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Mathomathis would like continue from the previous article. Users are advised to read the previous article, before proceeding further. In the following article we would like to start with Nature of Poetry. Righteous and truthful: According to the poets of the Ṛigveda, the first and the foremost characteristic of a good poetry is its being righteous and in accordance with the cosmic law or Ṛta and it should contain and propagate the truth (satyam). Sage Dīrghatamāḥ directs his nicely flowing outpourings born of Ṛta towards god Agni (RV 1.141.1): Only the poetry which contains Ṛta lights up the Universe and the poets who compose it, shine in the world (7.7.6) : The hundredfold inexhaustible treasure of truth is the primeval source, the father, of poetry (RV 3.26.9): Even the sun shines more brilliantly, if words full of Ṛta are addressed to it (10 .138.2): The word sūnṛtam/śūnṛtā vāk also occurs in the Ṛigveda (and Atharvaveda) and is usually understood to be an antonym of anṛtam. As such it yields the meanings of ‘that which corresponds to Ṛta, as well as of ‘nice’ and ‘pleasing”. In RV 3.31.2 Indra is said to dispel adversities through sūnṛtā (vāk) combined with ṛta: The shining goddess Uṣas is praised for attaining pleasing and beneficial speech (RV 1.92.7) One of the frequent requests of a poet unto his deity is to bless him with sūnṛtā speech: so asmai sūnṛtāṃ duhe (AV 10.6.13)- Taking cue from such Vedic references, poet Bhavabhūti in his Uttararāmacaritam (5.31) remarks that a sūnṛtā Vāk is known to fulfill all desires of a human being:Needs inspiration from above : The Ṛigvedic poet knows well that unless there is inspiration from above, poetry cannot take shape. No amount of mechanical effort would bring about good poetry. Therefore he prays gods, especially Brahmanaspati or Bṛihaspati (cf. RV. I. 18, the whole poem) to inspire him. Brihaspati not only inspires him but also reveals the first form of Vāc (perhaps paśyantī is meant, not parā) to him (RV 10.71.1): Only then the best of the thoughts of the Ṛṣi, which is also beneficial to the world, comes out of the cave of his heart (10.71. 1cd): In another hymn (2.33.6) the poet declares that god Rudra has inspired him (unmā mamand vriṣbho marutvān) after he requested him to do so with an emotionally charged conscience (tvakṣīyasā vayasā nādhamānam). In fact, the poet asks for the favour of god himself, whom he is going to praise, to inspire him. Sage Agastya prays Aśvins to gift him with honeyed speech in order to be able to compose a nice hymn in their praise (RV I. 184.4) Poetry and visionary insight : The Sūkta X.177 of the Ṛigveda deserves a special mention in this regards where this inner light of visionary insight is symbolically represented as Pataṅga which has the core meaning of “a flying object” and as such has later been used for a ‘bird’, ‘the sun’ or a ‘moth’. However in the present hymn it refers to the flight of poetic imagination. This ‘deity’ Pataṅga contains in himself the divinely inspired, shining speech which has its source in heaven where it is firmly established and well protected within the sphere of Ṛta (RV 10.177.2) : “As soon as the vipaścits achieve this intuitive insight, the mysteries of the Supreme power start unfolding themselves to their hearts and their minds, the kavis start descending right up to the depth of the ocean and the vedhasas desire to reach the pinnacle of light” (X.177.1) : That such an inner light emerging in the heart of a poet enables him to see and visualize everything in the heaven and earth is corroborated by Ṛṣi Viśvāmitra in the following verse (RV 3.26.8): Dhīḥ : The inner light as source of poetry On closely looking at the meaning of the word Dhīḥ, it appears that it is the exceptional faculty of acquiring knowledge of transcendent truth or reality; the inner light. This is the reason why Uṣas, the goddess of light, is frequently requested to grant Dhīḥ to the poets (cf 7.79.5) and Savitṛ, another god connected with light, has been requested to channelize those dhiyas in the right direction (cf. the famous Gāyatrīmantra 3.62.10). Ṛṣi Nābhāka requests god Varuṇa to grant dhīḥ, wonderful ideas (kratu) and efficiency (dakṣam) to a budding poet, śikṣamāṇasya one who has just started composing poetry, with which he perhaps means his own self (RV 8.42.3): The word śikṣamāṇa (=still learning) reminds us here of the ‘kāvyajñaśikṣayā abhyāsaḥ’ of Mammaṭa (cf. Kāvyaprakāśa, I.3) as well as the expression ‘amandaścābhiyogaḥ’ along with ‘naisargikī pratibhā’ and ‘nirmalaṃ śrutaṃ’ (naisargikī ca pratibhā śrutaṃ ca bahu nirmalaṃ. amandaścābhiyogaḥ) as sources of poetry, where pratibhā or śakti can be equated with dhiyaḥ. Not every attempt at writing a poetry or not every literary composition of even a vipaścit meets with the expected success. There is a complete hymn in the RV (I.18) starting with ‘somānaṃ svaraṇaṃ kṛṇuhi brahmaṇaspate….’ in which poet Medhātithi prays to god Brahmaṇaspati to crown his poetic utterings with success: Unbroken tradition of poetry A Ṛigvedic poet is not only well aware of the long and unbroken tradition of the composition of poetry in his community, he is also proud of it. In the very first hymn of the Ṛigveda we hear the words: These are the words of Madhucchandas who belongs to the lineage of Viśvāmitra. He is well aware of the contribution of his great ancestors, the chief priests of the Bharatas, whose poems are mostly collected in the third book of the Ṛgveda. He has perhaps done “Kāvyajña-śikṣayābhyāḥ” under the guidance of his parents. Poet Śaṃyu of Bṛhaspati gotra addressing Indra remarks (RV 6.44.13): Although some poets like Agastya are modest to state that they are repeating what the veterans have also uttered (asarji vāṃ sthavirā vedhsā gīḥ RV 1.181.7), the others like Parucchepa entreat Indra that he ought to listen to a new composition by a new poet rather than to remain […]
Year 1985 – The AI Magazine – Equivalence Mathomathis would like to present an article on: Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence by Rick Brigs | RIACS, NASA Ames Research Centeu, Moffet Field, California 94305. The following article is a continuation from the previous article: Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence | 101 A comparison of the theories discussed in the previous article with the Indian theories of sentence analysis in the second section shows at once a few striking similarities. Both theories take extreme care to define minute details with which a language describes the relations between events in the natural world. In both instances, the analysis itself is a map of the relations between events in the universe described. In the case of the computer-oriented analysis, this mapping is a necessary prerequisite for making the speaker’s natural language digestible for the artificial processor; in the case of Sanskrit, the motivation is more elusive and probably has to do with an age-old Indo-Aryan preoccupation to discover the nature of the reality behind the the impressions we human beings receive through the operation of our sense organs. Be it as it may, it is a matter of surprise to discover that the outcome of both trends of thinking-so removed in time, space, and culture-have arrived at a representation of linguistic events that is not only theoretically equivalent but close in form as well. The one superficial difference is that the Indian tradition was on the whole, unfamiliar with the facility of diagrammatic representation, and attempted instead to formulate all abstract notions in grammatical sentences. In the following paragraphs a number of the parallelisms of the two analyses will be pointed out to illustrate the equivalence of the two systems. Consider the sentence: “John is going.” The Sanskrit paraphrase would be “An Act of going is taking place in which the Agent is ‘John’ specified by singularity and masculinity.” If we now turn to the analysis in semantic nets, the event portrayed by a set of triples is the following: 1. “going events, instance, go (this specific going event)” 2. “go, agent, John” 3. “go, time, present.” The first equivalence to be observed is that the basic framework for inference is the same. John must be a semantic primitive, or it must have a dictionary entry, or it must be further represented (i.e. “John, number, 1” etc.) if further processing requires more detail (e.g. “HOW many people are going?“). Similarly, in the Indian analysis, the detail required in one case is not necessarily required in another case, although it can bc produced on demand (ifneeded). The point to be made is that in both systems, an extensive degree of specification is crucial in understanding the real meaning of the sentence to the extent that it will allow inferences to be made about the facts not explicitly stated in the sentence The basic crux of the equivalence can be illustrated by a careful look at sentence “Out of friendship, Maitra cooks rice for Devadatta in a pot over a fire ” The semantic net is supplied in Figure 5 (below). The triples corresponding to the net are: cause, event, friendship friendship, objectl, Devadatta friendship, object2, Maitra cause, result cook cook, agent, Maitra cook, recipient, Devadatta cook, instrument, fire cook, object, rice cook, on-lot, pot. The sentence in the Indian analysis is rendered as follows: The Agent is represented by Maitra, the Object by “rice,” the Instrument by “fire,” the Recipient by “Devadatta,” the Point of Departure (or cause) by “friendship” (between Maitra and Devadatta), the Locality by “pot.” Since all of these syntactic structures represent actions auxiliary to the action “cook,” let us write cook” next to each karaka and its sentence representation: cook, agent, Maitra cook, object, rice cook, instrument, fire cook, recipient, Devadatta cook, because-of, friendship friendship, Maitra, Devadatta cook, locality, pot. The comparison of the analyses shows that the Sanskrit sentence when rendered into triples matches the analysis