Anandakanda 1.19

Ānandakanda, Chapter 1.19 / <Seasonal regimen, divisions of time> / Glorious Bhairavī said: / O Lord, by your grace the sequence of daily regimen has been heard. / O Master, there is a desire in me to hear the occasional regimen; speak it!

Glorious Bhairava said: / Hear that, O Great Goddess! I shall declare the occasional rule; / it is subject to time, which is indestructible and always boundless,

without beginning or end, subtle, gross, all-pervading, and eternal. / Brahmā and the others, the Sun and others, the great elements and other supreme entities,

all follow time and, with effort, take the form of time; / from time alone indeed they are born, and in it they dissolve at all times.

That which is time is I myself, and you are the instigator of time; / therefore, it is proclaimed for the birth and destruction of living beings.

Though this time is indeed indivisible, nevertheless it is divided: / the amount of time in which a lotus petal is pierced by a sharp needle,

that time is called a lava; a truṭi consists of thirty lavas; / that which is a truṭi of time, a mātrā consists of two of them.

The blinking of the eyelashes is celebrated as a mātrā; / a kāṣṭhā consists of eighteen mātrās; a kalā consists of thirty kāṣṭhās;

a kṣaṇa is said to be thirty kalās; and a nāḍikā consists of six kṣaṇas; / two nāḍīs are a muhūrta; and a yāma consists of four of them.

A day consists of four yāmas, and likewise a night, O beloved! / Thus is day and night. However, the forenoon is ten nāḍikās;

the midday is ten nāḍīs, and the afternoon likewise; / the first part of the night, midnight, and likewise the latter part of the night.

A fortnight designated as bright consists of fifteen days; / the second is the dark fortnight; from two [fortnights] a month is born.

From two months comes the designation season; from two seasons comes the designation kāla; / three seasons make a solstice-period; from two [solstice-periods] a year is formed.

Therefore, time is divided in eighteen ways. / The months beginning with Māgha are in succession late winter and the rest:

late winter, spring, summer, rainy season, autumn, and early winter. / Hear, O beloved, I shall speak of their characteristics.

<Nature of the early winter season> / There, the sun and the directions are made turbid by snow; / the wind is murky with smoke and dust, sluggish, awakening chill,

causing horripilation, blowing from the north. The lavalī creepers are then in flower, / and six-footed bees are delighted by the fragrance of puṃnāga, lodhra, and phalinī blossoms.

Elephants, horses, cattle, buffaloes, crows, goats, and others are impassioned; / water birds and others are concealed by sheets of frost on the rivers;

wells have warm, steaming water; see, in the early winter season! / <Nature of the late winter season> / Thus indeed, in the late winter time, the kapha humor spontaneously undergoes accumulation.

<Nature of the spring season> / In spring, the directions are spotless, the sun has reddish-brown rays, / the Malaya breeze wanders, and trees are adorned with fresh sprouts,

rich in fresh bark and leaves, blossoming everywhere. / By flowers produced from mango, aśoka, bakula, mādhavī, campaka,

palāśa, and others, the forest ground shines forth, / crowded with the buzzing of roaming bees and the calls of cuckoos.

There is provocation of the phlegm humor; indeed, this time is the best of all. / <Nature of the summer season> / In summer, the sun has sharp rays and is fierce, resembling the flax flower,

scorching the earth and directions, drying up all the moisture of the soil; / the directions are intensely flared with forest fires, and the grounds are dust-colored;

the southwest wind is extremely fierce, and the whirlwind is severe and unpleasant; / living beings are as if feverish from the heat, perspiration, and hot winds.

[Water bodies] are agitated by tormented boars, buffaloes, and elephants, / and contain little, dried-up water heated by the rays of the scorching sun.

Ponds and water bodies are stirred up, their aquatic creatures tormented by heat; / and trees have shed their leaves, withered, dry, and shattered.

Hot, devoid of shade, and violently tossed by the wind, / their leaves, creepers, and bushes dried up, the śirīṣa trees are ablaze with flowers.

