Bhojana Vidhi in the Bhavaprakasha: Two Meals, Salt and Ginger First, and the Order of Tastes

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ें: भावप्रकाश में भोजन विधि: दो भोजन, पहले नमक-अदरक और स्वादों का क्रम

📖 24 min read · Bhavaprakasha, Purva Khanda, Dinacharya, verses 186–219 (printed pages 211–218 of a Hindi-commentary edition)

Bhojana Vidhi: What This Part of the Bhavaprakasha Covers

The Bhavaprakasha is the compendium Bhavamishra wrote in the sixteenth century, and its first part, the Purva Khanda, carries a full dinacharya, a routine for the day. Our introduction to the book covers the work as a whole. We have been reading the routine a block at a time: exercise in Vyayama in the Bhavaprakasha, then the bath and the clothes in Snana in the Bhavaprakasha.

That last block already leaned toward the meal. Verse 183 says to look at auspicious things "at the time of the meal", and verse 185 says to step into wooden sandals before the meal and after it. Then verse 186 opens the subject itself, and from there to verse 219, thirty-four verses in all, runs Bhavamishra's bhojana vidhi: why we eat, when, where, from what, in what order and how fast. We read them on printed pages 211 to 218 of a scanned Hindi-commentary edition. Each group of Sanskrit verses is followed by a Hindi explanation, and some are followed by short Sanskrit notes labelled ka and kha; we do not know who wrote the notes, so we call them the edition's notes. Verse numbers are this edition's; other editions number the routine differently.

Most of the block is older than Bhavamishra, so we read it beside three older texts in English editions on our shelf. The first is the Sushruta Samhita's Sutrasthana 46, its chapter on food and drink, in Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna's translation (Volume I), whose rules to be observed in connection with eating fill printed pages 556 to 561; he does not number this chapter's paragraphs, so we cite his pages. The second is the Charaka Samhita in Gabriel Van Loon's English, which marks each passage with its chapter and verse. The third is Vagbhata's Ashtanga Hridaya in Vidyanath's edition, whose verse numbers we read on the page images.

The block stops at verse 219. Verse 220 opens a new question, how much to eat, under its own heading, and our next reading will start there.

Bubhuksha, Pipasa, Sushupsa, Rata-spriha: The Four Daily Wants

The block opens with a count.

Verse 186
शरीरे जायते नित्यं वाञ्छा नृणां चतुर्विधा । बुभुक्षा च पिपासा च सुषुप्सा च रतस्पृहा ॥
sharire jayate nityam vanchha nrinam chaturvidha, bubhuksha cha pipasa cha sushupsa cha rata-spriha
Our rendering: in the bodies of people, wants of four kinds arise every day: the wish to eat, the wish to drink, the wish to sleep, and desire.

The word is vanchha, a want or wish. It is not vega, the urge, which is the word Charaka and Vagbhata use for the natural urges that must not be held back; our page on Vegadharana in the Ashtanga Hridaya reads that list of urges. Bhavamishra's four are wants that come back every day, and three of them are on the older lists.

Then the count breaks. Verse 187 says what happens when the wish to eat is thwarted, verse 188 the wish to drink, verse 189 the wish to sleep. Verse 190 goes back to hunger. The fourth want, desire, gets no line of its own. The text does not say why, and we do not guess. Four are named; three are described.

Kshudha, Trishna, Nidra: One List in Three Texts

The three described wants are old material. For Charaka we have only Van Loon's English, which sets out the urge chart of Sutrasthana 7.5–24 as one table; for Vagbhata, the Sanskrit of Sutrasthana 4.10–12 on Vidyanath's page images; for Bhavamishra, verses 187 to 189.

Read across, the thirst and sleep lines are nearly copies. Three of Bhavamishra's four thirst items are in Charaka's list, in Charaka's order, and the fourth, the drying of rakta, is his own. Four of his five sleep items are in Charaka's list. His phrase for the eyes and head, shiro-lochana-gauravam, is Vagbhata's compound (मूर्धाक्षिगौरव, "heaviness of head and eyes") in other words, while his drowsiness (tandra) is in Charaka's list and not in Vagbhata's. The sleep line is a blend of the two.

