Bhumipravibhaga means a detailed division or classification of land, and the chapter is devoted to that subject. In the preceding chapter, land was examined through observable effects of the elements, such as cold, heat and rain, and through mountains, trees and similar features. Here it is examined directly through elemental qualities. Some manuscripts place the Mishraka chapter between these two chapters, but the commentator rejects that placement because earlier teachers did not read it there.
Key terms
bhUmipravibhAga (bhumipravibhaga)
Detailed classification of land according to its qualities and elemental predominance.
For collecting medicinal plants, examine land that is unaffected by pits, potsherds, stones, unevenness, anthills, cremation grounds, places of execution, temples or sand; is free of saline barrenness and cracks; has water nearby; and is unctuous, fertile, soft, stable, level, and black, golden-white or red. From such land, select a mature and robust plant that is unaffected by worms, poison, weapons, excessive sun, wind, fire, water or constricted paths, has excellent taste or potency, broad bark, a deeply established sound root, and grows toward the north. This is the general examination of land.
Land classification is general and specific; this is the general account. Unaffected applies individually from pits through sand. Pits, potsherds and stones make land uneven. Shvabhra is a hole, sharkara a small fragment of fired pottery, valmika an anthill, shmashana a cremation site, aghatana a place of killing, and sikata sand. The commentary addresses white kapoti growing atop anthills: serpent poison does not destroy the special plant's potency, or the plant becomes especially potent there, so this does not invalidate that exceptional collection. Anushara means without saline barren soil, abhangura without fissures, snigdha smooth, prarohavati capable of germinating seed, mridvi soft, sthira soil not moved by wind or water, and sama level. Gauri means golden-coloured. Plant selection also depends on the plant's own defects and qualities. Unaffected applies separately to worms through constricted routes. Ekarasa means excellent in rasa. Prithu is explained as broad bark, and avagadhamula as a root established deep in the earth; the conjunction also implies an undamaged, excellent root. Udicya means the north, interpreted as collecting while facing north.
Key terms
bhUmiparIkShA (bhumipariksha)
Examination of land for the traditional collection of medicinal plants.
More specifically, land dominated by the earth quality is stony, stable, heavy, dusky or black, and rich in large trees and crops. Land dominated by water is unctuous, cool, near water, rich in succulent crops, grasses and tender trees, and white. Land dominated by fire is multicoloured, light, somewhat stony, and bears sparse, small, pale plants. Land dominated by wind is dry, ash-grey or donkey-grey, and rich in short trees with little sap and hollow trunks. Land dominated by space is soft, level, pitted, has water of indistinct taste, is surrounded by trees without substantial heartwood, has many large mountains and trees, and is dusky.
After the general qualities, the passage describes the specific qualities corresponding to each element. Sthula or tanu trees in the wind-dominant description means short trees. The intended practical claim is that substances should be collected from land in which their own corresponding elemental quality is predominant, because they are then considered more potent.
Key terms
svaguNabhUyiShTha bhUmi (svagunabhuyishtha bhumi)
Land predominantly possessing the elemental qualities corresponding to a substance.
Some teachers say that roots, leaves, bark, latex, heartwood and fruits should be collected respectively in the rainy approach, rainy season, autumn, early winter, spring and summer. The text rejects this as incomplete because the world has cooling lunar and heating solar qualities. Cooling medicines should be collected in cooling seasons and heating medicines in heating seasons so that their qualities remain unimpaired. Cooling medicines collected in cooling seasons from land rich in lunar qualities are said to become exceptionally sweet, unctuous and cold. The remaining combinations are to be understood by analogy.
The cooling seasons are the rains, early winter and late winter. The heating seasons are autumn, spring and summer. For urgent need, medicines may instead be gathered appropriately during parts of the day corresponding analogically to spring and the other seasons. The implied counterpart is that heating medicines collected in heating seasons from land dominated by heating qualities become exceptionally pungent, dry and hot.
Collect purgative substances from land dominated by earth and water qualities, emetic substances from land dominated by fire, space and wind, substances acting in both directions from land rich in both groups of qualities, and pacifying substances from land dominated by space. In this way they are said to become more potent.
The passage assigns land types to emetic, purgative, bidirectional and pacifying substances. A samshamana substance neither causes emesis nor purgation; it joins with the disease in its location and calms it there.
Key terms
ubhayatobhAgahara (ubhayatobhagahara)
A substance acting in both upward and downward directions, through emesis and purgation in this classification.
saMshamana (samshamana)
A substance that calms a disease in place without producing emesis or purgation.
All substances should be newly prepared or recently matured, except honey, ghee, jaggery, pippali and vidanga. Vidanga, pippali, honey and ghee are beneficial when old; the remaining substances should be obtained fresh and free from defects. A variant reading says that all substances possessing their sap are potent. If the specified old substances cannot be obtained, those more than a year old may be taken.