arrived at through the application of computer processing. That is surprising, because the form of the Sanskrit sentence is radically different from that of the English. For comparison, the Sanskrit sentence is given here: Maitrah: sauhardyat Devadattaya odanam ghate agnina pacati. Here the stem forms of the nouns are: Maitra-sauhardya-“friendship,” Devadatta -, odana- “gruel,” ghatu- “pot,” agni- “fire” and the verb stem is paca- “cook”. The deviations of the stem forms occurring at the end of each word represent the change dictated by the word’s semantic and syntactic position. It should also be noted that the Indian analysis calls for the specification of even a greater amount of grammatical and semantic detail: Maitra, Devadatta, the pot, and fire would all be said to be qualified by “singularity” and “masculinity” and the act of cooking can optionally be expanded into a number of successive perceivable activities. Also note that the phrase “over a fire” on the face of it sounds like a locative of the same form as “in a pot.” However, the context indicates that the prepositional phrase describes the instrument through which the heating of the rice takes place and, therefore, is best regarded as an instrument semantically. Of course, many versions of semantic nets have been proposed, some of which match the Indian system better than others do in terms of specific concepts and structure. The important point is that the same ideas are present in both traditions and that in the case of many proposed semantic net systems it is the Indian analysis which is more specific. A third important similarity between the two treatments of the sentence is its focal point which in both cases is the verb. The Sanskrit here is more specific by rendering the activity as a “going-event”, rather than “going.” This procedure introduces a new necessary level of abstraction, for in order to keep the analysis properly structured, the focal point ought to be phrased: “there is an event taking place which is one of cooking,” rather than “there is cooking taking place”, in order for the […]
Mathomathis would like to continue on Upanishads and Quantum Philosophy Compared , 102. Readers can find the previous article by navigating to the link Upanishads and Quantum Philosophy Compared | 101 Chandogya Upanishad refers to the origin of world from akasha, the space-time continuum. Thus the Upanishad says: Where from do all these worlds come? They came from akasha and into akasha they return. akasha is indeed their beginning and akasha is the final end. Taittiriya Upanishad refers to akasha or space as the first evolute. The field of modern science can be compared to this akasha . The Upanishads speaks of apah, prana and akasha in decreasing order of subtlety. Here akasha is said to have come from prana. These three are active and things are produced from them and into them they return. This is the similar to the concept of the particles appearing from nowhere which again is the field. Thus apah, prana and akasha can together be compared to the field of the quantum thinkers. Manifestation of the world begins with its first step, the appearance of the space time continuum. Consciousness draws the picture of the manifested world in the canvas of space-time continuum. An object is only a pattern in the field of consciousness. The field is enveloped by space time, the first fictitious creation of the consciousness force. In the state of pralaya the space-time is engulfed into the Absolute consciousness. Thus says the lore of India: From atman-Brahman in the beginning came akahsa. From akasha came air, from air the fire, from fire the water. From water came solid earth. From earth came living plants. From plants food and seed; and from seed and food came a living being, man. This is akin to quantum inter-connectedness which Wheeler refers to as quantum foam. Thus writes John Gribbin: Quantum fluctuations in the geometry of space are completely negligible at the scale of atoms, or even elementary particles, but at this very fundamental level space itself can be thought of as a foam of quantum fluctuations – John Wheeler, who developed this idea, makes the comparison between an ocean that seems flat to an aviator flying high above it, but that seems anything but to the occupants of a lifeboat tossing about it on its stormy, ever-changing surface. Sir James Jeans, the British psychologist points to the relative nature of space and time which according to him do not have separate existence in nature. He opines, …nature knows as nothing of space and time separately, being concerned only with the four dimensional continuum in which space and time are inseparably welded together into the product we may designate as “space-time.” Our human spectacles divide this into space and time, and introduce a spurious differentiation between them; just as an astigmatic pair of spectacles divides the field of vision of a normal man into horizontal and vertical, and introduces a spurious differentiation between these