The Copper Tongue Scraper

The copper tongue scraper is the traditional tool of one of Ayurveda’s oldest daily practices: Jihwa Nirlekhana, the scraping of the tongue. Each morning, the classical routine holds, a coating gathers on the tongue overnight as the previous day’s digestion completes, and this coating is drawn off with a scraper before the day begins. The practice is small, quick and humble, yet the classical texts give it a settled place in the Dinacharya, the daily routine, and copper has long been among the metals the tradition favours for the tool.

The classical practice

The cleaning of the tongue is named in the great classical texts among the morning duties. The Charaka Samhita, in its account of the daily routine in the fifth chapter of the Sutrasthana, sets the cleaning of the mouth and tongue among the practices of rising, and the Ashtanga Hridayam and the Sushruta Samhita do likewise in their treatment of Dinacharya and oral care. The tongue scraper, the Jihwa Nirlekhana instrument, is described as a thin, smooth strip, curved to the shape of the tongue, made of a clean metal or of a suitable plant material, with no sharp edge.

The reason the tradition gives for the practice is the removal of the overnight coating, which it reads as a manifestation of Ama. Ama, in Ayurveda, is the sticky residue of incomplete digestion, the undigested, and its appearance as a film on the tongue is one of the classical signs by which a physician judges the state of the digestion. The morning coating of the tongue is Ama made visible, and drawing it off is held both to clean the mouth and to be a small daily reading of the digestive fire.

Why copper

The classical texts allow scrapers of several clean materials, but copper holds a special place, and the copper tongue scraper is the one most associated with the practice today. Ayurveda has a long regard for copper, tamra, as a clean and purifying metal, and holds it suitable for the mouth and for water. Copper is naturally antimicrobial, a quality the tradition recognised long before it was explained, and this makes it well suited to a tool used daily in the mouth.

Copper has practical virtues too. It is soft enough to be bent to the gentle curve of the tongue and to give a little against it, so that it follows the surface without scratching, yet firm enough to lift the coating cleanly in a single sweep. A well-made copper scraper is a simple U or V of metal with two ends to hold and a smooth curved edge between them. Other metals are used, and plant scrapers were traditional too, but copper combines cleanliness, the right firmness and the tradition’s regard, and this is why it is the classic choice.

The classical texts describe the scraper as a thin strip without a sharp edge, and they allow it to be made of gold, silver, copper, tin or brass, or of the tender twigs and leaves used in the old oral care. Each metal carried its own reputation in the tradition, but for daily use copper became the common and favoured choice, being neither so precious as gold and silver nor so plain as the twig, and being held clean and wholesome for the mouth. In practice the material matters less than that the scraper be smooth, without a cutting edge, kept clean, and drawn gently, so that it lifts the coating without harming the delicate surface of the tongue.

The idea behind the practice

To see why the tradition values this small act, it helps to understand Ama a little further. Ayurveda holds that health rests on the Agni, the digestive fire, transforming food completely into nourishment. When the fire is weak or the load too great, the transformation is left unfinished, and the residue, sticky, heavy and unwholesome, is Ama. This residue is held to spread through the body and to underlie many complaints, and one of the plainest places it shows is the surface of the tongue, as the familiar morning coating. The tradition therefore reads the tongue each morning as a small daily report on the digestion: a clean, clear tongue speaks of good digestion and little Ama; a thick, white, heavy coating speaks of weak fire and gathered Ama. Scraping the tongue both clears the visible residue and gives the person a moment’s reading of their own inner state, which is why the classical routine gives it a place of its own rather than folding it into the cleaning of the teeth.

The benefits the tradition names

Ayurveda connects tongue scraping with several benefits, all following from the removal of Ama and the cleaning of the mouth.

Removing the coating of Ama. The first and chief purpose is to draw off the overnight film, the visible Ama, so that the mouth begins the day clean and the coating is not swallowed back with the first food and drink.

Freshening the breath. By removing the coating in which staleness gathers, the practice freshens the breath and cleans the mouth, and the tradition names sweet breath among its fruits.

Wakening the sense of taste. The classical texts hold that a clean tongue tastes better, that the coating dulls the sense of taste and that clearing it wakens the rasana, the faculty of taste. Since Ayurveda holds taste to be the beginning of digestion, a keen sense of taste is valued.

Supporting the digestion. Because the coating is read as a sign of the state of the digestion, and because the tradition connects the mouth with the whole digestive tract, the daily clearing of the tongue is held to support the Agni, the digestive fire, and to be a small daily discipline of the digestion.

Stimulating the tongue. The gentle passage of the scraper over the tongue is held to stimulate it lightly, and the tongue, in the classical view, has connections to the inner organs, so that its care is not merely local.

How to use a copper tongue scraper

The practice is simple. Hold the copper scraper by its two ends, one in each hand, and place the curved edge toward the back of the tongue, as far back as is comfortable without provoking the gag reflex. Draw the scraper forward over the surface of the tongue with a gentle, even pressure, in a single smooth sweep, and rinse it under water between strokes to clear what it has lifted. A few gentle passes, until the tongue is clean, are enough. The pressure should be light; the aim is to lift the coating, not to scrape the tongue raw, and firm or repeated scraping of a sore tongue is not intended.

It is done first thing in the morning, on rising and on an empty stomach, when the overnight coating is most present. It sits naturally alongside the cleaning of the teeth and the rinsing of the mouth, and may be done before or after them. Afterward the scraper is rinsed and dried, and a copper one is best wiped dry rather than left wet, so that it stays clean and bright.

Its place in the daily routine

Tongue scraping belongs to the opening of the Dinacharya, the ordered daily routine that the classical texts hold to be half the work of health. On rising, the routine describes the emptying of the bowels and bladder, the cleaning of the teeth, the scraping of the tongue, the rinsing of the mouth, and the care of the eyes, nose and ears, before the day’s food and work begin. Within this sequence the copper tongue scraper has its small, settled place, a quick daily practice that cleans the mouth, reads the digestion and freshens the start of the day.

A word on caring for the tool. A copper scraper will, over time, darken and tarnish, since copper reacts with the air and with moisture. This is natural, and the surface is easily brightened again by rubbing it with a little lemon and salt, or with any mild natural polish, and then rinsing and drying it well. Keeping the scraper clean, smooth and dry between uses is part of the practice, for the whole point of it is cleanliness, and a well-kept copper scraper will last for many years. A scraper with any rough spot or sharp edge should be smoothed or set aside, since the tongue is delicate and is meant to be cleaned, not scratched.

It is a practice for a person in ordinary health, done gently and once a day. A tongue that is persistently heavily coated, sore or discoloured is, in the classical view, a sign worth attending to rather than simply scraping away, and such a sign is worth discussing with a practitioner or a doctor. This entry describes the classical Ayurvedic understanding of tongue scraping and the copper scraper and is offered for education, not as medical advice.