Hunger is the most rewritten. Of its seven items only two, body-ache and the loss of relish, stand in all three lists. Bhavamishra drops the wasting and the giddiness that both older texts have, and adds drowsiness, weak eyes and a burning in the dhatus.

His additions have something in common: sleep held back leaves the food uncooked (anna-apaka), thirst dries the rakta, hunger burns the dhatus. Each is the body's own stock being cooked or dried, which, as far as we read it, is the idea of the next two verses. These are classical lists of what a held-back want was thought to cause. They are not a guide to symptoms.

Kayagni and Its Fuel: The Ladder of Verses 190 and 191

Verse 190
बुभुक्षितो न योऽश्नाति तस्याहारेन्धनक्षयात् । मन्दो भवति कायाग्निर्यथा चाग्निर्निरिन्धनः ॥
bubhukshito na yo 'shnati tasyahara-indhana-kshayat, mando bhavati kayagnir yatha chagnir nirindhanah
Our rendering: when a hungry person does not eat, the fuel of food runs out and the body's fire (kayagni) burns low, like a fire with nothing to burn.

Verse 191
आहारं पचति शिखी दोषानाहारवर्जितः । पचति दोषक्षये च धातून् धातुक्षये च प्राणान् ॥
aharam pachati shikhi doshan ahara-varjitah, pachati dosha-kshaye cha dhatun dhatu-kshaye cha pranan
Our rendering: the fire cooks food. Given no food, it cooks the doshas; when the doshas are spent, the dhatus; when the dhatus are spent, the life-breaths (pranas).

A fire with nothing to burn goes low: verse 190's picture of a hungry body that is not fed.

That is a ladder of four rungs: food, then the doshas, then the tissues, then life. We did not find it as one verse in the three editions we read, but every rung is in Charaka. Sutrasthana 27.342 says it plainly: Agni burns with the fuel of food and drinks, otherwise it is impaired. Our page on Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 27 reads that chapter. In the winter routine, Sutrasthana 6.9–18, the strong fire behaves as verse 191 says: when it (agni) does not get proper fuel (diet), it absorbs the bodily rasa. And in Chikitsa Sthana 15, in the passage Van Loon marks 221–234, a person with an over-strong fire is fed even before his food is digested, so that agni without fuel may not get opportunity to kill him; Van Loon's bracket explains: by breaking down the dhatus.

So the pieces are Charaka's, spread over three chapters, and the ladder is Bhavamishra's arrangement of them, as far as we read it. Our page on Jatharagni in the Bhavaprakasha reads the earlier verses that give the same fire its seat and its stages.

Sayam-Pratar: Two Meals, Like the Agnihotra (Verses 192–194)

Verse 192 praises food. It satisfies at once, gives strength, holds the body up, and increases memory, life, capacity, complexion, ojas, sattva and grace. We did not find the verse in our three texts, though Sushruta opens his food chapter in the same spirit: Food is the source of the growth, strength, and healthful glow of organic beings.

Verse 193 says such food should be taken after weighing the dosha, the season and the rest, kalayor ubhayor api, "at both times". The edition's note explains: उभयोः कालयोः प्रातः सायं च । Both times means morning and evening.

Verse 194
सायं प्रातर्मनुष्याणामशनं श्रुतिबोधितम् । नान्तरा भोजनं कुर्यादग्निहोत्रसमो विधिः ॥
sayam pratar manushyanam ashanam shruti-bodhitam, nantara bhojanam kuryad agnihotra-samo vidhih
Our rendering: evening and morning: that is when people should eat, as the shruti teaches. One should not eat in between. The rule is like the agnihotra.

The agnihotra is the household fire offering made at sunrise and at sunset, so the comparison fits: two fixed times, every day, nothing in between. The verse credits the rule to the shruti, the Veda. We have not traced the Vedic line it has in mind, and we do not guess at one.

