Article by Dr Raghuram Y.S. MD (Ay) & Dr Manasa S, B.A.M.S
Ghatiyantra Grahani is a variant of the disease ‘Grahani’.
It has not been explained amongst the major classification of Grahani comprising only four types, which includes Vataja, Pittaja, Kaphaja and Sannipataja / Tridoshaja Grahani. But two variants Ghatiyantra Grahani and Sangrahani or Sangraha Grahani are also explained in Madhava Nidana Chapter 4 (Grahani Roga Nidanam), after the explanation of the types of Grahani disease. While Ghatiyantra Grahani has been explained in a verse of only two lines, we have a comparably elaborate picture of Sangraha Grahani explained therein. Both are different conditions and both do not fit into the main classification of Grahani.
Related Reading – ‘Sangrahani – meaning, symptoms, treatment’
In this article we shall discuss Ghatiyantra Grahani.
Ghatiyantra Grahani
Meaning
– Ghatiyantra – water clock (of the sinking bowl)
– Grahani – disease of small intestine or duodenum
Ghatiyantra Grahani is a disease of the grahani – small intestine / duodenum in which
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sounds resembling the ‘sound of water gushing into the ghatiyantra’ when the instrument is placed into a bigger water bowl (water enters from a large bowl into a small hole made at the bottom of a small metal vessel, kept on its surface producing a bubbling sound) occurs,
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when the person is sleeping on his side.
Understanding Ghatiyantra
1. Ghatiyantra as Water Clock
Ghatiyantra is a water clock. It is also called Ghatika. It is also called the ‘water clock of the sinking bowl’. This instrument was used in olden days to calculate / measure the time.
Construction of Ghatiyantra –
The instrument has two parts.
– A small metallic bowl – which is hemispherical in shape. This is known as ghatika or ghati, after which the instrument has been named. A small hole is made at the bottom.
– A larger vessel of the shape of the basin that we use – known as Kunda or Kundika. This vessel is filled with water.
How is this instrument used to measure time?
The ghatika or ghati is placed over the surface of water in the large vessel. When done, the water starts slowly percolating from the large vessel, through the small orifice at the bottom of the ghati, into the ghati. While the water is moving through the orifice from the large vessel into the smaller ghati, it produces a bubbling sound. (This sound produced in the abdomen of the person suffering from ghatiyantra grahani while he is sleeping on his side exactly resembles this sound of water bubbling into the ghatiyantra).
When the ghati is filled with water, it sinks to the bottom of the bigger vessel with a clear thud which is audible. The weight of the ghatiyantra and the size of perforation are very much regulated and standardized such that the bowl sinks into the water only for sixty times in a day. Alternatively, 60 sinks of ghatiyantra = 1 ahoratra – 24 hours. Thus, the vessel sinks once in every 24 minutes. This was the standard unit of measuring time in ancient India. Thus, there are sixty vighatikas (24 minutes each) or palas in a ghatika (ahoratra=1 day=24 hours).
This yantra has also been described as ‘Cakka-Vattakka’ (Panchatantra – 3rd century BCE) & Rajatarangini (12th century CE).
Ghatiyantra or Ghati –
– The bowl is hemispherical in shape. It is made up of copper.
– It is 10 palas in weight.
– It is 6 angula in height and 12 angula in diameter at the top.
– The hole at the bottom is made by a needle of length 8 angula and weighing 1 pala.
2. Ghatiyantra as ‘water raising machine as in rope and pot of a well
Ghatiyantra is also a machine used for raising water from the depth of wells which comprises a ‘rope and pot / bucket’.
Ghata means effort and Yantra means machine.
In ancient India (even now in villages and other places where well water is used), people used to draw water from the deep wells using a ghata – pot to whose neck is fastened a rope. The rope is used to release the pot into the well through a pulley. When the pot reaches the water, the water slowly fills from the well into the pot. While the water moves from the well into the small opening of the pot, it makes a bubbling sound. (This sound produced in the abdomen of the person suffering from ghatiyantra grahani while he is sleeping on his side exactly resembles this sound of water bubbling into the ghatiyantra). The filled pot is slowly drawn up with effort using the same rope.
Like in the Water clock, here also water moves from a bigger vessel (well here) into a smaller one (pot here). So, both analogies fit in to describe the main symptom of Ghatiyantra Grahani.
On the basis of this knowledge, we shall understand Ghatiyantra Grahani.
Ghatiyantra Grahani: The disease
स्वपतःपार्श्वयोःशूलंगलज्जलघटीध्वनिः।
तंवदन्तिघटीयन्त्रमसाध्यंग्रहणीगदम्।।४।।) (M.N.4/4)
As said already, Ghatiyantra Grahani is a variant of Grahani disease.
Causes and Symptoms – Since it is a variant of Grahani, the general causes and symptoms will be similar to the same.
Specific Symptoms – When the person sleeps on his side,
– he suffers from pain in the flanks and
– sounds resembling that produced when a pot (ghata) is dipped in water or water clock (ghatiyantra) is placed on water (as explained above) are heard from his abdomen
Prognosis – Ghatiyantra Grahani is incurable.
Treatment – Since Ghatiyantra Grahani is incurable, no management has been explained in the texts. This condition is explained to tell that it is a variant of Grahani and also not included in the subtypes of grahani because unlike those, it is incurable. On the other hand, we can understand that this condition has been said for convenience of prognosis and differential diagnosis. When the symptoms are not severe, it may be managed with a general line of treatment of Grahani roga.
Probable Modern Correlation
Many experts have correlated this condition with diaphragmatic hernia. Due to the herniation of abdominal viscera into the chest cavity through the diaphragmatic orifice, the person may feel symptoms like pain in the abdomen, as mentioned in Ghatiyantra Grahani. When the person stands or sits (from sleeping position), the organ slips back into the abdominal cavity. Sounds as mentioned in Ghatiyantra Grahani may be produced when the organ (stomach, colon etc) moves through the orifice or comes back into the abdominal cavity. This condition needs surgical intervention and hence Ayurveda has considered it as asadhya – incurable (incurable with medicines). Sometimes, even surgery may not yield desired results.
Other conditions which can be considered in close correlation with Ghatiyantra Grahani are –
– Intestinal tuberculosis,
– Chronic diarrhoea,
– Hill diarrhoea,
– Chronic colitis
– Diarrhoea of pancreatic origin
