Washing Your Feet in the Sushruta Samhita: Pada Prakshalana and Its Seven Effects

इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ें: पैर धोकर सोना चाहिए? सुश्रुत संहिता में पाद-प्रक्षालन के सात गुण

📖 19 min read · Sushruta Samhita, Chikitsasthana 24 with Dalhana's Nibandhasangraha (NIIMH e-Samhita) and Bhishagratna's English, Vol. II; Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 5.98; NIH (2013); NHS (2024, 2025)

Washing Your Feet at Night: The Habit, and the One Thing We Get Wrong

Picture an ordinary working day. The shoes go on before nine and come off after eight. In between there is a commute, a desk or a counter, a long stand in a queue or on a site, perhaps a walk from the metro. At the end of it the shoes are kicked off by the door, and many of us go straight to bed, sometimes with the day's socks still on. The feet look clean. They were covered all day.

That is the one thing we get wrong. We think of washing the feet as a fix for a smell or for mud, something to do only when the feet look dirty. The Sushruta Samhita, one of the founding texts of Ayurveda, files it somewhere else: in a chapter about daily care, between a verse on food and a verse on oiling the feet, with seven effects named in two short lines. The first of the seven is taking away the feet's dirt (pada-mala), and the verse puts no condition on it, such as dirt you can see.

Two modern sources add their own picture. A survey by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the greatest variety of skin fungi on the feet, and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) says smelly feet are often caused by a build-up of sweat and bacteria.

This page reads the verse word by word with its commentator, Dalhana, sets it in its chapter and gives all seven effects. Then it turns to the NIH survey, the NHS steps for washing your feet, and the socks you wore today.

The habit this page is about: the day's socks left on the bed, the shoes kicked off below.

Anagatabadha Pratishedha: Where the Verse Sits in Sushruta's Chapter of Daily Care

The verse comes from the twenty-fourth chapter of the Chikitsasthana, one of the sections (sthanas) of the Sushruta Samhita. The chapter's name, Anagatabadha-pratishedha, reads word by word as anagata (not yet come), badha (trouble, harm) and pratishedha (warding off): warding off troubles before they arrive. Its content is a daily routine (dinacharya). Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna's English translation calls it a chapter on the rules of hygiene, and its second paragraph promises rules of conduct to be daily observed: brushing the teeth first, then the care of the body through the day, from bathing and dress to food, and then the feet. For the routine as a whole, see our overview of dinacharya, the Ayurvedic daily routine.

We read the Sanskrit on the e-Samhita of the National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), which prints the text with Dalhana's commentary, the Nibandhasangraha. There the verses around ours run like this:

• 24.68-69, food (ahara): आहारः प्रीणनः सद्यो बलकृद्देहधारकः, food pleases (prinana), gives strength at once (sadyo balakrt) and holds up the body (deha-dharaka).
• 24.69-70, washing the feet (pada-prakshalana): the verse on this page.
• 24.70-71, oiling the feet (padabhyanga): the verse the text calls nidrakara, bringing sleep.
• 24.71-73, footwear (padatra): wearing it, and then walking without it.

So the list moves from the meal to the feet and stays with them for three verses. The e-Samhita prints the first line of our verse under the number 69 and the second under 70, which is why it is cited as Chikitsasthana 24.69-70. Bhishagratna numbers his English by paragraph and gives the same lines as 45-46 (Volume II, page 489).

Sushruta is not alone here. Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 5.98 praises पादयोर्मलमार्गाणां शौचाधानमभीक्ष्णशः, which the CSRTSDC English renders as The frequent ablution of feet and excretory orifices. Its last word, abhikshnashah, is glossed by the Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary as constantly. We read that verse and its neighbours on our page on how often to cut your nails.

Pada Prakshalana, Word by Word: Sushruta Samhita Chikitsasthana 24.69-70

In plain English: washing the feet takes away the dirt, the diseases and the fatigue of the feet; it clears the eyes, is vrishya, wards off rakshas and increases delight. Two lines, six words, seven effects. Word by word:

• Pada-prakshalanam: the washing (prakshalana) of the feet (pada). Monier-Williams gives prakshalana as washing and as cleaning, cleansing, purifying.
• Pada-mala-roga-shrama-apaham: one long compound. Its last part, apaha, means keeping back, repelling, removing. What it removes is the dirt (mala), the diseases (roga) and the fatigue (shrama), and pada at the front ties them to the feet.
• Chakshuh-prasadanam: clearing (prasadana) the eyes (chakshus). Monier-Williams gives prasadana as clearing, rendering clear and also as calming, soothing, cheering.
• Vrishyam: a classical category of things said to nourish shukra, the last of the body's seven tissues (dhatus). We come back to it below, with Dalhana.
• Rakshoghnam: rakshas joined to -ghna; Monier-Williams glosses the compound as driving back or destroying rakshas.
• Priti-vardhanam: increasing (vardhana) delight (priti), which Monier-Williams glosses as any pleasurable sensation, pleasure, joy, gladness, satisfaction.

