Ashta Churnam

What it is

A churnam is a fine powder of dried herbs and spices ground together and kept ready for use. Ashta Churnam is one of the plainest and most domestic of them. The name is simply counted out: ashta means eight, and churnam is the powder, so the whole word reads as the powder of eight.

The eight are a small circle of warming culinary spices that Ayurveda groups again and again for the digestion. The character of the blend follows directly from them. Almost every part is pungent, light and warming, so the powder as a whole is a heating, drying, lively preparation rather than a soothing one. The Kerala tradition keeps it among its everyday digestive powders, close kin to the better known eight-part asafoetida blend, and reaches for it as a spice medicine of the kitchen as much as of the pharmacy.

What Ayurveda uses it for

In the classical framing Ashta Churnam belongs to the Deepana and Pachana group, the powders that kindle Agni, the digestive fire, and help it finish its work. The tradition also values it for Vata-anulomana, the settling of the downward flow of Vata, one of the three dosha or governing forces. Its warm, pungent, light nature was understood to answer a slow and heavy digestion and to keep things moving in their proper downward direction.

These are the terms in which the older writers understood the powder. They describe its place among the digestive blends and its bearing on Agni, the digestive fire, and they are set down here for study and reference rather than as statements of medical effect or advice for any complaint.

Its qualities, in plain words

Ayurveda describes every preparation by a short list of qualities. Here they gather around warmth and lightness. The Rasa or taste is chiefly pungent with a salty note, the Guna or quality is light, dry and sharp, and the Virya, the warming or cooling power, is frankly warming. The Vipaka, the taste that remains after digestion, is pungent. Put together, this is a warming, drying, kindling powder, which is exactly the direction a spice medicine for a sluggish digestion is meant to take.

What is in it

The design of the blend is in its eight warming parts. At the pungent core stand the three the texts group together, Shunthi or dry ginger, Maricha or black pepper, and Pippali or long pepper, all kindling and warm. To them are joined the seed spices, Jiraka or cumin and Ajamoda, ajwain or wild celery seed, sharp and aromatic and long used for the belly. Hingu, asafoetida, adds its unmistakable warming aroma, and Saindhava lavana, rock salt, gives the one savoury note in an otherwise pungent blend, in a small measure that Ayurveda regards as the lightest and most suitable of the salts. Ground together, the eight make a powder that is pungent, light and warming throughout.

How it is taken

The classical way with a warming digestive powder such as this is to take a small measure with a warm and suitable anupana or vehicle, so that it meets the food as the digestion begins its work. Warm water is the plainest partner, and the first part of a meal a traditional one. Like most churnams it is used as a course over a stretch of days rather than as a single dose. It is a preparation taken under the direction of a qualified practitioner, who sets the amount and the manner to the person and the season, which is why no dose is given here.

Good to know

Ashta Churnam is a warming, pungent powder, and its qualities line up plainly behind its purpose. It kindles and dries rather than soothes and cools. That same warmth is why the tradition reads it as settling Kapha and Vata, the cold and the mobile, while it can raise Pitta, the hot, so the older texts place it with the cold, damp, sluggish digestion rather than the heated one. Because it carries a strong warmth and a note of salt, it is used by the small measure and with food.

A churnam is only one of the forms the classical pharmacy gives its formulas. The very same herbs may appear elsewhere as a decoction, a medicated ghee or a tablet, each form suited to a different purpose, and the powder is chosen when a dry, ready and easily measured preparation is what the occasion calls for. This is part of why the tradition leaves the choice of form, like the choice of amount and of vehicle, to a qualified practitioner who knows the person in front of them.

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

Why is it called the powder of eight? Because it is counted out from eight ingredients ground together. Ashta means eight and churnam is the powder, so the name reads plainly as the eight-spice powder, a warming digestive blend of the kitchen spices.

Is it a cooling or a warming powder? A warming one. Nearly every part is pungent and heating, from the ginger and the two peppers to the ajwain and the asafoetida, so the tradition places it with the cold and sluggish digestion rather than the heated.

Is it the same as the eight-part asafoetida powder? They are close cousins in the same family of eight-spice digestives and share most of their spices. A practitioner chooses between them by the text and the constitution before them.