Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

ChapXXIV.] CHIKITSA STHANAM. 495
particularly towards the sun or any luminous body* or
towards any extremely attenuated, revolving or moving
object. Never carry a load on the head. Sleeping, wak-
ing, sitting, lying down, walking, jumping, running fast,
plunging in water, swimming, riding on a horse or in
a vehicle, talking, laughing, sexual intercourse and
taking (any other) physical exercise though accus-
tomed and recommended should not be inordinately
indulged in. J^.
A bad habit should be gradually discontinued and
a good one even when (beneficial to health) should
similarly be gradually inculcated by a quarter only and
not all at once. 74.
It is improper to lie down with one's head downward.
One should not drink water from a broken vessel nor
with the help of blended palms. Food, which is
wholesome and approved of by one's physician and
which abounds in articles of sweet and emollient pro-
perties-f- should be taken at the proper (and regular)
time (every day) in a moderate quantity. It is forbidden
to take any food in the house of a trader {i.e.^ of a
(hotel-keeper) or a courtesan, nor in the house of a
wily, degenerate or inimical person, nor at a village-
assembly. The refuse of another's dishes, as well as
articles of food infested with flies, insects, etc.^ or
possessed of an objectionable colour, taste, smell, touch or
stars.
* Some explain "Jyotish"' as a blaze 0.' fire and olhers explain it as
t The framers of the Ayurveda were aware of the fact that the human
system is incapable of directly assimilating starchy substances without
converting them into sugar, This has been emphasised in the Sutra-
Sihana, where Sus'ruta insists that a food stuff, in order to be worthy
of the epithet, must be Madhura (z e , of sweet flavour) and contain
a large qnantity of proteid n>atter such as is found in milk, butter,
meat, etc.—Ed.