There is a daily decrease of the phlegm humor, and therefore an accumulation of the vāta humor occurs.
<Characteristics of the rainy season>
In the rainy season, the wind is westerly, and the earth is covered with fresh grass;

completely covered with clouds resembling collyrium and broken apart; / the earth is teeming with cochineal insects, charming with all its crops,

covered with swarms of earthworms, soaked with water and muddy, / having the plumage of peacocks spread out in play and dance by impassioned flocks of them,

the quarters of the sky deafened by the terrifying croaking of frogs, / and rich with the fragrance of kadamba, banana, jasmine, and kuṭaja flowers;

its lotuses destroyed by the impact of torrential showers from the rain-bearing clouds, / the steps of its oblong ponds are utterly submerged, flooded with abundant water;

having vast waters and a mighty appearance like an encounter with a lord, / and both banks completely filled, the rivers have turbid waters;

the sky is illuminated by blazing lightning and thundering clouds, / terrifying with the roared sounds arising from the collision of clouds with one another;

the discs of the sun and moon are hidden by clouds gleaming with rainbows; / and the forest is crowded with joyful goats, buffaloes, boars, and cātaka birds.

The phlegm humor is most diminished, there is aggravation of the vāta humor, and then an accumulation of the pitta humor.
<Characteristics of the autumn season>
In autumn, the sharp rays of the sun gleam with radiant light;

their paths are cleared by spotless clouds that have exhausted their water; / all living beings are delighted, sprinkled with the nectar-juice of moonlight;

the delightful nights are strewn with sparkling constellations, / charming with clear skies, granting the festival of love-sports;

the earth has dried mud and rice filled with grain; / the lakes are adorned with blooming lotuses, white water-lilies, and blue water-lilies;

having undulating waves from the playful movements of joyful fish and flocks of swans, / and scattered with clear pools of water, they grant benefits for bathing and drinking;

the quarters of the sky are adorned with flywhisks of charming, blossoming kāśa grass, / and decorated with clear, fragrant curlews and mallikā jasmines;

and the forest has herds of elephants intoxicated from contact with the pollen of the saptacchada tree. / Then the vāta humor wanes and the pitta humor becomes aggravated, O Pārvatī.

<Characteristics of the periods of absorption and release>
At the beginning, middle, and end of day and night, the phlegm humor, pitta humor, and vāta humor / become aggravated; all the seasons proceed in order, O auspicious one.

The day is fiery in nature, and the night is watery in essence. / The two fortnights then, O goddess, are the two seasons early winter and late winter.

Those two seasons are the cold period; spring and summer are the hot period; / the early-rainy and autumn seasons should be known as what is called the rainy period.

Through these three seasons beginning with late winter, the northern course of the sun occurs. / This should then be recognized—it should be known as absorption, O beloved.

The sun and wind naturally strip away the cooling moisture of the earth; / and furthermore, due to the course [of the sun], these two become extremely hot, harsh, and dry.

They take away the strength and vigor of living beings day by day. / The bitter, astringent, and pungent tastes become progressively stronger.

Through the three seasons beginning with the early rainy season, the southern course of the sun occurs. / Know this to be lunar in nature; it is remembered by the name release.

The wind, moon, and clouds, being cool by nature, become exceedingly powerful / because of the rain; therefore the sun's luster is diminished.

When this heat of the earth's surface has subsided, time bestows strength / upon living beings day by day, and they become progressively stronger.

Here, indeed, the sour, salty, and sweet tastes are unctuous. / Strength is full in early winter and late winter, moderate in spring and autumn,

and weak in summer and the early rainy season for all living beings.
<Regimen for the early winter season>
Because the bodily fluid is strong and enclosed by cold at the onset of winter,

and because the digestive fire is gathered together, not dispersed in the belly, / the digestive fire is therefore very strong; if one eats little at that time,

the fire, rekindled by the vāta humor, will consume the bodily tissues such as the chyle. / Therefore, at the onset of winter, one should partake of sweet, salty, and sour tastes.

