. A sixth is attributed to khara śukra in a strong person with an agitated mind, following restraint of bodily urges or celibacy. The text calls the congenital form and the form caused by injury to vital structures incurable; for the other forms, it advises reversing the respective cause.

Key terms

klaibya

A historical category for impaired sexual or reproductive capacity; its exact scope varies across the listed causes.

saumyadhAtukShaya (saumya-dhātu-kṣaya)

Depletion of a cooling or saumya bodily constituent, proposed here as one cause.

shukrakShaya (śukra-kṣaya)

Depletion of śukra, linked in the passage with frequent intercourse.

sahaja

Present from birth or congenital in the source's classification.

kharashukra (khara-śukra)

Śukra described as hard, or according to another interpretation, rough.

hetuviparyaya (hetu-viparyaya)

Reversal or avoidance of the stated cause.

Meaning of the śloka

The text next describes a vājīkaraṇa preparation. It combines powders of sesame, māṣa, vidārī, and śāli rice, moistens and kneads them with the juices mentioned, adds rock salt and boar fat, and cooks the mixture with ghee as an utkārikā. After eating it, the man is said, hyperbolically, to be capable of approaching a hundred women.

Key terms

tilamAShavidArI (tila-māṣa-vidārī)

Sesame, māṣa, and vidārī, whose powders are included in the preparation.

shAlI (śālī)

A rice variety included in powdered form.

saindhava

Rock salt added to the mixture.

varAhamedas (varāha-medas)

Boar fat used as an ingredient in the historical formulation.

utkArikA (utkārikā)

A cooked preparation glossed by the commentary as lapsikā.

Meaning of the śloka

The passage describes sesame seeds repeatedly steeped in milk prepared with goat testes. It then describes cakes made from those sesame seeds and cooked in the fat of shishumara. Eating them is said, in the text's highly amplified language, to enable a man to approach one hundred women with the vigour of a first sexual encounter.

Key terms

bastANDa (bastāṇḍa)

Goat testes, used in preparing the milk described in this passage.

bhAvita (bhāvita)

Repeatedly steeped or impregnated with a liquid; here, applied to sesame seeds treated with the prepared milk.

shaShkulI (śaṣkulī)

A cake or fried preparation made here from the treated sesame seeds.

shishumAravasA (śiśumāra-vasā)

Fat of the animal called shishumara, used as the frying medium in the second formulation.

anupAna (anupāna)

The accompanying drink taken with a formulation; here, milk.

Meaning of the śloka

The passage describes goat testes cooked in milk-derived ghee and seasoned with pippali and salt. Eating this preparation is said, in the text's amplified language, to enable a man to approach one hundred women.

Key terms

bastANDa (bastāṇḍa)

Goat testes, the animal-source ingredient described in the formulation.

kShIrasarpis (kṣīra-sarpis)

Ghee derived from milk, explained as ghee made from freshly churned milk butter.

pippalI (pippalī)

Pippali, added here in an amount that makes the preparation mildly pungent.

saindhava

The salt specified by the commentary, added in a mildly salty amount.

anupAna (anupāna)

The accompanying drink; cool water in this formulation.

Meaning of the śloka

Equal portions of powdered pippali, masha, shali rice, barley, and wheat are to be made into small cakes and cooked in ghee. After eating a cake and drinking milk sweetened with sugar, a man is said, through comparison with a sparrow, to be capable of repeated sexual intercourse ten times without interruption.

Key terms

pippalI (pippalī)

Pippali, one of the ingredients used in equal powdered portions.

mASha (māṣa)

Black gram, one of the powdered ingredients.

shAli (śāli)

Shali rice, included with barley and wheat in the mixture.

pUpalikA (pūpalikā)

A small cake prepared from the equal portions of powdered ingredients and cooked in ghee.

anupAna (anupāna)

The accompanying drink, identified here as boiled milk sweetened with sugar.

Meaning of the śloka

Well-prepared powder of vidari, repeatedly treated with its own fresh juice, is described as being licked with ghee and honey; the text claims that this enables intercourse with ten women. In the same manner, amalaki powder treated with its own juice is taken with sugar, honey, and ghee, followed by milk. The passage says that by this an eighty-year-old man becomes exhilarated like a young man.

Key terms

vidArI (vidārī)

Vidari, whose powder is treated with its own expressed juice.

svarasa

Fresh expressed juice; the commentary specifies the juice of vidari itself.

bhAvita (bhāvita)

Treated or impregnated with a liquid, here the ingredient's own fresh juice.

Amalaka (āmalaka)

Amalaki, whose powder is described as being prepared in the same manner.

lIDhvA (līḍhvā)

Having licked or taken as a lickable preparation with the stated substances.