One small point of grammar matters for the reel. Because pada stands at the head of the compound, the dirt, the diseases and the fatigue can all be read as the feet's own. Bhishagratna splits them. He ties the dirt and the diseases to the soles (makes the soles free from all adhering dirt and local diseases) and leaves the fatigue with no place at all (removes the sense of fatigue).

All Seven Things Sushruta Says Washing the Feet Does

Here is the verse's list, one effect at a time, with Dalhana's notes where he gives one. He explains only two of the seven: the eyes and vrishya. Each line below is the text's claim or the commentator's explanation, in their own words. None of them is a modern finding, and none of them is a promise from us.

1. Pada-mala: it takes away the feet's dirt

Mala is the ordinary word for dirt, filth or impurity. In medical Sanskrit it also names what the body itself gives off, and Monier-Williams lists perspiration from the fat among these. The verse does not say which kind of mala it means, and Dalhana adds nothing here. Bhishagratna keeps it plain: the soles are made free from all adhering dirt.

2. Roga: it takes away the feet's diseases

Roga is the general word for disease; Monier-Williams traces it to a breaking up of strength. Bhishagratna narrows it to the feet with the words local diseases. The verse names no disease and gives no example, and Dalhana is silent on it. This is the text's word, reported as the text's word. We make no claim that washing your feet keeps any disease away or clears one up, and the modern sources further down are quoted only in their own words.

3. Shrama: it takes away fatigue

This is the line the reel opens with. Shrama is fatigue; Monier-Williams gives fatigue, weariness, exhaustion and also exertion, labour, toil, the tiredness that comes from work. Bhishagratna's English: removes the sense of fatigue. Fatigue is one of this chapter's most repeated words. The same chapter says that bathing, scented pastes, oiling the feet, a walking staff, a comfortable bed and seat, the breeze of a fan and a gentle massage (samvahana) take it away as well. The text does not explain how washing the feet does it.

4. Chakshuh-prasadana: it clears the eyes

This is the first of the two words Dalhana explains:

In plain English: "clearing the eyes" means clearing the sight (drishti-prasadana), because washing clears the nadis that are bound to the feet and joined to the sight; others say it works by prabhava, an inherent power. So Dalhana records two explanations and does not choose between them. At this point the e-Samhita also records a variant reading, drishti-gata, "gone to the sight".

Two details in Bhishagratna's footnote are not in the Sanskrit we read. He renders nadi as nerve, while Monier-Williams gives the word's wider sense, any tubular organ (as a vein or artery of the body), and Dalhana does not say which channel he means. And the footnote says the washing keeps that channel cool, while the gloss on the e-Samhita says prasadana, clearing, and has no word for cool.

Dalhana comes back to the idea one verse later. On oiling the feet he writes पादाभ्यङ्गोऽत्रापि दृष्टिप्रदः पूर्ववत्, "here too, oiling the feet gives sight, as before". The tie between the feet and the eyes runs through several classical texts, and our reading of the Bhavaprakasha's bath and dress verses sets this same footnote beside the wooden-sandal verse, which links the feet to the eyes as well. All of this is classical explanation, not modern anatomy, and we make no claim about your eyesight.

5. Vrishya: it nourishes shukra, in Dalhana's gloss

"Vrishya means increasing shukra, by prabhava." Shukra is the reproductive essence, the last of the seven body tissues (dhatus) in Ayurvedic physiology, and Bhishagratna's English puts this word first in his sentence. Dalhana's prabhava is the classical way of saying that an effect comes from a thing's own inherent power, not from its taste, its heating or cooling nature, or any other quality. He gives no mechanism.

