Charaka Samhita Part 6: Sutrasthana Chapter 6 (Tasyashitiya Adhyaya) — Ritucharya: Seasonal Eating and Routines for Year-Round Strength

📖 21 min read · Part 6 of the Charaka Samhita Series

Why a Whole Chapter on the Seasons?

By the time the Charaka Samhita reaches the sixth chapter of its Sutrasthana, it has already defined health, named the three doshas, weighed the six tastes, and — in the chapter we covered last time — taught how much to eat and how to structure a day. Chapter 6 adds the missing dimension: time. The same plate of food, the same oil massage, the same cold drink can be medicine in one season and a slow poison in another. The body you are feeding in December is not the body you are feeding in May.

The chapter states this plainly at the outset. A person's diet promotes strength and a clear complexion only if he knows what is wholesome according to the different seasons, in both behaviour and diet (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.3). Read that twice. It is not enough to eat "healthy" food. Food is wholesome or unwholesome relative to the season, and a person who ignores that relationship forfeits the strength and lustre that good food could have given him.

This is the discipline the tradition calls ritucharya (ऋतुचर्या) — seasonal regimen. Together with dinacharya (the daily routine of Part 5), it forms Ayurveda's entire preventive programme: get your day right, get your year right, and most disease never arrives. Chapter 6 is where the year is mapped.

Ritucharya: The Name and the Idea

The Sanskrit word ritu (ऋतु) means season, and charya (चर्या) means conduct or regimen — the way you carry yourself. Ritucharya is therefore "seasonal conduct": a deliberate, repeating cycle of adjustments to food, drink, clothing, sleep, exercise and surroundings that tracks the turning year.

Indian tradition counts not four seasons but six, each about two months long: Shishira (late winter), Vasanta (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (the rains, or monsoon), Sharad (autumn) and Hemanta (early winter). The classical text spells some of these names slightly differently (sisira, grisma, varsa, sarad); we will use the familiar forms and pair each with its meaning.

The genius of Chapter 6 is that it does not simply list "do this in summer, do that in winter." It first explains the physics behind the seasons — why summer drains you and winter fills you — and only then prescribes. Once you understand the mechanism, you can adapt the rules to any climate, including a modern Indian city where air-conditioning, refrigeration and night shifts have scrambled the body's natural cues. So we begin, as the chapter does, with the two halves of the year.

Adana and Visarga (आदान और विसर्ग): The Two Halves of the Year

The chapter divides the twelve months into two great arcs, each governed by the path of the sun. As the sun swings between its northern and southern courses through the year, it changes the very quality of the time we live in.

The first arc is adana (आदान), literally "taking away." It runs across late winter, spring and summer, while the sun follows its northward course. During adana the sun draws up the unctuous, moist portion of nature, and the wind — sharp and rough — dries what is left, producing increasing roughness through sisira, vasanta and grisma in turn (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.6). Adana is agneya (आग्नेय) — predominant in agni, the fire principle (Sutrasthana 6.5). It is the half of the year that takes strength out of living beings.

The second arc is visarga (विसर्ग), "releasing" or "giving back." It runs from the rains through autumn to early winter — varsa, sarad and hemanta — while the sun follows its southward course (Sutrasthana 6.4). Now the moon holds unobstructed sway, replenishing the world with its cool rays, so that visarga is saumya (सौम्य) — predominant in soma, the cooling, nourishing lunar principle (Sutrasthana 6.5). It is the half of the year that gives strength back.

Sit with how modern this is. The chapter is saying that three external, cyclical forces — solar heat, wind and lunar cooling — set the tone (rasa, taste-quality), tilt the doshas, and decide how strong or weak the body will be at any point in the year. Your strength is not a private possession you carry at a fixed level; it is on loan from the season, and the season is always changing the terms.

Bala (बल): How Your Strength Rises and Falls Across the Year

Because adana takes and visarga gives, the two halves do opposite things to the body's strength (bala, बल) and to the tastes that dominate nature's foods.

During adana — the drying, fiery half — the rough tastes increase in progressive order: bitter (tikta, तिक्त), astringent (kashaya, कषाय) and pungent (katu, कटु). Because these tastes carry roughness, they cause debility in human beings (Sutrasthana 6.6). The land dries, foods turn lighter and rougher, and the body weakens.

During visarga — the cooling, moist half — the non-rough tastes increase in progressive order: sour (amla, अम्ल), salty (lavana, लवण) and sweet (madhura, मधुर), with a consequent promotion of strength (Sutrasthana 6.7). The earth is cooled by rain and moonlight, foods turn heavier and more unctuous, and the body is rebuilt.