Now, due to the length of the nights, hunger arises early in the morning. / Following the procedure of the daily regimen, discharging feces and urine,

one should perform all the duties such as [cleansing with] the tooth-stick, O supreme lady. / Then one should perform an unction of the head with oil that pacifies the vāta humor.

One should apply bodily unction and massage as much as possible and comfortably; / then one should practice wrestling with experts as much as one is able.

Having the oil removed according to rule with wheat, chickpeas, and mung beans, / and having bathed, one should put on two garments of silk

that are red, light, warm, and very thick, and smear upon the body / an unguent made of musk, saffron, and liquid black aloe.

One should perfume the body and hair with the incense of black aloe; / and having coated champak, bakula, hundred-petaled [rose], and screwpine flowers

with civet and similar aromatics, one should wear them on the head. / One should consume jaggery wine, the scum of fermented liquor, fermented liquor, fatty meat,

unctuous and hot meat soup, products made of black gram and wheat flour, / preparations of sugarcane and milk, and hot food made with sesame.

For ablution, delightfully warm water; a heated, pleasant residence; / a bed made bright, spread successively with painted cloth, smooth, soft animal hides, woolen blankets,

heavy wraps, and fine silks; / one should expose the back to the rays of the mild morning sun, O Śāmbhavī;

and always resort to sudation, shoes, and residence in an inner chamber / heated intensely by a brazier; and [embrace] beloved women

with round, plump, and elevated breasts, with broad hips rounded like chariot wheels, / adorned with thighs resembling plantain stems, intoxicated with the frenzy of drinking liquor,

adorned with fine garments, garlands, and perfumes; / affectionate beloved women should embrace one, and no affliction arising from the defect of cold will occur. / Musk, saffron, camphor, cloves, and nutmeg:

there should be one niṣka of each; and one should add sixteen niṣkas / of the extract derived from khadira; all is to be ground with cold water.

One should make a pill the size of a black peppercorn that destroys foul odor; / this pill is proclaimed to remove the vāta humor and phlegm humor, and to stimulate appetite.

And one should constantly chew betel packet combined with this pill as desired. / Such is the early winter regimen; one should practice this in late winter as well.

The phlegm humor becomes greatly accumulated; one should adopt the early winter regimen. / Here, dryness arising from the absorption period occurs, and the cold becomes even greater.

<Regimen for the spring season>
Now, the phlegm humor accumulated in late winter, liquefied in spring by the rays of the sun, / destroys the digestive fire naturally on account of its watery nature.

[Phlegm] generates every kind of disease; therefore one should promptly overcome kapha humor.
Now I shall speak of the spring regimen, O my beloved.

Through sharp collyriums, emetics, and nasal therapies, through exercise and unction powders too,
by massaging with the feet and bathing in warm water, one should remove it.

And putting on garments that are ochre, red, safflower-dyed, or made of silk,
one should fumigate one's limbs with camphor and aloe wood.

One should smear the body with musk, saffron, camphor, and sandalwood,
[wearing garlands of] mango, campaka, punnāga, pūga flower, and pāṭala,

mādhavī, ketakī, mallikā, aśoka, and navamālikā;
having anointed them with javā and other perfumes, one should wear white water-lilies and blue lotuses.

Fermented liquor is declared to be of five types, supreme in removing all diseases;
they are described as honey-based liquor, decoction-based wine, grape wine, fermented infusion, and sugarcane wine.

Honey-based liquor is recorded as prepared with honey and intoxicating substances.
When intoxicating matter is buried in the ground and kept for a long time,

this should be known as decoction-based wine; grape wine is made from gostanī grapes.
A fermented infusion arises from the brewing of intoxicating substances,

and sugarcane wine is produced from sugarcane juice; these five are regarded by me as fit to be consumed.
Charming the heart, scented by the lotus mouths of beautiful women,

perfumed with flowers and the like, pleasing, tinted by the eyes of beloved women,
aged, pungent, bitter, and astringent, they destroy phlegm humor.

