Three Parts of the Stomach: Charaka Samhita Vimanasthana 2.3 on Trividha Kukshi, Nine Signs and Six Things That Stop Digestion

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ें: पेट के तीन भाग: चरक विमानस्थान 2.3, सही मात्रा के नौ लक्षण और छह बातें

📖 19 min read · Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthana 2.3-2.9 and 1.24-25; Andrade, Greene and Melanson (2008); ICMR-NIN (2024)

Plate After Plate at the Buffet: Today's Habit and the One Thing We Get Wrong

It is wedding season, and the buffet counter is long: paneer, chole, biryani, puris, three kinds of sweets. Most of us know the routine. One plate, then another, eaten quickly while standing and talking. Then a cold drink, because it is there. By the time the sweets come round, the belt is tight.

Before the guests arrive: a long counter makes plate after plate easy.

None of this feels like a mistake at the time; a feast is meant to be generous. But there is one thing most of us get wrong, and it is not the food. It is the measure. We think a meal is over when we are full, and we count only the plate. The drink does not count. "Full" is the finish line.

The Charaka Samhita, one of the oldest texts of Ayurveda, measures a meal another way. In the second chapter of its Vimanasthana, Charaka divides the space of the stomach (kukshi) into three parts and gives only one of them to solid food. The second part is for liquids, so the drink is counted. The third part is left for vata, pitta and kapha, the three doshas of Ayurveda; in plain words, it is left free. Our reel opens with that line: three parts of the stomach, and only one of them for solid food.

The same chapter adds something the reel could only point to. Even the right amount is not the whole story: Charaka names six things that keep even the right quantity of wholesome food from digesting, and not one of the six is on the plate.

Trividhakukshiya Vimana: The Chapter on How Much to Eat

The rule comes from the second chapter of the Vimanasthana, the third of the Charaka Samhita's eight sections. Like many chapters, it is named after its opening words: Trividhakukshiya, the chapter of "three-fold ... in the stomach". The English edition we quote unless we say otherwise, the CSRTSDC edition at carakasamhitaonline.com, calls it Three parts of abdomen and principles of diet.

The chapter follows straight on from the first. In Vimanasthana 1.24, Charaka gives his method of eating as one list: warm, unctuous, in the right quantity (matravat), and so on, down to not too fast (natidrutam), not too slow (nativilambitam) and with the mind on the meal (tanmana). Chapter 2 takes one word from that list, matravat, and gives it a whole chapter. Verse 2.5 says so plainly: the chapter is about the quantum of food (rashi), with the objective of determining appropriate and inappropriate quantities.

Right after the rule, Charaka puts a limit on it. Verse 2.4 says that quantity alone cannot give all the good of a meal: It is not possible to derive all the beneficial effects of any diet only on the basis of the quantity of food consumed because the other seven factors (discussed in the preceding chapter, such as prakriti (nature of food) etc.) have their own individual role to play. Keep that sentence in mind; the chapter comes back to it in verses 2.8 and 2.9.

Trividham Kukshau Sthapayet: Vimanasthana 2.3, Word by Word

• Trividham (त्रिविधं): three-fold, of three kinds.
• Kukshau (कुक्षौ): in the stomach. Kukshi is the belly or stomach; kukshau means "in it".
• Sthapayet (स्थापयेत्): one should keep, or set aside.
• Avakasha-amsham (अवकाशांशम्): a portion (amsha) of space (avakasha). This is the key word: Charaka is measuring room, not food.
• Aharasya aharam upayunjanah: of food; the one who is taking food, that is, the eater.
• Ekam avakasha-amsham murtanam ahara-vikaranam: one portion of the space for solid food preparations. Murta means having a form or shape; ahara-vikara means the many forms food takes. Roti, rice, sabzi, sweets: everything that holds its shape.
• Ekam dravanam: one portion for liquids (drava). Water, buttermilk, juice, a cold drink.
• Ekam punar vata-pitta-shleshmanam: and one more for vata, pitta and shleshman, another name for kapha. Punar means "again" or "further": a third portion, counted just like the other two.
• Etavatim hi ahara-matram upayunjanah: for one who takes this much, this measure (matra) of food.
• Na amatra-aharajam kincid ashubham prapnoti: does not meet (na prapnoti) any (kincid) ill (ashubham) born of food in the wrong measure (amatra-aharajam).

