Trikaṭu
Trikaṭu · tri-kaṭu, “the three pungents”
Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of tri (three) and kaṭu (pungent): “the three pungents”. The Agni Purāṇa also calls it vyosha and kaṭutraya.
Meaning: the three pungent substances taken together as one ingredient of medicines.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa uses trikaṭu in these places.
- Its nature: Dhanvantari tells Suśruta that vāta is dry and cold, pitta is hot, and the three pungents (kaṭu-traya) increase pitta (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 280).
- In medicines: in the siddha-yogas that revive the dying, which Dhanvantari teaches, devadāru, balā, vāsā, triphalā, vyosha, padmaka, vāyu-viḍaṅga and sugar in equal parts, powdered, remove the five kinds of cough. Hiṅgu, sauvarcala and vyosha, two palas each, cooked with four śers of ghee and four times as much cow’s urine, destroy insanity. Guggulu, triphalā and vyosha with ghee, applied, destroy sinus, foul wounds, colic and fistula. A decoction of trikaṭu and triphalā drunk with salt purges those of kapha-vāta nature and lessens kapha. Ghee with vyosha, cooked with three times as much water of palāśa ash, destroys piles. Pills of pāṭhā, nikumbha, trikaṭu, triphalā and citraka with cow’s urine destroy gulma and an enlarged spleen. Ghee with triphalā, vyosha and rock salt is good for the eyes and the heart, kindles the digestive fire and destroys the diseases of kapha (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 285).
- For elephants and horses: Pālakāpya tells Lomapāda that an elephant in a faint should be fed a mouthful of vāyu-viḍaṅga, triphalā, trikaṭu and rock salt and given water with honey; in loss of appetite, rice of mudga with vyosha is good; and a medicated fat of trivṛt, vyosha, citraka and other herbs removes gulma (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 287). Śālihotra teaches that a ball of pomegranate, triphalā, vyosha and jaggery in equal parts, fed to a horse, destroys cough (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 289).
- Against poison: Agnideva teaches that śirīsha seeds and flowers, arka milk and arka seed, and the three pungents, given to drink, smeared on or put in the eyes, destroy poison. Kośātakī, vacā, hiṅgu, śirīsha, arka milk and trikaṭu given through the nose destroy poison, and so does trikaṭu powder mixed in the juice of indrabala, agnika, droṇa, tulasī and kavika and eaten (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 297). In snake venom one drinks garlic, rāmaṭha fruit, kushṭha, citraka and vyosha. Fumigation with trikaṭu, a peacock feather, a cat’s bone and mongoose hair in equal parts, powdered and soaked in sheep’s milk, destroys every kind of poison. A paste with mañjishṭhā, sandal, vyosha, śirīsha and kumuda flowers removes the pain of a scorpion sting; śirīsha and vyosha destroy centipede venom; vyosha and tagara root with ghee destroy fish poison; yava-kshāra, vyosha, vacā, hiṅgu and other herbs remove the venom of every insect; and yashṭimadhu, vyosha, jaggery and milk remove the poison of a dog bite (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 298).
- For grahas and cough: ghee drawn from goat’s milk boiled with pāṭhā, harītakī, vacā, śigru, rock salt and vyosha removes all affliction by grahas; and trikaṭu, padmakāshṭha, triphalā, viḍaṅga, devadāru and rāsnā in equal parts, powdered and taken with sugar-candy, surely destroy cough (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 300).
- In vaśīkaraṇa: a paste of trikaṭu with honey is among the means of vaśīkaraṇa, bringing another under one’s control (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 302).
Related terms: Triphalā · Āyurveda · Visha · Pitta · Kapha
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 280, 285, 287, 289, 297–298, 300, 302