Combined with leaves, flowers, and fruits of citron, mango, and rose-apple,
together with friends [one should consume] jambīra juice, ginger, and onion,

meat of wild animals roasted on a spit and its freshly prepared broth,
aged honey, wheat, barley, and sixty-day rice.

One should take vegetables that destroy kapha humor, along with condiments and sweet drinks.
One who does not drink fermented liquor, however, [should drink] ginger water, mustā water, or honey water,

or drink water boiled with an extract of khadira and asana.
In a garden, in a charming pavilion suited for amorous pleasure, adorned with pavements

bright as crystal, glass, and gems,
delightful with the calls of cuckoos, resplendent with fragrant flowers,

where the hot rays of the sun are warded off by the pleasant shade of many trees,
cooled all around by channels filled with water,

where sweat from fatigue is soothed by the movement of the Malaya breeze,
made charming by branches graceful with various blossoms,

sprinkled with the nectar of hanging garlands of fragrant flowers,
adorned with rows of uśīra and pāṭalī, and spread with lotus fibers,

strewn with flowers, and refreshed by the gentle breeze of palm fans,
seated there, delighting young women—skilled in loving talk,

eager for love, the very treasure of the pride of the God of Love,
clad in fine and clean garments—holding charming assemblies with them,

accompanied by trusted friends, one should happily spend midday.
Substances that are excessively cold, heavy, unctuous, sweet, sour, and salty,

sesame, sugarcane, milk preparations, daytime sleeping, things excessively slimy,
fish, alkaline water, and rice-cakes: one should avoid everything that produces phlegm in spring.

<Summer regimen>
In summer indeed the hot-rayed sun is exceedingly fierce;
it depletes the moistures and unctuous qualities of the earth, wherefore kapha humor diminishes.

Because of that, the vāta humor accumulates. [Immersed] in cool waters
filled and scented with sandalwood, aloe wood, musk, saffron,

and various blooming blossoms such as mallikā,
well-cleansed waters reaching up to the plump breasts of lovely women,

either in a lake or in an oblong reservoir duly consecrated,
with women whose moon-like faces are adorned with eyes reaching to their ears,

whose arms are soft as śirīṣa flowers and radiant with ornaments of lotus stalks,
splendid with garlands of camphor, pearls, flowers, and sandalwood,

with hips whose waists are bound with fine safflower-dyed garments,
charming with the cries of sarus cranes attracted by the tinkling of their anklets,

joined by lovely women who are highly adept in water sports,
one should sport, splashing the women's faces with water released from the hand,

his body sprinkled with water sprayed from the nozzles of horn syringes,
embracing their breasts and sporting again and again.

And coming out, drying the body comfortably with clothes and shaking out one's hair,
one should then put on clean, fine, ochre garments.

One should perfume hair and body with sandalwood, aloe wood, and camphor,
having one's body smeared with a paste of white sandalwood, camphor, and musk.

One should wear flowers of nepālamālatī, mallī, pāṭalī, and hundred-petaled lotus,
saugandhika, maruvaka, and hrīvera,

anointed with fragrant oils infused with musk.
In this [season] fermented liquor should not be drunk; or else, by those accustomed to liquor,

only a small amount should be drunk; if there is not a little satisfaction from that,
then one should drink fermented liquor mixed with abundant, sweet water as is comfortable.

If it is not done thus, there will be desiccation of bodily tissues, internal burning, and confusion,
with slackened limbs and depleted vitality, intellect, and strength, O beloved.

One should partake of what is sweet, cold, unctuous, liquid, light, and wholesome;
one should immediately lick sugar with roasted-grain flour, and consume wild game meat,

non-fatty meat broth, and drink rasālā and sweet drinks;
and pañcasāra, rāga, or ṣāḍava are wholesome.

<Rasālā and pānaka>
Curd combined with sugar and black pepper, stirred with the hands:
this is known as rasālā. Prepared in a new earthen vessel

from fruits of banana, jackfruit, and mango, together with sugared water,
slightly sour, this is renowned as pānaka; it is wholesome.

