Objectionable Proportions

Now we shall enumerate the names of substances which become unwholesome by being mixed in objectionable proportions. Two oily substances (such as oil and clarified butter) or honey and any of the oily substances, mixed in equal proportions, should not be taken; nor should rain water be drunk immediately after having taken honey and clarified-butter.

Incompatible Tastes, Potencies And Chemical Actions

Now we shall describe the substances enumerated in couples, and possessed of different tastes, which prove incompatible to each other through their respective tastes, potencies and chemical actions Vipaka). Sweet and acid tastes, or sweet and saline tastes should be deemed incompatible to each other in respect of their potencies and inherent properties. Sweet and acrid tastes are incompatible to each other in all the above three respects.

Similarly, sweet and bitter, or sweet and astringent things should be deemed incompatible to each other in respect of their tastes, and chemical action. Acid and saline things are incompatible to each other as regards their flavours. Acid and acrid things are incompatible as regards flavour and chemical action. Acid and bitter, or acid and astringent things, are incompatible to each other, both as regards their respective flavours, potencies, and digestive or chemical transformations, Saline and pungent things are incompatible to each other as regards their respective flavour (Rasa) and digestive (chemical) transformation.

Similarly, saline and bitter things or saline and astringent things are incompatible to each other in respect of all the three abovesaid relations and categories. Pungent and bitter tastes are incompatible to each other in respect of flavour and digestive transformation, whereas substances of pungent and astringent or bitter and astringent tastes are incompatible to one another as regards their respective potencies, flavours and digestive (chemical) action or transformation.

Degrees Of Incompatibility

Substances that are incompatible with, or antagonistic to, the system through a difference of degree or intensity, as well as things which bring about an extreme dryness of the organism, or those which are extremely oily in their composition or are characterised by extreme cold or warmth, should be categorically rejected.

Authoritative Verses On The Subject

Things or substances which are incompatible to one another in their respective tastes, potencies and reactionary transformation should be denied as absolutely unwholesome, while the rest should be considered as possessed of mixed virtues (wholesome or injurious under certain circumstances) as described before.

By taking substances which are incompatible to one another as regards their tastes, potencies and digestive transformation, a greedy and intemperate person becomes afflicted with disease and weakness of the sense-organs, and ultimately meets with his doom.

Anything, which being taken enrages or agitates the bodily humours without causing the assimilated food (effete matter) to be evacuated out of the bowels, or is possessed of a taste contrary to, or other than what is necessary for the purposes of vitalization, should be looked upon as the primary source of all bodily distempers.

Diseases, brought about by a food or drink composed of incompatible substances, are amenable to the use of purgatives, emetics, or pacifying corrective of the deranged humours) medicines; and such a diet, even when found unavoidable, should be preceded by the use of drugs or substances potent enough to neutralise its baneful effect. *

A meat, in the composition of which substances of incompatible virtues and potencies largely enter, fails to develop any distressing or harmful symptoms in subjects who are habitually addicted to it, or who takes it in

* This couplet occurs also in the Charaka Samhita, small quantities, as well as in persons of youthful vigor and strong appetite, or in those who have become invigorated by the use of oily and albuminous food and healthful physical exercise. *