Words of Caution

We shall conclude by looking at some of the aspects of everyday life where care and discretion are imperative for averting disease. That disease can be prevented by taking care to avoid spoiled food, medicines and water is known to the physician.^[1]

The importance of clean water for consumption and bathing cannot be overemphasized.

The Atharvan seers were well acquainted with the healing and strengthening properties of water.

“The Waters verily bring health, the Waters drive disease away. The Waters cure all malady; may they serve as medicine for thee.”^[2]

The medical texts insist on caution to be exercised in case of drinking water in respect of purity, its source (which varies according to the season) and storage. Rain water is specially recommended for consumption as it is a pacifier of all the three vitiated doṣas, strengthening (balyaṃ), an elixir (rasāyanaṃ), a brain tonic (medhyaṃ).^[3] Rain water of the month of aśvina is regarded as the best, and hence, it should be collected and stored in gold, silver or earthen pots for use at all times. In case of its unavailability, one has to resort to sources of terrestrial water, such as buttressed well (kūpa), river, natural lake (sārasa), tank (tāḍāga), spring (prāsravaṇa), fountain (udbhida) and shallow well which is not buttressed (cuṇṭī).^[4] These sources again should be used according to the season thus:^[5]

• Rainy season—rain water or spring water
• Autumn—any of the sources
• Winter—water from natural lakes or tanks
• Spring—water from wells or springs
• Summer—water from wells or springs
  Early rainy season (prāvṛṣ)—water from cuṇṭī or any other source except rain water

According to Caraka, water exposed to the sun during the day and to the moon at night in autumn and purified by the star Canopus or Agastya, is spotlessly clear. It is known as “haṃsodaka”, and is as beneficial as nectar for bathing, drinking and swimming.^[6] This wholesome water is also praised in other literature and is known as “agastyodaka”.^[7] Water becomes unsuitable for consumption when is turbid, and when it is acquired from a source not suited to the particular season. Unwholesome water causes aggravation of the doṣas.^[8]

Use of clean water for bathing and drinking protects a person from external and internal diseases. Water of good quality is known by particular properties-it is devoid of odour and taste, it quenches thirst, is pure, cool, transparent, light and pleasant.^[9] It should neither cause feeling of dryness (arukṣa) nor that of heaviness (anabhiṣyandi-that is, it should not clog the channels body by causing increase in kapha and feeling of heaviness).^[10] Turbid water causes oedema, anaemia, skin diseases, indigestion, asthma, cough, corrhyza, colic, abdominal swellings and enlargements and other serious diseases.^[11] Diarrhoea (atisāra) is specifically associated with contaminated water (duṣṭāmbu).^[12] Water should be collected from terrestrial sources early in the morning when it is clear and cool,^[13] and drawn from those sources where the water is exposed to the elements.^[14]

Suśruta elaborates on the properties of water from various sources (atmospheric^[15] and terrestrial^[16]), properties of impure water, methods of its purification, cooling after heating and storage. The contaminants of water are insects, urine, faeces, eggs and dead bodies,^[17] straw, leaves, mud, green moss, haṭha (jala kumbhika),^[18] etc. Water unexposed to the rays of the sun or moonlight and to air, and that with odour, colour or taste is known to be turbid. There are six indicators of turbidity, that is, touch, appearance, taste, odour, potency and vipāka (final taste). Hardness, sliminess, hotness and a peculiar sensation in the teeth are the defects of touch. If water acquires a colour (owing to presence of mud, sand or moss), or a particular taste or disagreeable odour, it should be known that the water is impure. Thirst, heaviness, colic and expectoration of kapha after consumption of water are the defects of potency while delayed digestion and gurgling in the stomach are the defects of vipāka. Clean water (like rain water) is devoid of these deficiencies.^[19] The purity of water for consumption can be checked by the six indicators. Suśruta gives the methods of clarifying turbid water: boiling, heating it in the sun, or by immersing red hot lumps of iron, sand or clumps of earth in it. Odour can be removed by perfuming it with fragrant flowers, such as, nāga, campaka, utpala, pāṭalā, etc.^[20] The other cleansing agents are kataka (Strychnos potatorum),^[21] gomeda, bisagranthi (a knot on the lotus stalk)^[22], śaivālamūla (Vallisneria spiralis or eel grass), a piece of linen, pearl and crystal (maṇi). Water from the candrakānta gem or the moonstone is especially valued for its purity and medicinal properties. It is said to ward off attacks of harmful beings, and is a curative in fever, burning sensation and poisoning.^[23]

There are several words of caution regarding dietary regimen which is in consonance with the importance attached to diet in maintenance of health. Food gives strength, complexion and vitality while irregularities of diet cause ill health (hyāhāra vaiṣamyādasvāsthyaṃ).^[24] The composition of a meal, the time of consumption and the quantity are determinative of the state of health. Meals taken at the proper time (yathākālaṃ), in appropriate quantity, which is demulcent and hot but not heavy, and eaten neither too slowly nor too quickly is easily digested, and hence, maintains the equilibrium of the dhātus.^[25] The appropriate quantity is individual specific and depends on his or her digestive ability (agnibala). The quantity which gets digested and metabolised in proper time without causing imbalance of the dhātus and the doṣas is deemed appropriate.^[26] Maladies of the digestive system can be avoided by taking a regulated quantity. Unwise persons with poor digestive ability who have no self-restraint on themselves, are afflicted with conditions like visūcik (gastroenteritis).^[27] It is important to eat at the appointed hour^[28] and at a pace neither too hurried nor too slowly.^[29] Meals consumed before or after the usual meal times are harmful and bring on diseases. In the first situation, digestion of the earlier meal is yet to be complete; while in the latter case when the meal is delayed, the digestive power (agni) is destroyed by vāta causing problems of digestion.^[30]

