kSaara

[Dominik Wujastyk]

My aayurvediiya mahaako"sa says:

k.saaralava.na - na., bhai.sajya. lava.abheda.h lo.naarak.saaram (raa. 6.53).

The reference "raa" is the Raajanigha.n.tu, which I don't have to hand,
I'm afraid.

The normal meaning in med. lit. is "caustic", most commonly an alkaline,
as you said.  It's in the class of "sastras, or cutters.

Dominik

--
Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/