A story · Ayurveda · Ayurveda — Stories

How Many Tastes Are There?

Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26.3

The story · English

Once, a company of great seers came together in the lovely forest called Chaitraratha. They had come to wander there at their ease and rest for a while. Atreya was among them, and Bhadrakapya, and Shakunteya. There was Purnaksha of the Maudgalya line, and Hiranyaksha of the Kaushika line. There was the blameless Bharadvaja, whose name was Kumarashiras, and the gracious king Vayorvida, the best of the wise. Nimi, king of Videha, had come, and Badisha of great understanding, and Kankayana of Vahlika, the foremost of the physicians of that land. Every one of them was old in years and older still in learning, and every one had mastered himself. In that pleasant place, among the trees, they sat down together.

These were men who knew what things truly mean, and as they sat, a conversation began among them that was worth the having. It turned on one question: how to settle rightly what taste is, and what food is. Bhadrakapya spoke first. 'There is only one taste,' he said. 'Those who are skilled call it one of the five objects of the senses, the one that belongs to the tongue. And it is nothing other than water.' Then Shakunteya, the brahmin, gave his answer. 'There are two tastes,' he said. 'One cuts away what is wrong in the body. The other calms it.' The question did not close there. It passed on around the circle of sages.

Purnaksha Maudgalya was the next to speak. 'There are three tastes,' he said. 'There is the taste that cuts away, and the taste that calms, and the taste that shares in both.' Hiranyaksha Kaushika took up the question after him and divided it another way. 'There are four tastes,' he said. 'Some are pleasant and good for us. Some are pleasant and do us harm. Some are unpleasant and good for us. And some are unpleasant and do us harm.' So the count grew with each voice. One sage had looked at taste itself, others at what it does in the body, and now one looked at how it meets the tongue and how it serves a person.

Then Kumarashiras Bharadvaja spoke. 'There are five tastes,' he said, 'belonging to earth, to water, to fire, to wind, and to the sky.' After him came the royal sage Vayorvida. 'There are six tastes,' he said. 'Heavy and light, cold and hot, oily and dry.' Then Nimi, king of Videha, gave his count. 'There are seven tastes,' he said. 'Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent, and alkaline.' Each man spoke calmly, and each was heard. None of them cut another short, and none of them set aside what another had said. They were old friends of learning, sitting in a quiet forest, letting one question turn slowly in the light.

Badisha Dhamargava went one further. 'There are eight tastes,' he said. 'Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent, alkaline, and one more, the taste that has not yet become clear.' Last of all, Kankayana, the physician of Vahlika, gave his answer. 'The tastes cannot be counted,' he said. 'The substances they live in cannot be counted, nor their qualities, nor what they do, nor the ways they mingle when they are tasted. So the tastes themselves are without number.' And so, in the Chaitraratha forest, the sages had spoken one by one, from a single taste that is only water to tastes beyond all counting, each giving the answer his own learning had shown him.

कथा · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Where Does a Person Come From? · Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 25.1
• Next: Atreya by the Ganga · Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthana 3.1
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