Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

THE
SUSHRUTA SAMHITA
KALPA-STHANAM
(Section on Toxicology).
CHAPTER I.
Now we shall discourse on the mode of preserving
food and drink from the effects of poison (Anna.-"
p^na-Raksha-Kalpa). I
Dhanvantari, the King of Kas'i, the foremost in
virtue and religion and whose commands brook no
disobedience or contradiction, instructed his disciples,
Sus'ruta and others (in the following words). 2.
Powerful enemies and even the servants and rela-
tions of the sovereign in a fit of anger to avenge them-
selves on the sovereign sometimes concoct poisonous
compounds and administer the same to him, powerful
though he may be, by taking advantage of any defect or
weak point in him. Sometimes the ladies (of the royal
house-hold) are found to administer to the king various
preparations (of food and drink), which often prove to be
poisonous, from a foolish motive of securing his affection
and good graces thereby, and sometimes it is found that
by the embrace of a poisoned girl (Visha-Kanya),*
* A girl slowly habituated to taking poison or poisoned food is
called a Vislia-Kanyi, such a girl presented to a king by a pretending
friend of the stale often managed to hug her royal victim into her fatal
embrace. The poison operates through the perspiration, proving almost
instantaneously fatal through the act of dalliance*
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