directions. With astigmatic spectacles on, we incline our head and see the scene in front of us rearrange itself. Yet we know that nothing spectacles is subjective. Einstein’s world view which he formulated before his death is worth quoting. “Space has devoured ether and time; it seems to be on the point of swallowing up also the field and the corpuscles, so that it alone remains as the vehicle of reality”. Scientists studying space and field have ruled out the pluralistic picture of the universe since they accept the space or field as a single continuous entity which is the basis of the pluralistic manifestation of the world. The new generation quantum thinkers realized the role of space in the creation and dissolution of particles. Particles come from and vanish into space. Space, time, and motion (matter) are the three principles in the world of ordinary experience. Like space matter also has a relative appearance, both scientists as well as upanishadic seers opine. The study of the microscopic world by the quantum physicists has proved the bizarre nature of matter. Determinacy and causality upheld by the classical physics gave way to the theories of indeterminacy and complementarity. Objective reality became an illusion or something subjective. The behavior of an atom or sub-atomic particle was found to be ghost-like. Marcus Chown’s humorous illustration of the ‘red Ferrari’ cited earlier in this work brings out the process of tunneling by particles. Being a wave and a particle, an atom is said to be present everywhere and would materialize when the consciousness desires to observe it. The ‘double slit experiment’ of Young is an excellent demonstration of uncertainty and tunneling of particles. The waves are in superposition. This is no theoretical fantasy. Experiments describe it possible to observe the presence of an atom at two places simultaneously just like a fairy tale character appearing simultaneously at many places. But this was not a matter of fancy to the ancient Seers according to whom ‘it’ moves, ‘it’ moves not, ‘it’ is far, ‘it’ is near, ‘it’ is within all this, and ‘it’ is outside of all this. (Isho upanishad). Individual consciousness is identical with the Universal or Absolute consciousness. The ultimate consciousness in its becoming decohered binds itself with ignorance or illusion and chooses for it one out of the innumerable possibilities. It thus becomes a part of the world of imperfection and limitation and forgets the unity it is the part of. While scientists call this collapse of consciousness, a Seer like Sri. Aurobindo calls it the involution of consciousness. Universal Consciousness is thus everywhere, become any thing with its bizarre nature. Aitareya Upanishad describes atman as got entangled in all cosmic phenomena. (He) whereby one sees, or whereby one hears, or whereby one smells odours, or whereby one articulates speech, or whereby one discriminates the sweet and the unsweet; that which is heart(hrdaya) and mind (manas) – that is consciousness (samjnana) perception (ajnana), discrimination (vijnana), intelligence (prajnana), wisdom (medha), insight (drishti), steadfastness (dhrti), thought (mati), thoughtfulness (manisha), impulse (juti), memory (smriti), conception (samkalpa), purpose […]
Mathomathis would like to present the article on the Vaimanika Shastras – Vimana Shastras by Maharshi Bharadwaaja Propounded by Venerable SUBBARAYA SHASTRY Translated into English and Edited, Printed and Published by G.R. JOSYER SCHOLAR, HISTORIAN, ESSAYIST, SANSKRITIST Printed at CORONATION PRESS, MYSORE-4, INDIA. The following article would be presented on Types of Vimanas, i.e. different type of flying vehicles or aircrafts or aeroplanes depicted in the Vimana Shastra’s. Before proceeding further on the following article, its advised to complete the previous article on: Types Of Vimanas | Rukma Vimana | Atha Rukma Vimana Nirnayaha | 103 Maharshi Bharadwaaja Sutra 2: “Tripurothha.” | “Next Tripura.” Bodhaananda Vritti: This vimana has 3 enclosures, or aavaranas or tiers. Each aavarana is called “Pura.” As it consists of 3 aavaranas it is called “Tripura” vimana. It is operated by the motive power generated by solar rays. Narayana also says:- The vimana which naturally can travel on land, sea, and in the sky by alteration of its structure is called Tripura Vimana. It has got 3 parts. The first part can travel on land. The second part can travel under and over water. The 3rd part travels in the sky. By uniting the 3 parts by means of keelakas, the plane can be made to travel in the sky. The plane is divisible into 3 parts so that it might travel on land, sea, or air. The construction of the 1st part is now explained. Tripura vimana should be made out of Trinetra metal only. Trinetra loha is explained by Shaakataayana:- Jyotishmatee loha 10 parts, kaanta-mitra 8 parts, vajramukha loha 16 parts, these 3 to be filled in crucible, then adding tankana or borax 5 parts, trynika 7 parts, shrapanikaa 11 parts, maandalika 5 parts, ruchaka or natron 3 parts, mercury 3 parts, then filled in crucible in padmamukha furnace and heated to 631 degrees with trimukhee bellows, the resulting liquid, if poured into cooler, will yield a metal, shining like peacock feather, unburnable, unbreakable, weightless, impregnable by water, fire, air and heat, and indestructible. With that metal the peetha should be prepared, of any desired size. The following is given as an example. It may be 100 feet wide and 3 feet thick, round or square. Leaving 20 feet on the western side, at intervals of 10 feet 80 spots should be marked for wheeled boats. 