Śivasaṃhitā 3.40

Four favorable foods representing the opposite of previous restrictions: unctuous, nourishing, sweet, and fresh. Ghee (ghṛta) is in āyurveda the most sāttvika food — it purifies the digestive channel and nourishes the deep tissues (dhātu) from within. Betel without lime acts as a mild and refreshing digestive. This diet seeks not ascesis but laghu sāttvikatā: lightness combined with full nutrition.

Ghṛta (clarified butter) holds the first place in yogic diet for its capacity to transport medicinal principles to the cellular interior — the anupāna par excellence of the āyurvedic pharmacopoeia. Kṣīra (milk) is liquid amṛta in multiple Sanskrit texts. Miṣṭānna (sweet food, literally «excellent food») activates the madhura rasa that pacifies all doṣas. Cūrṇavarjita — without lime powder — preserves the natural alkaline freshness of betel.

The recommendation of betel without lime reveals the text’s subcontinental context: in medieval India, betel was chewed with quicklime and areca nut, an astringent and stimulating combination that the text rejects. An ethnobotanical detail that situates the Śivasaṃhitā’s composition in a very precise cultural and geographical context of pre-modern South Asia.