Viruddha Ahara Checker: Which Food Pairs Do the Texts Call Incompatible?

Choose two foods and this checker tells you whether two classical texts name the pair as viruddha ahara, incompatible food. It looks in the Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26, and the Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana 20, and shows the verse and a short quotation for every pair it finds, from an English translation, or from the Sanskrit where the translation differs from it. If neither passage names the pair, it says so plainly.

It describes a tradition. Modern nutrition research has not confirmed these rules, and the checker is not nutrition advice.

How it works

The checker holds a fixed table of 38 pairs among the 31 foods you can choose. Each pair was taken from one or both of two passages, and each carries its reference and a quotation:

• the Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 26 (Atreyabhadrakapyiya), verses 81 to 106, numbered and translated as in the Charak Samhita New Edition. The food pairs are in verse 84, including a list of fruits, mango, banana, jamun and nikucha among them, that are not to be taken with milk. Honey and ghee in equal amounts appear again in verse 90, as the example of incompatibility by amount, and sour things with milk in verse 99, as the example of incompatibility by combination;
• the Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana 20, verses 8 and 13 to 15 as numbered in Jadavji Trikamji Acharya’s Sanskrit edition, quoted from Kunja Lal Bhishagratna’s English translation of 1907, pages 185 to 189.

Which pairs count follows the Sanskrit of both texts, which we read alongside the English. Of the 38 pairs, 17 are named in both texts, 10 only in the Charaka Samhita and 11 only in the Sushruta Samhita. Seven more pairs are named only on one reading, and the result says so: six are fish with a food that the texts name with the meat of water animals, and one, lakucha with meat, is in one English translation only. The other 420 pairs you can make from the lists are not named in either passage. Some pairs carry a condition, and the result shows it: honey and ghee are named only in equal amounts, and Charaka speaks of milk taken after radish, garlic, drumstick or tulsi.

The texts also name rarer herbs, game and birds, such as heron meat or the potherb kakamachi. They are left out of the lists, because few readers will meet them.

Reading the result

A pair the texts name is shown as “named as incompatible”, with each passage that names it, its reference and its quotation. A pair that is named only if a passage is read a certain way is shown as “named on one reading only”, with that reading explained. A pair they do not name is shown as “not named”. That is not a recommendation: it means only that these two passages do not list it. Popular lists often include pairs that are not in either passage, such as eggs with milk, and the checker shows those as not named.

Below the answer you see the other foods each passage names with your two choices, and Charaka’s note that incompatible food becomes ineffective (in the translation, “Antagonism is neutralized”) in people used to it, in a small amount, with a strong digestion, in the young, and in people who are well oiled, who exercise and who are strong (Sutrasthana 26.106).

Where traditions differ

The texts disagree with each other, and within themselves. In the Charaka Samhita, Bhadrakapya says that every fish may be taken with milk except one kind, chilchima, and Atreya rejects this and names all fish (Sutrasthana 26.83 to 84). Many of the pairs here are named by one text and not the other. Charaka also lists eighteen kinds of incompatibility (Sutrasthana 26.86 to 87), by place, time, digestive fire, amount, suitability, dosha, preparation, potency, bowel nature, state of health, order, contra-indication, indication, cooking, combination, palatability, richness and the rules of eating. Only a few of these are about pairs of foods, so a pair checker covers a small part of the idea.

Translations differ from the Sanskrit too. In Sushruta’s passage, Bhishagratna’s English of 1907 can be read as naming mango with jamun, where the Sanskrit names each of them with milk; it leaves curd out of the foods not to be taken with banana; and for lakucha it gives meat soup, honey and ghee, where the Sanskrit edition has black gram soup. The checker follows the Sanskrit and says so in the result. Fish raise a question of their own: both texts name a list of foods with the meat of domestic, marsh and water animals, and both count fish among such animals elsewhere (Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana 46.93; Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana 27.40 to 41), but neither names fish in that list. The checker shows those pairs as named on one reading only.

Later books and teachers add many pairs, and their lists vary by region and author. Where a popular rule is not in these two passages, the checker says so rather than guessing a source. The food combining page sets out the wider teaching and what research says.

What it does not do

It does not tell you what to eat or avoid, and it does not judge amounts, cooking or timing. Many of the named pairs, such as fish cooked with dairy, or banana with milk, are everyday dishes in many cuisines, and there are no good trials showing harm in healthy people. Allergies, lactose intolerance and food hygiene are the modern reasons to take care with a food, and they apply whatever any tradition says.

If you have diabetes, kidney disease, an eating disorder, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are planning food for a child, please do not cut foods on the strength of these rules; ask your doctor or a registered dietitian. Please read the medical disclaimer.

Frequently asked questions