The Best Oil for Abhyanga

The best oil for Abhyanga is, in the classical view, the oil that suits your own constitution and the season, for Ayurveda does not crown a single oil as right for everyone. Abhyanga, the daily anointing of the body with warm oil, is among the most prized of all the practices the texts prescribe, and the tradition is careful to fit the oil to the person: warming oils for the dry, cold quality of Vata, cooling oils for the heat of Pitta, and lighter oils for the heaviness of Kapha. Warm sesame oil is the classical default, the base from which most of the medicated oils are made, but it is a default to be adjusted, not a rule for all.

Abhyanga is a form of Snehana, oleation, and the reasoning behind it runs through the whole of Ayurveda. Oil is unctuous, warming and nourishing, the very opposite of the dry, cold, rough quality of aggravated Vata, and Vata is the Dosha the tradition regards as most easily disturbed and most in need of settling. Charaka credits the daily oiling with softening and brightening the skin, nourishing the tissues, easing fatigue, supporting sound sleep, and steadying the body against the dryness of age and the wear of exertion.

The classical praise of the practice is worth quoting in spirit. Charaka likens the body oiled daily to a vessel treated with oil, which grows strong and does not crack, and to leather rubbed with oil, which stays supple; the one who keeps the practice, he says, is not easily overcome by the dryness of age or by hard work, and the skin, the sleep and the strength all benefit. Vagbhata, in the chapter on the daily routine, places Abhyanga among the practices to be kept every day. This standing, above almost every other daily habit, is why the choice of the right oil for it is treated so seriously in the tradition.

How Ayurveda chooses the oil

The choice turns on two things: your constitution, the Prakriti, and the season, the Ritu. The tradition reads each oil by its qualities, warming or cooling, heavy or light, and matches it to the Dosha that needs settling and to the weather.

For Vata. Warm sesame oil is the classical first choice. Sesame is warming, unctuous and heavy, the direct contrary of Vata’s dry, cold, light nature, and it penetrates deeply. It suits the dry-skinned, the restless, and the cold, windy seasons in which Vata is most aggravated. Where a stronger settling is wanted, medicated Vata oils built on a sesame base are used.

For Pitta. A cooling oil is preferred, and coconut oil is the usual choice, being cooling where sesame is warming. It suits the hot-skinned, the easily inflamed, and the hot seasons in which Pitta rises. Medicated cooling oils on a suitable base are used where more is wanted than a plain oil.

For Kapha. A lighter, more warming and stimulating approach suits, since Kapha is heavy, cold and unctuous by nature and a heavy oil could add to that. Lighter oils, and sometimes a dry powder massage, Udvartana, in place of or before the oil, are favoured, especially in the damp, heavy seasons.

This matching of oil to Dosha and season is the heart of the classical answer to the question of the best oil, and it is why a practitioner asks about your constitution before naming one.

Sesame oil: the classical base

Sesame oil, Tila Taila, holds a special place. The texts name it the foremost of oils for medicinal preparation, and it is the base on which the great majority of the classical Thailams are cooked. Its qualities, warming, penetrating, unctuous and Vata-settling, make it both a fine oil in its own right for Vata Abhyanga and the natural vehicle for carrying herbs into the body. When a preparation is described simply as a Taila, sesame oil is usually understood as its base unless another is named.

For Abhyanga, plain warm sesame oil is a complete and classical choice for a Vata-prominent person or a cold season, needing nothing added. It is warmed to a comfortable heat before use, since warmth is part of its Vata-settling action and cold oil suits the practice poorly.

The medicated Thailams

Beyond the plain oils, Ayurveda offers its medicated oils, the Thailams, in which herbs are cooked into the base by the long process of sneha-paka so that the oil carries their virtue. In sneha-paka, herbal decoctions and pastes are simmered slowly with the oil until the water is driven off and only the oil, now carrying the herbs’ qualities, remains. It is by this method that a plain sesame oil becomes a Bala oil, a Ksheerabala, a Mahanarayana and the rest, each fitted to a purpose. For daily Abhyanga a person may use a Thailam chosen to suit their constitution and any tendency the practitioner wishes to address: a Vata-settling oil built on Bala or the many-herbed Vata oils for the dry and restless, a cooling medicated oil for the Pitta-prominent, and so on. These are the everyday oils of Abhyanga where a plain oil is felt to be not quite enough, and they let the practice be fitted more closely to the person.

Matching the oil to the season

The tradition reads the year as well as the person. In the cold, dry, windy months, when Vata is most easily aggravated, warming, unctuous oils such as sesame come into their own, and the oiling is especially valued. In the hot months, when Pitta rises, a cooling oil such as coconut suits better, and a warming oil is used more sparingly or set aside. In the damp, heavy months, when Kapha accumulates, a lighter oil, or a dry powder massage before the oil, keeps the practice from adding to the heaviness. This is the classical idea of Ritucharya, the seasonal routine, applied to the oil: the same person may reach for a different oil as the year turns, and a practitioner takes the season into account alongside the constitution.

There is a matter of skin, too. Dry skin drinks up a heavier, more unctuous oil and benefits from being oiled well; oily or Kapha skin needs less, and a lighter oil, so as not to feel weighed down. The tradition reads the state of the skin as one more sign of the Dosha at work, and fits the oil and the amount to it.

The tradition also singles out two parts of the body for special attention, and this bears on the choice of oil. The feet and the head are held to reward oiling above the rest: the classical texts connect the oiling of the feet with steadiness, good sleep and the ease of the eyes, and the oiling of the head with a settled mind and healthy hair. For these, cooling or constitution-appropriate oils are often used, a little ghee or a cooling oil on the feet and scalp in the evening, even by those who take a warming oil over the body in the morning. So the answer to the question of the best oil is not always a single oil for the whole body, but sometimes one oil for the body and another for the feet and head, each fitted to its purpose.

How Abhyanga is done

Whichever oil is chosen, the method is much the same. The oil is warmed to a comfortable heat. It is applied over the whole body in an even film, generously to the dry areas, and worked in with long strokes along the limbs and circular strokes over the joints and the belly, usually moving from the extremities inward and with the lie of the body. A little extra is given to the feet and the scalp, which the tradition especially values. The oil is then left to settle for several minutes, so it is received by the skin, before a warm bath is taken. It is a morning practice in the classical routine, part of Dinacharya, the ordered day, though a gentler evening oiling of the feet and scalp is also long kept for the sake of sleep.

Precautions

Abhyanga is gentle and, done with the right oil, suits most people as a daily practice, but the tradition sets a few limits. It is not done during acute illness with fever, over an area that is inflamed, swollen or broken, soon after a meal, or in certain states such as acute indigestion, and its suitability in pregnancy and in some conditions is judged individually. The oil must be matched to the constitution and season: a warming oil in a Pitta person in high summer, or a heavy oil on a Kapha-prominent body, can unsettle rather than settle. Where there is any doubt, or a health condition to consider, the choice of oil is best confirmed with a registered Ayurvedic practitioner.

This article describes the classical Ayurvedic understanding of the oils for Abhyanga for education and is not medical advice; if you are pregnant, taking medication or managing a health condition, confirm the choice of oil with a qualified doctor or a registered Ayurvedic practitioner.