Charaka puts it differently: his list of "foremost things" in Sutrasthana 25.40 names ekashana bhojana, which our page on eating once a day in the Charaka Samhita reads as one meal a day. Bhavamishra sets two, and keeps his strongest word for the space between them: nantara, nothing in between.

The Yama Rule and Two Other Clocks (Verse 195)

Which morning? Another of the edition's notes gives the window: प्रातः । प्रथमयामादुपरि द्वितीययामादर्वाक् । Morning means after the first yama and before the second has passed. A yama is a watch of about three hours.

Verse 195
याममध्ये न भोक्तव्यं यामयुग्मं न लङ्घयेत् । याममध्ये रसोत्पत्तिर्यामयुग्माद्बलक्षयः ॥
yama-madhye na bhoktavyam yama-yugmam na langhayet, yama-madhye rasotpattir yama-yugmad bala-kshayah
Our rendering: do not eat within the first yama; do not let two yamas go by. Within the first yama there is the making of rasa; past two yamas, strength declines.

The Hindi under the verse puts it in plain terms: do not eat in the first watch, and do not cross the second, that is, do not eat after midday. If the day is counted from a six o'clock sunrise, the window runs from about nine to noon. That conversion is ours, not the text's.

The older tradition did not agree on such clocks. Sushruta gives meal times by season, and a footnote in Bhishagratna's edition reports two earlier commentators. The Panjikakara says that people who eat twice a day should eat a light half meal at one and quarter Prahara in the morning and another between the third and the fourth Praharas in the afternoon; Jejjata, that the meals should be between the third and the fourth Prahara both in the day and night. The Panjikakara's morning meal falls inside Bhavamishra's window. Jejjata's does not come near it.

One phrase we cannot settle: rasotpatti, "the making of rasa", may mean the last meal is still turning into rasa in that first watch. The Hindi only repeats the words.

Anna-Kala: When Hunger Is the Clock (Verse 196)

Having set two meals and a three-hour window, Bhavamishra adds this.

Verse 196
क्षुत्सम्भवति पक्वेषु रसदोषमलेषु च । काले वा यदि वाकाले सोऽन्नकाल उदाहृतः ॥
kshut sambhavati pakveshu rasa-dosha-maleshu cha, kale va yadi vakale so 'nna-kala udahritah
Our rendering: hunger arises when rasa, the doshas and the wastes have been cooked through. Whether it comes at the set time or not, that is called the time for food.

Kale va yadi vakale: at the time or out of it. Two verses after the clock, the body's own sign overrules it. Sushruta keeps both conditions side by side: A meal should not be eaten before the appointed time, nor before the appetite has fully come. Bhavamishra lets the appetite decide. Vagbhata, in Sutrasthana 8.55, lists the signs of a body ready for food and ends with the words कालः स हि मतः, "that is held to be the time". In all three texts, the time to eat is a state of the body before it is an hour of the day. In Bhavamishra's, the state wins outright.

Jirna-Ahara-Lakshana: Six Signs, Three Texts (Verse 197)

Verse 197
उद्गारशुद्धिरुत्साहो वेगोत्सर्गो यथोचितः । लघुता क्षुत्पिपासा च जीर्णाहारस्य लक्षणम् ॥
udgara-shuddhir utsaho vegotsargo yathochitah, laghuta kshut-pipasa cha jirnaharasya lakshanam
Our rendering: a clean belch, enthusiasm, the urges passing as they should, lightness, hunger and thirst: these are the marks of food that has been digested.

Charaka has the same signs in Vimana Sthana 1.24, in his rule to eat only after the last meal is digested: when it is, Van Loon's chart says, the eructation is pure, the appetite is arisen, and the urges of flatus, urine and feces are attended to. Vagbhata has them in Sutrasthana 8.55, with a light body besides: Feeling of hunger, clear eructation, downward movement of vata are the signs to eat.

