Dispelling many myths about Indian culture, Durgadas speaks about the therapeutic use of meats in Ayurveda historically.

Meats and their use in Ayurveda

By Durgadas (Rodney) Lingham, Ved Kovid, AYT, 
Ayu (Clin), Ayu (Pharm), AMPKT, AMBT, ALC 

(c) Durgadas (Rodney) Lingham.
All Rights Reserved.

No part of this article may be reproduced or published in any manner, either physically nor electronically except by direct permission from the author. 

Background:

I recently saw an excellent post that addressed the issue of vegetarianism and Ayurveda. In the US, I have noted a strong vegan presence in 'Ayurvedic cafes / Restaurants'; such an extreme vegetarian ideal is as false in Ayurveda as acupuncture, marma-manipulation, reiki, pranic-healing, hypnotherapy etc. as I have mentioned before.

Many are also unaware that great Swamis such as Swami Vivekananda also ate meat, including beef! Sri Aurobindo also ate fish and chicken in his earlier days - both Vivekananda and Aurobindo were Bengalis, where the main staple is fish. Yet, many ignore this as also with others historically in addition to classical health reasons in the texts that sometimes require meat, whereas the modern New-Age Ayurveda paradigm rejects such and long-term, ignores medical concerns from both a western and Ayurvedic perspective and insteda superimposes its own limited understanding and biases in an attempt to ignore and even thwart traditional views.

The reason I began writing on such is due to the common misconceptions we see in the western world. As a traditionally trained practitioner, I had teachers ranging from BAMS graduates to those who had spent several decades in family traditions. Both however had a strong zeal for classical references and influences as also tradition, which along with my own Vedic family background that sought to 'go back to the sources' (classics and native traditions), culminated in my questioning many aspects of what has come to epitomise Ayurveda in the western world today. 

Most diseases in Ayurveda are of Vata (gas-increasing and dry) origin which are aggravated by raw foods, especially beans, leafy greens etc. Vegetables needs to be spiced and cooked in oils like ghee or sesame to reduce them. This IS NOT just a constitutional issue - old age, cold climates, A/C offices and even our fast-paced lifestyles aggravate Vata in almost everyone! Such raw-food and high-dairy and heavy diets are suitable for those with a higher bilious constitution or rajasic or passionate-nature, such as active people (warriors, dancers etc.) such as we see in ancient India with the diets of Hatha-Yoga, that also included many practices such as the shat-kriyas that could in normal people, cause disturbances due to their non-therapeutic and harsh actions on the body. The classics also warn of this as well. Such are different to the tailored approach of systems such as Panachakarmain Ayurveda and cannot be taken in the same light for healing. 

Yoga traditionally required many abdominal and other exercises and regimes (as basti or enemas) that helped increase one's bodily jatharagni (digestive fire) and other dhatvagnis (metabolism of the tissues) which helped absorb the more sattvic or pure foods they consumed, which were aimed at purity of the mind for meditation techniques and spiritual life, such as avoiding passion-increasing foods to withholding their ojas or bodily vitality through brahmacharya or celibacy. For the average person, such as Ayurveda addresses, the case was different - and hence the sciences such as vajikarana or aphrodisiacs was an important one, that itself often used animal products and formulas in its formulas for people in the mainstream of society for better health and vitality, outside the monastic Yogi communities. Still, there were also householder Yogis, of which many of the Ayurvedic Rishis or Seers themselves derived!

We should note that Krishnamacharya, the brother-in-law of BKS Iyengar was an Ayurvedic Vaidya or Practitioner and also gave out specific, not generic regimes relative to Yoga after a full Ayurvedic examination of the person, dietary regimes etc. He himself had trained with one of the original people Hatha-Yoga itself created - the Gurkhas of Nepal! 

The issue of Satmya or Suitability and Desha or location:


According to the classical texts, we must examine and treat people according to their satmya or suitability of ahara or accustomed foods and intake as also relative to their desha or location and climate - which isn't the same as India!

Samtya or suitability here is also mentioned by Charaka (Charaka Samhita, Chikitsa, XXX, 315-19), especially relative to Chinese, Persians, Central Asians and Greeks habitually eating meats and taking wine and thus becoming accustomed to them and of southern Indians with lighter foods as tubers, roots and fruits and variations such as suitability of fish as in eastern India; in the Sindhi region, the liberal use of milk-products is noted and grains as wheat and barley with milk in the central region of India, and that despite being unhealthy, such accumstomed or suitable (satmya) foods should be given to these patients along with medicines for better health, rather than changing it and forcing a localised diet upon them!

