Ayurveda Healing
Arts Institute

"When we consume food, it undergoes the process of digestion in the stomach, small intestine and colon. This process is governed by jathara agni, the central digestive fire, and bhuta agni, the digestive principle present in the liver. From the introduction of food into the body and its first stages of digestion within the bloodstream all the way through the final stage of tissue formation of the reproductive tissue, the quality of the body’s tissues is governed by the factors mentioned above: the digestive capacity, quantity, quality, structure and function of each dhatu."   (Source: Lad, 2001: p. 104)

Heaviness/ Density of the dhatus: They are heavier in progressive order, from rasa to shukra.
Process of nourishment from dhatu to dhatu:
Dhatus continue in their normalcy by receiving nutrients form the preceding dhatu. So Mamsa is nourished by and from Rakta, Meda by Mamsa, etc. -Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Summary Section 28#3

(Charaka, 200 B.C. - Verse # above)

"Each dhatu acts as food for the dhatu beneath it in the table. This does not indicate a merely physical connection. Common sense suggests that blood nourishes muscle but it is difficult to understand how bone tissue can act as food for the brain." (Svoboda - LL, 1984: p. 28)

Time periods for conversion of Dhatus:
“The specific potency of the intake of aphrodisiacs etc. exerts it’s effects quickly. Some take this process of conversion competed in a period of 6 days. The gradual conversion of dhatus runs incessantly in a cyclic order.”
Source: Charaka Samhita, Chikitsasthana Treatment Section 15#20-21

(Charaka, 200 B.C. - Verse # above)

"The intention here is that proper formation of the previous dhatu is essential for formation of the one beyond it. If a dhatu is malnourished, it will be unable to send out signals to the next dhatu agni (metabolic pathway) to initiate synthesis of the next dhatu."  (Svoboda - LL, 1984: p. 29)

"In a factory producing a product that requires several individual steps for completion, each step acts as a limiting factor for the succeeding step. If seven steps are required and production ceases to function properly at step four, then step five will not receive proper raw material, since the product at step four is the raw material for step five. The same will be true for steps six and seven. In the body, if one dhatu agni fails all the dhatus beyond it will suffer."  (Svoboda - LL, 1984: pp. 29-30)

Explanation of How Each Dhatu is Converted into the next Dhatu:

"...the disciple submitted thus- “How is rakta originated in the body from dissimilar rasa which does not have red color, and how does it acquire redness? How does the solid flesh (mamsa) originate from the liquid blood (rakta)? How is the origin of medas (fat) from the liquid blood and solid flesh? How is there hardness in bones which are originated from the soft tissues muscle and fat? How does the unctuous and soft marrow arise within the hard bones? Sukra is said to be the product of majja but how does the semen pervading the entire body come out of the marrow situated inside the bone when there are no holes in the bone?" 

"The teacher having been requested thus by the disciple answered as follows:
“Rasa, the essence of food, acquires redness from the color of the fire like Pitta. The same acted upon by vayu, ap and tejas and cooked by its own heat and being predominated by its own heat, ap and unctuous properties is converted into medas.

Further the innate heat combining prithivi, tejas, vayu, etc. together gives rise to hardness and thus produces asthi. Within the bones vayu creates hollowness which is filled up by the marrow, the essence of medas. From the essence of marrow, semen is produced.

By vayu, akasha etc. porousness is produced in bones through which semen comes out like water from the new earthen jar. Semen moves through its carrying vessels in the whole body and propelled with force from sexual ecstasy and passionate determination gets displaced and liquefied like ghee by physical exertion comes out of the urinary passage like water flowing towards the lower surface (?).”“ Source: Charaka Samhita, Chikitsasthana Treatment Section 15#22-35

(Charaka, 200 B.C. - Verse # above)

"In order to deepen our understanding before we consider the organ pulses, we must consider the concept of kala.  There are seven dhatus—rasa, rakta, mamsa, meda, asthi, majja and shukra/artava—and each dhatu has its own kala.  A kala is a membranous structure that maintains the nutrition, transformation and maturation of a dhatu.  The kala contains the agni of that particular dhatu.  The rasa dhatu or plasma and the rakta dhatu or red blood cells are separated by a kala.  Plasma cells, red blood cells, muscle cells, adipose cells, the cells of the bone, even the cells of the bone marrow and majja dhatu, the nerve cells, have a membranous structure, a sheath or kala.  Within that sheath there is the respective dhatu agni which maintains the unique metabolism of each dhatu." (Lad - Pulse, 1996: p. 37)

"Dhatu dhara kala is the membranous structure that holds a dhatu. Dhara means holding, kala means membranous structure. One function of kala is to separate two tissues from one another to give them form and make them distinct. Kala is the mother of the dhatu because it holds and nourishes the dhatu. The dhatu agnis are present within the kala and transform raw, unprocessed dhatu into processed, formed dhatu. Therefore rasa dhatu has rasa dhara kala and rasa dhatu agni, rakta dhatu has rakta dhara kala and rakta dhatu agni, and so on. Within the kala of each dhatu there is also dhatu ojas, dhatu tejas, and dhatu prana. They maintain the function of kala. On one side of the kala there is asthayi dhatu (unprocessed dhatu). Kala helps to transform this asthayi dhatu into sthayi dhatu (processed dhatu), with its dhatu agni, ojas, tejas, and prana."  (Lad - Textbook, V1 , 2001: p. 105)

·         Every Dhatu has 2 ages: sthayi, stable mature tissue, asthayi = unstable, pre-mature tissues.

