Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

Chap. XII.] NIDANA STHANAM. Si
TheUpadansam: —An inflammatory swelling
of the genital, whether ulcerated or not is called
Upadans'a*. The disease owes its origin to the
action of the local Doshas, aggravated by promiscuous
and excessive sexual intercourse, or by entire abstinence
in sexual matter ; or by visiting a woman, who
had observed a vow of lifelong continence or one who has
not long known a man, or one in her menses or one with
an extremely narrow or spacious vulva, or with rough or
harsh or large pubic hairs ; or by going unto a woman
whose partturient canal is studded with hairs along its
entire length ; or by visiting a woman not amorously
disposed towards the visitor and vice versa ;
or by know-
ing a woman who washes her private parts with foul
water or neglects the cleanliness of those parts, or suffers
from any of the vaginal diseases, or one whose vagina
is naturally foul ; or by going unto a woman in any of
the natural fissures of her body other than the organ of
copulation (Vi yoni) ; or by pricking the genital with
finger nails, or biting it with the teeth, or through poison-
ous contact, or through practice of getting the (penis
abnormally elongated by pricking the) bristles of a
water parasite {Suka) into its body ; or by practising
* Upadans'a is not syphilis whole to whole. Certain types of
Upadans'a such as the Raklaja and S^nnipdtika types which entail the
destruction of the organs concerned exhibit certain symptoms which are
common to syphilis as well. The secondary eruptions and tertiary
symptoms of syphilis are not mentioned by ihe A') urvedic Rishis who
used to treat it only with vegetable medicines and this fact intimates
the probability that the secondary and tertiary symptoms of syphilis
might not arise by their efficient and able treatment from the very
beginning, preventing the absorption of the poison into the system.
The practice of ablution, so common among the Hindus, might be
taken into consideration as one of the important preventive factors.
Maharshi Caaraka has comprised it within the chapter on 'Senile
Impotency'. —Ed.
II