The chapter then gives a precise map of strength across the year:

Unpacked into seasons, this means:

• Maximum strength at the end of visarga (hemanta, early winter) and the beginning of adana (sisira, late winter). In plain terms: you are strongest in winter.
• Medium strength in the mid-term seasons — spring (vasanta) and autumn (sarad).
• Least strength (debility) at the boundaries — the end of adana (grisma, peak summer) and the beginning of visarga (varsa, the early rains). In plain terms: you are weakest in high summer and early monsoon.

This single verse rearranges how you should think about the year. Winter is not the season to "go easy"; it is the season your digestion and strength can take on the most, which is exactly why the heavy, building foods belong there. High summer and the first rains are not the time to push a hard fast or an aggressive cleanse; they are the body's low-strength window, to be protected, not strained.

Half of the Year	Seasons (in order)	Nature	Tastes That Rise	Effect on Strength
Adana (आदान) sun's northward course	Sisira → Vasanta → Grisma	Agneya (fiery), drying, rough	Bitter, astringent, pungent	Strength declines (Su 6.6)
Visarga (विसर्ग) sun's southward course	Varsa → Sarad → Hemanta	Saumya (lunar), cooling, moist	Sour, salty, sweet	Strength rises (Su 6.7)

Notice how this connects to the very first law of the series. In Part 1 we met samanya and vishesha — like increases like, opposites decrease. Ritucharya is that law applied to the calendar: in a rough, drying season you deliberately choose moist, grounding food and conduct to oppose the season; in a cold season you add warmth. We will see this principle stated outright as the chapter closes.

The Six-Season Regimen at a Glance

Before we walk each season in detail, here is the whole year on one screen — what to favour and what to avoid, season by season, with the verses each instruction comes from. The modern-India month ranges are a general guide for orientation, not part of the classical text.

Season	Favour	Avoid
Hemanta (हेमन्त) early winter · Nov–Dec	Nourishing, unctuous, heavier food; warmth and shelter	Light, Vata-raising food; fasting; strong cold winds; cold drinks (Su 6.9–18)
Sisira (शिशिर) late winter · Jan–Feb	Same as hemanta; a warm, wind-free home	Pungent, bitter, astringent, light and cold food and drink (Su 6.19–21)
Vasanta (वसन्त) spring · Mar–Apr	Exercise; dry-rubbing; barley and wheat; warm-water bath	Heavy, oily, sweet, hard-to-digest food; daytime sleep (Su 6.22–26)
Grisma (ग्रीष्म) summer · May–Jun	Sweet, cool, liquid food; rest in cool shade; moonlight	Sour, pungent and hot food; hard physical exercise (Su 6.27–32)
Varsa (वर्षा) monsoon · Jul–Aug	Old grains, light soups, boiled-and-cooled water; a dry home	Humid living spaces; unboiled water (Su 6.33–40)
Sarad (शरद्) autumn · Sep–Oct	Hamsodaka water; light food; early-night moonlight	Curd; daytime sleep; the easterly wind (Su 6.41–48)

Now the detail — because each season has a logic worth understanding, not just a list to obey.

Hemanta and Sisira (हेमन्त और शिशिर): The Winter Regimen

Winter is the body's high season. With the cold pressing in from outside, the body's inner fire is conserved and burns strong — digestion is at its most powerful, and, as we saw, strength is at its yearly peak. The whole logic of the winter regimen follows from this: a strong fire must be fed, or it will turn on the body's own tissues.

So in hemanta (हेमन्त), early winter, the chapter prescribes nourishment and warmth, and warns against three mistakes. When winter sets in, one should avoid Vata-increasing and light food and drinks, avoid a restricted (fasting) diet, avoid strong cold winds, and avoid cold drinks (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.9–18). Each of these would starve or scatter a fire that is ready to do its best work of the year. This is the season for the heavier, sweeter, more unctuous foods, taken with warmth and shelter; the body has both the appetite and the digestive power to convert them into lasting strength rather than dead weight.

The same passage frames winter as the season of vitality and warmth in conduct as well as diet — a time of oil, fragrance and comfort, when the cold outside is answered by warmth and richness within. The text's broader point is consistent: in the season of greatest strength, you build.

This is also why the heavier winter plate does not sit on the body the way it would in summer. The strong digestion of hemanta and sisira (Sutrasthana 6.6–8) actually converts rich, unctuous food into tissue and strength rather than letting it stagnate; the same meal eaten in depleted high summer would simply burden a weak fire. Winter is not an exception to eating well — it is the season eating well was designed for.

