Takra

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Chhachh

What the texts say Takra does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Shothahara — reduces swelling
• Pandughna — used in anaemia (pandu)
• Rochana — improves taste and appetite

What the evidence says. Fermented dairy's effects on gut flora are studied. The classical five-form distinctions are not established clinically.

Side effects and limits

Well tolerated. Classically contraindicated in raktapitta, in kshata and in the very weak, and those prohibitions are specific enough to be worth keeping.

Avoid or ask first: Raktapitta.; Kshata and kshaya.; Murchha and daha, per the classical prohibition.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Takra kalpana — takra with hingu and saindhava, or with the appropriate churna — is the classical grahani regimen and can run for weeks. The five forms differ only by water and by whether the fat was removed, and the texts assign different diseases to each.

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.

Takra is classed among the jangama dravya.

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.

Commercial buttermilk is usually cultured milk and not the churned residue the texts describe. They are not the same preparation.

From Cow — the churned residue after navaneeta is removed from dadhi. The churned residue of curd, with water added by a stated proportion.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Takra is an old and unanalysable Sanskrit word, which is itself the mark of a very old food. The texts define it not by what it is but by how it is made — how much water is added to the churned curd decides which of the five takra you have.

Takra is the classical drug of grahani and of arsha, and Bhavaprakasha's line comparing it to amrita is among the better known in the materia medica.

Constituents. A product of Cow — the churned residue after navaneeta is removed from dadhi.

• 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. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.