Charaka Samhita ( Sutrasthana โ General Principles)-Chapter 25 – The Origin of Man and Disease (Purusha-samjnaka)
Sources of Wine
49-(1). To him replied the worshipful Atreya:โโO, Agnivesha! Eight in brief are the sources of spirituous liquors viz., grains, fruits, roots, pith, flowers, stalks, leaves and barks and the ninthly sugar.
The Eighty four varieties of Wine
49-(2). Now listen to the enumeration of the 84 varieties of wines which are considered the most wholesome out of the innumerable varieties resulting from different combinations of the above-mentioned ingredients.
The Various Pharmaceutical Methods of Preparing โWineโ
49-(3). Sura [surฤ], Sauvira [sauvฤซra], Tushodaka [tuแนฃodaka], Maireya, Medaka, and Dhanyamla [dhฤnyฤmla] are the six made from corn.
49-(4). Grapes, date, fruits of white teak common Indian linder, Indian ape flower, screw pine, sweet falsah, chebulic myrobalan, emblic myrobalan, gooseberry, jambul, wood apple, jujube, wild jujube, toothbrush tree, buchananโs mango, Indian jack, banyan, holy fig yellow-barked fig, flowering peepal, gular fig, celery seeds, Indian water chestnut, and clenolepis:โthese are the six and twenty fruits from which fruit wines are manufactured.
49-(5). Ticktrefoil, winter cherry, drumstick, climbling [climbing?] asparagus, black turpeth, red physic nut, physic nut bael, red-flowered castor-oil plant and white flowered lead wort are the eleven plants from whose roots, the eleven root-wines are manufactured.
49-(6) Sal, Priyaka [priyakฤ], small sal, sandalwood, oojein black wood, catechu, gum arable tree, dita bark, arjun, spinous kino, white babool, false mangosteen, white siris. shami [ลamฤซ], small julube, sisoo siris, country-willow, common Indian linden, mohwah:โthese are trees from whose pith, the twenty pith-wines are manufactured.
49(7). Red lotus, blue water-lily, indigo lotus, night-flowering lotus, fragrant white. lotus, white lotus, centipetal lotus, mohwah, perfumed cherry, and fulsee flower:โthese are the ten flowers from which flowerwines are manufactured.
49-(8). Sugar-cane, big sugar-cane, Ikshuvalika [ikแนฃuvฤlika] and white sugar-cane are the four plants from whose stems; stem-wines are manufactured.
49-(9). Wild snake gourd and palmyra palm are the two plants from whose leaves leaf-wines are manufactured.
49-(10). Tilvaka, lodh, cherry and pathani lodh are the four plants from whose barks, bark-wines are manufactured. Sugar is the only thing from which sugar-wine is manufactured.
49-(11). The eighty-four varieties here mentioned are all produced severally from the different fermentable ingredients unmixed with each other.
49-(12). All these fermented wines are so called because they are obtained by fermentation. Unlimited are the combinations and permutations of which these ingredients are capable and likewise they admit of diverse methods of preparation.
49. Agreeably to their nature and by virtue of the modification resulting from combination and preparation, the wines manifest specific properties. And combination, preparation, time place, and mode of preservation, dose etc., are prescribed in relation to particular wines in view of particular desired results.
The general qualities of Wine
Here is a verse againโ
50. Thus have been enumerated the eighty-four kinds of the best wines, which promote the strength of mind, body and digestive fire, dispel insomnia, depression and anorexia and induce exhilaration.
SOURCE: Charaka Samhita (English translation) by Shree Gulabkunverba Ayurvedic Society ( 1949)
GOTO: Charaka Samhita (Sanskrit Text)