Types of land (desha)

Dry land is marked by rough grasses, crops and plants, by sarja, arjuna, bhūrja, palāśa, asana and teak trees, by red, dark and pale soils, by hills of hard stone, bamboo thickets and fierce beasts, and by deep wells far from the villages whose scarce water is drawn with devices.

Marshy land has much cold water, so its ground is always muddy; its grasses, trees, shrubs and creepers are very tender, and it abounds in flowering and fruit trees, waterfalls, clear lakes and rivers.

Ordinary land is free of extremes of soil, cold, heat, wind, rain, hills, forest, water, thieves and wild beasts; because seasonal food is eaten and the digestive fire is balanced there, the doshas are not disturbed and disease does not arise.

The introduction defines deśa as the region where one lives and says it is of three kinds: jāṅgala, ānūpa and sādhāraṇa.

Land is described as of three kinds, dry (jāṅgala), marshy (ānūpa) and ordinary (sādhāraṇa), and the ordinary land is called the chief.

Because disease does not arise there, ordinary land is called better than the other two kinds, and its people always live happily.

Verses 3–7 class land by its dominant element—earth, water, air, fire or space—each recognised by its soil, colour, grasses, trees and crops, on the principle that everything takes on the quality of its land; the water of each land has a matching taste and colour, and that of space-dominated land is said to be the best.

The people of dry land are by nature thin, with bodies covered in visible veins, firm, rough and hard; they suffer mostly from diseases born of vāta, so the physician should plan vāta-pacifying treatment there.

The people of marshy land are gentle, with tender reddish feet and very stout bodies; vāta-caused diseases with much kapha arise there, so skilled physicians should always treat kapha and vāta.

In marshy land rich, tasty food is made using plenty of cow's milk, buffalo milk and curd, jackfruit, mango, date juice, coconut and jaggery.