Cleanliness in the kitchen^[31] and in the dining space^[32] is also essential. Food should be served in a place that is free of dust, where the ground is level, clean and decorated with flowers.^[33] Freshly cooked food is always recommended, and that which is impure, contaminated with poison, left over by others, that which contains gravel, grass or pieces of clay, etc., is to be discarded. Stale, unpalatable, putrid food or which that looks repelling are also worthy of rejection.^[34] Cleanliness of both the body and the mind as well as of the place and surroundings are emphasised at mealtimes. Caraka recommends that one should take meals after a bath and having put on untorn clothes, perfumes and garlands. Washing of hands, feet and mouth is also advised. Eating with a disturbed mind or with a contemptuous disposition towards food, in unclean utensils, at an improper time and place surrounded by non-devout (abhakta), uncultured (aśiṣṭa), dirty (aśuci), hungry (kṣudhita) persons are avoidable.^[35]

Thus, the golden rules of good food habits may be summed up as: (i) well cooked fresh meals (ii) sufficient quantity of food (iii) consumption at proper meal time, and (iv) the presence of necessary dietary properties appropriate to the doṣas, the time, the season and the individual constitution.^[36] Diet should consist of food items that are conducive to the maintenance of good health and capable of preventing diseases.^[37] Dietetics will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7.

For the maintenance of health, Caraka suggests that one should always resort to wholesome regimens as they lead to longevity; unwholesome ones cause death (tasmāddhītopacāramūlaṃ jīvitam, ato viparyayānmṛṭyuḥ). One should gradually resort to those actions and food preparations that have qualities opposite to those of the locality, seasons and one’s own self. The utilization of the regimens should be optimal; both over indulgence in anything or suppression of manifested urges are avoidable.^[38] Unsalutary habits and practices are deleterious to the body and are likely to cause premature death. A vehicle is subject to excessive wear and tear if it is overloaded, driven on an uneven road or where there is no road at all, if the driver is not skilled, etc. Similarly, overstrain, eating in excess of one’s capacity, irregular meals, irregular posture, being sexually overactive, association with wicked persons, suppression of natural urges, lack of restraint of urges that should be restrained, affliction with evil spirits, poison, wind and fire, injury, avoidance of food and medicine, are conditions that put undue stress on the body. These are the conditions that cause premature death.^[39]

Certain practices are always salutary to the individual’s well being: they are consumption of beneficial food items, practice of celibacy, sleeping at a place protected from gusts of wind, warm bath, physical exercise and avoidance of day sleep.^[40] Another healthy practice is to abstain from suppressing natural urges (vegān) caused by urine, faeces, semen, flatus, vomiting, sneezing, belching, yawning, hunger, thirst, tears, and breathing arising from exhaustion.^[41] Suppression of these physiological urges is generative of various diseases.^[42] The key to well-being is moderation in all activities. Even if one were accustomed to it, one is cautioned against any activity in excess, be it exercising, laughing, speaking, travelling on foot, sexual activity or keeping awake at night.^[43] None can save one who persists in excessive indulgence from the jaws of death just as lion perishes in attempting to drag a huge elephant.^[44]

Thus, the somatic and mental condition of an individual is directly related to the physical and social environments as well as to behaviour and lifestyle in Āyurvedic thought. For the achievement of well-being and the maintenance of health, which is essentially the equilibrium of the doṣas, it is necessary to develop a lifestyle taking the environment into consideration. Hence, our medical compendia, Caraka and Suśruta Saṃhitās, delineate a way of living that prevents the errors of intellect through the practice of moderation and self-control in all aspects of behaviour. By assiduously following the prescriptions of sadvṛtta, one lives, free of disease, for a hundred years and does not meet with untimely death. The rewards of a healthy life are praise of the good, fame, virtue, wealth, goodwill of all creatures, and finally, after death, a place in the excellent abode of all good souls.^[45]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 6.19.

[2]:

Atharvaveda VI.91.—āpa id vā u bheṣajīrāpo amīvacātanī. āpo viśvasya bheṣajīstāste kṛṇvantu bheṣajam.

[3]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.26.

[4]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.7.

[5]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.8.

[6]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 6.47.

[7]:

P.V.Sharma, Medicine in the Classical Age, p.46.

[8]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.14.

[9]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.20.

[10]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.25.

[11]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.15-16.

[12]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Uttaratantra 40.4.

[13]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.24.

[14]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.25.

[15]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.

[16]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.31-39/1, 44.

[17]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.9-10.

[18]:

Pistia Stratiotes -a floating aquatic plant

[19]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.11.

[20]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.12.

[21]:

There is reference to the use of kataka for clarifying water in the Manusmṛti (VI.64).

[22]:

Bisagranthi is the same as padmamūla, that is, properly the knots of the underground stalk. Meulenbeld, G., The Madhavanidāna and its Chief Commentary: Chapters 1-10, Leiden, 1974, p.482.

[23]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 45.27.

[24]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.3.

[25]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.466/2-468/1.

[26]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 5.3-4.

[27]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Uttaratantra 56.5.

[28]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.471/2.

[29]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.467.

[30]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.472-473.

[31]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.447.

[32]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.458.

[33]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.458-459/1.

[34]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.476/2-477/1.

[35]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 8.20.

[36]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 46.475-476/1.

[37]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 5.13.

[38]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 3.36.

[39]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 3.38.

[40]:

Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 20.5-6.

[41]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 7.3-5.

[42]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 7.6-25.

[43]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 7.34.

[44]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 7.35.

[45]:

Caraka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 7.31-33.