Medicine
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Tap an underlined Tamil word to explore its sound, meaning, and use.
uṟṟā ṉaḷavum piṇiyaḷavuṅ kālamuṅ / kaṟṟāṉ karutic ceyal.
The measure of the one it has come upon, the measure of the illness, and the time: the one who has studied weighs these, and acts.
▸Other translations · Pope (1886) & Aiyar (1916)
“The habitudes of patient and disease, the crises of the ill / These must the learned leech think over well, then use his skill.”
“Let the physician take the measure of the patient and the disease and the season that is: and then let him undertake the cure.”
Parimelazhagar’s commentary
13th century · public domainParimelazhagar’s own words come first, unaltered. The plain reading follows below.
கற்றான்= ஆயுள் வேதத்தினைக் கற்ற மருத்துவன்; உற்றான் அளவும் பிணி அளவும் காலமும் கருதிச் செயல்= அவ்வுபாயத்தினைச் செய்யுங்கால், ஆதுரன் அளவினையும், அவன்கண் நிகழ்கின்ற நோயின் அளவினையும், தன் செயற்கு ஏற்ற காலத்தினையும் அந்நூல் நெறியால் நோக்கி, அவற்றோடு பொருந்தச் செய்க.
Source: Tamil Wikisource
The learned one should weigh the state of the person who has fallen ill, the extent of the illness now in him, and the time suited to the act, and then act in accord with all three. (Parimelazhagar defines கற்றான் as the physician who has studied the Ayurvedic treatise.)