Book 14 (Secret Means), Chapter I: MEANS TO INJURE AN ENEMY

IN order to protect the institution of the four castes, such measures as are treated of in secret science shall be applied against the wicked. Through the instrumentality of such men or women of Mlechchha class as can put on disguises, appropriate to different countries, arts, or professions, or as can put on the appearance of a hump-backed, dwarfish, or short-sized person, or of a dumb, deaf, idiot, or blind person, kdlakuta and other manifold poisons should be administered in the diet and other physical enjoyments of the wicked. Spies lying in wait or living as inmates (in the same house) may make use of weapons on occasions of royal sports or musical and other entertainments. Spies, under the disguise of night-walkers (rdtrichdri) or of fire-keepers (agni-jivi) may set fire (to the houses of the wicked).

The powder (prepared from the carcass) of animals such as chitra (?), bheka (frog), kaundinyaka (?), krikana (perdix sylvatika), panchakushtha (?), and satapadi, (centipede); or of animals such as uchchitinga (crab), kambali (?), krikaldsa (lizard) with the powder of the bark of satakanda (Phyalis Flexuosa); or of animals such as grihagaulika (a small house-lizard), andhdahika (a blind snake), krakanthaka (a kind of partridge), putikita (a stinking insect), and gomdrika (?) combined with the juice of bhallataka (Semecarpus Anacardium), and valgaka (?);--the smoke caused by burning the above powders causes instantaneous death.

* Any of the (above) insects may be heated with a black snake and priyangu (panic seed) and reduced to powder. This mixture,

when burnt, causes instantaneous death.

The powder prepared from the roots of dhdmdrgava (lufta foetida) and ydtudhdna (?) mixed with the powder of the flower of bhallataka (Semecarpus Anacardium) causes, when administered, death in the course of half a month. The root of vydghdta (casia fistula) reduced to powder with the flower of bhalldtaka (Semecarpus A nacardium) mixed with the essence of an insect (kita) causes, when administered, death in the course of a month.

As much as a kald (16th of a tola) to men; twice as much to mules and horses; and four times as much to elephants and camels.

The smoke caused by burning the powder of satakardama (?), uchchitinga (crab), karavira (nerium odorum), katutumbi (a kind of bitter gourd), and fish together with the chaff of the grains of madana (?) and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), or with the chaff of the seeds of hastikarna (castor oil tree) and paldsa (butea frondosa) destroys animal life as far as it is carried off by the wind.

The smoke caused by burning the powder of puitikita (a stinking insect), fish, katutumbi (a kind of bitter gourd), the bark of satakardama (?), and indragopa (the insect cochineal), or the powder of putikita, kshudrdrdla (the resin of the plant, shorea robusta), and hemaviddri (?) mixed with the powder of the hoof and horn of a goat causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the leaves of putikaranja (guilandina bonducella), yellow arsenic, realgar, the seeds of gunja (abrus precatorius), the chaff of the seeds of red cotton, dsphota (a plant, careya arborea), khácha (salt ?), and the dung and urine of a cow causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the skin of a snake, the dung of acow and a horse, and the head of a blind snake causes blindness.

The smoke caused by burning the powder made of the mixture of the dung and urine of pigeons, frogs, flesh-eating animals, elephants, men, and boars, the chaff and powder of barley mixed with kdsisa (green sulphate of iron), rice, the seeds of cotton, kutaja (nerium antidysentericum), and kosdtaki (lufta pentandra), cow's urine, the root of bhdndi (hydroeotyle asiatica), the powder of nimba (nimba meria), sigru (hyperanthera morunga), phanirjaka (a kind of tulasi plant), kshibapiluka (ripe coreya arborea), and bhanga (a common intoxicating drug), the skin of a snake and fish, and the powder of the nails and tusk of an elephant, all mixed with the chaff of madana and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum), or with the chaff of the seeds of hastikarna (castor oil tree) and paldsa (butea frondosa) causes instantaneous death wherever the smoke is carried off by the wind.

When a man who has kept his eyes secure with the application of ointment and medicinal water burns, on the occasion of the commencement of a battle and the assailing of forts, the roots of káli (tragia involucrata), kushtha (costus), nada (a kind of reed) and satdvari (asperagus racemosus), or the powder of (the skin of) a snake, the tail of a peacock, krikana (a kind of partridge), and panchakushtha (?), together with the chaff as previously described or with wet or dry chaff, the smoke caused thereby destroys the eyes of all animals.

The ointment prepared by mixing the excretion of sdrikd (maina), kapota (pigeon), baka (crane), and baldka (a kind of small crane) with the milk of kdkshiva (hyperanthera morunga), piluka (a species of careya arborea) and snuhi (euphorbia) causes blindness and poisons water.

