# Patra-Piṇḍa Sveda (Leaf-Bolus Fomentation)

> Patra-piṇḍa sveda is leaf-bolus fomentation. The record describes boluses of nirguṇḍī, eraṇḍa and citrus cooked in oil and applied warm in strokes. It belongs to the external (kriyā-bāhya) treatments and is done by a trained therapist. The record gives no duration, frequency or contraindications.

## Key facts

- **Sanskrit name:** Patra-piṇḍa Sveda

## What it is

Patra-piṇḍa sveda is fomentation given with a warm bolus of herbal leaves. Patra is leaf, piṇḍa is bolus, sveda is sudation. The record files it as an external procedure (kriyā-bāhya) in the piṇḍa subcategory and glosses it as "herbal-leaf bolus svedana".

The site carries a second, near-identical record labelled the Kerala specialty form, which adds tāmra to the bolus and splits the application into its own step. This entry is the plainer version of the same thing.

## Where it sits in the classical literature

The record cites Sahasrayogam. Sahasrayogam is a Kerala compendium of roughly a thousand formulations, organised by preparation type: kaṣāya, ghṛta, taila, cūrṇa, ariṣṭa, āsava, lehya and a pariśiṣṭa appendix. It is a formulary rather than a manual of procedures, and no public source we checked shows it describing patra-piṇḍa sveda, so the citation is left unverified.

The category is classical even if this recipe is not traced. Caraka Sūtrasthāna 14, the sudation chapter, defines saṅkara sveda at verse 41 as local sudation "carried out with the lumps prepared of articles mentioned above, either wrapped in a cloth or unwrapped".

## What it involves

One step is recorded: boluses of nirguṇḍī, eraṇḍa and citrus, cooked in oil, applied warm in strokes.

That is all the record contains. There is no preparation, no aftercare, no session length, no number of days, no frequency and no season.

## What is used

Three bolus contents are named: nirguṇḍī, eraṇḍa and citrus. They are cooked in oil, but the oil is not named. The record's dedicated dravya, oil and materials fields are all empty, so even these three come from the wording of the single procedure step rather than from a curated list.

## What to ask before booking

The record marks this supervised, and it is applied to you rather than by you. It records no temperature, no timing, no course, no contraindication and no adverse event, which leaves the practical questions to the clinic: which oil is used, how hot the boluses are and how that is checked, how long a session lasts, and how many sessions are proposed.

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Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/practice/patra-pinda-sveda/

Published by Age Ayurveda in the Nighantu. Educational reference only, not medical advice.
Incorporates material from the Amidha Ayurveda Herb Database under CC BY 4.0.