<Pañcasāra>
Raisins, royal dates, madhūka flowers,
and fully ripe fruits of śrīparṇī and small wild date:

having thrown in sugared water, one should crush them firmly with the hand.
Placing it in a new earthen vessel, on the next day it is strained through a cloth.

This is known as pañcasāra, pleasing to the heart, removing vāta and kapha humors.
<Rāga and ṣāḍava>
And that fruit juice which is prepared with sweet substances such as white sugar and honey,

when clear, is to be known as rāga, destroying all feverish burning;
if this very [preparation] is thick, a lickable paste, it is called ṣāḍava.

And when purified with a cloth, that is called drinkable ṣāḍava. / This fivefold drink, perfumed with trumpet-flower, campaka, and others,

scented with cardamom, pure, placed in a new earthen pot, / cooled by the wind of a fan of fragrant cuscus-grass,

mixed with pieces of plantain and cinnamon bark—this is the general preparation. / Now, sweet, clear [water], filled into a new pot,

fragrant with trumpet-flower, ketakī blossoms, and camphor, / wrapped in a thick cloth, made very cool by palm-leaf fans—

one should drink this water, where the sun’s rays are kept off / by palmyra, sāl, betel nut, and date palms, / by coconut, mango, jackfruit, jambu, punnāga, and campaka trees,

with drooping clusters of fruits and flowers that can be gathered by hand, / made splendid by the spaces between branches hidden by bunches of grapes,

delighted by the singing of bees nestled in clusters of mādhavī creepers, / and by various fragrant trees;

in a garden that has a lake adorned with swans, sārasa cranes, and kāraṇḍava ducks, / cooled all around by the breezy waves of flowing channels,

adorned with dancing peacock tails and the calls of cuckoos, / where proud women are enchanted by the talk of mynas and parrots,

enclosed with bālaka and vetiver, sprinkled with water, / made with lotus stalks, lotuses, kalhāra, and water-lily shoots,

hanging with garlands of fragrant flowers, very cool, / with a new canopy providing shade made of moist cloths,

in a delightful mādhavī bower that dispels all torment; / [lying] upon a very soft bed prepared with plantain leaves, lotus stalks, flowers, and sprouts,

covered with a lovely top-sheet, sprinkled with icy water, / which removes heat and exhaustion;

sprinkled with fine drops of water, cooler than frost, discharged from leather and cloth [fountains], / accompanied by companions of the same age—

one should thus pass the midday, or in a shower-house, / sporting on a clear slab of crystal, cool with water scented with bālaka and vetiver,

flowing from the breasts, hands, and mouths of lovely mechanical dolls, / rolling upon it, smeared with camphor and sandalwood, to relieve the heat;

with women whose limbs are cool from fresh bathing, adorned with pearl ornaments, / smeared with lotus stalks and sandalwood, wearing bracelets of lotus fibers,

exceedingly charming in pure garments, who take away the heat, / pleasing them and joking with them through kisses, embraces, and touches;

on the roof of a mansion, adorned with a canopy woven with flower garlands, / glittering with moonstones melting at the touch of moonbeams,

radiant with the loveliness of moonlight, graced by gentle breezes, / seated there, one should eat confections named 'moonbeams',

cooled by the rays of the stars and the moon, / and drink buffalo milk with sugar, which produces strength and is wholesome.

It dispels summer's heat for the body of a man who wears garlands and sandalwood, / whose limbs are covered in pure garments, who has completed lovemaking;

by the breeze of water-moistened cloth and the breeze of palm-leaf fans, / and by the fanning of broad lotus leaves showering water,

by peacock-feather and palm fans, and likewise with yellow sandalwood, / with camphor, jasmine, and garlands of pearls, O dear one, sweet,

with the chatter of mynas, parrots, and children, with ornaments of lotus fibers, / adorned with blooming kalhāra, lotus, and blue water lilies,

with ointments of camphor and sandalwood, and with beautiful women, / the heat is removed for him who is distressed by the heat of the dehydrating season.