Three signs in all three texts, one shared with Vagbhata alone, and two that are Bhavamishra's own: enthusiasm and thirst. The labels differ as well. Charaka gives these signs as the state of a body whose last meal is digested, which is exactly Bhavamishra's label in verse 197. Vagbhata calls the same state "the time". Bhavamishra keeps both readings, one verse apart: 196 is the time, 197 is the digestion.

Out of Sight: Shri and the Secluded Meal (Verse 198)

Verse 198
आहारं तु नरः कुर्यान्निर्हारमपि सर्वदा । उभाभ्यां लक्ष्म्युपेतः स्यात्प्रकाशे हीयते श्रिया ॥
aharam tu narah kuryan nirharam api sarvada, ubhabhyam lakshmy-upetah syat prakashe hiyate shriya
Our rendering: a man should always take his food, and relieve himself too, out of sight; by both he keeps his good fortune, and in the open he loses his shri.

The printed line says "always" and "in the open"; the words "out of sight" come from the Hindi, which reads them out of that contrast. The edition's note then quotes a half-line, without naming its source: आहारनिर्हारविहारयोगाः सदैव सद्भिर्विजने विधेयाः । Eating, relieving oneself and private pleasures should always be done by good people in a place apart.

The older texts also put the meal out of sight, for other reasons. In Sushruta the king's food is kept concealed from the view of the public, in the same paragraph in which it is made safe against poison, and the king eats in a solitary, beautiful, spacious, blissful, perfumed and flower-decorated chamber. Vagbhata's eater is विविक्तस्थः, seated apart (Sutrasthana 8.36); Vidyanath's English reads Privacy is essential while taking food. Two verses later, though, Vagbhata says इष्टमिष्टैः सहाश्नीयात्: eat what you like, with those you like (8.38). His privacy is apart from the crowd, not apart from company.

In Sushruta the closed room sits beside the care against poison; Vagbhata gives no reason; Bhavamishra's reason is shri, good fortune. In the bath block we saw the verses move from the body to luck, and the meal verses make the same move more than once.

Bhojana-Patra: Thirteen Materials, Two Maps (Verses 199–204)

Under a bracketed heading, bhojana-patram aha, "he speaks of the eating vessel", come six verses on what to eat from. Sushruta also lists vessels, but his list says which dish goes where: Clarified butter should be served out in a vessel of steel, fluid dishes in silver, fruit and sweets on leaves, dry meat dishes on golden plates, cool boiled milk (Payah) in copper vessels, other drinks in earthen pots, and the raga-shadavas and sattakas in cool pure glass bowls, or in vessels made of crystal and beryl. Bhavamishra's list says what each material does.

Thirteen materials in all: ten in both lists, and three, bell-metal, brass and wood, in Bhavamishra's alone. The words in the right-hand column are the verses' own: doshaghna means taking away the doshas, drishtida giving sight, pathya wholesome, and chakshushya good for the eyes. One adjective crosses from one list to the other: Sushruta's glass bowls are "cool", and Bhavamishra calls crystal, glass and beryl pavitra and shitala, pure and cool. Sushruta's stone vessels hold katvaras and kharas, and his glass and crystal hold raga-shadavas and sattakas; Bhishagratna leaves all four untranslated, and so do we.

Verse 201's second line attaches three named illnesses to iron and glass. We leave it out. A plate is not a medicine, and the line would read as a promise. Nor does any leaf take away poison, whatever verse 203 says of it.

Tamra for Water: The One Vessel With No Reason Given (Verse 203)

Verse 203
पात्रं पत्रमयं रुच्यं दीपनं विषपापनुत् । जलपात्रं तु ताम्रस्य तदभावे मृदो हितम् ॥
patram patramayam ruchyam dipanam visha-papa-nut, jala-patram tu tamrasya tad-abhave mrido hitam
Our rendering: a plate made of leaves whets the appetite and kindles agni, and is said to take away visha and papa (poison and sin). For water, the pot should be copper (tamra); where there is none, clay is good.

