Musings 114

The material given below was referred to me for comments and translation 

आम् । रसोनगुणानुक्त्वा "पलाण्डुस्तद्गुणान्न्यूनः" इति वक्ति वाग्भटः । 

“पलाण्डुर्यवनेष्टश्च दुर्गन्धो मुखदूषकः । पलाण्डुलु गुणैर्ज्ञेयो रसोनसदृशैर्गुणैः । स्वादुपाकरसोऽनुष्णः कफ- कृन्नातिपित्तलः । हरते केवलं वातं बलवीर्य्यकरो गुरुः” भावप्र० । तद्भक्षणे दोषः “पलाण्डुं विडवराहञ्च छत्राकं ग्रामकुक्कुटम् । लशुनं गृञ्जनञ्चैव जग्ध्वा चः- न्द्रायणञ्चरेत्” प्रा० वि० । एतज्ज्ञानतः सकृत् । अत्र च पुनरुपयनेमित्याह विष्णुः “लशुनपलास्तुमृञ्जनतद्ग- न्धिविड्वराहग्रामकुक्कुटनरगोमांसभक्षणे सर्वेष्वेतेषु द्विजातीनां प्रायश्चित्तान्ते भूयः संस्कारं कुर्य्यात्” ।

My comments 

The sentence at the beginning is about the comparative demerits of garlic and onion as per Vagbhata . Onion is worse than garlic. 

The translation of the material.

Garlic and onion gives bad smell to the face. पलाण्डुस्तु is the right not palaandulu as given in the text . 

It is directed that the cooks should realize that onion is having comparable characterstic with lasuna or garlic.

Onion adds taste to cooking and is not hot in nature, and encourages phlegm or kapham and will not cause pittam.. it destroys vaatham and adds to our boldness and strength and makes us heavy. 

( this is seen in vachaspatyam as extracted from the ayurvedic text bhavapraksham)

In the prayaschitta viveka of yajnavalkya there is a statement about the defects of eating onion. It states if one eats onion, flesh of village pig, mushroom, chicken flesh, garlic ,Small onion etc he should not be eligible to perform chandraayanam.

May be even if it would have been consumed once but it should not be repeated.

Vishnu smriti says “ A dwija should perform expiation and then go through all samskaras if he eats garlic, large onion, small onion, vegetables of similar odour, flesh of domestic pig, village chicken flesh, flesh of men or flesh of the cow 

Note 

Grama kukkutam is village chicken 

Vidvaraaham is the domestic pig ( because it eats excreta) 

Chatraakam is mushroom because it looks like an umbrella 

Lasuna means Garlic 

Srunjana is small size onion 

Palaandu is large onion Savaala