Rasa - The six tastes
Rasa - The six tastes
The knowledge of Rasa or taste is considered as important as the knowledge of Doshas for the purpose of treatment. Charaka brings this out very succinctly in this way: "A physician well versed with the classification of rasas and doshas seldom commits a mistake in diagnosing and treating a disease."
There are six tastes identified by Ayurveda:
- Madhura (sweet)
- Amla (sour)
- Lavana (salt)
- Katu (pungent)
- Tikta (bitter)
- Kashaya (astringent)
Each of the six tastes identified in Ayurveda has its own qualities or gunas. A taste can be light or heavy, moist or dry. These specific characteristics unique to each taste influence how it will affect us, both immediately and over the long term. Tastes which are light are generally easier to digest and assimilate, while those that are considered heavy from an Ayurvedic stand point take more energy to digest. Moist tastes will have a lubricating effect on the body, as one might guess. A dry taste, eaten to excess, can be dehydrating.
Description of Rasa
Sweet
A sweet taste is made up of the elements earth and water; it has a cooling Virya (biological properties & potency by which a drug acts) This means its immediate effect on the digestion is to cool it down a bit, and to slow it down too.
Its Vipak (Attributes of drug assimilation) is sweet.
Sweetness tends to be heavy and moist, and will create heaviness and moisture both in the long and short terms. What this means practically is that sweet foods like sugar, sweets, candies, pastries, and ice cream will increase our bulk, moisture and weight when eaten in excess..
In Ayurveda, Rasa can have a subtle emotional or mental effect on our awareness, as well as on our physical state. When one is in balance, a sweet taste can promote a feeling of love and well-being and a profound sense of satisfaction. In excess, it can induce complacency and inertia.
At the same time though, because it is cooling, it will not stimulate digestion, it will simply provide a sense of satisfaction.A sweet taste can be most calming to the nervous mental energy of Vata. Sweetness grounds Vata by offering it extra earth and water. These same elements in the cooling form of sweetness are balancing and soothing to Pitta. Kapha, on the other hand, can become overloaded by a sweet taste.Sweetness offers Kapha what it already has in abundance: cool, moist earth and water, which can rapidly lead to inertia.
A sour taste is comprised of the elements earth and fire. The warming quality of fire shows up in the Virya of sourness, which is heating. A sour taste promotes digestion and has a mildly warming effect on the body as a whole.
Its Vipak (Attributes of drug assimilation) is sour, which means that it continues to warm the body over time, as well as on its first impact. Anyone who has had an ulcer may have experienced this warming effect.
Other qualities associated with a sour taste are a mild sort of heaviness and moisture. Vata benefits from the warmth, humidity and becoming grounded from a sour taste. It can be quite helpful in stimulating digestion in Vata systems. Pitta can find it counterproductive because the heat of sour is more than Pitta needs. The gentle heaviness and moisture of this taste can be oppressive to Kapha, causing it to retain even more fluid and weight within itself. For Pitta and Kapha, a sour taste is best balanced with other tastes.
On the emotional and mental levels, a small amount of sour taste conveys a refreshing sense of realism.
An excessive amount of sourness, on the other hand, can promote envy, jealousy, or what has been called "sour grapes" pessimism.Common examples of foods with sour tastes are lemons, sour fruit and citrus, sour grapes, vinegar and pickled foods.
Salty
Fire and water are the elements which constitute a salty taste.
Fire gives salt its heating digestive effect or Virya ((biological properties & potency by which a drug acts) Like sweet and sour, a salty taste tends to be somewhat moist and somewhat heavy. While sweet is the heaviest and most moist of the tastes, and sour less heavy and moist, a salty taste is somewhere between the two. It will stimulate water retention faster than a sour taste yet will not promote weight gain quite as fast as sweet.
Because a salty taste is mildly warming it slightly enhances the digestive ability and Agni. It is helpful for Vata because its warm and holds in moisture. Pitta can find its heat aggravating. While the warmth of salty tastes might stimulate Kapha, its tendency to promote weight and moisture is counterproductive for Kapha.
The effect of a salty taste on the mind and feelings covers a wide range. A small amount of salty foods can lend an outspoken, grounded quality to an individual. Excessive use of salty foods seem to create several results. In some people it can produce a mind which is rigid, overly structured and contractive. In others it can result in an urgent and repeated desire for gratification of the senses. The addictive quality of potato or corn chips is a good physical example of this effect. Once one begins eating them, it is often difficult to stop.
Salt is used in good amount in our culture to stimulate and gratify our adrenals.
Small amounts of a salty taste are excellent for providing structure and enhancing digestion. Large quantities can create a system which is waterlogged and immobile (as in some kinds of heart conditions) or irritated and exhausted.Common salty foods include salt, seaweed, foods such as salted nuts, chips, and similar snacks. Fast foods and canned foods tend to be remarkably high in salt.
Pungent or Hot
A pungent taste is made up of the elements air and fire.
