The Compendium of Bheḷa 1.28

Whatever a human eats or consumes properly according to rule, / and whatever else one drinks, all of that is endowed with the six tastes.

Wholesome and unwholesome are to be understood; therefore the food of embodied beings / I shall describe hereafter by taste and by potency.

All śāli rices are considered sweet, and pungent in post-digestive effect; / red śāli is the best among them, because of its non-dryness, and it is not scraping.

Dīrghaśūka, mahāśāli, sugandhi, śālikāmukha, / kṛṣṇavrīhi, kāñcanaka, lopārkṣa, śītabhīruka,

hāyana, and lodhraśāli are endowed with the qualities of red śāli; / each preceding one is lighter, and furthermore wholesome from this [quality].

The fragrant varieties possess scent and exhilarate with their fragrance; / and from its dryness, one should know kalama rice to be particularly superior.

Astringent [qualities] are somewhat greater; ṣaṣṭika rices are equal to śāli rices; / very harmful and very heavy are pāṭalā vrīhi rices.

Yavakas are always harmful, as are kṛṣṇavrīhi and pramodaka; / they are hot in potency, sweet, and declared to be slightly astringent.

Very dry and astringent are koradūṣa with vāruṇā; / prasādhikā, kaṅgu, and śyāmāka are equal in tastes.

Uddālakas are reckoned astringent and sweet in taste; / but consumed in summer, they quickly provoke the bodily winds.

Barleys, large barleys, and wheats are equal in taste; / sweet and slightly astringent, they increase phlegm, red [grains] in humans.

Now bamboo grains: exceedingly astringent and sweet in taste; / excessively consumed, they provoke kapha, pitta, and fat.

Black mudga beans, large mudga beans, green [mudga beans], cirajīvin, / and makuṣṭhaka are also declared astringent and sweet in taste.

Hareṇu peas, lentils, satīna peas, and likewise pigeon peas, / and kuluttha beans especially are astringent-sweet in taste.

All salts and alkalis are declared digestive-stimulants; / they are particularly anaphrodisiac, and not beneficial for weak persons.

Śvadaṃṣṭrā and yāvanāla are recorded as two cool alkalis; / they destroy the semen and also the eyesight of embodied beings.

Fresh butter is sour, but ghee is recorded as sweet; / all milk causes chronic discharge; of these, cow's milk is superior.

One becomes sexually potent through milk, and great strength arises; / all milk is declared to be revitalizing and invigorating.

All oil is declared to be sweet in taste and in post-digestive effect; / whichever specific quality exists in whatever [oil], understand that in it.

The oil of castor and bilva is hot and remembered as pacifying wind; / thus are described those of hot potency; whatever is other than this is simply cold.

The oil of vibhītaka fruits is astringent-sweet in taste; / it is declared to eliminate kapha and pitta, and is beneficial for the hair of embodied beings.

Hence, [the oils] of karañja seeds are likewise to be known; / one should know the oils by taste to be bitter and sweet.

The oil of iṅgudī is stated to produce pitta and śleṣman, and to be bitter; / that of madhūka is slightly astringent, and removes kapha, pitta, and vāta.

The oil of kulaka is sweet to the touch, in taste, and in post-digestive effect. / Now listen to me regarding the particular property in each and every one:

A mushroom grown on straw is regarded as exceedingly heavy, / causing great morbidity, channel-blocking, and […] external injury(?).

A mushroom sprung from cow dung is astringent and sweet in taste; / a bamboo mushroom is astringent, and provokes wind in men.

All vegetables are sweet in taste and in post-digestive effect; / learn the particular quality that exists in each one of them:

The bottle gourd provokes wind in men due to causing constipation, / and it also increases śleṣman through its potent post-digestive effect.

One should know ash gourd to be phlegmatic when eaten fresh in autumn; / it is of slight morbidity when kept for a full year.

One should know [the vegetable of] khadira to be astringent-sweet and bowel-loosening; / when bitter and combined with a digestive-stimulant, it is harmless to embodied beings.

[The vegetables] of kośātakī, karīra, and śatāvarī are bitter; / that of nālikā is astringent, and puṣkaravartaka is bitter.

The cane tip is bitter, as are nimba, tila-vegetable, śītikā, / kurūṭikā, kunaṭikā, and likewise gandharvahastaka;

likewise nāḍīkalāya and pañcāṅgula— / one should know these vegetables to be bitter in taste and post-digestive effect.

The vegetable of satīna is sweet, combined with a little bitterness; / the vegetable of kovidāra is regarded as equal to the preceding.

The fruit of vārtākī is bitter combined with pungent; / it enkindles the grahaṇī and destroys śleṣman.

Likewise, kaṭhilla and bakula are sweet and purify semen; / they constantly destroy drowsiness, wind, and viṣūcikā.

Alambusa is slightly pungent, bitter, and provokes wind; / it breaks up accumulation of kapha, and digests after causing constipation.

Lāṅga vegetable is sweet, combined with saltiness, / pungent, causes great morbidity, and likewise […].

Svastika is pungent in taste, a digestive-stimulant, and an antidote to poison; / cillī is astringent-sweet; cuñcu is sweet and cooling.

Bhārṅgī and māṣa are proclaimed sweet in taste; / the vegetable of mudga is slightly bitter, and vāstuka is slightly alkaline.

The vegetable of niṣpāva is sweet, and the vegetable of māṣa is remembered as such; / the vegetable of candrāka is sour, while gavedhuka is astringent.

Tunnaka, prapunāṭa, jīvantī, and suniṣaṇṇaka / are sweet and of slight morbidity, as is kuṭiñjaka.

Fresh vegetable of piṇḍālu and fruits of tuṇḍikera / are sweet, of slight morbidity, and mixed with pungent.

Upodakā is sweet, combined with saltiness. / Thus one should indicate vegetables, and whatever else is of such kind.

Meat that is remembered as goat, beef, mutton, and pork, / elephant meat—one should declare them sweet, and camel meat heavy.

One should know buffalo meat to be of such properties and slightly astringent; / rhinoceros meat is channel-blocking, slightly sweet, and salty in taste.

The kutamāyu, peacock, gokarṇa, and gavaya are heavy; / the sṛmara, camara, and nyaṅku are sweet and heavy.

The ṛśya, mṛgamātā, tuṅga, hariṇī, deer, / and pigeon […]. / Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter in Bheḷa. / Thus the Sūtrasthāna in the Bheḷasaṃhitā is concluded. / The Nidānasthāna. Chapter Two.