Tagara

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

What the texts say Tagara does

• Nidrajanana — induces sleep
• Medhya — supports intellect and memory
• Vedanasthapana — relieves pain
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Drowsiness, including the next morning
• Headache
• Digestive upset
• Vivid dreams

Avoid or ask first: Pregnancy and breastfeeding.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Valeriana jatamansi, not Nardostachys jatamansi. The epithet is shared and the drugs are not.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Tikta, katu and kashaya with ushna virya and katu vipaka.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Kutila and Vakra both mean crooked and describe the bent rhizome. Nata means bowed, saying it again — the identification is in the shape.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Valeriana jatamansi is sold as Jatamansi because of the shared epithet, and Nardostachys jatamansi — the real Jatamansi, which is scarcer and dearer — is what the buyer usually wanted. The substitution goes almost entirely one way, cheap for dear, and a buyer who knows only the word jatamansi cannot tell. Valeriana officinalis, the European valerian, is also imported and sold as tagara.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The species epithet jatamansi belongs to this plant, but Jatamansi the dravya is Nardostachys jatamansi, a different genus. Two plants, one epithet, and a great deal of confusion in the trade — set out below.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Valeriana is from valere, to be strong or well. Jatamansi is the epithet borrowed from the other drug — which is precisely the confusion to remember: Tagara is Valeriana jatamansi, Jatamansi is Nardostachys jatamansi.

Tagara is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu and is named in the classical literature for sleep and for the mind. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the rhizome does in a body.

Constituents. The rhizome carries valepotriates and sesquiterpenes including valerenic acid, the same broad class as European valerian.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.