One should avoid roasted barley flour, pungent, sour, salty, dry things, exertion, and the sun's heat. / <Regimen for the Rainy Season> / Now hear next the regimen for the rainy season; I shall explain it, O Bhairavī.

In the rainy season, the digestive fire of men, whose bodily tissues were depleted by the dehydrating season, / although already weak, quickly declines further due to the humors.

When the sun is hidden by masses of clouds laden with water, / in the sky, through the cold gusty wind bearing drizzle,

vāta humor becomes intensely provoked; and through the vapors of the earth, / scorched by the summer heat and now drenched by rain clouds, by the very nature of the season,

and by waters that undergo sour post-digestive transformation and are soiled by spiders and the like, / pitta humor becomes excessively provoked; and due to the overcast days, the digestive

fire declines, and because of that, intractable phlegm humor is aggravated. / Thus the humors become mutually vitiated; therefore, generally,

one should resort to massage and head inunction with Nārāyaṇa oils, / and having bathed with plenty of hot water, one should rub down the body.

One should wear red, or white, or madder-dyed cloth, / and scent the body with dense agallochum incense, O Śivā.

One should apply musk, saffron, and fine liquid of black agallochum, / and [wear] kutaja, ketakī, jasmine, marjoram, and oleander.

One should eat unctuous meat of arid-zone animals and its seasoned broth, / and drink prepared soup of mung beans, pigeon peas, and horse gram.

One should drink the [fermented liquor] named ariṣṭa, or aged maireya wine, / or whey mixed with black salt and powder of the five spices.

One should consume everything that produces heat, so that the bowels become purified; / one should administer a decoction enema and take food made from aged grain.

One should drink boiled rainwater or well water, which brings comfort. / On days with intense wind and rain, one should generally take salty, sour,

sweet, light food with honey, and dried, fried foods, / spiced condiments, oil, and lentil dumplings and papads.

One should chew betel packet at pleasure, combined with musk and nutmeg; / [...] one should put on garments perfumed with agallochum.

One should stay in a mansion, sweet-scented in all its parts, free from the vapor of the earth, / devoid of frosty cold, delightful, and fumigated with agallochum.

One should avoid daytime sleep, river water, roasted barley flour mixed with water and ghee, / physical exercise, the sun's rays, and excessive sexual intercourse.

<Regimen for the Autumn Season> / Now next I shall explain the autumn regimen; listen, O Lady of Speech! / In men whose limbs were cooled by the cold rains in the rainy season, suddenly by the rays of the sun

scorched, the pitta humor accumulated during the rains / becomes severely provoked in autumn; therefore, for the expulsion of pitta humor,

one should apply inunction with pitta-destroying oil and gentle massage, / bathing with comfortably warm water, and wearing white or saffron-dyed cloth.

And having put on [such garments], one should scent one's limbs with the fumes of agallochum and camphor; / with limbs anointed with white sandalwood and camphor, one should wear ketakī, marking-nut flowers,

campaka, and lotus petals, along with musk; / one should resort to purgation, bloodletting, and the consumption of bitter ghee.

One should take rice, wheat, mung beans, pointed gourd, honey, and sugar, / meat of arid-zone animals, and foods that are bitter, astringent, and sweet.

When hungry, [one should take] light food, emblic myrobalan, sugarcane wine, ghee, milk, / barley beverage, and the fresh water of sugarcane and coconut.

Purified by the rising of Agastya, free from poison, light, and cool,
heated by the rays of the sun and cooled by those of the moon, one should drink haṃsodaka water.

At dusk, having drunk mung bean soup, smeared with camphor and sandalwood,
adorned with fragrant garlands and freshly washed garments, happy,

decked with pearl necklaces, anointed with fragrant uśīra,
upon a mansion surrounded by pleasant groves, exquisitely beautiful in the moonlight,

seated there together with a young woman, one should enjoy the rays of the moon,
tasting again and again pieces of sugarcane and wine that pacifies pitta humor.

