The Compendium of Caraka 1.26.9_1

1.26.9_1

teṣāṃ ṣaṇṇāṃ rasānāṃ yonirudakaṃ chedanopaśamane dve karmaṇī tayormiśrībhāvāt sādhāraṇatvaṃ svādvasvādutā bhaktiḥ hitāhitau prabhāvau pañcamahābhūtavikārāstvāśrayāḥ prakṛtivikṛtivicāradeśakālavaśāḥ teṣvāśrayeṣu dravyasaṃjñakeṣu guṇā gurulaghuśītoṣṇasnigdharūkṣādyāḥ kṣaraṇāt kṣāraḥ nāsau rasaḥ dravyaṃ tadanekarasasamutpannamanekarasaṃ kaṭukalavaṇabhūyiṣṭhamanekendriyārthasamanvitaṃ karaṇābhinirvṛttam; &avyaktībhāvastu khalu rasānāṃ prakṛtau bhavatyanurase 'anurasasamanvite vā dravye aparisaṃkhyeyatvaṃ punasteṣāmāśrayādīnāṃ bhāvānāṃ viśeṣāparisaṃkhyeyeatvānna yuktam ekaiko 'api hyeṣāmāśrayādīnāṃ bhāvānāṃ veśeṣānāśrayate viśeṣāparisaṃkhyeyatvāt na ca tasmādanyatvamupapadyate parasparasaṃsṛṣṭabhūyiṣṭhatvānna caiṣāmabhinirvṛtterguṇaprakṛtīnāmaparisaṃkhyeyatvaṃ bhavati tasmānna saṃsṛṣṭānāṃ rasānāṃ karmopadiśanti buddhimantaḥ /

Water is the source of these six tastes; scouring and soothing are their two actions; their intermediate state arises from their mixture; their palatability or unpalatability is a matter of preference; their effects are beneficial or harmful; their substrates are transformations of the five great elements, governed by primary constitution, secondary alteration, processing, habitat, and season; the qualities residing in those substrates called substances are heavy, light, cold, hot, unctuous, dry, and so forth. Alkali is so called from burning [or sloughing]; it is not a taste. It is a substance arisen from multiple tastes, having multiple tastes, predominantly pungent and saline, endowed with multiple objects of the senses, and brought about through deliberate preparation. The unmanifest state of tastes, however, occurs in their natural source, as an after-taste, or in a substance endowed with an after-taste. Moreover, innumerability of those factors such as substrates due to innumerability of variations is not sound, for each of these factors such as substrates does not support [real] distinction merely because variations are innumerable, nor does distinctness from that follow; and because they are mostly mutually combined, no innumerability belongs to the qualities and elemental constitutions in their manifestation. Therefore, wise men do not teach the action of combined tastes [as independent tastes].