The Compendium of Caraka 1.28: aṣṭāviṃśo 'adhyāyaḥ

Now we shall explain the chapter on the various kinds of food and drink.

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya:

The varied wholesome food that is eaten, drunk, licked, or chewed by a living being, being properly digested by its own heat fueled by the strength of the internal fire, through its uninterrupted cooking of all bodily tissues according to season, and through its channels of bodily tissues, heat, and wind being unimpaired, endows the entire body with plumpness, strength, complexion, happiness, and lifespan, and invigorates the bodily tissues.

For the bodily tissues, having bodily tissues as food, maintain their normal state.

Thereupon, the nutrient essence called the refined food-chyle, and the waste called excretion, are produced.

From the excretion, sweat, urine, feces, wind, bile, phlegm, the excretions of the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hair pores, and genitals, and parts such as the hair of the head, beard, body hair, and nails are nourished.

From the nutrient essence of food, however, the chyle, blood, meat, fat, bone, marrow, semen, and ojas, the five substances of the sense faculties, the parts designated as tissue essences, and parts such as the body joints, ligaments, and mucus are nourished.

All those bodily tissues, both those called excretions and those called essences, being nourished by nutrient essence and excretion, maintain their proper measure according to age and bodily constitution.

Thus nutrient essence and excretion, maintained in their proper measure, maintain equilibrium of the bodily tissues in an individual whose tissues are balanced.

Depending on specific causes, however, for bodily tissues known as essences that have decreased or increased, through an increase or decrease rooted in food, nutrient essence brings about equilibrium for health, and waste [does] just the same for excretions.

Excretions, moreover, that exceed their normal measure, being discharged and being treated with the alternating qualities of cold and heat, are found to bring about equilibrium of the bodily tissues.

The channels are the passageways of entrance for those bodily tissues designated as excretions and essences.

They replenish each of the bodily tissues according to its proper division.

Thus this body originates from what has been chewed, drunk, licked, and eaten.

And diseases in this body originate from what has been chewed, drunk, licked, and eaten.

The distinctions in the consumption of wholesome and unwholesome things, however, cause the difference between good and bad in this respect.

To the venerable Ātreya who spoke thus, Agniveśa said: "Venerable sir, those who consume food described as wholesome are indeed seen to be diseased as well as healthy, and likewise those [who consume food] described as unwholesome. Since this is observed, how do we understand the difference between good and bad as consisting in distinctions in the consumption of wholesome and unwholesome [food]?"

The venerable Ātreya said to him: "For those who consume wholesome food, Agniveśa, diseases caused by that do not arise; nor, however, solely from consuming wholesome food is all danger of disease overcome, for even apart from consuming unwholesome food there are other primary causes of disease—namely, seasonal perversion, prajñāparādha [intellectual error], and unwholesome sounds, touches, sights, tastes, and smells.

And those primary causes of disease afflict a man with misfortune even if he consumes tastes properly; therefore even those who consume wholesome food are seen to have diseases.

Again, for those who consume unwholesome food, misconduct does not immediately produce pathology due to [various] causes.

For not all unwholesome things are equal in defect, nor are all doshas equal in strength, nor are all bodies capable of disease-resistance.

Indeed, that very same unwholesome thing becomes far more unwholesome through the excessive application of place, time, combination, potency, and quantity.

That very same dosha becomes most severe and quickest-acting when its source is combined [with others], when treatments for it are contradictory, when it has penetrated deep, has remained long, has arisen in a seat of life, or injures a vital organ.

And bodies that are excessively obese, excessively emaciated, whose meat, blood, and bones are not well-established, that are weak, nourished on unwholesome food, eating little food, and of little mental strength, cannot endure disease; those of the opposite nature, on the other hand, can endure disease.

And from these very distinctions of unwholesome food, doshas, and bodies, diseases become mild, severe, quick to arise, or slow-acting.

Those very same vāta, pitta, and śleṣman, vitiated in a specific location, produce specific diseases, Agniveśa.

In that regard, whatever diseases arise in whatever location from doshas vitiated in the locations beginning with chyle, we shall explain each of them in order.

Distaste for food, anorexia, altered taste in the mouth, lack of taste perception,

Nausea, heaviness, drowsiness, body-aches, fever, darkness [in vision],

Pallor, obstruction of the channels, impotence, exhaustion, emaciation of limbs,

Loss of digestive fire, premature wrinkles and gray hair—

These are the diseases arising from vitiation of chyle. Those arising from vitiation of blood will [now] be spoken of:

Kuṣṭha, erysipelas, boils, bleeding disorder, menorrhagia,

Suppuration of the anus, penis, and mouth, enlarged spleen, internal abdominal tumor, and abscess,

Blue-black discolouration, jaundice, dark facial spots, freckles, moles,

Ringworm, cracked skin, vitiligo, scabies, urticaria, and circular red patches—

These arise from the vitiation of blood. Hear those arising from the vitiation of meat:

Granulation tissue, tumor, wart, enlargement of the tonsils, uvular swelling,

Sloughing gangrene, boil-rash, goiter, scrofula, sublingual swelling—

One should know these as seated in meat. Those based in fat, however, we shall declare:

The eight condemned conditions, and whatever are the premonitory symptoms of urinary disorders;

Supernumerary bones and extra teeth, toothache, bone pain, pain in the fat, discoloration,

And disorders of the head-hair, body-hair, nails, and beard arise from the vitiation of bone;

Pain in the joints, dizziness, fainting, seeing darkness,

And the appearance of thick-rooted sores arising at the joints [occur]

From vitiation of marrow. From vitiation of semen [occur] impotence, absence of sexual arousal,

Or an offspring is born diseased, impotent, short-lived, or deformed,

Or pregnancy does not occur in his [partner], or it miscarries, or it aborts;

For vitiated semen afflicts a man together with his child and his wife.

When the excretions, having settled in the sense faculties, become vitiated,

They affect the sense faculties with impairment and affliction.

When vitiated in the ligaments, veins, and large tendons, they torment a person

With stiffness, contraction, cramps, nodules, twitching, and numbness.

Taking residence in the excretions, the vitiated doshas produce loosening, drying,

And corruption of the excretions, as well as excessive retention and evacuation.

From diverse unwholesome things eaten, drunk, licked, and chewed,

These disorders that have been spoken of arise in humans.

Desiring their non-arising, a wise person should always consume

Only wholesome foods and the like; thus diseases born from them will not occur.

For disorders born of chyle, all lightening therapy is the medicine;

The medical treatment for those born of blood is [set forth] in the chapter on the regimen for blood.

For those born of meat, however, purification, surgery, alkali, and cauterisation [are the treatment];

The treatment for those born of fat is [set forth] in the chapter on the eight condemned conditions.

For diseases located in bone, the five actions are the remedy,

Along with enemas and milk and ghee medicated with bitter [herbs].

For those arising from marrow and semen, the medicine is sweet and bitter food,

Sexual intercourse, physical exercise, and purification at the proper time in proper measure.

The alleviation of those born of the sense faculties will be explained in the [chapter on] the three vital organs;

The pacification of those born of the ligaments and so forth will be explained in the [chapter on] vāta disorders.

In the chapter 'On Non-Suppression of Urges', a compendium of treatment was set forth,

and successful therapy for disorders arising from waste products was stated here and there.

Due to physical exercise, sharpness of heat, lack of application of wholesome measures,

and the swiftness of vāta, the impurities pass from the digestive tract to the periphery.

Lodged there, lingering when not set in motion,

they do not become provoked out of season or out of place, awaiting further causes.

Through increase, liquefaction, ripening, clearing the openings of the channels,

and the restraint of vāta, the impurities leave the periphery and travel to the digestive tract.

For non-arising of those not yet arisen and for cessation of those already arisen,

one who desires happiness should practice the rule prescribed for diseases.

All activities of all living beings are considered to be for the sake of happiness,

yet due to the difference between knowledge and ignorance, activities proceed along the right or wrong path.

The discriminating, having examined thoroughly, pursue only that which is wholesome;

ordinary people, their minds veiled by passion and delusion, pursue only what is pleasant.

Sacred learning, intellect, memory, skill, resolve, devotion to the wholesome,

purity of speech, tranquility, and steadfastness reside in the discriminating person.

These qualities do not reside in the ordinary person who relies on delusion and passion;

rooted in that, many bodily and mental diseases arise.

For out of willful transgression, one indulges in unwholesome sense objects of the five types,

suppresses bodily urges, and engages in rash actions.

The ignorant person takes pleasure in states that bear the name of momentary pleasure;

the person of insight, however, does not take pleasure in them, his discernment being purified.

One should not consume food out of craving, nor out of lack of discernment;

one should examine and eat what is wholesome, for the body is produced from food.

In the rule of food, eight specific factors are named as causes

in the arising of good and bad results; having examined them, one should make use of food.

A wise man in this world, always avoiding unwholesome things that ought to be avoided,

becomes free of debt to the virtuous.

However, that arising of disease which is impossible for anyone here

to avoid—the wise should not grieve when that is encountered.

Here are the verses:

The physical body is produced from food, and diseases are produced from food;

and from the distinction between the wholesome and unwholesome arises the distinction between happiness and sorrow.

The difference between body and mind in endurance and non-endurance of pain;

the groups of diseases, which arise individually from the bodily elements;

and their pacification; and how the doṣas, moving from the digestive tract to the periphery,

become aggravated, and also moving from the periphery to the digestive tract;

and the distinction between the wise and the ignorant, and that which is wholesome for the healthy and the sick—

all of that has been expounded in this chapter on 'Varieties of Food and Drink'.

Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter, named 'Varieties of Food and Drink', in the Sūtrasthāna of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.