Two things are worth noticing in the Sanskrit. First, the verse never says "a third". It says ekam, one, three times: one portion, one, and one more. The CSRTSDC edition's English renders them as thirds: a third of the portion of the space should be allocated to solid food articles, a third to liquid food substances and the remaining third should be left for the (movement of) vata, pitta and kapha. That is a fair reading of three portions named side by side. But "one, one, one" is the text's own count. Notice the brackets, too: "(movement of)" is the translator's addition. The Sanskrit simply says the third portion is for vata, pitta and kapha.

Second, the promise at the end is narrow. The verse says that one who keeps the three portions meets no ill born of food in the wrong measure (amatra-aharajam). It does not say the rule settles everything else about a meal; verse 2.4 has already said that it does not.

One portion for solids, one for liquids, one left free: the three space-portions of verse 2.3.

Vagbhata's Ashtanga Hridaya gives the same idea in four parts instead of three; our page on Vagbhata's stomach rule reads that version. Our page on whether to finish your plate (Sutrasthana 8.20) quotes Vimanasthana 2.3 briefly, as a guide to how much to serve. Here we read further into Charaka's chapter.

Ekam Punar Vata-Pitta-Shleshmanam: The Part Left Free

The first two portions are easy to picture: a plate and a glass. The third is harder. What does it mean to keep a portion of the stomach "for vata, pitta and kapha"?

Vata, pitta and kapha are the three doshas of Ayurveda, often explained in English as the principles of movement, transformation and structure in the body. Verse 2.3 does not say what the three do in that space, and we will not put words in the text's mouth. In plain terms, the third portion is a part of the stomach left unfilled.

The chapter does give a clue a few lines later. In verse 2.7, when someone eats past the measure, the text says that the vata, pitta and kapha located in the stomach (amashaya-gata) are over-pressed (ati-prapidyamana) by the excess food. Read together, the free portion of 2.3 is the room that the excess of 2.7 takes away. That pairing is our reading of the chapter's order, not a line the text states; but the words in it are the text's own.

Charaka also gives no number of rotis or bowls. Because the measure is each person's own stomach, it changes with the person, which a fixed plate size cannot do.

Matravat: Nine Signs of the Right Quantity (Vimanasthana 2.6)

A portion of space is hard to measure from the inside. So Charaka gives a second test. Verse 2.6 opens by tying itself to 2.3: the right quantity (matravattva) is determined on the basis of the capacity of the stomach and its division into three parts, as mentioned earlier, and will now be described in detail. Then come the signs. Counted from the Sanskrit, there are nine.

1. Kuksher apranidanam aharena: the food does not press on the stomach (kukshi).
2. Hridayasya anavarodhah: no blocking at the heart (hridaya); in the edition's English, the food does not cause obstruction in the proper functioning of the heart.
3. Parshvayor avipatanam: no stretching of the sides (parshva); in the English, no pressure on the sides of the chest.
4. Anatigauravam udarasya: the belly (udara) is not too heavy (ati-gaurava).
5. Prinanam indriyanam: the senses (indriya) are satisfied.
6. Kshut-pipasa-uparamah: hunger (kshut) and thirst (pipasa) come to rest (uparama).
7. Sukha-anuvrittih: ease in eight everyday actions: standing (sthana), sitting (asana), lying down (shayana), walking (gamana), breathing out (ucchvasa), breathing in (prashvasa), laughing (hasya) and conversation (sankatha).
8. Sayam pratash ca sukhena parinamanam: the food changes over (parinamana), that is, it digests, with ease by evening and by morning.
9. Bala-varna-upacaya-karatvam: it brings strength (bala), complexion (varna) and growth (upacaya).

A few details are easy to miss. Sign seven packs eight actions into one long compound word, and the edition's English lists only seven of them: standing, sitting, walking, exhaling, inhaling, laughing, and talking. Lying down (shayana) is in the Sanskrit and not in the English. Sign eight has two time words, sayam (evening) and pratah (morning). The English reads them as food that is easy to digest when taken in the morning and evening hours; another plain reading is that a morning meal has settled by evening, and an evening meal by the next morning. And sign nine, strength, complexion and growth, is Charaka's word, not a promise of ours.

Most of the nine can be checked at the table. Could you stand up now without a push, or laugh without feeling the belt? Our page on finishing your plate turns the same verse into an end-of-meal check. The point here is that Charaka's test is not the plate at all, but how the body moves, breathes and talks after the meal.