·         Agni can greatly affect the effectiveness of dhatu functioning:

·         Low agni can result in the lack of proper digestion and undue production of that dhatu.

If agni is very high, dhatu production can be absolutely burned out and none will be produced.

(Ehrlich, 2001: Fall-2000, p. 78)

"In any factory, output is determined by the quality of the raw materials and the efficiency of the process. Each process produces products and by-products. The more efficient production is, the more products will be produced and with fewer by-products. If the process is very inefficient, by-products may outnumber products. The body is no different. No matter how good the food you eat, if the body cannot digest it one may as well not be eating. It’s not what you eat, it’s what you digest (this was a saying of my teacher, Vimalananda). The Ayurvedic texts state, “All diseases arise because of inadequate agni (digestive fire).”" (Svoboda - LL, 1984: p. 30)

each dhatu has 2 forms:

1) sthayi= stable, processed, mature

2) asthayi= unprocessed, unstable, not mature, raw, formed in 12 hours

asthayi changes into sthayi in 5 days for Rasa dhatu, 10 days for Rakta dhatu, and so on.

 (Durve, 2001: Fall-1997, p. 30)

Sthayi tissue = stable, not generally moving tissue. Already incorporated and functioning as a part of the body.

Asthayi tissue = immature tissue, generally associated with circulatory elements. This tissue is moving throughout the body in lymph/vessel channels and in this sense, is not tissue, but only nutrients (not yet tissue- but they will be…)

There are 2 schemes chronicling the process of food into tissue, the process of transformation:

Scheme A: Rasa is the first tissue produced and one product in the asthayi form of rakta dhatu and on…

1.       Food + jatharagni - Ahararasa (useable nutrient sludge) and Kitta (feces etc, stuff to dump)

2.       Ahararasa + rasagni - will produce rasa dhatu, basically, more of itself
will also produce an upadhatu (stanya and rajah)
will produce a mala (fully formed Kapha secretions)
And will produce asthayi form of next tissue in line: rakta asthayi

3.       From asthayi of rakta dhatu, these same things will be produced, including mamsa asthayi and this continues until all of the dhatus are formed. It is sequential and chronological in order.

Scheme B: This includes the nutrient process described above.

1.       Irrigation: nutrients flow about filling rasa and then the next dhatu on down the line until all of the dhatus are taken care of; also called transportation.

2.       Selectivity: with the agni of its own tissue, a particular dhatu, because of its innate intelligence, picks out its own nutrients from the irrigated pool to make more of itself.

3.       Transformation: Through it’s own agni again, this dhatu is actually responsible for creating more of itself with its picked out nutrients; also called assimilation.

(Ehrlich, 2001: Fall-2000, p. 79) 

3 Laws of Nutrition:

1.       Kedar Kulya: The Law of Irrigation. This carries the nutrients from the GI tract into circulation and into close vicinity to the tissues.

2.       Khale Kapot: The Law of Selectivity.  This enables the dhatus to choose their parts in order to self-maintain; It is cellular intelligence.

3.       Kshira Dadhi: The Law of Milk and Yogurt = The Law of Transformation.  Unprocessed asthayi is transformed into mature, sthayi tissue.

(Ehrlich, 2001: Fall-2000, p. 120)

Agni and Dhatu formation:
• IF a particular agni is high, in vruddhi disturbance, then there is low quantity of that tissue because the agni fire is so high that all of the dhatu is burned to ash and there is nothing left to create the body.
• IF a particular agni is low, in ksaya disturbance, then the raw, immature form of that tissue will be in excess because it can’t get mature and the body, in lack of that dhatu, will continue working to manifest that tissue so the asthayi tissue will show up in excess.
• IF a particular agni is balanced, in sama, then tissues will be properly formed.
***Again, this is another structure/function relationship.

(Ehrlich, 2001: Fall-2000, p. 79) 

Nutrition’s 3 Laws:        So this process of nutrition is happening all the time within us:

1.       Kedar Kulya = irrigation. Nutrients of GI tract are carried, via venous system, to nourish their tissues.

2.       Khale Kapota = selectivity. Each dhatu picks (because of its inherent intelligence), its particular       nutrients out of the wash floating by. This occurs by agni.

3.       Kshira dadhi = transformation/assimilation. This changes the asthayi (tissues in their pre-mature, nutrient form) into sthayi (stable, mature tissues). This also occurs by agni.

(Ehrlich, 2001: Fall-2000, p. 78)