൩൪. യുക്തസേനീയാധ്യായഃ

Meaning of the commentary

Yuktasena denotes a king whose army is prepared or assembled. The chapter is composed with that king as its subject.

Meaning of the commentary

A prepared army is the fourfold force of elephants, horses, chariots and infantry made ready for action. Others understand yuktasena as an assembled army. Enemies are those the king wishes to conquer. The ministers are hereditary or regularly appointed officials accompanying him. Yatrayukta means that the departure order has been given. The king is to be protected from all externally caused forms of death, with exceptional attention to poison. Poison is classified as plant or mineral, animal-derived, and artificially compounded.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage distinguishes modes of poison use for purposes of treatment. A poisoned road is said to raise contaminated dust under the hooves of horses and other animals; the dust enters hair follicles, nostrils and other openings and causes disorder. Shade can be affected because a tree or other source of shade has been poisoned, because poison is held to affect shade by its own nature, or because shade from bhallataka is said to cause immediate swelling. Food includes cooked rice and similar provisions, while fodder includes busa and related animal feed. Dushayanti means the enemies alter or corrupt these things. Their condition is recognised through signs and then treated or cleansed.

Meaning of the commentary

The line answers where the signs of the stated contamination and its treatment are to be found: they are deferred to Kalpasthana.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage addresses an objection: protection from poison would be meaningful only if untimely death exists. It first cites scriptural authority. One interpretation counts one hundred and one deaths by including the year in the womb with one hundred years of life; deaths before one hundred are untimely and death afterward timely. Others take hundred as meaning innumerable and uttara as principal: deaths are innumerable because their causes are innumerable, while one principal death is timely death. The commentary considers the contrary assertion that no one dies before the proper time, even if struck by a hundred arrows, and that for one whose time has arrived even grass becomes like a thunderbolt. It rejects this as decisive because teachers establish untimely death through analogy and other means, comparing it with rain, flowers, fruit or a lamp going out at an improper time. Another quotation lists drowning, fire, poison, weapons, women and royal households as untimely causes feared by the wise. A further argument says that if premature death did not exist, the teachings of Caraka, Sushruta and Vagbhata on preventing it would be pointless. The conclusion accepts both timely and untimely death. Some manuscripts append a verse comparing sudden externally caused death to a lamp with oil being extinguished by a strong wind or a falling insect.

Meaning of the commentary

The Atharvaveda is presented as a means of pacifying untimely death, and the physician and priest study its associated disciplines; therefore both participate in royal protection. Dosha means vata and the others, while external causes include poison, trauma and similar dangers. In the sequential interpretation, the physician is expert in rasa and the priest in mantra. Some expand the physician's expertise to rasa, virya and vipaka. Others take rasa to mean substances possessing taste, or take it here to mean poison and thus describe expertise in poison. The mantras include those of the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Vedas. Yattau means diligent or devoted to effort.

Meaning of the commentary

The royal priest studies the Vedas, whereas the physician studies Ayurveda as an auxiliary of the Veda; on that basis the commentary gives the priest precedence over the physician. Brahma taught Ayurveda qualified both as eight-branched and as a Vedic auxiliary. Varteta means should conduct himself, and atmavan here means intelligent or self-possessed.

Meaning of the commentary

The verse argues that the people's stability depends on the king and therefore the king must be protected carefully. Sankara means the classes beginning with brahmana and shudra becoming undifferentiated when loss of punishment leads to loss of conduct. Destruction applies to the classes' dharma and to other duties. Others read 'of those possessing dharma'; they take this to mean the four ashramas—student, householder, forest-dweller and renunciant—and the destruction of their actions. Extinction of the people follows, in this historical political theory, when absence of enforcement ends agriculture, animal husbandry, commerce and royal service. Social disorder and the other harms arise because of the king's calamity. Some read a grammatical form connecting 'caused by royal calamity' specifically with the people's extinction.

Meaning of the commentary

Although the king is human, the commentary attributes deity-like status to qualities considered beyond those of ordinary people. Murti means bodily form. The command is an order not to be transgressed; generosity is the distribution of wealth in many ways for fame, dharma and purpose; forbearance is enduring all things; courage is steadiness in calamity; and valor is prowess. The physician should therefore think of the king continually as though divine, using speech, thought and acts that are good or fitting.

Meaning of the commentary

Because the physician is needed continuously, the passage assigns a suitable place of residence. Skandhavara means a military camp, and 'next to' means immediately beside the royal residence without obstruction. All equipment includes instruments, cutting tools, alkalis, medicines and antidotal preparations. Fame is praise of faultless qualities, while reputation is spontaneous commendation; both are elevated or increasing. Patients troubled by poison, foreign bodies and disease approach without confusion or anxiety. The learned physician is expert in the physician's own discipline and not wholly unskilled in other sciences. The physician is honored by kings and by others with the same knowledge, meaning other physicians.

Meaning of the commentary

The passage states the four supports that accomplish treatment. Vyadhyupasrshta is the ill patient, and paricaraka is the person who nurses or attends. Causes accomplishing the task means causes of restoration to health.

Meaning of the commentary

The verse establishes the physician's precedence among the four supports. Aparthaka means fruitless. The udgatr knows the Sama Veda, the hotr the Rg Veda, and the brahman the three Vedas. The adhvaryu is described as the Yajur Veda-knowing teacher who directs them all in the sacrifice.

Meaning of the commentary

The verse shows that a physician's work may succeed even when the other three treatment supports are deficient. Plava means boat, pratitaras the men who throw out water entering it, and karnadhara its leader or helmsman.

Meaning of the commentary

Mastery includes proper study and correct understanding. Observed work means skill in surgical procedures such as excision and in measures such as oleation. Svayamkriti acts in treatment through personal judgment. A light hand is free from trembling and similar faults. Cleanliness is external and internal; courage is freedom from despondency. Equipment includes prepared bedding, instruments, surgical tools and medicines. Quick judgment prevents confusion when circumstances change. Intelligence includes reasoning about unstated or poorly stated matters. Vyavasayi remains composed while treating difficult conditions, though others gloss it as energetic. Visharada is learned and unconfused in difficult situations. Truth means refraining from false speech, and dharma requires many means.

Meaning of the commentary

Ayushman means long-lived, sattvavan able to endure distress, and sadhya having a curable disease. Atmavan means not greedy or uncontrolled. Astika is one who believes that giving and sacrifice bear results and that an afterlife exists. Vaidyavakyastha acts according to the physician's words.

Meaning of the commentary

Yuktamatra means appropriate quantity and manaskanta pleasing to the mind. Dosha may mean vata and the others together with affected dhatus and malas; alternatively dosha-removing medicine corrects disturbance without aggravating what is undisturbed. Aglanikara does not diminish cheerfulness. Avikari viparyaye means unchanged or only slightly changed in adverse circumstances. Examination before administration includes the factors beginning with lifespan and ending with region stated in patient assessment, or temporal conditions such as morning and other times.

Meaning of the commentary

Snigdha means affectionate. Ajugupsu means not disparaging or recoiling from the patient even in severe disease states. Strength permits endurance of hardship. Yukta means skilled and devoted to care. The attendant performs the physician's instruction without alternatives and remains free from exhaustion. Some add at the chapter's end that treatment succeeds when all four supports are complete, but the commentary rejects this line because it appears in none of the established commentaries.

Meaning of the commentary

Thus ends the thirty-fourth chapter in the Sutrasthana of the Nibandhasangraha commentary on Sushruta, composed by Shri Dalhana.