It is the hottest of all the tastes and most stimulating to the digestion. It is light and very dry in quality.
Its Vipak is pungent, that is, it stays hot, light and dry in its effect on the body from beginning to end. For this reason, it is a marvelous balancer for Kapha, drying out and warming up Kapha's excess dampness and mass.
Small amounts of a pungent taste can be useful for stimulating Vata, especially in conjunction with other less drying tastes. . Larger amounts of pungent foods can be most aggravating to Vata because the lightness and dryness create extra movement and dehydration in the system (examples: diarrhea and/or dry mouth; skin). A little bit of pungent taste balanced with sweet, sour and/or salty tastes can be quite good for Vata.
A pungent taste's effect on awareness and emotions tends to be one of stimulating passionate movement. In moderation, pungency can get a body moving, warm it up, get it motivated. In excess, a pungent taste can create unreasoning anger, aggressiveness and resentment.
Examples of a pungent taste include chili peppers, garlic, onions, and hot spices.
Bitter
A bitter taste is made up of the elements air and ether.
It is the coldest and lightest of all the tastes. It also tends to be fairly dry.
While its Virya is cold, its Vipak is pungent. This means that bitterness continues to have a lightening and drying effect over time, yet its coolness is somewhat moderated or warmed by its pungent Vipak. Short-term effects of a bitter taste are definitely cooling.
A bitter taste provides an excellent balance for the heavy, moistening qualities of salty, sour and sweet tastes.
Dark leafy greens are an excellent example of a bitter food. A bitter taste being cold, light and dry is especially useful for Pitta .Its light, dry qualities and pungent Vipak make it quite balancing for Kapha as well. It is contra - indicated for Vata, as one might suspect.
A bitter taste's effect on consciousness, in small quantities, is one of assisting a person to see clearly. Interestingly, bitter herbs have been used in many cultures during vision quests, or spiritual journeys. Bitter can stimulate a sense of slight dissatisfaction which helps us to push on and see things as they really are. In large quantities a bitter taste can promote a chilling sense of disillusionment or grief. It is a taste which can be difficult at first to enjoy, yet one which balances the other tastes well.
Astringent
Air and earth compose the sixth taste, astringent. It has a cooling virya, not so cold as bitter, yet cooler than sweet in its effect on digestion, which it inhibits. It has a slight lightening and drying quality.
Its Vipak is pungency. In the short term it is cool, light and dry. Over time it continues to be light and dry, yet exerts less ,cooling effect on the body. Its gentle coolness moderates Pitta's heat. Its light dry qualities help balance Kapha. An astringent taste is not at all useful for Vata, because, like bitter, it simply makes Vata more chilly and dry.
An astringent taste has a contracting effect on digestion and can slow it down. Astringency stimulates a constriction of the blood vessels flowing to the digestive organs, inhibiting the free flow of blood, enzymes and energy to this area. Astringent herbs are valued precisely for this contractive quality, which can stop a hemorrhage in a given area rapidly by constricting circulation.
Mentally and emotionally, an astringent taste in moderation promotes an ascetic approach to life. In large quantities an astringent taste can promote a loss of interest in life. Smaller amounts are useful in drying up extreme emotionalism.
There are very few foods that have a predominantly astringent effect on the body besides certain unripe foods like unripe bananas. Pomegranates and cranberries have some astringency. Each of these also has a sour component as well . Many grains, beans and vegetables will have both a primary sweet and a secondary astringent effect on the body. For this reason, beans in particular can be helpful for Pitta. They offer the coolness of both sweet and astringent tastes, and have a balance of moisture (from sweet) and dryness (from astringent). And in fact, Pitta people do very well with most beans as long as their digestive fire is good. This same quality of coldness can make beans quite impossible for the Vata gut to digest.
Rasa: their properties and actions
| Rasa (Taste) | Properties | Actions |
| Madhura (sweet) | Unctuous, cold, heavy | Increases body mass, vigor & vitality |
| Amla (sour) | Unctuous, hot, heavy | Promotes digestion & relish for food |
| Lavana(saline, salty) | Unctuous, hot, heavy | Digestive, softens the body parts, clarifies the passages |
| Katu (Pungent) | Dry, hot, light | Stimulates the gastric fire, sharpens the sense organs, |
| Tikta (bitter) | Dry, cold, light | Appetizing, impart firmness to skin & muscles |
| Kashaya (astringent) | Dry, hot, light | Sedative, astringent in action, constricts the body channels |
Rasa: effect on doshas
| Rasa (Taste) | Effect on doshas (Increasing effect) | Effect on doshas (Decreasing effect) |
| Madhura (sweet) | Kapha | Vata, Pitta |
| Amla (sour) | Kapha, Pitta | Vata |
| Lavana(saline, salty) | Kapha, Pitta | Vata |
| Katu (Pungent) | Vata, Pitta | Kapha |
| Tikta (bitter) | Vata | Kapha, Pitta |
| Kashaya (astringent) | Vata | Kapha, Pitta |
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