Amalaki Rasayana

What it is

Amalaki Rasayana is a rasayana lehyam, a rejuvenating confection taken by the spoon. A lehyam is a thick, sweet preparation that is licked or taken by the spoonful rather than swallowed as a pill, and a rasayana is one of the slow rebuilding preparations of Ayurveda, taken steadily over time to feed and strengthen the body rather than to answer a single day’s complaint. This one is also known as Dhatri Rasayana, after Dhatri, an old name for the same fruit that stands at its centre.

That fruit is Amalaki, the Indian gooseberry, which the tradition counts among the very foremost of its rejuvenating things. The Charaka Samhita describes Amalaki Rasayana in its chapters on rasayana, the branch of Ayurveda concerned with steadying the body and holding back the wear of the years, and it is one of the preparations the texts return to when they speak of Amalaki as a rasayana in its own right.

The recipe brings the fruit together with honey, ghee and sugar, and in some versions with other rasayana herbs folded in around it. The net character the tradition gives it is a settled one: it is read as a rasayana that rejuvenates, as vayasthapana that steadies the years, and as a preparation that settles Pitta, so that it is valued as broadly nourishing and cooling at once.

What Ayurveda uses it for

The classical texts set out the roles and indications of Amalaki Rasayana in their own terms. They are given here with a short gloss for each.

• Rasayana, rejuvenation and the building of the tissues, which the tradition holds to be its foremost purpose
• Vayasthapana, the classical care of the effects of ageing, the steadying of the years
• Daurbalya, the classical picture of debility and want of strength
• Raktapitta, a classical bleeding tendency
• Amlapitta, the classical condition of sour, burning digestion
• Prameha, the classical urinary and metabolic group of conditions
• Pandu, the group of conditions marked by pallor

These are the traditional textual indications recorded in the classical literature. They set out how Ayurveda has long understood the preparation and are given for reference and study, not as statements of medical effect or as advice to treat any condition.

What is in it

At the centre of the preparation stands Amalaki, the Indian gooseberry, which gives it both its name and its character. The tradition places Amalaki among the foremost of its rejuvenating fruits, and reads it as one of the rare things that carries several of the classical tastes at once while leaning sweet, sour and astringent. Its cooling nature is a large part of why the finished preparation is held to settle Pitta.

Around the fruit the recipe gathers the three partners that carry so many classical confections: honey, ghee and sugar. The ghee is the oily, nourishing medium; the sugar both sweetens and helps to preserve the preparation and adds to its building character; and the honey is folded in for its carrying quality. In some versions of the preparation other rasayana herbs are brought in around the Amalaki, so that the tradition treats the fruit as the foundation rather than the whole of the recipe.

Read together by their qualities, these parts make a preparation the tradition sees as heavy and oily, the qualities of a nourishing food rather than a light, clearing medicine, and cooling in its overall nature. That combination is why it is understood as broadly nourishing and cooling, and why the texts lean on it where there is heat and want of strength rather than cold and damp.

How it is taken

The classical way is the simplest. A modest measure, by tradition a spoonful, is taken as a course, most often licked slowly from the spoon or stirred into warm milk. Warm milk is the traditional partner, held to carry the nourishing action of a rasayana and to sit gently alongside a preparation meant to feed the body, though warm water serves where milk does not suit.

Like all rasayana, it is taken as a daily practice over a stretch of time rather than as a single dose for a single day. The tradition holds such rich, nourishing preparations to be taken up most easily in the cooler seasons, when the digestive fire is naturally at its strongest. The amount and the length of the course are best settled with a practitioner, and the sweet, sugar-rich base is a reason for particular care in anyone who has been told to watch their sugar.

Good to know

Amalaki Rasayana sits among the cooling rasayanas of the tradition, and its standing rests almost entirely on the fruit at its heart. Because Amalaki is read as sweet, sour, astringent and cooling all at once, the preparation is treated as one of the gentler, more broadly suitable rejuvenating confections, leaned on where there is heat and dryness rather than cold. It is worth remembering that the older texts describe several ways of taking Amalaki as a rasayana, from the simple confection to more elaborate preparations, so the name covers a small family of related recipes rather than one fixed formula.

This entry describes the classical Ayurvedic understanding of the preparation. It is not medical advice, and anyone with a health condition should speak to a qualified practitioner.

Frequently asked

What is Amalaki Rasayana? It is a rasayana lehyam, a rejuvenating confection built on Amalaki, the Indian gooseberry, and taken by the spoon. It is also called Dhatri Rasayana, and the Charaka Samhita describes it among the rasayana preparations, the slow rebuilding preparations taken over time to feed and steady the body.

Why is it considered cooling? Because its character follows Amalaki, which the tradition reads as cooling in nature. That is a large part of why the preparation is understood to settle Pitta and is leaned on where there is heat and want of strength rather than cold and damp.

How is it usually taken? As a course over a stretch of time rather than as a single dose, by the spoonful, traditionally with warm milk, in the slow, patient manner of all rasayana. The amount and the length of the course are best settled with a practitioner.