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SVASTI – Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
9. Diseases of the ears, otalgia, are mentioned since the AV.262 Suśruta distinguishes twenty-eight types.263 They emerge when the planet Venus is in the asterism Śravana.264 Dumb ears can be opened by the invocation (dhití) of the Rta.265 Scabs at the ear are scratched with a scraper.266 Pimples on the ears indicate metaphysical science.267 Buddhaghosa lists aspirants to the order who may not be ordained because of serious diseases (pāpa-rogi)268 among which such as elephants' ears (hatthi-kanno), ears of a bat (jatuka-kanno), ears with boils (ganda-kanno) or ulcerating and festering ones.269 People affected with earache resort to ant-hills, pour out milk, cold rice, fruit, etc., thus pleasing the crows, and carry away part of the earth, which they apply to the troublesome member.270 After a bad dream, too, the ears should be cleaned with earth from a termitarium.271
An old dog's ear is thick with ticks.272
Somadeva makes a woman irrigate ears with nectar when she prattles.273 Finally, a man purges the ear with the sound of his lyre which, like the Ganges, charms with its swift stream of music. 274
Abbreviations275
APSŚK = Anandasāgarasūri 1954 AVPar = Bolling & Negelein 1909 BKBh = Bịhat-Kalpa-Bhāsya 1932-42 CE = Critical Edition of Mahābhārata EWAI = Mayrhofer 1991-2001
262 AV 9,8,1-2 karna-śülá. Cf. Honko 1967: 122 and 197. - For auditive errors in reciting the Veda see Minard I 1949, § 588a. 263 Zysk 1998: 161; Suśruta, Utt 20,3 and 6. See also Jolly 1977, $ 84. 264 Varāhamihira, Brhatsamhita IX 33. 265 RV 4,23,8; see Glasenapp 1940: 12. 266 Jacobi 1886: 55,16 (kandūyanaga). 267 Bțhatsamhita 52,3 pițakah ... śrotre tad-bhūşana-ganam api jñānam ātma-rūpam, cf. the ear seeking after the ätman in ŚpBr 10,5,3,7. 268 Samantapāsādikā 1027,30ff. 269 Samantapāsādikā 1029, 2f. sa-bhāvo yeva hi so tassa kanna-bhagandariko vā nicca-pūtinā kannena samannāgato. 270 Thurston 1912: 134. In our classical antiquity formic acid was known as a medicine (König 1984: 136). 271 BhavPur 1,23,17 > König 1984: 153 note 96. 272 Sternbach I 8816*. 273 KSS 47,112 alapanty amstenêva kācid äsiñcati śrutim, cf. KSS 44, 21 uccacāra gaganāt ... vacaḥ śudhā-varşam śravanayoś ... mahi-bhrtah. 274 KSS 49,23 sa vāditavān gāthân ... Gangām ivaugha-subhagām karna-pāvana-nihsvanām. 275 Abbreviations follow the system of Monier Williams for Sanskrit, Schubring for Jain texts and the Critical Pali Dictionary for Pāli literature.
