A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c24.29

v1.c24.29

Its subjects are: the two mahābhūtas contributing to each of the six tastes (10.1);¹¹¹ the characteristic features of each taste (10.2–6); the actions of each taste on the human system (10.7–22ab);¹¹² groups of substances with a particular taste (10.22cd–32);¹¹³ general rules concerning the properties of substances with a particular taste and exceptions to these rules (10.33–36ab); the relationships between taste and potency (vīrya) (10.36cd–37ab);¹¹⁴ the tastes which are rūkṣa and promote retention of faeces, urine and flatus, followed by those which are snigdha and promote elimination of the waste products (10.37cd–38ab); tastes which are heavy (guru) and those which are light (laghu) (10.38cd–39ab);¹¹⁵ the six tastes separately and their fifty-seven combinations (10.39cd–43);¹¹⁶ the combinations of tastes and after-tastes become innumerable when taking into consideration their proportions in a combination (10.44).¹¹⁷