80 feet long, 3 feet wide, 5 feet high boat shaped dronies or containers should be fixed on the marked lines. Three feet wide openings should be made in the top of the dronies, so as to raise the wheel inside them quickly and cover them underneath. There should be fittings which enable the wheels to be lowered on land, and raised and covered underneath when going in water. The wheels should have axle rods with fittings to attract electric power. The axle rods should be 2½ feet long and 1 foot thick. The wheels should be 3 feet wide and 1 foot thick, have, 5, 6, or 7 spokes, fixed in the rims, and covered with musheeka up to 4 inches from the edge. Holes with glass coverings should be made in all the wheels. These 12 wheels, or 8, or 6, or 4, should be fixed inside the boat like structure. For transmitting power wires made of somakaanta loha should be fixed in the holes made in the wheels. In the middle of each wheel electric aaghaata keelakaas should be fixed, and in them chhidraprasaarana keelakas. Over all the chakradronee boats, copper wire pairs should be fixed on both sides, and in the joints of the wheels. Rods should be attached to the wires so that power could be drawn from the wires and passed to the top of the wheels. And power should be passed to the wires underneath the wheels. In climbing hills, and going down slopes, by adjusting the power at the top or the bottom of the wheels, smooth progress is made possible. By adjusting the necessary keelakas it is possible to accelerate the speed, or in going down, to restrain the flow of the current, and put brake on excess speed. For attracting power from the generator a naala or pipe with wires should be fixed at the front of the peetha through 5 faced wheel keelakas, and the wires should be connected to the fittings at the top and bottom of the wheels, with glass cups. In order to put covering over the boat formations, pillars should be fixed between each boat line, and covered with mica sheets, as per architectural rules. Maharshi Bharadwaaja Sutra 3:- “Shuddhhaambaraattadhhi.” | “Out of pure mica alone” Bodhaananda Vritti: The vimana should be made out of pure mica alone. Mica is described in “Dhatu sarvasva “. There are four kinds of mica, white mica, red mica, yellow mica, and black mica. The white mica has 16 varieties. Red mica has 12 varieties. The yellow mica has 7 varieties. And the black mica has 15 varieties. Thus there are 50 varieties in all. Shownakeeya also says:- There are of 4 castes which are: brahmin, kshatriya, vysya, and sudra. They are of 50 varieties. The brahmin mica has 16 varieties. The kshatriya mica has 12 varieties. The vysya mica has 7 varieties. And the sudra mica has 15 varieties, totalling 50 in all. Their names are as follows. The brahmin mica varieties are ravi, ambara, bhraajaka, rochishmaka, pundareeka, virinchika, vajragarbha, koshambara, sowvarchala, somaka, amritanetra, shytyamukba, kuranda, rudraasya, panchodara and rukmagarbha. The kshatriya varieties are shundeeraka, shambara, rekhaasya, owdumbara, bhadraka, panchaasya, amshumukha, raktanetra, manigarbha, rohinika, somaamshaka, and kourmika. The vysya varieties are krishnamukha, shyaamarekha, garalakosha, panchadhaara, ambareeshaka, manigarbha, and krownchaasya. The shoodra varieties are gomukha, kanduraka, showndika, mugdhaasya, vishagarbha, mandooka, thailagarbha, rekhaasya, parvanika, raakaamsuka, praanada, drownika, raktabandhaka, rasagraahaka, vranahaarika. Out of these, pundareeka from the 1st class, rohinika from the second, panchadhaara from the third, and drownika from the 4th class are good for use in constructing the vimana. These should first be purified as per […]
Mathomathis would like to present an article on Sushruta Samhita | Medical treatment of inflamed ulcers based on the book Sushruta Samhita, volume 4: Chikitsasthana by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna | 1911 | 123,229 words. The article was adopted from the website: https://www.wisdomlib.org/, a detailed explanation is available on the website. Shvetavalguja-Rasayana:— The fruit (seeds) of the white Avalguja should be dried in the sun and then reduced to a fine powder. This powder should be stirred with (an adequate quantity of) treacle and placed in an earthen pitcher which previously contained clarified butter (Sneha-kumbha). The pitcher should then be kept buried in a heap of paddy for seven days after which it should be taken out and its contents