Atimatra: What Charaka Says Eating Beyond Measure Does (Vimanasthana 2.7)

Verse 2.7 says that a wrong quantity (amatravattva) comes in two kinds: too little (hina) and too much (adhika). Of too little, the edition's English has: The food taken in deficient quantity is said to be the cause of reduction in strength, complexion and nourishment of body tissues, and the list goes on from there. The rule of three parts is not a rule of eating less and less.

Of too much, the verse opens with a judgement: atimatram punah sarva-dosha-prakopanam icchanti kushalah, "the experts (kushalah) hold that excess quantity (atimatra) aggravates all the doshas". Then it shows how.

The Sanskrit's order is the buffet's order. Murtanam ahara-jatanam sauhityam gatva: having gone to satiety (sauhitya) with solid foods. Dravais triptim apadyate bhuyah: then getting filled (tripti) further (bhuyah) with liquids. Solids to the brim, then liquids on top. The vata, pitta and kapha in the stomach (amashaya) are over-pressed by the excess, and sarve yugapat prakopam apadyante: all of them are aggravated (prakopa) at once (yugapat). Read against verse 2.3, the solid food has taken the room of all three portions, and the drink then goes into a space that was already gone.

Solids to the brim, then a cold drink on top: the order verse 2.7 calls eating beyond measure.

Charaka then lists what each dosha produces in the one who has eaten beyond measure. We give the list only as the text's own words, in the edition's English, and not as a warning of ours:

This is a classical description, in the language of the doshas, of a meal taken too far. It is not a modern diagnosis, and this page does not claim that any of it follows from any particular meal. Charaka comes back to overeating (atimatrashana) in Sutrasthana 25.40, his list of foremost things; we read that line in our page on eating once a day and atimatrashana.

Six Things That Stop Even the Right Amount From Digesting (Vimanasthana 2.9)

This is the list our reel promised. After verses on the quantity of food, Charaka turns the question around. The quantity can be right, the food can be wholesome, and still it does not digest:

Word by word: matraya api, even in the right measure; abhyavahritam, eaten; pathyam ca annam, and wholesome food; na jiryati, is not digested. Then comes one compound word holding the six, in a form that means "because of" or "with". In the edition's English: any wholesome food, even if taken in the right quantity, does not get digested when the mind is troubled or rest is lost.

1. Chinta: worry

Chinta is the thought that will not let go: the bill, the exam, the drive home. The edition's English calls it anxiety.

2. Shoka: grief

Shoka is sorrow, the kind that follows a loss. Verse 2.8 names it too.

3. Bhaya: fear

Bhaya is fear, of something real or of something that may never come. Verse 2.8 names it too.

4. Krodha: anger

Krodha is anger; an argument at the table is its most ordinary form. Verse 2.8 names it as well.

5. Duhkha-shayya: an uncomfortable bed

Duhkha means discomfort or unease, and shayya means a bed, or lying down. A lumpy mattress, a cramped berth on a night train, a borrowed bed at a wedding.

6. Prajagara: staying awake

Prajagara is keeping awake, the night that does not end in sleep.

The edition's English joins the last two into one phrase: restless and irritable due to lack of sleep. The Sanskrit keeps them as two separate words, a bad bed and wakefulness, which is why the list counts six. One can also divide the compound as duhkha (distress) plus shayya-prajagara (lying awake in bed); read that way, the count is still six.

Duhkha-shayya and prajagara, an uncomfortable bed and staying awake: the last two of Charaka's six.

Verse 2.8 beside it: quantity is not the only cause of ama

Verse 2.9 is a short summary verse (it opens bhavati catra, "and on this it is said"); the longer list comes just before it. Verse 2.8 says that excess quantity is not the only thing that produces ama, which the edition explains as undigested and non-metabolized food.

गुरुरूक्षशीतशुष्कद्विष्टविष्टम्भिविदाह्यशुचिविरुद्धानामकाले चान्नपानानामुपसेवनं,
कामक्रोधलोभमोहेर्ष्याह्रीशोकमानोद्वेगभयोपतप्तमनसा वा यदन्नपानमुपयुज्यते,
तदप्याममेव प्रदूषयति॥८॥

Food and drink can produce it too, says the verse, when they are:

• heavy (guru), dry (ruksha), cold (shita) or dried-out (shushka);
• disliked (dvishta), constipating (vishtambhi) or burning (vidahi);
• unclean (ashuchi) or incompatible (viruddha);
• or taken at the wrong time (akale).