The mixture of yavaka (a kind of barley), the root of sdla (achyrantes triandria), the fruit of madana (dattúra plant?), the leaves of játí (nutmeg?), and the urine of a man mixed with the

powder of the root of plaksha (fig tree), and viddri (liquorice), as well as the essence of the decoction of musta (a kind of poison), udumbara (glomerous fig tree), and kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum) or with the decoction of hastikarna (castor oil tree) and paldsa (butea frondosa) is termed the juice of madana (madanayoga).

The mixture of the powders of sringi (atis betula), gaumevriksha (?), kantakdra (solanum xanthocarpum), and mayurapadi (?), the powder of gunja seeds, ldnguli (jusseina repens), vishamilika (?), and ingudi (heart-pea), and the powder of karavira (oleander), akshipiluka (careya arborea), arka plant, and mrigamdrini (?) combined with the decoction of madana and kodrava or with that of hastikarna and paldsa is termed madana mixture (madanayoga).

The combination of (the above two) mixtures poisons grass and water when applied to them.

The smoke caused by burning the mixture of the powders of krikana (a kind of partridge), krikalasa (lizard), grihagaulika (a small house-lizard) and andhdhika (a blind snake) destroys the eyes and causes madness.

The (smoke caused by burning the) mixture of krikaldsa and grihagaulika causes leprosy.

The smoke caused by burning the same mixture together with the entrails of chitrabheka (a kind of frog of variegated colour), and madhu (celtis orientalis?) causes gonorrhcea.

The same mixture, wetted with human blood causes consumption.

The powder of dushivisha (?), madana (datttra plant ?), and

kodrava (paspalam scrobiculatum) destroys the tongue.

The mixture of the powder of mátriváhaka (?), jalúka (leech), the tail of a peacock, the eyes of a frog, and pilukd (careya arborea) causes the disease known as vishiichika.

The mixture of panchakushtha (?), kaundinyaka (?), rajavriksha (cassia fistula), and madhupushpa (bassia latifolia) and madhu (honey?) causes fever.

The mixture prepared from the powder of the knot of the tongue of bhdja (?), and nakula (mongoose) reduced to a paste with the milk of a she-donkey causes both dumbness and deafness.

The proportion of a dose to bring on the desired deformities in men and animals in the course of a fortnight or a month is as laid down before.

Mixtures become very powerful when, in the case of drugs, they are prepared by the process of decoction; and in the case of animals, by the process of making powders; or in all cases by the process of decoction.

Whoever is pierced by the arrow prepared from the grains of sálmali (bombax heptaphyllum) and viddri (liquorice) reduced to powder and mixed with the powder of miulavatsandbha (a kind of poison) and smeared over with the blood of chuchundari (musk-rat) bites some ten other persons who in their turn bite others.

The mixture prepared from the flowers of bhalldtaka (semecarpus. anacardium), yátudhána (?), dhdmdrgava (achyranthes aspera), and bána (sal tree) mixed with the powder of eld (large cardamom), kdkshi (red aluminous earth), guggulu

(bdellium), and hdldhala (a kind of poison) together with the blood of a goat and a man causes biting madness.

When half a dharana of this mixture together with flour and oil-cakes is thrown into water of a reservoir measuring a hundred bows in length, it vitiates the whole mass of water; all the fish swallowing or touching this mixture become poisonous; and whoever drinks or touches this water will be poisoned.

No sooner does a person condemned to death pull out from the earth an alligator or iguana (godhd) which, with three or five handfuls of both red and white mustard seeds, is entered into the earth than he dies at its sight.

When, on the days of the stars of krittikad or bharani and following the method of performing fearful rites, an oblation with a black cobra emitting froth at the shock of lightning or caught hold of by means of the sticks of a tree struck by lightning and perfumed is made into the fire, that fire continues to burn unquenchably.

* An oblation of honey shall be made into the fire fetched from the house of a blacksmith; of spirituous liquor into the fire brought from the house of a vintner; of clarified butter into the fire of a sacrificer (?);

* Of a garland into the fire kept by a sacrificer with one wife; of mustard seeds into the fire kept by an adulterous woman; of curds into the fire kept during the birth of a child; of rice-grain into the fire of a sacrificer;

* Of flesh into the fire kept by a chandala; of human flesh into the fire burning in cremation grounds; an oblation of the serum of the flesh of a goat and a man shall be made by means of a sacrificial ladle into the fire which is made of all the above fires;

* Repeating the mantras addressed to the fire, an oblation of the wooden pieces of rdjavriksha (cassia fistula) into the same fire.

This fire will unquenchably burn deluding the eyes of the enemies.

Salutation to Aditi, salutation to Anumati, salutation to Sarasvati and salutation to the Sun; oblation to Agni, oblation to soma, oblation to the earth, and oblation to the atmosphere.