Milk (ksheera)

Milk is of eight well-known kinds: of the she-camel, buffalo, cow, ewe, goat, doe, mare and woman.

The milk of eight kinds of animals is said to be effective in medicine: goat, sheep, cow, buffalo, mare, she-elephant, she-donkey and she-camel; a second quoted list gives the eight as goat's, camel's, cow's, buffalo's, sheep's, horse's, elephant's and deer's milk. The milk of meat-eating animals is not taken.

Foods rich in or made with milk are listed among the causes of kapha aggravation.

Because the milk-giving animals eat many plants, among them well-known herbs, whose potencies pass into the milk on digestion, every kind of milk is said to be wholesome for all beings.

Milk is described as sweet, cold, unctuous and aphrodisiac, and as destroying blood disorders, vata disorders, thirst, pitta, fainting, diarrhoea, breathlessness and cough, insanity, chronic fever, giddiness, intoxication and udāvarta.

Milk drunk warm straight from the udder (dhāroṣṇa) is said to be like nectar; boiled and drunk warm it removes kapha and vata disorders; boiled and cooled it calms pitta disorders.

Milk is called wholesome and the best rasāyana, increasing the body's complexion and strength, good for the eyes, and excellent for sustaining a full span of life.

Milk is said to kindle the digestive fire and to be every being's chief food from birth; drunk warm it cleanses the bowels, that is, brings on motions.

Milk that has been boiled and then cooled is said to bind the stool.

Milk combined with drugs suited to the disease is said to benefit mahodara and to destroy burning distress, wasting, thirst, raktapitta and vata disorders; it is also described as aphrodisiac, strength-giving, purifying and promoting the joining of tissues.

Milk is said to be wholesome and very strengthening, suitable in gynaecological disorders, to remove fatigue, to stop miscarriage, to calm all heart diseases and bladder diseases, and to dispel gulma and granthi.

The text says a newborn lives first on its mother's milk alone, then on mother's milk together with food, before taking food alone.

Milk is named a wholesome after-drink with every taste.

Milk is named with water, ghee and food as what the one-sided view calls absolutely wholesome; the author replies that it too is not wholesome in every case, such as new fever, diarrhoea, kushtha, fistula-in-ano, eye diseases and wounds.

In the order of growth of food, milk comes first, then milk with food, food and paramanna, and children are to be given light food and milk for the first six months.

The text quotes the milks of goat, camel, cow, sheep, buffalo, horse, elephant and (female) deer as the eight kinds of milk taken as medicines, adding that the milk of flesh-eaters is not used.

From animals, the text says, only milk, ghee, curd, buttermilk and the like, which arise in connection with their nourishment, touch and the suckling of calves, are used as food and medicine.

All medicines are said to become potent (disease-checking) only when used with milk, except honey, ghee, pippali and vidanga, for which there is no rule that milk must be added; the translation says this rule about milk with medicines was given to exclude meat.

From mobile beings, the translation says, milk, ghee, curd, buttermilk and the like are taken for use in medicines, because they arise from causes of comfort such as the nourishment of those animals, touch and the suckling of calves, whereas the class of embodied beings itself is not to be eaten.