Drinking [it] again and again, staying at ease, sporting with loving women, / [he should avoid] alkalis such as barley-alkali, cold [things], eating to excess,

sesame oil, sunbeams, daytime sleep, muscle fat, curd, / sharp fermented liquor, [any] substance that produces pitta humor, and eastern winds.

<General regimen for all seasons>
Now the general regimen will be stated in brief, O Śivā: / One should resort mainly to sweet, sour, and salty [tastes] at the onset of cold and the rains.

In spring, one should strictly resort to bitter, pungent, and astringent [tastes]; / in summer, one should resort mainly to sweet; and at the end of the rainy season,

one should resort in turn to bitter, sweet, and astringent; and in the rainy season [likewise]. / In spring, one should eat dry and hot; in summer, unctuous and cool.

In the early rainy season, late winter, and early winter, one should resort to unctuous and warmer [food]; / at the end of the clouds, one should take dry and cold according to this rule.

Every day one should consume an excess of the tastes prescribed for that specific season, / and all other tastes as well, in small measure according to inclination.

The final seven days of one [season] and the seven days of the other— / this fourteen-day period is recorded as the seasonal junction.

One should very gradually abandon the regimen of the current season; / at the seasonal junction, one should gradually adopt the regimen of the upcoming season.

From the sudden abandonment of wholesome substances and the sudden use of unwholesome substances, / diseases arise; therefore, one should proceed slowly in their habituation and abandonment.

Observing seasonal regimen in this manner, one obtains longevity and health. / <The sequence of food digestion and the sequence of the production of bodily tissues, waste products, and the like>
I shall state concisely the sequence of food digestion, O [goddess] worshipped by the gods.

All ingested food is carried into the belly by the prāṇa vital breath; / its solid mass broken up by fluids, and softened further

by unctuousness, the internal digestive fire cooks it once it has reached the stomach. / Kindled by the samāna vital breath, the digestive fire [cooks it] just as an external fire

cooks rice grains and water situated in a pot into food. / As soon as it is eaten, that whole [mass] possessing the six tastes turns sweet.

Being cooked by those [agents] that produce kapha humor, foam arises through the sweet and other [tastes]; / the foam assumes the nature of kapha humor, and through internal burning it acquires sourness.

Cast down from the stomach, it becomes pure pitta humor. / Having reached the colon, desorbed by the fire,

it becomes a bolus, thoroughly digested; from the great digestion, it becomes pungent. / The earthen, aqueous, fiery, airy, and etheric—

the five element-fires digest in turn the earthen and other foods; / and having cooked the five qualities of food as well as the qualities of the elements,

these nourish each severally and appropriately, according to well-being: / the terrestrial nourishes the terrestrial, and the others in turn nourish the other [elements] residing in the body.

That cooked food is of two kinds by division into waste and nutrient essence: / the waste is of two kinds: clear, which is urine, and dense, which becomes feces.

Furthermore, the seven fires digest the nutrient essence appropriately, / residing in the bodily tissues, O goddess; from that, blood arises from the chyle; from that,

flesh [arises]; from flesh fat arises; from that bone is produced; / from bone marrow [arises]; from that semen; from semen the fetus arises, O beloved.

I shall speak of those born of the remaining clear portions: breast milk from chyle, and then menstrual blood; / veins and tendons from flesh; and the six layers of skin and muscle fat

from fat; and ligaments and joints; beyond this, the rest perishes. / Phlegm is the waste of chyle, and pitta humor indeed of blood;

the waste of flesh is bodily orifice grime; and sweat-water of fat; / body hair and head hair are of bone; and of marrow, the unctuous lubrication

of skin, eyes, and feces; and vitality is of semen: these are remembered in order as the wastes of the bodily tissues. / Waste and clear essence arise from the complete digestion of the bodily tissues.

The continuous succession of the tissue-fluids sustains one another. / That essence which is produced from properly digested food is indeed chyle;

therefore, chyle promotes the bodily tissues, blood and the rest. / Men have seven bodily tissues, and women likewise.