rasa: what the term means and how it is translated

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.64 (carakasamhitaonline); Kaviratna prints 63 · checked against the source

The object of the tongue is taste. Water and earth are the objective existences in which taste inheres. In its manifestation and as regards particular kinds of it, space, air, and light, are also its adjuncts.

The definitional verse: rasa is the object of the tongue (rasana), its substrate is water and earth, and the other three bhutas account for its manifestation and varieties. Sanskrit as retrieved: रसनार्थो रसस्तस्य द्रव्यमापः क्षितिस्तथा| निर्वृत्तौ च विशेषे च प्रत्ययाः खादयस्त्रयः||६४|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya).

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.65; Kaviratna prints 64 · checked against the source

Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter, and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold catalogue of tastes.

The six rasas. Sanskrit as retrieved: स्वादुरम्लोऽथ लवणः कटुकस्तिक्त एव च| कषायश्चेति षट्कोऽयं रसानां सङ्ग्रहः स्मृतः||६५||.

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard 26.8 (one clause of a long prose unit); Kaviratna prints 11 · checked against the source

There are six tastes, said the royal sage Varyovida. They are heavy, light, cold, hot, oily, and dry.

In the rasa-number debate Varyovida's 'six rasas' are in fact six gunas (guru, laghu, shita, ushna, snigdha, ruksha); the text itself records the rasa/guna confusion the lexicon must undo. Sanskrit as retrieved: षड्रसा इति वार्योविदो राजर्षिः, गुरुलघुशीतोष्णस्निग्धरूक्षाः| (within ||८||, https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Atreya's ruling is 26.9: षडेव रसा इत्युवाच भगवानात्रेयः पुनर्वसुः, मधुराम्ललवणकटुतिक्तकषायाः॥९॥.

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 42:Sanskrit verse number not established; Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers · checked against the source

taste is said to be a water-origined principle.

Sushruta's chapter on rasa (Rasa-Vishesha-Vijnaniya) makes water the originating bhuta of taste, agreeing with Charaka Su.1.64.

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 14:Sushruta Sutrasthana 14.3 (standard numbering; siva.sh Devanagari ॥३॥). Bhishagratna Ch. XIV, opening paragraph [1] and the first sentence of the following paragraph, wisdomlib doc122906; he prints no verse numbers. · checked against the source

The food is fully digested with the help of the internal heat and ultimately assimilated in the system, giving rise to lymph chyle (Rasa) which is extremely thin or attenuated in its consistency and which forms the essence of the assimilated food. The lymph chyle (Rasa), though running through the whole organism, has its primary seat in the heart, whence it flows through the twenty-four vessels which branch off from the latter (heart) to the remotest parts and extremities of the body.

The dhātu sense: rasa is the subtle essence (sāra) of fully digested food, its seat (sthāna) is the heart, and from the heart it enters the twenty-four dhamanīs to nourish the whole body (Su.Su.14.3: 'तस्य हृदयं स्थानं, स हृदयाच्चतुर्विंशतिधमनीरनुप्रविश्य'). 'Lymph chyle' is Bhishagratna's biomedical identification, not the text's.