Sisira (शिशिर), late winter, is so close to hemanta that the chapter treats them almost as one. The difference is that sisira is colder and a little rougher, because adana — the drying half of the year — has now begun. So "the entire routine of living prescribed for hemanta is applicable to sisira as well," with two refinements: during sisira one should reside in a house that is more wind-free and heated, and should avoid pungent, bitter, astringent, light, cold and Vata-increasing food and drinks (Sutrasthana 6.19–21). Notice that the foods to avoid are precisely the rough, light, drying ones that the drying season is already pushing onto the plate; the regimen pulls deliberately in the opposite direction.

Vasanta (वसन्त): The Spring Regimen

Spring is a turning point. Through the winter the body has accumulated heaviness — the rich winter diet, the inward-burning warmth, the comfort. As the spring sun strengthens, that accumulated heaviness begins to liquefy and stir, and the regimen swings hard from building to clearing. (In the broader Ayurvedic tradition this stirred heaviness is read as Kapha rising; Chapter 6 itself simply prescribes the clearing routine.)

The chapter's spring prescription is unusually active. One should take up physical exercise, dry-rubbing of the body (anointing), therapeutic smoking, gargles, collyrium for the eyes, and bathing with warm water, and apply pastes of sandalwood and aguru to the body (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.22–26). The diet shifts to lighter, drier grains: it should consist mainly of barley and wheat — and the text is pointed enough about this that the translator notes "barley and wheat, not khichdi." After the heavy winter, spring is when you scrape the body clean.

The same passage records that the classical diet of the season included light meats and the moderate use of mild fermented drinks, and it closes with an image of the season's spirit: one should "enjoy the blossoming beauty of women and forests" — spring as the season to move, to be outdoors, to come back to life. For a modern, often vegetarian reader, the transferable instruction is clear even where the specific foods differ: eat lighter and drier, move your body, clear what winter deposited.

This is the same wisdom we explored from Vagbhata's angle in our guide to the seasonal routines and the six tastes: a spring meal leans on the lighter, more astringent and bitter end of the taste spectrum, exactly the tastes that reduce heaviness.

Grisma (ग्रीष्म): The Summer Regimen

If winter is the body's high season, grisma (ग्रीष्म) — peak summer — is its low one. This is the end of adana, when the sun has been drawing moisture out of the world for months; the body is at its weakest point in the whole year, and the inner fire is scattered and dim. The entire summer regimen is therefore one of cooling, conserving and avoiding anything that adds heat or drains the little strength that remains.

The chapter is direct about what to drop. Sour, pungent and hot food should be avoided, and so should physical exercise (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.27–32). The hard, sweat-raising exertion that suited spring would now finish off a depleted body. In its place the chapter prescribes deliberate coolness: one should sleep in a cool room during the day, and at night sleep on a terrace or rooftop in abundant air, cooled by the rays of the moon, with sandalwood paste on the body. One should sit fanned, with hand-touch and sandal-scented water for coolness, and adorned with pearls and gems. Above all, the chapter says, in summer one should resort to forests, cool water and flowers (Sutrasthana 6.27–32).

Summer is also the one season the chapter explicitly endorses daytime sleep — normally discouraged — because the nights are short and the body needs the rest to offset its depletion. And it is the season to abstain from sexual activity altogether (Sutrasthana 6.27–32), again to conserve a strength that is already at its yearly floor. Every instruction points the same way: spend nothing you do not have to.

We have written a full, practical companion to this season in our Ayurvedic summer diet plan — the same Grishma logic, translated into a modern Indian kitchen.

Varsa (वर्षा): The Monsoon Regimen

The rains break the heat, but they do not immediately restore strength. Varsa (वर्षा) is the beginning of visarga — the body is still near its yearly low, and now the sudden damp and the erratic weather make digestion weak and unreliable. The monsoon regimen is built around one priority: protect a fragile digestive fire.

So the chapter turns to easily handled, drying, warming food. One should eat old barley, wheat and rice along with wild meats and well-prepared soups — "old" grains because the previous year's stored grain is lighter and less moist than the new harvest, and soups because they are warm, light and easy to digest (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.33–40). For drinking, the chapter is careful about water in a season when water is everywhere and rarely clean: one should use rain water, or water from a well or tank, boiled and then cooled; fermented drinks, if used at all, should be mixed with a little honey and taken in small quantity (Sutrasthana 6.33–40).

