Chandanadi Thailam

What it is

Chandanadi Thailam is a classical medicated oil, a thailam, whose lead herb is Chandana, sandalwood. The name spells this out: Chandana and adi, meaning “sandalwood and the others”. The cool, fragrant heartwood of sandalwood sits at the centre, and its quality is carried into a base of sesame oil along with a short list of companion herbs.

What marks this oil out is its side. Most thailams are warming oils, made to settle the cold, dry quality the tradition calls Vata. Chandanadi Thailam is the opposite kind. The texts class it as shita virya, cooling in potency, and that places it among the oils made for heat rather than for cold.

The herbs cooked into it pull in one direction. Manjistha lends its action on the blood, Ushira and lotus add their own coolness, and the whole is held in sesame oil. The recipe shifts a little from one classical source to another, but the cooling purpose never changes.

What it is used for

Chandanadi Thailam is used where the body, and especially the skin, runs hot. The classical picture is one of Pitta, the fiery principle, surfacing as heat, burning or irritation on the skin. The oil’s coolness is meant to meet that heat and ease it.

The skin is its natural ground. It is worked into skin that feels hot or irritated, and it is valued as a cooling oil through the heat of summer and for a person of warm, fiery constitution. Where a warming oil would only feed the heat, a cooling oil of this kind is the classical choice.

Because it soothes rather than rouses, it is also taken up as a calming massage oil, the sort used to take the edge off a hot, restless feeling rather than to warm or stir the body.

How it is made

The oil is prepared by the classical method known as Taila Paka Vidhi, the disciplined cooking behind all proper medicated oils. It is not a matter of soaking herbs in oil. It is a slow, watchful cooking that draws the herbs into the oil and drives every trace of water back out.

Three parts go into it. A kashayam, a water decoction of the herbs, is boiled down and strained. A kalka, a fine wet paste of the herbs, is ground. And the sesame oil base is measured. Decoction, paste and oil are then cooked together over gentle, steady heat, stirred without pause, until the water is gone and only the medicated oil remains.

The old makers judged the finishing point by hand and eye rather than by a clock. The foam settling, the paste rolling clean off the fingers, the right scent rising, these were the signs. When they appeared, the oil was strained free of the herb solids and stored. Done well, the cooling nature of sandalwood now lives in the oil itself.

How it is used

Chandanadi Thailam is for external use. The usual way is Abhyanga, the traditional oil massage, with the oil warmed only a little, never hot, and worked into the skin before bathing. For a cooling oil that faint warming is just enough to help it spread, and no more.

It also has a place in the longer therapies, such as the streaming oil treatment Pizhichil, where its coolness suits a person who has grown overheated. And it is used on its own, rubbed into a patch of hot or irritated skin. After the oil has had time to sink in, twenty to thirty minutes or so, the body is bathed.

This entry sets out the classical Ayurvedic understanding of the preparation. It is not medical advice, and anyone with a health condition should speak to a qualified practitioner.

Frequently asked

What makes Chandanadi Thailam a cooling oil? Its herbs. It is built on sandalwood, the leading cooling substance of Ayurveda, with other cool herbs cooked in beside it. The tradition classes it as shita virya, cooling in potency, which is why it suits heat rather than cold.

How does it differ from the warming oils? Most medicated oils are warming, made to settle the cold, dry quality of Vata in the joints and the nerves. Chandanadi Thailam works the other way, cooling and quieting the hot quality of Pitta, above all on the skin.

Can it be used every day? The tradition treats it as a self-care oil for warm seasons and warm constitutions. As with any oil, it is sensible to test a little on the skin first, and anyone with a skin condition or who is pregnant should speak to a qualified practitioner before starting.