Charaka Samhita. Part I, Chapter 14 / Translation from Sanskrit, Introductory Article and Commentaries by D. Burba

This publication presents the first Ukrainian translation of the fourteenth chapter of the first section of the fundamental Sanskrit treatise on Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) Charaka Samhita. (For previous chapters, see 2017 issues of The World of the Orient and No. 2 for this year.) As it exists today, this text is thought to have arisen in the 1st century CE. The translation is of great importance for acquaintance of the Ukrainian readers with medical conceptions and life of Ancient India. The fourteenth chapter is devoted to such an Ayurvedic procedure as fomentation (svedana, from Sanskrit sveda or sweat), which means various types of therapeutic warming: warming the whole body or its individual parts; dry heat, steam heat, hot tub; warming up with or without preliminary anointing а patient’s body with oil. At the beginning of the chapter, the usefulness of fomentation is justified by an analogy “Even dry poles bend by means of oleation and fomentation, then how living human beings [can not be benefited]?” The chapter insists on coordinating a power of fomentation with a season and a patient’s condition. Indications and contraindications for fomentation are listed. Instructions on behavior before, during, and after a fomentation are given. A list of medicine added to the boiling water (to generate steam) is provided.