The Compendium of Caraka 1.6: ṣaṣṭho 'adhyāyaḥ /

Now we shall expound the chapter on “The Food Eaten by Him.”

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.

From food and the like eaten by him, strength and complexion increase,

for one who knows the seasonal suitability based on activities and diet.

Here indeed, one should understand the year as having six limbs according to the division of the seasons.

Among them, the northern course of the sun and the debilitating period one should determine as the three seasons beginning with śiśira and ending with grīṣma; the southern course and the releasing period, moreover, as those beginning with varṣā and ending with hemanta.

In the releasing period, moreover, winds blow that are not excessively dry, while the others [dry winds blow] in the debilitating period; and the moon, with unhindered strength, constantly nourishes the world, replenishing it with cool rays; hence the releasing period is lunar [in nature].

The debilitating period, however, is solar. These very three—the sun, the wind, and the moon—governed by time, nature, and path, are taught as the causal conditions for the production of time, seasons, tastes, doṣas, and bodily strength.

There, the sun taking away the unctuous moisture of the world by its rays, and the winds being intense and dry drying it up, producing dryness in succession during śiśira, vasanta, and grīṣma, and increasing the dry tastes—bitter, astringent, and pungent—bring about weakness in human beings.

In varṣā, śarad, and hemanta, however, when the sun is turned toward the south, its heat checked by time, path, clouds, wind, and rain, and the moon has unhindered strength, the heat of the world pacified by the waters of Indra, the non-dry tastes—sour, salty, and sweet—increase in succession; there strength is accumulated in human beings.

And here it is said:
Weakness is in human beings at the beginning and the end of the releasing and debilitating periods;
in the middle, moderate strength should be stated; but at the end [of the releasing] and at the beginning [of the debilitating], maximum [strength].

In the cold, the strong digestive fire of the strong, held in check by contact with cold wind,
becomes capable of handling heavy measures and substances in hemanta.

When it does not receive appropriate fuel, then it destroys
the bodily chyle; hence cold vāta is provoked in the cold [season].

Therefore, in the dewy season, one should use unctuous, sour, and salty tastes,
and the fatty meats of aquatic and marsh animals.

One should eat the meats of burrow-dwellers and predators nourished [with fatty meats],
and a man should drink madirā, śīdhu, and honey after meals.

Lifespan does not decline in hemanta for one who habitually consumes milk products,
sugarcane preparations, animal fat, oil, new rice, and hot water.

One should resort to massage, unction, oil on the head, jentāka sweating, sunlight,
a warm underground room, and likewise a warm inner room.

In cold periods, one should use an enclosed carriage, bed, and seat,
spread with blankets, animal skins, silk cloths, patterned woolen wraps, and dyed covers.

Wearing heavy and warm clothing, his limbs smeared always with heavy agarwood,
embracing on the bed a well-nourished young woman with large and plump breasts,

whose limbs are smeared with agarwood, one intoxicated with passion may sleep;
and one may engage in sexual intercourse to one's heart's desire at the onset of winter.

One should avoid foods and drinks that provoke vāta and are light,
drafts, measured food, and roasted-grain flour drink at the onset of cold.

Hemanta and śiśira are similar; in śiśira there is a slight distinction:
dryness born of the debilitating period, and cold born of clouds, wind, and rain.

Therefore, the entire regimen for hemanta is desired in śiśira;
moreover, in śiśira one should resort to a house that is especially warm and free from drafts.

Pungent, bitter, and astringent, provoking vāta and light—
one should avoid [such] foods and drinks, as well as cold ones, in śiśira.

Accumulated in vasanta, stimulated by the rays of the sun,
phlegm impairs the internal fire, and subsequently produces many diseases.

Therefore, in vasanta, one should perform actions such as emesis;
and one should avoid heavy, sour, unctuous, and sweet [food], as well as sleeping by day.

