Agni and it’s role in the health and disease

Summary of article contents:

Agni is the factor governing the process of digestion &transformation. Agni is responsible for the digestion, absorption, and assimilation of ingested food. Some scholars opined that the functional form of agni exists as pitta, i.e., agni resides in the body as pitta. The varieties of agni have been enumerated in the Ayurvedic texts according to the functions and site of action; Agni has been divided into 13 types, i.e., one Jataragni , five Bhutagni , and seven Dhatvagni . Jatharagni is the most important, digesting four kinds of food and transforming them into Rasa and Mala . The five Bhutagnis act on the respective Bhutika portion of the food, nourishing the Bhutas in the body. The seven Dhatvagni act on the respective dhatus; eachDhatu is broken into three parts. In this way, the entire transformation process consists of two types of products – Prasad (essence) and Kitta (excrete). The former is taken for nourishment while the latter is thrown out, which otherwise defiles the body if it stays longer. The disease origin and pathogenesis involve the disturbance and vitiation of agni. So, the effective way to tackle this is to protect and maintain the agni. The ultimate essence of treatment lies in the correction of Agni, as it is the primary driving force in initiating the disease process. Keywords: Agni, Pitta, Digestion, Disease INTERNATIONAL AYURVEDIC MEDICAL JOURNAL Keertan M S