ritucharya

Seasonal Regimen in Ayurveda (Ritucharya)

After the Daily regimen,  I would like to share Ayurvedic knowledge on Ritucharya . Ritucharya is the seasonal activities that we should do for healthy and happy living.

Ayurveda gives importance to time. It is a causative factor for birth and the death of all creatures. The movement of the sun, the moon and all the planets are linked with time. Vedic science believes on existence of basic five elements (Panchamahabhoota), and time is actually responsible for transformation of five basic elements. This is the reason, why one should change food and lifestyle according to time .As a result of this, body will harmonize with nature.

Coming back to seasonal regimen , first we need to understand that there are six seasons that Ayurveda has explained. In this article I will just list out the 6 seasons that Ayurveda mentions.

Ritu (Seasons)

Month

Remarks

SishiraMid Jan – Mid MarchCool
VasantaMid March – Mid MayFlowers
GrismaMid May – Mid JulyHeat
VarsaMid July- Mid SeptemberRain
SharadaMid Sep – Mid NovemberMoonlight
HemantaMid November- Mid JanSnowfall

To have a better understanding and the movement of the sun  ; these 6 seasons are categorize in two groups.

a. Aadan kaala – During this period , the sun with its severe hot rays and the winds with their sharp velocity and sryness absorb the moisture from the earth.
b. Visharga Kaala – Visharga is calm. Moon is dominating in this period an the power of the sun becomes weak.

Aadan Kaala :-  Since the northward movement of the sun naturally increases the heat of the places it approaches, the cooling properties are weakened. Due to progressive dryness in the atmosphere during the seasons of Shishira, Vasanta, and Grishma, which enhances bitter, astringent and hot rasas respectively and results in the human beings become weak. Therefore aadana is sweltering by nature.

Visharga Kaala :- The remaining three seasons (i.e. Varsha, Sharad and Hemanta) are characterized by the southern movement of the sun and is known as visarga kaala. All living beings gains strength during this period.

Quick review on two kaala.

Aadan KaalaVisarga Kaala
Digestive power decreases

Sun moving towards north

Sun Dominants

Debilitating period

Sishir-Vasanta-Grishma

Bitter-Astringent- Hot taste

Dry

Digestive power increases

Sun moving towards south

Moon Dominants

Strengthening period

Varsa-Sharad-Hemanta

Sour-Sweet-Salty taste

Moist

Next blog will be detail about lifestyle for each ritu or season.

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Dr Roshan

I am Roshan Baskota (Ayurveda Doctor) , did my Bachelor's Degree of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery from Institute of Medicine Tribhuwan University, Nepal. Followed by the study I have done certification programs on Advanced Metabolic Endocrinology from American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.
Beside academic study and certification , I have been chosen as a research supervisors by government of Nepal where I got chance to experience different traditional healers and their practice in Himalayas. Additionally, I have got knowledge from participating different seminars within and outside the country.

I have started my work as a Ayurveda general physician in clinics in Nepal. During that time I was also trained for Panchakarma and Ksharsutra procedures. After 2 yrs of clinical experience, I started working at a wellness resort , where I run a wellness programs mostly preventive, promotive and rejuvenative. I do Ayurveda consultation, pulse analysis to find prakriti (Body Type) and imbalances, and guide with different food, lifestyle and therapies. Addition to work, I love writing and making video blogs about Ayurveda and Yoga.

2 Comments

  1. Daniel Ferreira says:

    Hi does anyone know where I can make questions about ayurveda?
    I’ve recently came across a seminar on health based on ayurveda the person was explaining how there are different periods of the day and we should do different things at different times and for example he explained that we should eat only twice a day and never between 10.30am and 2.30pm only before or after, I have seen the statement to eat only twice a day too one in the morning and another at the end of the day in the book Charaka samhita which is one of the main authorities in ayurveda but at the same time I read that the best period for eating is from 12pm to 2pm because your digestive fire is higher, the gentleman on the seminar explained that from 10.30am to 2.30pm occurs a period of destruction in the universe so we should not eat or sleep and in the book Charaka samhita does say to eat once in the morning and once in the evening, how can we understand this ? Are there any books or sources of knowledge explaining this ? Can anyone help?
    Thank you

    1. Namaste and Greetings.

      Dear Daniel, All the samhita and ancient text definitely agree that fire (pitta) is most dominant on middle of the day i.e. around 10:30 to 2:30 , and Charaka samhita and any other samhita, says plan your food according to agni in one’s stomach. Its also a well known fact that when agni is maximum in nature , so is in our body. So I would definitely go with big lunch in a healthy person. No lunch at noon can be true only in certain condition when someone has lots of Kapha dosha vitiated. I am still looking for the reference in samhita (will share once i find) , I just want to know reference of “the book Charaka samhita does say to eat once in the morning and once in the evening” . It would be helpful to find other reference. Thank you.

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