Risht Samucchaya

Author(s): Durgadevacharya, A S Gopani
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 73

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THE RISTASAMUCCAYA
judgment about his possible success or failure if he chose to treat the patient. It should be broadly mentioned that the Samhitas mostly treat of the dreams of the patients and the omens seen by the physician while going to see and examine the patient as well as seen by one who might have been sent to call the physician. Other aspects of the portents are left untouched I have first compared the RS with the KS.
in the Samhitas.
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(a) The RS and the KS: It is stated in the RS that he lives for a week if water placed on his bosom dried up at the end of the day, in the dark-half; and in the bright-half if the reverse happens, meaning thereby, that if the water soon dries up (st. 60). This phenomenon is referred to in the KS but with important modifications. According to it, he lives for half a month if the water on the bosom dries up first, after bath, when all other limbs are still wet (pp. 59-61; 7). 15 The RS declares that he, as good as a dead man, lives for a month, who is led, in the dream, to the south, dancing and with red flowers on the person (st. 128). The KS does not clearly specify the duration but refers to it in context of a disease of hysteria. It advocates a theory that one gets 20 hysterical if he dances in the dream in the company of goblins placing red flowers and garments on the body and anointing it with red sandal-wood paste (pp. 59-61; 14, 15). In the opinion of the RS, he lives, indeed for a month, who is led, in the dream, to the southern direction, on (the back of a) 25 buffalo, donkey or camel, having been anointed with ghee or oil (st. 123). This statement of the RS finds ample support in the theory of the KS which formulates to the effect that a man, who dreams that he is shaven, ends his life with fever if he is driven to the south (sitting) on the dog, or donkey or if he is pulled by them (pp.59-61; 22-23). The RS describes that there is no go but death for a sick man if a man, who has undertaken to see the omens for his sake, sees a menstruating woman, while deciding his fate through omens (st. 178). In this connection, the KS mentions an uncouth man instead of a woman 35 in menses (pp. 59-61; 28). The RS takes a weeping crowd to be a bad sign (st. 178) but it is controverted by the KS according to which it is considered auspicious (pp. 59-61; 33).
1 See App. IX, pp. 100 f.