Copper for water, and clay where there is no copper. Of all the vessel lines, only this one gives no reason.

Every material for food in these verses gets a reason, even if the reason is fortune. The water pot gets none. In Sushruta, copper holds cool boiled milk, not water. Many claims are made for copper water today; none of them is in this verse.

Lavana-Ardraka: Salt and Fresh Ginger Before the Meal (Verse 205)

Verse 205
भोजनाग्रे सदा पथ्यं लवणार्द्रकभक्षणम् । अग्निसन्दीपनं रुच्यं जिह्वाकण्ठविशोधनम् ॥
bhojanagre sada pathyam lavanardraka-bhakshanam, agni-sandipanam ruchyam jihva-kantha-vishodhanam
Our rendering: at the start of the meal, eating salt with fresh ginger is always wholesome; it kindles agni, wakes the appetite and clears the tongue and throat.

Lavana-ardraka: salt and fresh ginger, the first taste of the meal in verse 205.

Bhojanagre means at the head of the meal, before the first proper dish. Ardraka is fresh ginger, the moist root, as against the dried root that the texts call by another name. We did not find this rule in the passages on eating we read in Sushruta, Charaka or Vagbhata, so as far as those three go, it is the Bhavaprakasha's.

The verse is a rule about a custom, not a prescription for anyone, and anyone who has been told to limit salt, or whose stomach does not take ginger well, should not read it as advice.

The Commentator's Objection: Two Pitta-Raising Things, First? (Verses 206–207)

The most interesting passage in the block is not a verse. It is the edition's Sanskrit note under verse 205, and it argues with the rule it explains.

ननु लवणस्य पित्तजनकत्वादार्द्रकस्य कटुकत्वेन पित्तलत्वाद्बुभुक्षितस्य वृद्धपित्तस्य कथं प्रथमं लवणार्द्रकमुचितम् ।
Our rendering: but salt produces pitta, and ginger, being pungent, raises pitta. A hungry man's pitta is already high. How can salt and ginger be right as the first thing he eats?

That is a purvapaksha, the opponent's case that a learned commentary states before answering it. The note gives two answers.

The first is a rule of reading: लवणं सैन्धवं ज्ञेयं चन्दनं रक्तचन्दनम् । When a text says "salt", read saindhava, rock salt; when it says "sandal", read red sandal. So the salt of verse 205 is rock salt, which a "book of properties" (guna-grantha) quoted in the note calls tridosha-hara, settling all three doshas (the edition numbers that line 206). Fresh ginger, the note adds, आर्द्रकं तु कटुकमपि न पित्तविरोधि मधुरपाकित्वात् । is pungent but not against pitta, because it turns sweet after digestion (madhura vipaka). A line on ginger from the same book follows, numbered 207.

The second answer is shorter. अथ चान्यदपि लवणार्द्रकं च नात्र पित्तविरोधि संयोगस्वभावात् । Salt and ginger together are not against pitta "by the nature of the combination" (samyoga-svabhava). And the proof of that nature? भोजनस्य पूर्वं लवणार्द्रकभक्षणबोधकवचनमेव प्रमाणयति । The very statement that teaches eating salt and ginger before the meal is the proof.

The second answer cites the rule as its own evidence. In Indian logic a trusted text (shabda) is a valid means of knowing, so the move is made in the open. It is still circular, and we leave it as the note leaves it. What the passage does show is a reader who noticed that two pitta-raising things were being put first into a hungry stomach, and asked.

Annam Brahma, Raso Vishnuh: Words at the First Bite (Verses 208–209)

A prose line sets them up: at the start of the meal, call Brahma and the others to mind, to undo drishti-dosha, the evil eye.

Verse 208
अन्नं ब्रह्मा रसो विष्णुर्भोक्ता देवो महेश्वरः । इति सञ्चिन्त्य भुञ्जानं दृष्टिदोषो न बाधते ॥
annam brahma raso vishnur bhokta devo maheshvarah, iti sanchintya bhunjanam drishti-dosho na badhate
Our rendering: the food is Brahma, the taste is Vishnu, the eater is the god Maheshvara. One who eats with this in mind is not troubled by the evil eye.

