The verse and its meaning · Ayurveda · Ayurveda — Rasayana Herbs

Ashwagandha, the Strength-Giver

Bhavaprakasha, Guduchyadi Varga 189

गन्धान्ता वाजिनामादिरश्वगन्धा हयाह्वया । वराहकर्णी वरदा बलदा कुष्ठगन्धिनी ॥ अश्वगन्धाऽनिलश्लेष्मश्वित्रशोथक्षयापहा । बल्या रसायनी तिक्ता कषायोष्णाऽतिशुक्रला ॥

Meaning · English

Names beginning with a word for horse and ending in -gandha: ashwagandha, the horse-named, boar's-ear, boon-giver, strength-giver, smelling of kushtha. Ashwagandha removes vata and kapha, white patches of the skin, swelling and wasting. It gives strength, it is a rasayana, bitter and astringent, hot, and greatly increases semen.

Bhavamishra starts with names, because a physician had to know a plant by every name it went by. Ashwagandha is traditionally taken to mean 'horse-smelling', for the sharp smell of the fresh root. Some other names echo that horse-smell, like the horse-named. Others describe the plant: boar's-ear, traditionally for its look, and smelling of kushtha, another strong-scented root. Varada and balada mean boon-giver and strength-giver. They name what was hoped of it. Then he gives its nature. Its taste is bitter and astringent, and its potency is hot. In the text's own reasoning, heat settles vata, the cold, dry, moving force in the body. Bitter and astringent dry out kapha, the heavy, moist one. So the text counts it against both, and against swelling, white patches of the skin (shvitra) and wasting. Above all it is balya, strength-giving, and a rasayana, a renewing herb traditionally understood to rebuild the body's tissues slowly over time, and the text calls it atishukrala, greatly increasing semen. So the text points it toward the thin, the worn out and the slowly recovering, used patiently rather than as a quick fix.

Picture a cold, damp room in winter with a small stove lit in one corner. The heat drives off the chill and the damp together. Over several days the walls dry out and the room becomes fit to live in again. Ashwagandha's hot potency is that stove. It warms what is cold and restless, vata, and dries what is heavy and wet, kapha. Rebuilding takes days of steady warmth, not one evening.

Ashwagandha is one of the most studied herbs in this tradition. Research has looked at stress, sleep, anxiety, muscle strength during exercise training and male fertility measures. Results are often encouraging, but most trials are small, short and of mixed quality, so the findings are not yet firm. There is no good evidence for the old claims about skin patches or wasting illness. The cautions are real. It is generally avoided in pregnancy and while nursing. It may interact with sedatives, thyroid medicines, and medicines for diabetes, blood pressure or immune suppression. It may not suit people with thyroid or autoimmune conditions, or anyone facing surgery. Rare cases of liver injury have been reported. Products vary widely in strength and purity. Ask a doctor before taking it.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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