# Mukhabhyanga (Facial Oil Massage)

> Mukhābhyaṅga is oil massage of the face: warm taila worked in with upward circular strokes for five to ten minutes. The record names Kumkumādi and Candanādi taila. Its cited source, the Sahasrayogam, is a formulary of preparations, and the procedure itself could not be confirmed there.

## Key facts

- **Sanskrit name:** Mukhābhyaṅga

## What it is

Mukhābhyaṅga is abhyaṅga, oil massage, applied to the face. It is classed here as a pūrva-karma, a preparatory procedure, and is marked as something a person can do for themselves.

## What it involves

Warm taila, worked over the face for five to ten minutes with upward circular strokes.

## What is used

Kumkumādi taila or Candanādi taila. Neither is broken down into its ingredients in the source record, and both are compound preparations whose recipes vary between texts and manufacturers.

## Where it comes from in the classical literature

This is the weakest citation of the six procedures in this group, and it is worth being straight about why.

The source given is the Sahasrayogam, a Kerala compendium of formulations with a taila-prakaraṇa (oils section). That is a text of preparations rather than of procedures, and no passage in it describing mukhābhyaṅga as a procedure could be confirmed. Published sources also disagree about which classical text carries the Kumkumādi taila formula, variously naming Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Uttarasthāna, Bhaiṣajya Ratnāvalī, Yoga Ratnākara, and the modern Ayurvedic Formulary of India.

For context, the classical daily-regimen chapter, Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Sūtrasthāna 2, does prescribe abhyaṅga, and directs that it be applied with particular attention to the head, the ears and the feet. It does not single out the face.

So: the oils are real classical preparations, and abhyaṅga is a classical practice. A specific classical prescription for face massage with these two oils is what remains unverified here.

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Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/practice/mukhabhyanga/

Published by Age Ayurveda in the Nighantu. Educational reference only, not medical advice.
Incorporates material from the Amidha Ayurveda Herb Database under CC BY 4.0.