Here 'new' means used after the appropriate period of maturation, rather than newly produced at that instant, and it is connected with the preceding idea of greater strength. The listed substances form an exception. 'Free from defects' excludes material damaged by worms, poison, weapons or similar causes. The variant's sakshirāni is explained as sarasāni, retaining sap. The final rule addresses the lack of extremely old honey, ghee and the other exceptions by permitting material that has passed one year.
Key terms
abhinava
New or fresh here in the sense of being used after its appropriate maturation period.
doShavarjita (doshavarjita)
Free from defects or damage.
sakShIra (sakshira)
A variant reading explained by the commentary as retaining sap or juiciness.
The verse answers how medicinal substances may be recognized. The commentary expands cowherds to keepers of cattle, buffaloes and goats, ascetics to practitioners such as matted-hair renunciants, hunters to trappers and related forest specialists, and forest dwellers to other communities living there.
Key terms
bheShajavyakti (bheshajavyakti)
Identification or clear recognition of medicinal substances.
vanacArin (vanacharin)
A person who moves through or lives in the forest.
This verse states an exception to the preceding seasonal collection rules. Preparations requiring all parts take roots and the other plant parts without omission. The commentary also reads palasha-lavana as patra-lavana, leaf salt, and points to the leaf-salt preparation taught among vata disorders. Because all parts must be assembled, collection may be carried out across all seasons, beginning with the rainy season and continuing through the others.
Key terms
sarvAvayavasAdhya (sarvavayavasadhya)
A preparation accomplished by using all constituent plant parts.
palAshalavaNa (palashalavana)
Palasha salt; the commentary also gives the reading patralavana, leaf salt.
Soil is held to be sixfold and endowed with smell, color and taste. Therefore seed-bearing plants, through the nature of their soil, possess the six tastes.
By implication, the description includes touch and sound along with smell, color and taste. The sixfold earth is explained as five elemental types plus one possessing all characteristics. Bijin refers to trees and other seed-bearing plants. One interpretation says that plants acquire the six tastes by sharing the nature of the soil. Alternatively, the six tastes, joined and combined through the soil's nature, become seed-bearing forms such as trees.
Key terms
ShaDvidhA bhUmi (shadvidha bhumi)
The sixfold classification of soil: five elemental types and a type bearing all characteristics.
The taste of water is certainly present but unmanifest. That same unmanifest taste becomes manifest as a particular taste through the taste or character of the soil.
Unmanifest means that water's taste is not distinctly expressed as sweet or another particular taste, although taste is held certainly to exist in it. The verse explains the later differentiation by saying that this same latent taste becomes manifest as sweet and the other tastes because of the soil's taste or character.
Key terms
avyakta rasa
Taste that is present but not distinctly manifested as sweet or another specific taste.
bhUmirasa (bhumirasa)
The taste or character of the soil through which a particular taste becomes manifest.
Land possessing all the defining characteristics is called sadharana. Substances growing there especially possess the corresponding balanced qualities.
Possessing all characteristics means having the features of the five mahabhutas beginning with earth. The substances there are likewise sadharana, or balanced in their qualities.
Key terms
sAdhAraNA bhUmiH (sadharana bhumih)
Land understood as balanced because it displays characteristics of all five mahabhutas.
विगन्धेनापरामृष्टमविपन्नं रसादिभिः |
नवं द्रव्यं पुराणं वा ग्राह्यमेवं विनिर्दिशेत् ||१५||
Meaning of the śloka
A medicinal substance, whether fresh or old, should be selected when it is untouched by an alien or adverse odour and has not deteriorated in taste and its other properties.
Vigandhena aparAmrishtam means unaffected by an incompatible smell. Avipanna in taste and related qualities means those properties have not been depleted.
Key terms
avipannam
Undeteriorated, with taste and other relevant qualities intact.
From mature, mobile living sources that have digested their food, the text directs collecting blood, hair, nails and related materials, as well as milk, urine and feces.
After regulating plant materials, the passage regulates substances from animals. Vayahstha means young or mature, excluding the very young and the old.
Key terms
ja~ggamAnAm (jangamanam)
Of mobile living beings, contrasted here with plant sources.
A medicine storehouse should be in a clean place and an auspicious direction, with medicines arranged in cloth, earthen vessels, on boards and on pegs.
Plota is cloth, mridbhanda an earthen container, phalaka a board and shanku a peg. The house stores ghee and medicines in these. An auspicious direction means east or north. Commentaries transmit this chapter in differing order; Dalhana follows the sequence of the elders. Some teachers omit the passage extending from the earlier line beginning 'in conditions treatable by all components' through the verse on fresh or old substances.