The monsoon's other great danger is damp itself, so the conduct of the season fights moisture on every front. One should use regular rubbing and anointing of the body and bathing, wear light and clean clothes, use fragrance and garlands, and reside in a place that is free from humidity and otherwise fit for the rainy season (Sutrasthana 6.33–40). Where summer was about cooling, the monsoon is about staying warm, dry and clean while the digestion finds its feet again.

Sarad (शरद्): The Autumn Regimen and Hamsodaka Water

Autumn carries a hidden trap. Through the cool, damp monsoon the body has grown unaccustomed to heat; then sarad (शरद्) arrives with a sudden return of the sun, and the heat that accumulated during the rains is released. (The wider tradition reads this as Pitta, the fire-and-heat dosha, surging in autumn.) The chapter's autumn regimen is therefore cooling and cleansing — but gently, because strength is now recovering, not depleted.

The chapter names specific things to avoid in this heat-prone season: curd, daytime sleep, and exposure to the easterly wind (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 6.41–48). Curd is heating and heavy; daytime sleep and the warm easterly wind both add to the body's heat at exactly the wrong time.

And then the chapter gives autumn its most beautiful image — hamsodaka (हंसोदक), "swan water":

The picture is of water that has been perfected by the season itself — warmed all day by the autumn sun, cooled all night by the moon, and (in the text's astronomy) purified by the rising of the star Agastya (Canopus), whose appearance marks the clearing of the post-monsoon skies. Such water, the chapter says, is like nectar for drinking, bathing and plunging. To round out the season, it recommends garlands of seasonal flowers, clean apparel, and the moon's rays in the early part of the night (Sutrasthana 6.41–48) — a regimen of light, cool, clean things to settle the released heat.

With sarad the cycle is nearly complete; hemanta returns next, strength peaks again, and the wheel turns back to the building foods of winter.

The Closing Law: Oppose the Qualities of the Season

Having walked all six seasons, the chapter draws the whole system into a single sentence — and it is the same law that opened the entire Samhita in Chapter 1:

This is why you do not need to memorise the table to live the chapter. Every seasonal rule in it is one application of a single idea: identify the dominant quality of the moment — hot, cold, dry, damp, heavy, rough — and lean your food and conduct toward its opposite. Summer is hot and dry, so you eat cool and moist. Winter is cold, so you eat warm and rich. The monsoon is damp, so you keep dry and warm. The qualities of the food and behaviour oppose the qualities of the season, and balance is the result.

The chapter signs off by tying the bow: it has now described "the wholesomeness pertaining to behaviour and diet in the different seasons" (Sutrasthana 6.49), and what is to be used and avoided in every season has been "said rationally" alongside the rules of diet (Sutrasthana 6.51). And it returns once more to its first premise (Sutrasthana 6.3): all of this matters because diet only yields strength and a clear complexion when it is matched to the season. Get the match right, year after year, and the body is continually rebuilt at the times it is built to be rebuilt — which is, in the end, the whole quiet aim of ritucharya.

Common Ritucharya Mistakes in Modern Life

Most of us break Chapter 6 without realising it, because modern conveniences let us live the same way in every season — the same air-conditioned room, the same iced drink, the same diet plan in January and June. Here are the most common collisions between contemporary habits and the chapter's logic, each tied to the verse it overturns.

• Dieting hardest in winter. New-year fasts and "detoxes" land in exactly the season the chapter reserves for nourishment. Hemanta has the strongest digestion and the highest strength of the year; a restricted, light diet here wastes that fire and aggravates Vata (Su 6.9–18).
• Iced drinks and cold food the year round. Refrigeration makes cold intake effortless even in the cold months, when the chapter expressly says to avoid cold drinks and light, Vata-raising food and drink (Su 6.9–21). Cold input fights the season instead of opposing it.
• Heavy, oily comfort food in spring. Spring is when winter's accumulated heaviness stirs and should be cleared with lighter grains, exercise and dry-rubbing (Su 6.22–26). Rich, sweet, oily food in vasanta adds to exactly what the season is trying to shed.
• The "summer shred" workout. Peak summer is the body's weakest point in the year, and the chapter explicitly tells us to avoid hard physical exercise and hot, sour, pungent food in grisma (Su 6.27–32). An aggressive summer fitness push spends strength the season cannot spare.
• Unboiled water in the monsoon. Varsa is the one season the chapter singles out for water discipline — rain, well or tank water boiled and then cooled (Su 6.33–40). Skipping this in a season of waterborne illness is the most avoidable mistake of all.
• Curd and afternoon naps in autumn. As post-monsoon heat releases, sarad is the time to ease off heating, heavy curd and daytime sleep (Su 6.41–48); carrying monsoon comfort habits into autumn stokes the very heat the season is shedding.