The chapter itself shows how to read the word. Two verses later the text praises footwear with a line that ends in the same three words, in the same order: वृष्यं रक्षोघ्नं प्रीतिवर्धनम्. In this chapter vrishya is given to washing the feet, to footwear, to a comfortable bed and seat, and to gentle massage. Read that way, it sounds like the text's word of praise for good daily care rather than a separate effect of water on the feet. That is our reading. Nobody has measured it, and it is not a claim of ours.

6. Rakshoghna: it wards off rakshas

Rakshas are the unseen harmful beings of classical Indian lore; Monier-Williams glosses the word as an evil being or demon. Bhishagratna's English: acts as a prophylactic against evil spirits (Rakshoghna). Dalhana does not gloss the word here. A few verses later, on the walking staff (24.76-78), the e-Samhita records a variant reading that puts rakshoghna where the printed text has bhayaghna (dispelling fear), and with it a variant of Dalhana's note: रक्षोघ्नं राक्षसघ्नम्, "rakshoghna means destroying rakshasas". The word belongs to that world. It is not a classical name for germs, the verse does not speak of microbes, and we do not turn it into a hygiene claim. In this chapter the same word also praises the wearing of flowers, clothes and gems (24.64-65) and footwear (24.71-72).

7. Priti-vardhana: it increases delight

The last effect is the plainest. Priti is pleasure or joy, vardhana is increasing, and Bhishagratna gives the pair as gladdens the heart. The reel's verse line ends here: washing the feet gives the mind delight. The phrase is the chapter's own praise for things that please, used for the wearing of flowers, clothes and gems and again for footwear.

A basin, a lota and a towel: all that the verse's practice needs.

Padabhyanga and Padatra: The Verses After It (Chikitsasthana 24.70-73)

The washing verse gives no time of day and says nothing about sleep. Sleep arrives in the very next verse, and it belongs to the oil, not the water:

Oiling the feet (padabhyanga) brings sleep (nidrakara), is pleasant to the body (deha-sukha), is good for the eyes (chakshushya), dispels fatigue and supti, and softens the skin of the feet (pada-tvak-mridu-kari); it is always beneficial (sada hitah). Monier-Williams gives supti as sleep or sleepiness, and also as numbness, insensibility, citing Sushruta; Bhishagratna reads it as drowsiness. His English for the verse begins: Anointing (Abhyanga) the feet (with oil, etc) brings on sleep.

So when people say Sushruta tells us to wash our feet before sleeping, they are joining two verses into one. In the text's own words, the sleep is the oil's. If you want to follow the next verse too, our guide to padabhyanga, the bedtime foot massage, walks through it. Washing the feet before bed after a day in shoes is our own practical reading of today's habit, and we keep it apart from the text in the sections below.

Oil for the feet belongs to the next verse, the one the text calls nidrakara, bringing sleep.

The third verse is about footwear (padatra, in Monier-Williams a foot-covering), and it has a surprise for anyone who thinks the text is against shoes:

Always wearing footwear takes away the feet's diseases (pada-roga-hara), is vrishya, wards off rakshas, increases delight, makes walking easy (sukha-pracara) and is good for ojas. Always walking on unshod feet, the next line says, is unhealthy (anarogya), shortens life (anayushya) and harms the eyes. Dalhana explains footwear as पादत्रं पादहितं पादुकादि, "what is good for the feet: wooden sandals (paduka) and the like".

So the chapter praises footwear worn always, and washing the feet as well: the shoes and the basin belong to the same routine.

Pada-Mala Today: What the NIH Found Living on the Feet

Sushruta does not say what the dirt of the feet is made of. A modern survey gives one picture of what lives on the skin of the feet.

In 2013 researchers at two institutes of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) published the first genomic survey of the fungi on human skin (Findley and colleagues, Nature 2013;498:367-370; National Human Genome Research Institute news release, 22 May 2013). In the release's words, The researchers collected samples at 14 body sites from 10 healthy adults. The paper's abstract says that eleven sites on the body and arms were dominated by one genus of fungus, Malassezia, while the three sites on the feet, the heel, the toenail and the web between the toes, showed high fungal diversity.

The release gives the numbers. The heel, the most complex site, is home to about 80 genus-level types of fungi. The researchers found about 60 types in toenail swab samples and 40 types in samples from the webs of the toes. Against that, head and trunk sites such as the back, the back of the neck, the ears and the skin between the eyebrows had just two to 10 genera each.

