Talk:Jatiphaladi churna

Talk

Discussion for: Jatiphaladi churna • View • Links • Related changes

Use this page for verification notes, disputes, and action items. Keep narrative content on the article.

Page scope

The page treats jātīphalādi cūrṇa, the Ayurvedic powder of nutmeg, spices and other drugs with an equal weight of bhang leaf, in the form the Ayurvedic Formulary of India takes from the Śārṅgadhara Saṃhitā and Dutt gives in 1877. Cannabis in Ayurvedic medicine generally is on Cannabis in Ayurveda; the plant name vijayā is on Vijaya.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Sources

The Ayurvedic Formulary of India, Part I (2nd revised English edition, 2003), formula 7:12, p. 109, from the Wellcome Collection scan. The entry gives the Sanskrit verses (Śārṅgadhara Saṃhitā, madhyamakhaṇḍa 6.70–72½), then the drugs and their parts: drugs 1 to 20 at one part each, bhaṅgā (vijayā) leaf 20 parts, sugar 40 parts, with honey or water as vehicle. The English names of the indications are the Formulary's own, from its list of diseases and their approximate English equivalents (pp. 461–477). The list of single drugs (p. 309) gives vijayā as the official name for bhaṅgā and its source plant as Cannabis sativa Linn. The foreword describes the 444 formulations of Part I and their place in the First Schedule of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus (1877), pp. 239–240, from the Wellcome Collection scan of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh copy. The Sanskrit verse is in footnote 2 on p. 239.
Abhilas Chandra Mukerjee's evidence to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (vol. IV, witness 63, p. 169) gives the recipe in Dutt's words with "(vide Saranga Dhara)" added. It is the same text, so it is not a second witness to the composition.
Tavhare and Acharya (2017), table 1, no. 30 (p. 61), and the references it cites (nos. 14, 17, 21, 22 and 24, pp. 74–75).

Is it cannabis?

The verse in the Formulary names the drug bhaṅgā. The Formulary glosses it "bhaṅgā (vijayā)", a leaf, and its list of drugs identifies vijayā with Cannabis sativa. Dutt's recipe is in his article on Cannabis sativa and uses "purified bhāng". The homonym trap of vijayā (see Vijaya) does not arise: elsewhere in the same Formulary, kumāryāsava (1:13, p. 11) and hiṅguvacādi cūrṇa (7:39, p. 118) gloss vijayā as harītakī (pericarp), so the Formulary states the reading in each entry.

Name

The Formulary, Dutt and Mukerjee write the -ādya form (jātīphalādya); Tavhare and Acharya write Jatiphaladi Churna, and the articles West Bengal and Cannabis in West Bengal write jātīphalādi cūrṇa. The title takes the -ādi form; the -ādya forms are redirects.

Where the sources differ

Dutt names cumin seed and flowers of tagara; the Formulary gives sthūla jīraka (glossed upakuñcikā) and the root of tagara.
Dutt gives the powder for diarrhoea, indigestion and loss of appetite; the Formulary for tastelessness, diarrhoea, malabsorption, dysentery, cough, breathlessness and coryza. Tavhare and Acharya give saṅgrahaṇī, atisāra and grahaṇī from five later compendia and do not cite the Śārṅgadhara Saṃhitā.
The articles West Bengal and Cannabis in West Bengal attribute a jātīphalādi cūrṇa for rājayakṣma to Vaṅgasena's Cikitsāsārasaṅgraha, citing a 2004 edition and Wujastyk (2002). None of the sources cited here mentions a rājayakṣma formula of this name. Whether it is the same formula as the Śārṅgadhara one is open.

Not stated

The Śārṅgadhara Saṃhitā is the earliest source cited, and none of the sources cited here dates it.