And so can the state of the one who eats. Food taken while the mind being afflicted with passion/desires, anger, greed, infatuation, envy, bashfulness, grief, conceit, excitement and fear produces ama as well. The Sanskrit names ten: kama, krodha, lobha, moha, irshya, hri, shoka, mana, udvega and bhaya.

Three of the six in 2.9 are already among the ten in 2.8: grief (shoka), fear (bhaya) and anger (krodha). Verse 2.9 adds worry (chinta), and then two things that are not moods at all: a bad bed and a sleepless night. Verse 2.8 had already moved from the plate to the mind; verse 2.9 takes one more step, from the mind to the night. That is our reading of the two lists; every word in them is Charaka's.

None of this is a promise that calm and sleep will make a heavy meal digest. It is what the text says: a right-sized, wholesome meal can still go undigested (na jiryati) when the mind is troubled or the night goes without rest. At a wedding, where dinner is late and nights are short, two of the six are often on the guest list.

The Modern Reading: Eating Slowly (Andrade 2008) and ICMR-NIN on Portions

Charaka's rules of eating include speed: not too fast (natidrutam) and not too slow (nativilambitam), in the list of Vimanasthana 1.24, with his reasons in 1.25. We read both in our page on how fast to eat in Charaka Samhita. A modern study looked at the fast side of that line.

In a study published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Andrade, Greene and Melanson, of the University of Rhode Island, compared slow and quick eating. In a randomized design, 30 healthy women, with an average age of about 23, came for two test visits. On one visit they ate quickly, on the other slowly, and each time they could eat as much as they liked (an ad libitum meal). The results, from the abstract:

• Energy intake was 645.7 kcal on the quick visit and 579.0 kcal on the slow one (P<0.05): about 67 kcal, or roughly a tenth, less when eating slowly. Our reel rounds these to 646 and 579.
• Water consumption was 289.9 g on the quick visit and 409.6 g on the slow one (P<0.05), about 120 g more.
• Fullness went the other way: Despite higher energy intake upon meal completion under the quick condition, satiety was significantly lower than the slow condition.

The authors' own summary is careful, and we keep their words: Although more study is needed, these data suggest that eating slowly may help to maximize satiation and reduce energy intake within meals. It was one meal on each of two visits, in 30 healthy women. It does not show what happens over months, or in men, or at a wedding.

A plain plate, a glass of water and time: the 2008 study compared quick and slow eating.

Among the practical tips in the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition's Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) is this one: Practice portion control: Be mindful of portion sizes (p.66). In its points to register for children and adolescents, the same document says: Discourage overeating as well as indiscriminate dieting. (p.46). That second line keeps both sides in view, as Charaka's verse 2.7 does: too much is a wrong quantity, and so is too little.

The Buffet Through Charaka's Three Parts: A Practical Reading

Charaka never saw a buffet, but verse 2.7 describes its most common ending almost exactly: solids to the brim, then liquids on top. Here is one way to read a wedding buffet through his chapter: an editorial reading, offered as a habit to try, not a rule of the text.

A first plate of solids that leaves room: the buffet read through Charaka's three parts.

1. Make the first plate the solid part. Verse 2.3 gives solid food (murta) one portion out of three. A first plate that leaves room, and leaves you able to stand and walk with ease, is that portion. A plate that already fills you has spent more than one.
2. Count the drinks as a part. The welcome drink, the soup, the juice, the lassi and the cold drink all belong to the second portion (drava). A cold drink on top of a full plate fills the second part and the third, in the very order verse 2.7 describes. Verse 2.8 also lists cold (shita) food and drink among the things besides quantity that can produce ama. Those are the text's words; whether you take the cold drink is your call.
3. Eat at an even pace. Sit down if you can. Charaka's rule is natidrutam nativilambitam, not too fast and not too slow (Vimanasthana 1.24), and Andrade, Greene and Melanson (2008) found that their 30 women ate less and felt fuller after the slow meal.
4. Before a second plate, check the nine signs. Is the belly heavy? Is there pressure at the sides? Could you walk, breathe and laugh with ease (sukha-anuvritti)? If the answer is already "I'm heavy", the second plate is the one that takes the free portion.
5. Leave the third part free. This is the portion the text keeps for vata, pitta and kapha; at a buffet, dessert, a second helping and a cold drink all compete for it.
6. Mind the mind and the night. Verse 2.9 is the part we forget. If the evening brings an argument, a worry, or a late night on a borrowed bed, Charaka says that even the right amount of wholesome food may not digest. You cannot always change the night, but knowing it is coming may be a reason to keep the plate lighter.

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