Verse 209
अञ्जनीगर्भसम्भूतं कुमारं ब्रह्मचारिणम् । दृष्टिदोषविनाशाय हनुमन्तं स्मराम्यहम् ॥
Our rendering: born of Anjani, the youth, the brahmachari: to undo the evil eye, I call Hanuman to mind.

Many families say a version of the first line before meals, as a grace. In the Bhavaprakasha its job is narrower: a guard against the evil eye. Sushruta has words over the food too: in his royal kitchen the cooked food is freed of poison by a mantra recited over it (printed page 556). In Sushruta the words guard against poison; in Bhavamishra, against an envious look.

Madhura First, Katu Last: The Order of Tastes (Verse 210)

Verse 210
अश्नीयात्तन्मना भूत्वा पूर्वं तु मधुरं रसम् । मध्येऽम्ललवणौ पश्चात्कटुतिक्तकषायकान् ॥
ashniyat tan-mana bhutva purvam tu madhuram rasam, madhye 'mla-lavanau pashchat katu-tikta-kashayakan
Our rendering: with the mind on the meal, eat the sweet taste first, sour and salty in the middle, and afterwards the pungent, bitter and astringent.

This is Sushruta's rule, in the same order. The physician in attendance should see that the king first partakes of the sweet dishes, then of the acid and saline, and of the pungent and other ones at the close of the meal. Even the opening words match: Sushruta's eater sits with his whole mind engaged in the act of eating, and Vagbhata's eats tanmanah (Sutrasthana 8.35).

Sushruta's edition also gives the reason, in a footnote: sweet at the start settles vata in the stomach, the acid or saline taste partaken of at the middle of a meal would rouse up the fire of digestion, and the pungent taste enjoyed at its close would tend to subdue the Kapham. Bhavamishra keeps the order and leaves the reason out.

Vagbhata orders the meal another way, by qualities rather than tastes (Sutrasthana 8.45):

बिसेक्षुमोचचोचाम्रमोदकोत्कारिकादिकम् । अद्यात् द्रव्यं गुरु स्निग्धं स्वादु मन्दं स्थिरं पुरः ॥
First come foods such as lotus stalk, sugarcane, plantain, coconut, mango and sweets, the heavy, unctuous, sweet, slow and stable ones; their opposites come at the end, and the strongly sour and salty in the middle. The two orders mostly agree in practice, but they rest on different reasons.

One more thing, and it is our note, not the text's. Sweet, then sour, then pungent is also the order of the three stages of digestion in the Bhavaprakasha's own earlier verses, read on our jatharagni page. The doshas do not line up, though: in digestion the sweet stage is kapha's, while Sushruta's note puts sweet first to settle vata. The text does not connect the two, and we do not claim it meant to.

Phala First, Except the Plantain (Verse 211)

Verse 211
फलान्यादौ समश्नीयाद्दाडिमादीनि बुद्धिमान् । विना मोचफलं तद्वद्वर्जनीया च कर्कटी ॥
phalany adau samashniyad dadimadini buddhiman, vina mocha-phalam tadvad varjaniya cha karkati
Our rendering: the wise eat fruits such as the pomegranate at the start, except the plantain; the cucumber, likewise, is left out.

Pomegranate first, plantain apart: verse 211's one exception is a fruit Vagbhata put at the start of the meal.

The first half is Sushruta's: First or at the forepart of a meal, such fruit as the pomegranate, etc., should be eaten. Our page on fruits in the Ashtanga Hridaya reads what the texts say of the pomegranate itself.

The second half is not Sushruta's, and its one exception is pointed. Vagbhata's list of what to eat first, in the verse quoted above, has मोच in it, which Vidyanath renders moca/kadali, the plantain, among foods that should be consumed at the beginning of the meal. Bhavamishra's fruits-first rule names the plantain as the one fruit that does not come first. Whether he meant to correct Vagbhata, or only gave his own list, the text does not say. The cucumber is in neither older passage.

