Charaka Indriya Sthana 6th Chapter Katamaani shareeriya Indriyam

6th chapter of Charaka Indriya sthana deals about signs and symptoms of imminent death as indicated by the physical features of the patient. The chapter name is Katamani shareeriya Indriyam.

Now we shall expound the chapter on the signs and symptoms of imminent death as indicated by the characteristic physical features of the patient. Thus said Lord Atreya [1-2]
Read – Arishta Lakshanas – Ominous Signs And Symptoms Indicating Bad Prognosis

Physical symptoms indicative of imminent death

O! Great sage, who are the ailing persons for whom treatment is of no avail and to whom the physician must not provide treatment?
Atreya answered this question as follows: The patient with the below mentioned symptoms should not be treated by the physician –

• feeling of excruciating pain in the upper part of the chest while speaking
• vomiting out food
• indigestion of food even if it is retained in the stomach
• sudden diminution of strength
• excessive increase of thirst and
• pain in the heart [3-6]

The patient suffering from bloody diarrhea and hiccup originating from a deeply located organ should not be administered any medicine remembering the instructions of Atreya. [7]
A weak patient afflicted with painful conditions like Anaha (distension of abdomen) and diarrhoea will not survive. [8]
A weak patient afflicted with Anaha (distension of abdomen) and excessive thirst will surely die soon. [9]
A person is as good as being dead if he is deficient in strength and flesh and also suffers from morning fever along with serve dry cough. [10]
Read – Ghee Home Remedy For Dry Cough

• The person will not survive if he is suffering from dyspnea, abdominal disease, and lack of power of digestion and also passes hard stool and urine in condensed form.
• The person will die after a prolonged illness if the abdominal oedema of the patient spreads to hands and feet.
• The patient should not be administered any kind of medicine if he is suffering from diminution in the complexion, strength, capacity for the intake of food and is also suffering from oedema in hands, legs, genitals / perineum and abdomen. [11-14]
  Read – Oedema – Ayurvedic Understanding, Treatment, Home Remedies

Read – Bad Prognosis Based On Smell, Touch, Taste, Colour And Voice

• The physician should discard the patient from a distance if he has copious expectoration of phlegm having blue, yellow or red colour.
• If an emaciated person gets horripilation, passes condensed urine and suffers from oedema, cough and fever, a wise physician should discard him from a distance.
• A person should not be treated if he is emaciated and weak, and all three Doshas get aggravated simultaneously to such an extent that they are incapable of being corrected.
• If fever and diarrhea occur after oedema or vice versa, the patient suffering from such ailments, especially the weaker ones succumb to death.
• A patient having pallor, excessive emaciation, excessive thirst, rigid and fixed vision, and difficult expiration, should be discarded by an enlightened physician. [15-19]
• If a person having lock jaw and rigidity in the nape of the neck / carotid region of the neck also suffers from thirst and excessive diminution of strength and the signs of life confined to the chest only, such a patient should be discarded. [20]
• If a person with emaciation, diminished strength and lack of digestive power gets attacks of fainting and violent movement of the organs of the body and is difficult to manage with any measures, he succumbs to death immediately.
• If serious diseases of mutually contradictory etiological factors and lines of treatment  get suddenly aggravated in a person, he succumbs to death in quick time.
• A person having sudden diminution of strength, intellect, health, flesh, blood and functions of grahani (duodenum and the upper part of small intestine which are responsible for digestion and absorption of food) succumbs to death soon.
• If there is sudden deterioration of health and change in the physical constitution of the individual, such a patient succumbs to death immediately. [21-24].
  Ailing persons of above mentioned types should be discarded. The wise physician should not anticipate success of his treatment in such cases. [25]
  Read – Tissue Depletion (Shosha) Meaning, Types, Symptoms

Thus ends the sixth chapter on the signs and symptoms of imminent death as indicated by the characteristic features of the patient of Indriya section of Agnivesha’s work as redacted by Charaka.