Pitta dosha

Pitta is said to be aggravated by excessive grief, anger, fear and joy, by severe fasting and excessive sexual activity, and by excessive use of pungent, sour, sharp substances such as alkalis, and salty things.

Foods fried in mustard oil, sesame oil cake and the eating of sesame oil, exposure to the sun and hot vegetables are also named among the causes of pitta aggravation.

Fish, the meat of goats, sheep and cattle, horse-gram soup, sour kāñjī and liquor are also said to aggravate pitta.

Pitta is said to be aggravated by excessive pungent, sour, dry, salty, hot and burning food and by alcohol.

In brief, aggravated pitta is said to cause sourness and burning.

Aggravated pitta is said to cause great heat, drying of the throat, fainting, burning, a feeling of smoke coming from the mouth, loss of appetite, much anger, distress, heat of the body, much sweating and much delirious talk.

When pitta is aggravated the body is said to turn very blue, yellow, green, dark or red.

The introduction lists the qualities of pitta as slightly unctuous (sasneha), sharp (tīkṣṇa), hot (uṣṇa), flowing (sara) and liquid, and says pitta and kapha are liquid in form.

Note: द्रव्य at the end of the list is read as द्रव (liquid), matching the next sentence.

Pitta is described as liquid, sharp (the verse says very bitter) and hot, and yellow in colour.

Pitta is described as burning (vidahi), pungent and bitter in taste, and very sharp.

Whatever is unctuous, cold, sweet, astringent, bitter (rendered तीखा in the commentary), slimy, very soft and heavy is said to pacify pitta; knowing their tastes and qualities well, they are used in food, oil massage, pastes, affusion and nasya.

Pitta is said to measure six prasṛti in the body, the same as kapha (a footnote gives one prasṛti as 8 tolā).

Taking digestion as the example, the introduction says the pācaka pitta in the āmāśaya, pakvāśaya and similar organs is gross and can be seen directly, with qualities such as a raw smell (visra), flowing (sara), liquid (drava) and sour; it combines and mixes with the food to digest it, and the separation of essence from waste and the absorption of the essence in the pakvāśaya are due to pitta. Pitta and kapha, like rasa and the other dhātus, are also nourished in digestion; pitta is gross once secreted, subtle in the cells that produce it and very subtle within the atoms.

Pitta is said to dwell between the stomach and the digestive bowel, in the heart, and in the liver and spleen, and to pervade the whole body carried by the mobile vāta.

A footnote names pācaka pitta, between the stomach and the digestive bowel, which digests food and is therefore also called jaṭharāgni; it separates the essence of food from its waste and sends pitta on to the other pitta sites.

Bhrājaka pitta is said to dwell in the skin and give the body its lustre.

Rañjaka pitta is said to dwell in the liver and spleen and colour the nutrient fluid reaching them into blood.

Ālocaka pitta is said to dwell in the eye and aid the seeing of forms.

Sādhaka pitta is said to dwell in the heart, produce intelligence, mental power and self-regard, and help accomplish intended aims.