Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

550 THE SUSHRUTA SAMIIITA. [Chap. XXXI.
prepared, A Kudava measure of oil should be boiled
and cooked with four times as much of the liquid
and a Pala measure of pasted drugs (Kalka). This
is another process of cooking medicated Snehas
(oil, etc.), 14.
IVIemorable Verses : —The foregoing rules
should be adopted where no measures would be found
to have been specifically given of the Sneha, the liquid
and of the drugs, whereas in cases of specification, the
specific quantities should be taken. Water should be
used as the liquid, where no other liquid would be
mentioned by name (in connection with medicating a
Sneha, viz., oil, clarified butter, etc, by cooking). Both
for the decoction and paste (^Kalka\ the drugs
mentioned in the respective list should be used in
preparing a medicated Sneha in the absence of any
explicit and specific injunction to that efifect. 15.
Now we shall discuss the degrees of medically
cooking a Sneha (oil or Ghrita). Mild (Mridu^ middling
or intermediate (Madhyama) and hard (Khara) are the
three degrees which the boiling process undergoes in
medically cooking a Sneha. A cooking is said to be
mild (Mridu-Pdka) when the oil is found to drop off
entirely from its drug-paste (Kalka) leaving it dry and
sapless; whereas in an act of middle-cooking (Madhyama-
P^ka) the paste would be found to have become
pellucid and non-sticky like wax ; a cooking done
until the paste (in the Sneha' assumes a little clear,
glossy, frothless, black colour is termed strong (Khara-
Pdka). A Sneha cooked beyond the last-named degree
is called a burnt Sneha. A Sneha should, therefore, be
properly cooked. A mildly cooked Sneha should be
administered in food and drinks. A middling-cooked
one for the purposes of errhines and anointments, while