Kharjura (Dates)

What is Kharjura?

Kharjura is the date, the fruit of Phoenix dactylifera, the tall date palm of the palm family that has been grown for its sweet fruit across the hot, dry country of western and southern Asia for a very long time. The tree is a striking one, a slender trunk crowned with a spray of long feathery fronds, from which hang heavy clusters of the oval fruit, green at first and ripening to a deep amber or brown. It is that ripe fruit, soft, dense and intensely sweet, that Ayurveda values and that the classical texts reach for.

The tradition knows the date under several names, and each says something about how the fruit was regarded. Kharjura is the standard Sanskrit, and it appears also as Kharjuri. The synonym Swaduphala means simply “the sweet-tasting fruit,” a plain acknowledgement of the quality that defines it, while Duraroha, “hard to climb,” records the height of the palm and the labour of gathering the fruit from its crown. In everyday speech across the Indian subcontinent the fruit is Khajur, and English speakers know it as the date.

A small point of botany is worth setting down, because the classical literature does not always draw the line as sharply as a modern botanist would. Phoenix dactylifera is the cultivated date palm of the dry lands, the source of the familiar sweet date of commerce. India has its own close relative, Phoenix sylvestris, the wild date palm of the plains, whose fruit is smaller and whose sap is more often tapped for sugar than its fruit eaten. Both trees stand behind the classical Kharjura, and the texts value the same qualities in the fruit of either: sweet, cooling and deeply nourishing. This entry follows that classical reading, where Kharjura is above all the sweet, building fruit rather than a single botanical species.

Where the tradition places a fruit says as much as any single property, and Ayurveda places Kharjura high. It groups the date among the finest of the sweet, cooling and nourishing fruits, in the same company as Draksha, the raisin, and it turns to it above all for the wasted, the weak and the depleted. Few foods are asked to do the plain, patient work of rebuilding a body the way this one is.

What Ayurveda uses it for

Kharjura belongs firmly to the sweet, cooling and nourishing side of Ayurveda, the side concerned with feeding and filling out the body rather than clearing or reducing it. The classical writers describe it as brimhana, a fruit that nourishes and builds up the tissues, and as balya, one that gives strength; as hridya, wholesome and pleasing to the heart; and as vrishya, a restorative. They count it among the Rasayana, the rejuvenating substances that renew the body over time, and the same nourishing, unctuous quality earns it the term Shukrala, a food that supports the deeper reproductive tissue. Because it is sweet and cooling by nature it was understood to answer the dryness of Vata and the heat of Pitta together, and because it is heavy and moist it feeds and steadies the body rather than drying it. Its home, above all the others, is Kshaya, the wasting and depletion of the tissues, and it is there that the tradition reaches for it first.

Within that role the dravyaguna texts describe the fruit as traditionally indicated in a familiar set of conditions, each named here in its classical Sanskrit term with a plain gloss:

• Kshaya: wasting and depletion of the tissues, the foremost domain of the fruit, where its building, nourishing quality is called upon to rebuild what illness or hard living has worn down.
• Daurbalya: debility and general weakness, for which its strengthening, restoring nature was long favoured.
• Raktapitta: a classical bleeding tendency associated with heat in the blood, in which the sweet, cooling fruit is a long-standing ingredient.
• Kasa: cough, where its soft, unctuous, moistening quality was thought to soothe a dry and irritated passage.
• Jwara-daurbalya: the weakness left behind after fever, when a light yet deeply nourishing fruit was wanted to help the body recover its strength.
• Trishna: excessive thirst, which its sweet, cooling and moistening nature was held to relieve.
• Daha: burning sensation, the inner heat the tradition links with aggravated Pitta.
• Madatyaya: the classical care taken after over-indulgence in drink, for which the sweet, cooling, steadying fruit was a favoured restorative.

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

Read together, these indications sketch a single, coherent picture. The date is not a herb the classical writers turn to in order to clear, dry or reduce; it is one they turn to when the body is thin, tired, hot and worn, and needs to be fed back to strength. Thirst, burning and the heat of Raktapitta belong to its cooling side; wasting, debility and the weakness after fever belong to its building side; and the care after over-indulgence draws on both, a sweet and steadying fruit set against the dryness and heat that hard living leaves behind. It is a food first and a medicine second, which is exactly how the tradition prized it.

Its qualities, in plain words

Ayurveda describes every herb by a short list of qualities, and for Kharjura they line up neatly behind its reputation as a deep nourisher.