Now, this is mentioned in Charaka in ancient times - yet today, we see the same people as the Europeans (Greeks and Persians mentioned in the classics along with Chinese), as being administered along with various herbs for their conditions, due to their (local and genetic) conditioning to being accustomed to such foods and is better than simply, say giving them a sindhi or south-Indian diet of root vegetables and milk products, which doesn't even suit the eastern Bengalis as per Charaka, due to their customary eating of fish. Here, satmya or suitable items for one's region alone should be prescribed say the classics.

This of course doesn't mean we give meats for all diseases! That would be insane. It simply means adopting the foods one is accustomed to and also tailoring such as per their disease, which sometimes means reducing or complete cutting out these or placing one one a bland diet at times.  

This contradicts the view of New-Age Ayurvedic experts who argue one and all must adopt the Indian vegetarian diets for health and in diseased cases! It is in fact a clear violation of Ayurvedic principles and tenets and would appear to cause more difficulty long-term, especially considering the strange diets of today such as veganism that don't even agree with ancient lacto-vegetarian models!

It hence also calls into question the reasonsing for adopting such dietary regimes as being so-called sattvic for such modern 'white Hindus' and their brethren, when they ignore the Ayurvedic guidelines in which what is sattvic or pure for one person, is notsuitable for the constitution of another - and may even cause health-issues. Here, the New-Age and pseudo-Yoga diets are quite dangerous! They ignore local aspects of desha satmya or local suitability and accustomisation.

Hence, such issues need to be addressed relative to these sciences, as such again doesn’t apply to the rest of the world – just as the consumption of turkey, chilies, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, avacados etc. native to the Americas is suitable for those habitually used to other foodstuffs in their diets for thousands of years (as Europeans) – whereas such are anti-doted with spices to aid in their digestions in the orient where they were introduced through trade in the past 400 years – what is known as satmya or suitability in Ayurveda, as per cultural and social norms in dietary, lifestyle and other habits that are not always the same. Not all nations eat curries or spiced foods as India does for example and thus may not be able to handle the hotter, more pungent spices (such as Indian long pepper, ginger and garlic) traditionally used in South Asia.

The Classical Ayurvedic View of Meats:

The classics give numerous elaborate descriptions as per the properties of various meats - especially for their Vata-reducing properties. Those such as peacock for example were commonly used for improving eyes, voice, intellectual capabilities, complexion, hearing etc. and was commonly used. Goat-meat was also well-known for bulking the tissues and often used as a meat-soup or even basti (enema). Goat and mutton are said to be strengthening or tonifying for the body, and so good for Vata people and severe debilitated conditions (Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana, VI.63-64). Goat also does not cause malas or wastes in the body (Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana,XXVII.61).

Likewise, beef is said to cure dry cough, exhaustion, chronic nasal catarrh, emaciation and excess hunger (Ashtanga Hridayam, Sutrasthana, VI.65).

Swans, iguana, sparrow, quail, hare, buffalo, tortoise, rhinoceros and others are discussed by Charaka and others, while some texts discuss the properties of exotic meats such as tigers, lions, frogs, porcupines and others (that are mentioned in classics as Charaka but not elaborated upon).

The ancient author Sushruta in the Sushruta Samhita (Sutrasthana, XLVI.351-365) also mentions the various ways in which meats can be cooked and taken and their own therapeutic actions as a result of these, including soups, minced-meat, roasted and those cooked with herbs etc. and their specific actions accordingly.

Charaka Samhita (Sutrasthana, XXVII, 311) states that good quality meats are brimhana (strengthening and building) as also balya (promoting strength). It states of meat-soups (mamsarasa) as one of the best for the body - that they are sarvarogaprashamanam (alleviates all diseases) and promotes vidya(wisdom), swarya (good voice), strength (bala) of vayas (age), buddhi (intellect), indriyas (senses) respectively (ibid, 314).

The texts are do not get carried away with meats and note cases where the excesses of meats are also noted. Charaka (Chikitsasthana, IX.96) also states that insanity can be avoided if one abstains from eating meats and wines or impure diets etc. and hence are seen as causative factors (nidanas) of various kinds of insanity. Various meats and also alcohol are given various factors or qualities (gunas) in Ayurveda, according to their chemical reactions upon the mind, which are described as aggravating rajas and tamas in the mental channels, blurring our perceptions. As such, they are to be avoided in such conditions where mental disorders are present. Muscular tumours and cancers result due to excess eating of meats (Ashtanga Hridayam, Uttarasthana, 29; Bhava Prakasha, Madhya Khanda, III.44.22-23,  Madhava Nidana, XXXVIII.22-23).