given in convenient doses every morning before sunrise to a person, seeking improvement of memory and longevity, after his system has been thoroughly cleansed (with proper emetics and purgatives, etc.). Hot water should then be drunk. After taking the medicine, the patient should enter his room in accordance with the rules laid down in connection with the Bhallataka-Vidhana. After the digestion of the medicine, the patient should be advised to take a cold bith and to partake in the evening of a meal of well-cooked Shali or Shashtika rice with (boiled) milk sweetened with sugar. This medicine continuously taken in this manner for six months would make the life of its user sinless, and extend it in the full glow of health and vigour and in the sound enjoyment of a vigorous memory and of all his intellectual faculties to a hundred green summers. In cases of Kushtha, jaundice and abdominal dropsy (Udara), the medicine should be prepared by stirring (the powdered seeds of) the Krishna (black Avalguja) with the urine of a cow (instead of with treacle) and given to the patient in doses of half a Pala weight every morning after the sun has ceased to look red. In the afternoon the patient should be made to partake of a meal of boiled rice with clarified butter and unsalted Amalaka soup. A continuous use of this medicine in the aforesaid manner for a month would improve the memory and intellectual faculties of the user, and enable him to witness a hundred summers on earth in the full enjoyment of sound health. Citraka roots and Rajani (turmeric) may be used in the same manner and for similar purposes with this distinction that the dose of the Citraka -root preparation should be two Pala measures (instead of half a Pala as laid down in regard to the foregoing compounds). The rest are identical with the above. Manduka-parni Rasayana:— The Doshas of the system of a person should be first thoroughly cleansed (with the help of proper emetics and purgatives, etc.), and he should be advised to undergo the prescribed diet of (Peya, Yavagu, etc, in their proper order) He should be further advised to enter his chamber in the prescribed manner (and to remain there during the entire course of the treatment). An adequate dose of the expressed juice of the Manduka-parni should then be stirred with milk, and should be taken after consecrating it by reciting the proper Mantras a thousand times. A potion of milk may then be taken immediately after. After it had been fully digested a meal of cooked barley grains with milk should then be partaken of; or (the expressed juice of Manduka-parni) with an admixture of sesamum seeds followed by a potion of milk. A meal of boiled rice with milk and clarified butter should then be taken after the digestion of the medicine and should be continued for three months in succession. This would ensure a long life of a hundred years in the full vigour of retentive memory and intellectual faculties, and would impart a god-like effulgence to the complexion. As an alternative, the patient should fast three days and take only the expressed juice of Manduka-parni for these three days. After this period he should live on milk and clarified butter only, or he should be made to take a Vilva measure (of the paste of Manduka-parni) stirred with milk for ten consecutive days which would ensure a life of a hundred years in the full enjoyment of his intellectual faculties. Brahmi Rasayana:— Having had the Doshas of the system duly cleansed (with proper emetics and purgatives, etc.), a person (wishing to undergo a treatment of Rasayana) should be advised to take the prescribed diet of (Peya, Yavagu, etc., in their proper order), and should be made to enter his room (Agara). He should then take the expressed juice of the Brahmi in an adequate dose after consecrating the juice a thousand times with the proper Mantras. After the medicine had been fully digested he should be advised to take in the evening Yavagu (gruel) without any salt; or with boiled milk in the event of his being habituated to its use. A continuous use of the medicine for a week improves the memory, leads to the expansion of the intellectual faculties and imparts a celestical glow to the complexion. In the second week of its course it revives old and forgotten memories in the user and adds to his proficiency in the writing out of any book to be written. In the third week it enables a man to reproduce from memory as many as one hundred words if twice heard or read (at a single sitting). In the same manner a (further) use of the drug for twenty-one days removes all inauspicious features whether of the body or of the mind, the goddess of learning appears in an embodied form to the (mind of the) user, and all kinds of knowledge come rushing into his memory. A single hearing is enough to make him reproduce (verbatim from memory a discourse however lengthy), and he is enabled to live for five hundred years. Brahmi Ghrita:— Two Prastha measures of the expressed juice of tho Brahmi and one Prastha measure […]