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(222) : Nandanavana
Medical and Surgical Practices
The Jaina Prānāvāya system mentions various medical and surgical practices with not very much detail about them. However, the contemporary and later literature mentions quite a lot about them. The various types of medications have been classified by Ugrāditya under four heads: (i) Causticisation (ii) Branding, (iii) Medicinal substances and (iv) Surgery
The different practices could be classified under these heads. However, a better classification would be based on the nature of medication under current terms: (i) physical, (ü) surgical, (iii) medicinal and (iv) psychological processes. They are described below. It must be noted that all the physical processes have some types of medical action on the diseased part. (i) Physical Methods 1. Rubbing with oil
2. Rubbing with powder 3. Oil drinks
4. Vomiting 5. Purging with drugs
6. Medicated bath 7. Syringing bladder
8. Oil enema 9. Bathing hair with oil
10. Nourishing with oils 11. Nourishing with cooked oils
12. Use of hairy/hairless leather. 13. Wrapping with fur or leather
14. Sweating 15. Massaging
16. Special anointing 17. Pressing/sneezing
18. Sun-bath 19. Water bath
20. Mud/earth poultice 21. Leeching
22. Administration of medicines (barks,
rhizomes, bitter and juicy extracts). 23. Making herbal tablets
24. Preparing special medicines 25. Preparing mixtures of medicines 26. Medical fumitigation/incensing 27. Making decoctions and multiple 28. Causticisations
digestions 29. Leaf and ground leaf poultice (ü) Surgical 1. Opening veins or acupuncture
2. Cutting 3. Fine cutting
4. Thorn pricking 5. Branding
6. Post-surgery care 7. Scraping
The number of these processes has increased from 4 in S.K. and 5 in Ācārārga to more than 30 in total. It is clear that there are about 29
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