Meaning of the śloka

The passage describes goat testes cooked in ghee with pippali and salt, or the corresponding part of shishumara, as strongly vājīkaraṇa. It next describes eating the aṇḍa of kulira, tortoise, and nakra in the same way. It also states that a man may drink the śukra of buffalo, bull, and goat.

Key terms

vAjIkara (vājīkara)

Described in this chapter as strongly promoting sexual vigour.

kulIra (kulīra)

A disputed identification: crab, house sparrow, or a particular fish, according to the alternatives preserved by the commentary.

kUrma (kūrma)

Tortoise.

nakra

An aquatic animal described as a kind of fish and popularly identified in the commentary as ghadiyala.

aNDa (aṇḍa)

A round, life-bearing reproductive structure; the commentary explicitly distinguishes this contextual sense from a testis.

shukra (śukra)

Reproductive substance; its precise relationship to aṇḍa in the final instruction is interpretively uncertain.

Meaning of the śloka

The passage lists a series of historical vājīkaraṇa preparations. It describes milk cooked with the fruits, root-bark, and tender shoots of aśvattha, taken with sugar and honey; a vidārī-root paste taken with boiled milk; māṣa with honey and ghee followed by milk; and wheat cooked in milk with ātmaguptā fruits, cooled and eaten with ghee before drinking milk. It also describes ghee prepared from crocodile, mouse, frog, and sparrow eggs and applied to the feet, with an extraordinary claim of sustained strength while the feet do not touch the ground. Further preparations combine powders or decoctions of svayaṃguptā, ikṣuraka, uccaṭā, śatāvarī, gokṣuraka, vidārī, and māṣa with warm cow's milk, sugar, honey, or ghee. The text traditionally attributes preservation of strength and intense sexual arousal, sometimes throughout the night, to these preparations.

Key terms

vAjIkaraNa (vājīkaraṇa)

The class of preparations presented in this chapter for strength and sexual vigour.

shu~ggA (śuṅgā)

Tender terminal shoots, as explained by the commentary.

svaya~gguptA (svayaṃguptā)

A plant ingredient identified by the commentary as kapikacchū.

ikShuraka (ikṣuraka)

A plant identified as kokilākṣa and popularly called tālamakhānā.

uccaTA (uccaṭā)

A plant described as a small shrub with a bell-shaped flower.

khajAhata (khajāhata)

Churned or beaten with a churning staff.

Meaning of the śloka

For persons seeking strength, the text praises milk from cows that have calved for the first time, whose calves are mature, and which have been fed māṣaparṇī leaves. It then commends all substances belonging to the milk and meat groups, together with the Kākolyādi group, as materials to be employed for the purpose of vājīkaraṇa.

Key terms

gRuShTI (gṛṣṭī)

A cow that has calved for the first time, according to the commentary.

vRuddhavatsA (vṛddhavatsā)

A cow whose calf is one year old, as interpreted here.

mAShaparNa (māṣaparṇa)

Fresh green māṣaparṇī leaves used as the cows' feed in this passage.

kAkolyAdigaNa (Kākolyādi-gaṇa)

The classical group beginning with kākolī, commended here for vājīkaraṇa.

balakAma (balakāma)

A person seeking strength.

Meaning of the śloka

These vājīkaraṇa formulations are described as promoting pleasure, offspring, and strength. The text says they should be used by persons whose bodies have been purified and adequately nourished, with due consideration of time and the other relevant circumstances.

Key terms

prIti (prīti)

Mental happiness or pleasure in this context.

apatya

Progeny or offspring.

bala

Bodily development or functional strength; the commentary preserves both senses.

vishuddhopacitadeha (viśuddhopacita-deha)

A body described as first purified and then adequately nourished.

saMsarjana (saṃsarjana)

The graduated dietary regimen said here to follow purification.

kAlAdyapekShA (kālādhyapekṣā)

Consideration of time and other relevant circumstances.

Meaning of the śloka

Thus ends the twenty-sixth chapter of the Cikitsāsthāna in the Suśruta Saṃhitā, entitled Kṣīṇabalīya-vājīkaraṇa-cikitsita.

Key terms

kShINabalIyavAjIkaraNacikitsita (kṣīṇabalīya-vājīkaraṇa-cikitsita)

The title of the twenty-sixth chapter, concerning vājīkaraṇa treatment in the context of diminished strength.

cikitsAsthAna (Cikitsāsthāna)

The section of the Suśruta Saṃhitā devoted to treatment.

nibandhasa~ggraha (Nibandhasaṅgraha)

The title of Dalhaṇa's commentary on the Suśruta Saṃhitā.