Dear Arlo, David, and Dagmar, 

thanks for your replies and suggestions, and for the link to the Bodewitz’ article. I searched SARIT, and saw kuṣiroga listed in various medical texts. The Pali texts and commentaries do not give any specific description.

In the case examined by me Srilankans made three attempts to travel to Burma, and each time they landed in India, they fell ill with kucchiroga. It is said that at the third time eight of ten returned to Sri Lanka because of the fear to be afflicted by kucchiroga. Thus I thought it might be a disease common in South India in the middle of the 19th c. CE. But eventually it had to do with the water they drank or food they ate, and they died of dysentery or diahorrea, which seems to have been a common cause of death in that time.

I thank all of you, and those who contacted me offline, for your input
Petra



Am 16.06.2017 um 10:15 schrieb Dagmar Wujastyk <d.wujastyk@gmail.com>:

Dear Petra,

Jan Meulenbeld, History of Indian Medical Literature (HIML), Vol. IB, 333 notes that kukṣi often means the lateral part of the abdomen. He refers to Bodewitz 1992 and Jamison 1987. It can also mean womb, but that doesn't seem to fit your context.


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Kukṣiroga is not listed in HIML, but kukṣiśūla (stabbing pain in the abdomen) is. This is associated with the aggravated humour wind and a disturbance of the digestive process in which food is not properly digested and becomes "āma". The patient suffers from extreme piercing pain.

A search in SARIT brings up a few instances of kukṣiroga in the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā that you could consult.
Generally, kukṣi seems to just indicate the location (upper abdomen, and the sides) of the symptoms, and my guess is that kukṣiroga is similar to udararoga in that it denotes a group of diseases that present in the abdominal area.

Best wishes,
Dagmar 

Virenfrei. www.avast.com

On 15 June 2017 at 15:20, petra kieffer-puelz via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear All,

does anyone know what kind of disease the Pāli word kucchiroga (skt. kukśiroga) stands for? 
Or is it only a collective term for several diseases? I found as translations: disorders of abdomen,
 abdominal trouble, belly-disease.

In Mahāvaṃsa 37.113 a snake has this disease, and it has a swelling or boil (gaṇḍa) on its belly.

Monks from Sri Lanka who travelled to India in 1852 and the following years
fell ill with kucchiroga after  their arrival in Nāgapaṭṭa, India. Several of them died.

Any information is welcome,
Petra Kieffer-Pülz


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