The Principles of Treatment in Citta Medicine

Purification of mercury

Now that the Tranquebar patient has been properly diagnosed according to the system of the three humours, treatment can begin. Since Citta medicine maintains the basic principle that cure involves not only the removal of disease but also the prolongation of life, the treatment would have unfolded in a series of steps over a long period of time.

First the patient would have been prepared to receive the medicine by means of purifying the body with purgation and enemas using various herbs appropriate to the patient and cleansing the patient’s skin by applying a medicated body-paste containing, among other herbs, turmeric. The purification of the body could have taken up to a week or more depending on the illness. After having been cleansed, the patient was ready to receive the medicine especially prepared for the case by the Citta doctor. Although herbal preparations were often used, the treatment would in all likelihood have involved a combination of plant-based medicines and alchemical drugs which included mercury along with other metals or minerals. Because of the strength of such drugs, the patient would have been given the medicine in small doses over an extended period of time, and might have eventually been taught some basic yogic breathing exercises to help keep the body strong and extend the patient’s life-time.

Central to Citta medicine is the making and use of alchemical medicines. It is precisely the metal- and mineral-based drugs that encouraged the Danish surgeon TLF Folly, who was stationed in Tranquebar in the latter part of the 18^th century, to carry out research into Citta alchemy. The use of mercury in the treatment of syphilis was known in Europe from the time of Paracelsus in the 16^th century; and Folly was interested to learn the alchemical formulas of Citta medicine in order to treat the Tranquebar soldiers who had been afflicted with syphilis.

Like the traditions in Europe, the Middle East and China, the esoteric science of alchemy in Tamilnadu involves the transmutation of base metals, such a copper, into gold. Hence it remains very much a secret art passed on from teacher to student. Citta medicine, however, is not for making gold. Rather, its main concern lies in the sustaining of life, so it developed a special form of medical alchemy.