Relative to the mind however, while meats are avoided for meditation and psychological issues, in some cases where there is hyperactivity (a vata predominance), sometimes guru (heavier), snigdha (uctuous) and ushna (heating) substances are required to help "ground" vata (which is composed of subtle elements as air and ether). Many meats on this note are classified as having a kapha (water and earth) or increasing and bulking qualtity that helps ground the subtle elements of ether and air (vata) - having a more parthiva (earthly) element, giving stability to their fragile and light-weight bodies, thereby calming their overactive minds and imaginations. For disorders of the mind in more pitta(fire and water) and kapha (water and earth) types however, meats can aggravate their conditions by their unctuous, heating and heavier natures and thus best avoided for them (though again such depends on predominating elements in people and their vikara or vitiation on a case by case basis, not a generic model).

Historically, beef in India was consumed from bulls, the cow being seen as more useful for giving milk, from which ghee (clarified butter), curd, butter, cream etc. could be used by ancient Hindus. Heavier meats are also heavier for digestion (horse, pork, beef etc.) in Ayurveda, which can also be seen to give rise to diseases due to accumulation of ama or toxins, as we have noted above - and thus also more likely to cause psychological issues to to their difficult metabolism. Fish, lamb, goat, chicken and other birds were hence the 'main staple' of people in India as a result and beef was thus rarely consumed - the same for pork etc. which were heavier.         

Charaka Samhita (Chikitsa, XIX.4) states that the origin of atisara or diarrhea was due to the original sacrifice of an ancient king involving bulls, which became the main ritualistic offering. It is said due to the low digestive power people had back then and due to their psychology, they took beef as food and due to it's innate heating and heavy nature, caused diarrhea. This appears to be the mythological origin for not consuming beef, which later in India became further mythologised by the time of the Puranas.

This also ties in with another historical reason why Indians ate less meats - diabetes. Today, India is the 'diabetes capital of the world'. Historically also, Type 2 diabetes was a major issue in India owing to the high concentration of sweets and dairy consumed in India - remembering that ancient Indians preferred a lacto-vegatarian diet and high concentration of dairy within that, as also the originator of sugar for the world through the Roman trade-links from ancient times. The 'sweet tooth' of India is also why Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are first described in Ayurvedic texts and as such, heavier foods such as meats would only complicate matters and increase kapha (phlematic humour), already increased in India due to the excessive dairy and sweet foods historically consumed.

In saying this, again, there are numerous diseases in Ayurveda where meats are used. There are also various Hindus in India that eat meats as well, such as the Bengalis in the East of India - it is also well-known that Bengali Brahmins also consume eggs; in regions to the east as in Assam, the sacrifice of goats, as also in Bengal to the Goddess has been an ancient custom and hence consumption of goat-meat, as is also common in the Himalayan region such as the consumption of goat and lamb byKashmiri Pandits.

The traditional Ayurvedic model of the use of meats may hence be shocking to many in the west educated under American Ayurveda regimes, but is not to those traditionally trained in India or BAMS graduates who understand these therapeutic uses of meats and their application. There are many classical formulas and preparations that would also shock the average American Ayurvedic practitioner whose methods have come to represent a quasi-Buddhist system of vegetarianism over the original model. 

This sadly also does not do justice relative to true healing as per Ayurveda, any more than the rejection of surgery in the modern (pseudo New-Age) American Ayurveda model employs - itself not even accessing the basic levels of true Panchakarma (five actions of shodhana or purification) which emphasises not Panchakarma or shodhana but merely shamana or traditional palliative therapies in their pasteurised form (or Spa Ayurveda), which causes many misinterpretations about such systems and specifics - many of these even pasteurised and hemogenised versions of purvakarma(preliminary therapies) - again with generic substances used over specifics in tradition and diseases also classified into simplistic vata, pitta and kapha categories and treated with generic decoctions and formulas.

References:

Durgadas (Rodney) Lingham: The Complexity of Charaka's Ayurveda: Academy of Traditional Ayurveda, 2015

Durgadas (Rodney) Lingham: Aushadh Rahasya: The Secret of Ayurvedic Herbs and Disorders of the Mind: Lulu Publications, 2013

 - Charaka Samhita

- Sushruta Samhita

- Ashtanga Hridayam

- Madhava Nidana

- Bhava Prakasha