The verse and its meaning · Ayurveda · Ayurveda — Food and Eating

Foods that quarrel

Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26.81

तम् उवाच भगवान् आत्रेयः देहधातुप्रत्यनीकभूतानि द्रव्याणि देहधातुभिर्विरोधम् आपद्यन्ते परस्परगुणविरुद्धानि कानिचित् कानिचित् संयोगात् संस्काराद् अपराणि देशकालमात्रादिभिश् चापराणि तथा स्वभावादपराणि ॥ तत्र यान्याहारमधिकृत्य भूयिष्ठम् उपयुज्यन्ते तेषाम् एकदेशं वैरोधिकम् अधिकृत्योपदेक्ष्यामः न मत्स्यान् पयसा सहाभ्यवहरेत् उभयं ह्य् एतन्मधुरं मधुरविपाकं महाभिष्यन्दि शीतोष्णत्वाद्विरुद्धवीर्यं विरुद्धवीर्यत्वाच्छोणितप्रदूषणाय महाभिष्यन्दित्वान्मार्गोपरोधाय च ॥ तन्निशम्यात्रेयवचनमनु भद्रकाप्यो ऽग्निवेशम् उवाच सर्वानेव मत्स्यान् पयसा सहाभ्यवहरेद् अन्यत्रैकस्माच् चिलिचिमात् स पुनः शकली लोहितनयनः सर्वतो लोहितराजी रोहिताकारः प्रायो भूमौ चरति तं चेत् पयसा सहाभ्यवहरेन्निःसंशयं शोणितजानां विबन्धजानां च व्याधीनामन्यतममथवा मरणं प्राप्नुयादिति ॥ नेति भगवानात्रेयः सर्वानेव मत्स्यान्न पयसा सहाभ्यवहरेद्विशेषतस्तु चिलिचिमं स हि महाभिष्यन्दित्वात् स्थूललक्षणतरान् एतान् व्याधीन् उपजनयत्यामविषम् उदीरयति च । ग्राम्यानूपौदकपिशितानि च मधुतिलगुडपयोमाषमूलकबिसैर् विरूढधान्यैर्वा नैकध्यमद्यात् तन्मूलं हि बाधिर्यान्ध्यवेपथुजाड्यकलमूकतामैण्मिण्यम् अथवा मरणमाप्नोति । न पौष्करं रोहिणीकं शाकं कपोतान् वा सर्षपतैलभ्रष्टान् मधुपयोभ्यां सहाभ्यवहरेत् तन्मूलं हि शोणिताभिष्यन्दधमनीप्रविचयापस्मारशङ्खकगलगण्डरोहिणीनाम् अन्यतमं प्राप्नोत्यथवा मरणमिति । न मूलकलशुनकृष्णगन्धार्जकसुमुखसुरसादीनि भक्षयित्वा पयः सेव्यं कुष्ठाबाधभयात् । न जातुकशाकं न निकुचं पक्वं मधुपयोभ्यां सहोपयोज्यम् एतद्धि मरणायाथवा बलवर्णतेजोवीर्योपरोधायालघुव्याधये षाण्ढ्याय चेति । तदेव निकुचं पक्वं न माषसूपगुडसर्पिर्भिः सहोपयोज्यं वैरोधिकत्वात् । तथाम्राम्रातकमातुलुङ्गनिकुचकरमर्दमोचदन्तशठबदरकोशाम्रभव्यजाम्बवकपित्थतिन्तिडीकपारावताक्षोडपनसनालिकेरदाडिमामलकान्येवंप्रकाराणि चान्यानि द्रव्याणि सर्वं चाम्लं द्रवमद्रवं च पयसा सह विरुद्धम् । तथा कङ्गुवनकमकुष्ठककुलत्थमाषनिष्पावाः पयसा सह विरुद्धाः । पद्मोत्तरिकाशाकं शार्करो मैरेयो मधु च सहोपयुक्तं विरुद्धं वातं चातिकोपयति । हारिद्रकः सर्षपतैलभृष्टो विरुद्धः पित्तं चातिकोपयति । पायसो मन्थानुपानो विरुद्धः श्लेष्माणं चातिकोपयति । उपोदिका तिलकल्कसिद्धा हेतुरतीसारस्य । बलाका वारुण्या सह कुल्माषैरपि विरुद्धा सैव शूकरवसापरिभृष्टा सद्यो व्यापादयति । मयूरमांसम् एरण्डसीसकावसक्तम् एरण्डाग्निप्लुष्टम् एरण्डतैलयुक्तं सद्यो व्यापादयति । हारिद्रकमांसं हारिद्रसीसकावसक्तं हारिद्राग्निप्लुष्टं सद्यो व्यापादयति तदेव भस्मपांशुपरिध्वस्तं सक्षौद्रं सद्यो मरणाय । मत्स्यनिस्तालनसिद्धाः पिप्पल्यस्तथा काकमाची मधु च मरणाय । मधु चोष्णम् उष्णार्तस्य च मधु मरणाय । मधुसर्पिषी समधृते चान्तरिक्षं समधृतं मधु पुष्करबीजं मधु पीत्वोष्णोदकं भल्लातकोष्णोदकं तक्रसिद्धः कम्पिल्लकः पर्युषिता काकमाची अङ्गारशूल्यो भासश्चेति विरुद्धानि । इत्येतद्यथाप्रश्नम् अभिनिर्दिष्टं भवतीति ॥

Meaning · English

Lord Atreya said to him: Some substances stand against the body's tissues, and they fall into conflict with them. Some are contrary to one another in their qualities. Some become contrary through combination, some through the way they are prepared, others through place, time, measure and the like, and others through their own nature. Of the things most used as food, we will teach a part, concerning what quarrels. One should not eat fish together with milk. Both are sweet, sweet after digestion, and heavily clogging. One is cold and the other hot, so their potencies are opposed. Because their potencies are opposed, they spoil the blood; because they clog so heavily, they block the channels.

Atreya's answer opens with a principle. Some foods stand against the dhatus, the tissues that build the body. Chakrapani adds the doshas, vata, pitta and kapha, in their healthy state. Such foods do more than fail to nourish; they quarrel with what they meet. Atreya names the routes: qualities that clash, a combination, the way a food is prepared, place, time, quantity and similar conditions, and a food's own nature, which Chakrapani illustrates with poison. Then one everyday example: fish with milk. Both are sweet, and both stay sweet in vipaka, the effect a food leaves once agni, the digestive fire, has worked on it. Both are heavily clogging, thickening the body's channels. Their virya, or working potency, splits: Chakrapani reads milk as cold and fish as hot. That split spoils the blood, and the clogging blocks the channels. He adds that this clash comes from these two foods' particular nature, so a meal holding sweet and sour, hot and cold, is not a quarrel for that reason alone. What it asks is attention to what shares the plate.

Two friends who each get on well with you can still argue at your table. Apart, each is good company. Seated side by side, the evening sours. Milk and fish work the same way in Charaka's account: each nourishes on its own, yet together they pull in opposite directions, one cooling and one heating, and the body is left hosting the argument.

Today's nutrition does not treat fish with milk as a harmful pair. Many cuisines cook fish in milk or cream without known ill effect. The belief, common in parts of South Asia, that the pair causes skin patches has no support. Cold and hot potency, vipaka and clogged channels have no direct modern match. Yet the wider idea, that a food can be fine alone and a problem in a particular setting, does hold in ways a doctor would recognise. Some foods interfere with certain medicines. Quantity changes what a food does. People differ in what they digest, as with lactose. Someone who feels unwell after a particular meal is better served by noticing the pattern and asking a doctor than by fixed rules.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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