None of these fixes requires special equipment — only the willingness to let the season, rather than habit, decide a few daily choices.

Living Chapter 6 Today

You do not live on a Himalayan slope with a terrace for moonlit summer sleep. But the engine of Chapter 6 runs perfectly well in a modern Indian flat. Here is the chapter reduced to a working discipline:

• Eat the season, not the calendar habit. Heavy and warm in winter when your fire is strong; light and cool in summer when it is weak (Su 6.6–8).
• Save your big eating and big building for winter. Hemanta and sisira are when the body can actually convert rich food into strength (Su 6.9–21).
• Lighten and move in spring. Trade winter's richness for exercise, dry-rubbing and lighter grains to clear what the cold months deposited (Su 6.22–26).
• Conserve in summer and early monsoon. This is your low-strength window — cool, hydrate, rest, and don't pick this season for a punishing fast or workout (Su 6.27–32).
• Boil your monsoon water and keep your home dry. A two-millennia-old rule that still prevents more illness than most supplements (Su 6.33–40).
• Cool gently in autumn. Ease off curd and midday sun; favour light, cooling, clean food and drink as the post-monsoon heat releases (Su 6.41–48).
• When in doubt, oppose the season. One question — "what is the dominant quality right now, and what is its opposite?" — is the whole chapter in your kitchen (Su 6.50).

The classical tradition also leaned on a seasonal tonic to carry strength across the year's hard turns — a daily rasayana taken especially through the strong-digestion winter, when the body can absorb its goodness best.

We explain how this classical formulation actually works — and how to read an honest label — in our guide to Chyawanprash and immunity.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Tasyashitiya Adhyaya (Sutrasthana Chapter 6) about? +

It is the sixth chapter of the Charaka Samhita's Sutrasthana and Ayurveda's foundational chapter on ritucharya — seasonal regimen. It explains how the body's strength rises and falls through the year, divides the year into two halves (the depleting adana and the nourishing visarga), and prescribes what to eat, what to avoid and how to live in each of the six seasons: hemanta, sisira, vasanta, grisma, varsa and sarad.

What do adana and visarga mean? +

They are the two halves of the year defined by the sun's course. Adana ("taking") spans sisira, vasanta and grisma, when the sun's northward course and the wind dry the earth; it is fiery (agneya) and reduces strength. Visarga ("releasing") spans varsa, sarad and hemanta, when the sun moves southward and the moon's cooling dominates; it is lunar (saumya) and restores strength (Sutrasthana 6.4–6).

In which season is the body strongest and weakest? +

According to Sutrasthana 6.8, strength is at its maximum in winter — at the end of visarga (hemanta) and the beginning of adana (sisira). It is at its lowest at the boundaries — the end of adana (peak summer, grisma) and the beginning of visarga (the early rains, varsa). Spring and autumn are seasons of medium strength. This is why winter suits heavy, building foods and high summer calls for rest and conservation.

What should I eat in each season according to Charaka? +

In brief: winter (hemanta and sisira) favours nourishing, unctuous, heavier food and warmth, avoiding fasting and cold; spring (vasanta) favours lighter grains like barley and wheat with exercise, avoiding heavy oily food; summer (grisma) favours sweet, cool, liquid food and rest, avoiding sour, pungent and hot food; the monsoon (varsa) favours old grains, light soups and boiled-then-cooled water; and autumn (sarad) favours light, cooling food and hamsodaka water while avoiding curd and midday sun (Sutrasthana 6.9–48).

What is hamsodaka water? +

Hamsodaka ("swan water") is the autumn water described in Sutrasthana 6.41–48: water heated by the sun through the day, cooled by the moon through the night, and — in the text's astronomy — purified by the rising of the star Agastya (Canopus). The chapter calls it clean, pure and "beneficial like nectar" for drinking, bathing and plunging during the autumn season.

How do I apply a 2,000-year-old seasonal regimen in a modern city? +

Use the principle rather than the literal props. Sutrasthana 6.50 says the qualities of your food and conduct should be opposite to the qualities of the season: eat warm and rich in cold winter, cool and light in hot summer, dry and warm in the damp monsoon. You don't need a moonlit terrace — you need to ask, each season, "what is the dominant quality now, and what opposes it?" and adjust food, sleep, exercise and clothing accordingly.

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