A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.162

v1.c23.162

Another group of authorities again disagree, considering post-digestive taste (vipāka) to be pre-eminent, because all substances, properly or improperly digested (vipakva) after ingestion, produce good or bad effects. Some advance that each taste is retained during the digestive process. Others hold that vipāka is of three types: sweet (madhura), sour (amla) and pungent (kaṭuka); this view is not correct, because an amla vipāka cannot exist according to the theory of the qualities of the mahābhūtas, while it is also rejected by the authoritative scriptures (āgama); a sour (amla) taste develops when pitta is subject to vidāha; the acceptance of a sour post-digestive taste would have as a consequence that a salty one, which results from vidāha of kapha, should also be acknowledged. The arguments of those asserting that each taste remains unaffected during the digestive process are referred to and rejected, as well as the theory that strong tastes may overpower weak ones.