The Compendium of Caraka 3.2: dvitīyo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now, therefore, we shall explain the specific determination of the threefold cavity [of the stomach].

Thus said the venerable Ātreya.

Taking food, one should establish a threefold space in the stomach for food, namely: one space for solid food preparations, one for liquids, and one for vāta, pitta, and kapha; for taking food in such a measure, one incurs no harm arising from an improper measure of food.

Nor can the complete excellence of the result of food be obtained merely from eating in proper measure, because the eight factors of food intake beginning with natural constitution have differentiated results.

Therein, this [teaching] regarding food quantity is for determining the results of proper and improper measure.

For the distinction in the rules regarding the quantity of food is only this much: having proper measure and having improper measure.

Therein, proper measure was indicated earlier by dividing the parts of the cavity [of the stomach]; we shall now explain it again in detail.

That is to say: no compression of the cavity [of the stomach] by food, no obstruction in the cardiac region, no tearing pain in the flanks, no excessive heaviness of the abdomen, gratification of the sense organs, cessation of hunger and thirst, ease in standing, sitting, lying down, walking, inhalation, exhalation, laughter, and conversation, easy digestion in the evening and morning, and production of strength, complexion, and nourishment—such is the characteristic of food consumed in proper measure.

Improper measure, moreover, they declare to be of two kinds: deficient and excessive.

Therein, a deficient measure of food quantity they declare to cause depletion of strength, complexion, and nourishment, to cause dissatisfaction, to cause udāvarta, to be unwholesome for longevity, non-aphrodisiac, non-conducive to ojas, destructive to the body, mind, intellect, and sense organs, damaging to the bodily tissue-elements, bringing misfortune, and an abode of the eighty varieties of vāta disorders; excessive measure, on the other hand, the experts hold to provoke all the doshas.

For whoever, having reached satiety with solid food items, further gratifies himself with liquids—his vāta, pitta, and kapha situated in the stomach, excessively compressed by that excessive food intake, all simultaneously undergo provocation; these [doshas], provoked, enter that very undigested mass of food, and staying in one part of the stomach and clinging to the food, obstructing it, or suddenly expelling it through the upper and lower passages, produce respectively these various disorders in the one who eats in excessive measure.

Therein, vāta produces colic, abdominal distension, body aches, dryness of the mouth, fainting, giddiness, irregularity of the digestive fire, stiffness in the flanks, back, and hips, and contraction and stiffness of the vessels; pitta, on the other hand, produces fever, diarrhea, internal burning heat, thirst, intoxication, giddiness, and delirium; and kapha produces vomiting, anorexia, indigestion, fever with chills, lethargy, and heaviness of the limbs.

Nor indeed do they hold an excessive measure of food alone to cause the severe disorder of āma; but also the intake of foods and drinks that are heavy, unctuous-less, cold, dry, disliked, distending, burning, impure, incompatible, and taken at the improper time, or whatever food and drink is consumed by a mind afflicted by passion, anger, greed, delusion, envy, shame, grief, pride, agitation, or fear—that too vitiates āma itself.

And here it is said:

Even food that is taken in proper measure and wholesome is not digested / due to anxiety, grief, fear, anger, uncomfortable bedding, and wakefulness at night.

Physicians declare that severe disorder of āma to be of two kinds: visūcikā and alasaka.

Therein, one should know visūcikā to be that which has discharged upward and downward, having the signs of the doshas described as aforesaid.

We shall explain alasaka: in a person who is weak, has low digestive fire, has an abundance of kapha, suppresses the urges of flatus, urine, and feces, and consumes stable, heavy, abundant, unctuous-less, cold, and dry food, that food and drink, pressed by vāta and having its passages blocked by kapha, excessively stuck, does not turn outward due to sluggishness; then it displays excessive symptoms of the severe disorder of āma, excluding vomiting and diarrhea.

And the excessively vitiated doshas, having their passages blocked by the vitiated āma, moving transversely, sometimes stiffen his whole body like a staff; hence they call it daṇḍālasaka, which is incurable.

Moreover, in one who is habituated to incompatible foods, eating before the previous meal is digested, and eating during indigestion, physicians call the resulting disorder of āma 'āma poison' (āmaviṣa), because of having symptoms resembling poison; that is exceedingly incurable, because of its rapid action and because its treatments are contradictory.

Therein, curable āma that is vitiated and become sluggish one should first cause to be vomited by making [the patient] drink hot water with salt; then one should treat him with sudation and the application of suppositories, and make him fast.

In visūcikā, however, fasting alone comes first, and the subsequent regimen is like that for one who has been purged.

In severe disorders of āma, however, when the food has digested at the time of a meal, but observing that the stomach is still smeared with doshas, the belly is rigid and heavy, and the patient has no desire for food, one should administer medicine to digest the remaining doshas and to kindle the digestive fire, but never [give] food during indigestion; for the digestive fire weakened by the severe disorder of āma is not able to digest the doshas, the medicine, and the mass of food at the same time.

Moreover, the confusion among the severe disorder of āma, the food, and the medicine, being extremely powerful, would suddenly destroy the weak patient whose bodily fire has ceased.

Furthermore, disorders arising from the severe disorder of āma cease only through reducing therapy; but if persistence remains after reducing therapy has been performed, in checking the diseases one should put aside medicine opposed to the cause and administer [medicine] opposed to the disease itself, as appropriate.

And in checking all disorders, experts desire medicine opposed to the cause, opposed to the disease, or producing the same effect.

Furthermore, for one who is freed from the severe disorder of āma, whose doshas are fully cooked, and whose digestive fire is kindled, inunction, non-unctuous enema, unctuous enema, and intake of unctuous substances should be administered properly according to rule, after carefully examining the intermediate states of the doshas, medicine, habitat, season, strength, body, food, habituation, mental constitution, natural constitution, and age, as well as the disorders.

And here it is said:

Having properly examined the eight factors of food intake, one should arrange what is beneficial to oneself; / and whatever other path there is here regarding the use of wholesome things, that too one should pursue.

Where is that which is eaten, chewed, drunk, and licked digested? / Wise one, we ask this of you; explain that to us, O intelligent one!

Thus asked by the disciples headed by Agniveśa, Punarvasu / then explained to them where food is digested:

The space between the navel and the breasts in a living being is known as the stomach; / and here what is eaten, chewed, drunk, and licked is digested.

Having reached the stomach, the food undergoes complete digestion; / once digested, it then proceeds through the channels to all the receptacles.

Here is a verse:

The sign and the result of [food] in proper measure have been stated respectively, / and likewise the sign and the result of [food] in improper measure have been stated analytically.

In the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka, in the section on specific determination, the second chapter entitled 'Specific Determination of the Threefold Cavity [of the Stomach]' is concluded.