Hindu Medicine c8.98

c8.98

Bile is hot and fiery, wet and fetid (pūti). Its color is dark blue and yellow, it has an acrid flavor. Bile is the only substance in the body which contains heat (Su. I, 21). All parts of the organism showing warmth are pervaded with bile. Its main abode is the “receptacle of ‘cooked,’ that is digested, food” (pakvāśaya), the upper intestines. There, bile cooks or matures the food, as the kitchen fire cooks food, and the sun matures crops and fruits. “Food and drink which have reached the belly are dried up and drained by the glowing heat of the humor bile and are digested in due time” (Su. III, 4).