Mrinala, Bisa, Ikshu: Before the Meal, Never After (Verses 212, 213 and 215)

Verse 212
मृणालबिसशालूककन्देक्षुप्रभृतीनपि । पूर्वमेव हि भोज्यानि न तु भुक्त्वा कदाचन ॥
mrinala-bisa-shaluka-kandekshu-prabhritin api, purvam eva hi bhojyani na tu bhuktva kadachana
Our rendering: lotus stalk, lotus stem, lotus root, tubers, sugarcane and the like are to be eaten only at the start, never after a meal.

Lotus stem, lotus root and sugarcane: eaten at the start, never after, in Sushruta and again in the Bhavaprakasha.

This is Sushruta's line, item for item and in his order: Such things as the Mrinalam (the stem of a lotus plant), the Visham (the lotus bulb), Shaluka, Kanda and sugar-cane should be eaten at the beginning of a meal, and never at its close. Vagbhata's list of first foods also opens with lotus and sugarcane.

Charaka does supply the very next verse, and nearly word for word.

Verse 213
गुरु पिष्टमयं द्रव्यं तण्डुलान्पृथुकानपि । न जातु भुक्तवान्खादेन्मात्रां खादेद्बुभुक्षितः ॥
guru pishtamayam dravyam tandulan prithukan api, na jatu bhuktavan khaden matram khaded bubhukshitah

Charaka, Sutrasthana 5.9, in Van Loon's English: A person, after having taken food, should never eat heavy preparations of flour, rice and flattened rice. Even when hungry, one should take them in proper quantity. Prithuka is flattened rice, the poha of today's kitchens.

Then something odd happens in the print. Two verses later, as verse 215, the edition prints verse 212 again, word for word apart from one spelling (shaluka becomes saluka). The repeat stands between verse 214 and the notes that explain verse 214, and the Hindi translates it only once. We cannot tell whether the repeat is Bhavamishra's, a copyist's or the printer's.

Kathina, Mridu, Drava: The Kashi Plate (Verse 214)

Verse 214
घृतपूर्वं समश्नीयात्कठिनं प्राक्ततो मृदु । अन्ते पुनर्द्रवाशी तु
ghrita-purvam samashniyat kathinam prak tato mridu, ante punar dravashi tu ...
Our rendering: eat with ghee first; hard things first, then soft ones; and at the end, liquid again ...

The line ends with a promise to the one who eats this way, and its last words are too unclear on our scan to quote, so we do not. The rule itself is clear, and it settles an argument that Sushruta left open. Certain authorities maintain that solid or thick viands should be eaten at the outset, while others aver that the contrary should be the rule. Sushruta reports both views and chooses neither. Bhavamishra chooses: hard first, liquid last.

Then the edition's notes point, for the only time in these pages, at a real kitchen. यथा काश्यादिवासिनः । "As the people of Kashi and such places do." And they describe the plate:

प्रथमं सव्यञ्जनां घृतपूर्वां रोटिकां भुञ्जन्ते । ततो मृदु ससूपादिमोदनं भुञ्जन्ते । अन्ते पुनर्द्रवाशी । भोजनान्ते दधितक्रदुग्धादि भुञ्जन्ते ।
Our rendering: first they eat the roti with ghee and the side dishes; then the soft rice with dal and the rest; and at the end, liquid again: at the close of the meal they take curd, buttermilk, milk and the like.

Roti with ghee, then dal and rice, then curd or buttermilk: an order many North Indian families would still recognise, and the plate in the photograph at the top of this page. Whether the note's writer lived in Kashi, we cannot tell.

Svadu: Food You Ask For Again (Verses 216–217)

Verse 216
यद्यत्स्वादुतरं तद्धि दद्यादुत्तरोत्तरम् । भुक्त्वा यत्प्रार्थ्यते भूयस्तदुक्तं स्वादु भोजनम् ॥
yad yat svadutaram taddhi dadyad uttarottaram, bhuktva yat prarthyate bhuyas tad uktam svadu bhojanam
Our rendering: whatever is tastier should be served later and later. Food that is asked for again after eating is what is called svadu, tasty.

