Rules to be observed:— The child should be kept in a clean and purified chamber and its body should be rubbed or anointed with old and matured clarified butter. Mustard seeds should be strewn all over the floor (by a person) in a clean state and a lamp of mustard oil should be kept perpetually burning therein. Libations of clarified butter with the drugs of the Sarvagandhá and Sarvoushadhi *[1] groups and garlands of flowers as well as sandal paste should, be cast into the fire and kept continually burning by reciting the following incantations, "Obeisance to thee, O fire-god, obeisance to thee, O goddess Krittiká, obeisance to thee, O Skanda, obeisance to thee, O lord of the Grahas (which has cast this malignant influence). With head down with deep humility, I supplicate thy favour. Dost thou accept the offerings I have made to thee. May my child get rid of the disease it has been suffering from. Makest it hale and hearty again." 15.
Thus ends the twenty-seventh chapter of the Uttara-Tantra in the Sus'ruta-Samhitá which deals with the specific features of an attack by the nine (malignant) Grahas.
- ↑ * The drugs of the Eládi group are known as Sarvagandha. Sarvaaushadhi drugs here mean Yava, Dhánya, Tila, etc.