Its taste is sweet, and in Ayurveda a sweet taste is the taste of nourishment, of building and of ease, the taste the tradition ties most closely to strength and to the growth of the tissues. It is heavy and unctuous, so rather than lightening or drying the body it feeds and grounds it, the way a rich, dense food does, and this is the quality that makes it so suited to the wasted and the thin. It is cooling, which is why the texts turn to it for thirst, burning and the heat they link with Pitta, and why it sits so comfortably alongside the raisin among the sweet, cool fruits. And it finishes sweet after digestion, its vipaka the same madhura as its taste, a sign that from beginning to end it builds tissue rather than wearing it down.

Put together, these qualities describe a sweet, cool, heavy and moistening fruit, and the tradition draws the plain conclusion from them. Against the dryness, coldness and mobility of Vata, the date’s unctuous, heavy, grounding nature is a direct answer; against the heat and sharpness of Pitta, its cooling sweetness is a settling one. So it is Vata and Pitta that the fruit calms most firmly. The very same heaviness and sweetness, however, are the qualities Ayurveda counts as building for Kapha, so where those two doshas are soothed, Kapha may be increased if the fruit is taken freely. This is why the tradition treats it as a food best suited to a strong digestion, and used with a little care by those of a Kapha constitution.

How it is taken

The plainest classical form is the ripe fruit itself, eaten as it is, and prized as a nourishing food long before it is thought of as a medicine. Beyond that, the texts describe a few simple ways of preparing it that soften its heaviness and make it easier for the body to take up. The commonest is to soak the fruit, either in water or in milk, and leave it overnight so that it swells and softens; the soaked fruit, and the sweet, enriched liquid it leaves behind, are then taken together. Soaking in milk in particular pairs the date with one of the vehicles Ayurveda most favours for a soothing, building action, and the two together make a deeply nourishing food for the depleted.

The date also gives its name to a classical drink, Kharjuradi Mantha, a cooling, sweet preparation in which the fruit is worked together with water and other cooling, sweet ingredients into a light, restoring draught. A mantha of this kind was a favoured way to answer thirst, burning and the heat and weakness left behind by fever or by hard living, carrying the fruit’s cooling, nourishing quality in an easily taken form. Being sweet and cooling by nature, the fruit was often combined with honey, sugar, ghee or milk, the vehicles the tradition reaches for when it wants a gentle, nourishing, Pitta-soothing action, and it appears alongside other sweet, building fruits such as the raisin in the wider family of nourishing preparations.

Good to know

Kharjura is one of the plain, everyday nourishers of Ayurveda, valued as much as a wholesome food as for any single medical use, and it belongs squarely to the building and soothing side of the tradition rather than the clearing one. Its natural place is at the side of the wasted, the weak and the recovering, and its natural companions are the other sweet, cooling fruits and the rich vehicles, milk and ghee and honey, that carry a nourishing action into the body. Two points of care are worth repeating. Because the fruit is sweet and heavy it is the kind the texts count as building for Kapha, so it is best suited to those with a strong digestion and taken with a little care by those of a Kapha constitution or with a sluggish appetite. And because that same heaviness asks something of the digestion, the classical habit of soaking the fruit, in water or in milk, is not merely for softness but a way of making a dense food easier for the body to receive.

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

Frequently asked

Which fruit does Ayurveda mean by Kharjura? It means the date, the sweet fruit of the date palm. The classical Kharjura stands above all for the ripe, sweet, nourishing fruit, and the tradition draws on the same qualities whether the fruit comes from the cultivated date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, or the wild Indian date palm, Phoenix sylvestris, its close relative on the plains. In the texts it is the sweetness and the building, cooling nature of the fruit that matter, more than the exact species.

Why does Ayurveda value the date so highly? Because it is one of the tradition’s foremost nourishers. The classical writers describe it as sweet, cooling and heavy, wholesome to the heart, restoring to the depleted, and count it among the Rasayana or rejuvenating substances. Its foremost use is in Kshaya, the wasting and depletion of the tissues, and in the debility and weakness left behind by fever and hard living, where a food that is both cooling and deeply building is exactly what the tradition wants.

Which doshas does it suit? Kharjura is described as settling Vata and Pitta. Its unctuous, heavy, grounding nature answers the dryness and mobility of Vata, and its sweet, cooling quality answers the heat of Pitta. Because it is also sweet and heavy, it may increase Kapha if taken in quantity, which is why the tradition treats it as best suited to a strong digestion.

How is it usually taken? Most simply, as the ripe fruit itself, eaten as a nourishing food. For the depleted it is often soaked overnight in water or in milk and taken with the sweet liquid it leaves behind, and it lends its name to the cooling, sweet drink Kharjuradi Mantha. It is frequently paired with milk, ghee, honey or sugar, the vehicles Ayurveda favours for a soothing, building action.