Both halves are Sushruta's. He has the first, and more palatable dishes should be successively taken in the course of a meal, and the definition: The food, which does not satiate a man even after repeated eating, should be considered as agreeable (Svadu) to him. Tasty is not a flavour; it is what makes you ask for more.

Verse 217 says what such food does: it brings cheerfulness (saumanasya), strength, nourishment, enthusiasm and length of life, and food that is not svadu does the opposite. Sushruta again: Sweet food eaten with a relish pleasurably affects the mind, brings joy, energy, strength, and happiness in its train, and contributes to the growth of the body. Bhishagratna's English says "sweet food", but Bhavamishra's word is svadu, which his verse 216 has just defined as food you would ask for again: the pleasant, not the sugary.

Ati-Ushna, Ati-Druta, Vilambita: Heat and Speed (Verses 218–219)

Verse 218 is about temperature and texture: food that is too hot takes away strength, cold or dry food is hard to digest, and food that is too wet brings on glani, a heavy tiredness. Sushruta's king is served dishes neither hot nor cold.

Verse 219
अतिद्रुताशिताहारे गुणान्दोषान्न विन्दति । भोज्यं शीतमहृद्यं च स्याद्विलम्बितमश्नतः ॥
atidrutashitahare gunan doshan na vindati, bhojyam shitam ahridyam cha syad vilambitam ashnatah
Our rendering: in food eaten too fast one does not notice its merits or its faults; for one who eats too slowly the food turns cold and unpleasant.

These are Charaka's two reasons, in miniature. His rule against eating fast says it is eating at the right pace that allows detecting the defects of food; of eating slowly, Van Loon's chart says: Eating too slow, one doesn't get satisfaction, eats too much, food is cold and digested irregularly. Our page on how fast to eat in the Charaka Samhita reads that chapter in full. Sushruta has the same rule in a phrase: neither too hurriedly nor too slowly.

One small slip in the edition: the Hindi under verse 219 says that eating too fast brings no virtue, only fault. The Sanskrit says the hasty eater cannot tell the virtues from the faults, and it is Charaka's sense the Sanskrit keeps.

Bhojan Ke Niyam, Verse by Verse: The Source Map

Here is the whole block as a map of rules, with the closest older line for each: close means nearly the same words, partial the same idea or part of a list, none that we found nothing in these three texts. Verses 206 and 207 are left out: they are lines the edition's note quotes from a book of properties, not rules of the meal.

Twenty-five rows: eight close, thirteen partial, four with no parent we could find. Sushruta's chapter on food is the parent of more rows than the other two texts together, and the block walks through his rules of eating in nearly his order: the tastes, the fruits, the hard-or-liquid question and the lotus-and-sugarcane rule (these two change places), and last the more palatable dishes saved for later. The four rules we found nowhere else are the four wants, the two meals, the yama window, and salt with ginger.

What This Page Leaves Out

Verse 201's second line, which pins named illnesses on iron and glass vessels, is left out, and so is any suggestion that a vessel, a leaf or a verse can do the work of a doctor. The block gives no quantities, and we add none. None of these verses is a reason to change how you eat. For that, ask a doctor or a registered dietitian who knows you.

What We Could Not Settle

• Who wrote the edition's Sanskrit notes, and whether the note on Kashi reflects the writer's own city.
• Whether the repeat of verse 212 as verse 215 is Bhavamishra's, a copyist's or the printer's.
• Whether the plantain exception in verse 211 was meant as an answer to Vagbhata.
• Verse 218's yuktyayuktam can be split two ways: yuktya yuktam, "suited by judgment", or yukti-ayuktam, "unsuited by judgment". The Hindi takes the second. We cannot tell which the author meant.
• Which book the note calls the book of properties.

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