Vata

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Bargad

What the texts say Vata does

• Grahi — digestive that absorbs excess fluid and binds the stool
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Raktastambhana — checks bleeding (haemostatic)
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Garbhasthapana — supports and stabilises pregnancy

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

Side effects and limits

• Constipation from the tannins
• Digestive upset
• Skin irritation from the latex

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the Kshiri Vriksha and of the Panchavalkala.

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.

A single rasa, kashaya, with sheeta virya and katu vipaka — the shared profile of all four Kshiri Vriksha and the reason they are grouped.

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.

Bahupada, many-footed, names the aerial roots that come down and become trunks. Nyagrodha — growing downward — says the same thing and is the name the classical texts use for the whole group.

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.

Bark of other Ficus species is collected and sold interchangeably, which matters less than usual because the tradition uses the four together anyway. The practical problem is stem bark sold as aerial root, which costs less to collect.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. The first of the four Kshiri Vriksha, the milky trees, whose barks the texts use together. India's national tree.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ficus benghalensis, the fig of Bengal — Europeans met it there, through the banian traders who sat under it, which is where banyan comes from.

Vata heads the Nyagrodhadi gana in the Sushruta Samhita and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the four milky trees. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries tannins in high proportion, along with flavonoids and sterols. The latex carries caoutchouc and enzymes.

• 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.