Exercise, dry massage, smoke-inhalation, mouth-holding, collyrium,
and the practice of washing with comfortable water: one should practice these at the advent of flowers.

With limbs smeared with sandalwood and agarwood, eating barley and wheat,
[and eating] the meat of the śarabha, hare, and blackbuck, of quail and partridge,

one should consume flawless sīdhu wine, or drink mādhvīka wine;
in vasanta, one should enjoy the youth of women and of forests.

In grīṣma, the sun repeatedly drinks up the unctuous substance of the world with its rays;
at that time, sweet, cold, liquid, and unctuous food and drink are wholesome.

Resorting in grīṣma to cold mantha with sugar, arid-zone animals and birds,
ghee, milk, and boiled rice of śāli, one does not languish.

Alcohol should be drunk in small amounts, or not at all, or else with copious water;
one should avoid salty, sour, pungent, and hot things, as well as exercise.

By day, sleep in a cooled house; at night, cooled by the rays of the moon,
one should recline at ease, adorned with pearl jewels,

attended by hand-held fans cooled with sandalwood water,
one should recline at ease, adorned with pearl jewels.

Cool forests, waters, and flowers:
a man should enjoy these in grīṣma, abstaining from sexual intercourse.

When the body is weakened by the debilitating period, the digestive fire becomes weak;
moreover, in varṣā, it is afflicted again by the vitiation of wind and the other [doṣas].

From the vapors of the earth, rainfall from clouds, and the sour transformation of water,
wind and the other [doṣas] become aggravated in varṣā when the strength of the digestive fire has dwindled.

Therefore, an all-around moderate regimen is recommended in varṣā;
thick drinks mixed with water, day-sleep, dew, river water,

exercise, sunlight, and sexual intercourse should be avoided here;
one should mostly take food and drink preparations combined with honey.

On days overcast with wind and rain, which are especially cold,
[food] characterized by sour, salt, and unctuous substances should be eaten to appease the digestive fire in varṣā.

One who protects the digestive fire should eat old barley, wheat, and śāli rice
with meats of arid-zone animals and processed pulses.

One should drink a small amount of mādhvīka or ariṣṭa wine mixed with honey, or water
from rainfall, or well water or lake water boiled and cooled.

One should be devoted to friction-cleansing, dry massage, bathing, perfumes, and garlands;
wearing light and clean clothes, one should reside in an upper-story dwelling free from dampness in varṣā.

In people whose limbs are accustomed to the cold of varṣā, suddenly heated
by the rays of the sun, the accumulated pitta usually becomes aggravated in śarad.

There, food and drink that are sweet, light, cold, slightly bitter,
and pacifying to pitta should be taken in proper measure by those who are truly hungry.

Quails, partridges, blackbucks, rams, śarabhas, and hares,
and śāli rice along with barley and wheat, are said to be wholesome at the end of the rains.

Drinking bitter ghee, purgation, bloodletting,
and avoiding sunlight should be carried out at the departure of clouds.

Muscle fat, oil, dew, meat of aquatic and marshland animals,
alkali, curd, sleeping by day, and easterly winds should be avoided here.

Heated by the rays of the sun by day, cooled by the rays of the moon at night,
matured by time, free from defects, detoxified by Agastya:

known as 'haṃsodaka', the autumnal water, spotless and pure,
is wholesome like nectar for bathing, drinking, and immersion.

Autumnal garlands and spotless clothes are praised in śarat,
and also the rays of the moon at nightfall.

Thus has been stated the seasonal habituation based on regimen and diet;
that which is agreeable by virtue of habit is called habitat-habituation.

Those who understand habituation desire that diet and conduct
having properties opposite to the properties of habitats and diseases are habituation.

Here is a summary verse:
Whatever should be resorted to and not resorted to by men season by season,
and causal habituation, have been indicated in [the chapter] Tasyāśitīya.

Thus ends the sixth chapter, named Tasyāśitīya, in the Ślokasthāna of the compendium composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka. //6