Two cautions keep this honest. The survey did not test washing, socks or shoes; it mapped what lives where on healthy people. And the release adds: Fungal communities also appear to be quite stable over time, with little change when tested on two separate occasions, up to three months apart. So the survey cannot tell us that washing changes what lives on your feet. What it does show is that, of the 14 sites sampled, the three on the feet were the most varied for fungi.

The day's shoes. The NHS lists standing all day among the things that can affect how much you sweat.

The soles also carry some of the body's densest sweat glands. A 2019 review in the journal Temperature (Baker) puts the highest gland densities on the palms and soles, about 250 to 550 glands per square centimetre, and the density on the face, trunk and limbs about two to five times lower. The NHS page on smelly feet puts sweat first: Smelly feet (bromodosis) are common and often caused by a build-up of sweat and bacteria. Among the things that can affect how much you sweat, it lists hot weather, exercise and standing all day.

Put the three side by side. Sushruta says mala, dirt. The NHS says a build-up of sweat and bacteria. The NIH counts the fungi. They are not the same claim, and the text does not speak of microbes. What they share is a place: the feet. The reel's habit adds the rest, a whole day inside socks and shoes.

The Right Way to Wash Your Feet: Seven Steps From the NHS

Sushruta names the effects but gives no method. For the method we turn to the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and two of its pages: Smelly feet (last reviewed 16 July 2025) and Athlete's foot (last reviewed 29 April 2024). Neither page is a general guide to washing the feet; each is written for a common foot problem. The lines below are quoted as they stand; putting them together as an everyday routine is our step, not the NHS's.

1. Keep your feet clean and dry, between the toes too. The Smelly feet page puts its advice in one line: keeping your feet clean and dry, including between your toes.
2. Wash them at least once a day, with soap. The same page: wash your feet at least once a day. In brackets, the line names a particular kind of soap to use if you can; either way, the step is a daily wash with soap.
3. Dry them, especially between the toes, by dabbing. The Athlete's foot page: dry your feet after washing them, particularly between your toes – dab them dry rather than rubbing them.
4. Give your feet their own towel. The same page: use a separate towel for your feet and wash it regularly.
5. Put on clean socks every day. The same page: wear clean socks every day – cotton socks are best.
6. Do not wear the same socks or shoes two days running. The Smelly feet page: do not wear the same socks or shoes 2 days in a row.
7. Let your shoes dry out. The Smelly feet page: let shoes dry out before wearing them again.

Soap, water and a towel kept only for the feet: three of the NHS steps in one corner.

After a day in shoes: our reading for the evening

Here is how we put it together for the habit the reel is about. This is our reading, not Sushruta's timing: the verse names no hour. If your shoes and socks have been on since morning, the evening is the first chance your feet get. So: shoes off at the door, laces loosened, left to air. The day's socks go to the wash, not onto the bed. Then soap and water, between the toes too, and the feet dabbed dry with their own towel. If you like, end with the next verse's oil (padabhyanga) before sleep. None of it needs more than water, soap and a towel.

Socks, Shoes and the End of the Day

The reel's comment word is SOCKS, so here is everything our sources say about them, and nothing more.

• Fresh every day. The NHS Athlete's foot page: wear clean socks every day – cotton socks are best.
• Not two days running. The Smelly feet page: do not wear the same socks or shoes 2 days in a row.
• Fabrics that breathe. The Smelly feet page again: wear breathable or natural fabrics on your feet, like cotton or leather.
• Not shared. The Athlete's foot page: do not share towels, socks or shoes with other people.
• Shoes that do not overheat. The Athlete's foot page: do not wear shoes that make your feet hot and sweaty.

The two pages differ a little on shoes. Smelly feet says not 2 days in a row; the Athlete's foot page says do not wear the same pair of shoes for more than 2 to 3 days in a row. If you follow the stricter line, two pairs of work shoes worn on alternate days give each pair a day to dry out. That arithmetic is ours.

So why do the day's socks belong in the wash and not in bed? None of these sources studied sleeping in socks, and we will not make a claim about it. What they do say is that socks should be clean every day and never worn two days running. By that rule, the socks you have worn since morning are finished for the day. If you like warm feet at night, a clean pair is a different thing from the day's pair.

Sushruta's chapter has no word for socks; Dalhana's example of footwear is the wooden sandal (paduka), open to the air. For socks inside closed office shoes, the NHS, not the verse, is the guide.

Clean socks every day, and shoes left to dry out: two of the NHS lines this section rests on.

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