Dashamula (Ten Roots)

What it is

Dashamula is the most important root combination in all of Ayurveda. The name is plain: dasha means ten and mula means root, so Dashamula is simply the ten roots. It is not one single medicine but a group, a fixed set of ten roots that classical Ayurveda treats as a unit and uses as the base of countless larger preparations.

The texts always divide the ten into two halves. Five are the greater roots, the Brihat Panchamula, which come from trees. Five are the lesser roots, the Laghu Panchamula, which come from smaller plants and shrubs. The greater roots are grounding and steadying; the lesser roots are lighter and more moving. Joined together they make a balanced whole, and that balance is the reason the combination has lasted for two thousand years.

The ten roots

The five greater roots, from trees, are Bilva, Agnimantha, Shyonaka, Patala and Gambhari, the last also called Kashmari. The five lesser roots, from smaller plants, are Shalaparni, Prishniparni, Brihati, Kantakari and Gokshura.

Each carries its own character. Several of the tree roots are warming and kindle the digestion. Bilva is valued for steadying the digestion and the bowels. Gambhari is the sweetest and gentlest of the greater roots, nourishing where the others run dry. Among the lesser roots, Shalaparni and Prishniparni are the strengthening, Vata-calming pair, while Brihati and Kantakari, both from the nightshade family, are the clearing pair the texts favour for the chest. Gokshura finishes the group with a sweeter, cooling note. Read together, the ten cover a wide range while pulling in the same direction.

What Ayurveda uses it for

Dashamula is, above all, the great settler of Vata. Vata is the dry, cold, mobile quality the texts hold responsible for movement in the body and for the nerves, and when it rises a person feels unsteady, achy and depleted. The warming, grounding character of the ten roots is read by the tradition as the natural answer to that restlessness.

The texts return to it in two settings above the rest. The first is recovery and rebuilding, especially the weeks after childbirth, when the body is described as depleted and Vata as unsettled. The second is digestion, because several of the roots kindle the digestive fire. Although Dashamula is sometimes called tridoshahara, meaning it can help balance all three doshas, its first and clearest reputation is for steadying Vata.

How it is taken

Dashamula is rarely taken on its own as ten loose roots. Instead it is the base from which named preparations are made. Boiled into a decoction it becomes the classical Dashamulakwatha. Dried and ground it becomes Dashamoola Churnam. Fermented with jaggery it becomes the tonic Dasamoolaristam. Cooked into oil it gives Vata-settling Thailams, and cooked into a sweet paste it gives a rebuilding Lehyam. In each form the same ten roots are carried in a different way.

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

Frequently asked

Why ten roots and not one? Ayurveda often combines herbs so that the group does something the single roots do not. The five grounding tree roots and the five lighter, more moving plant roots balance one another, which is why the tradition treats the ten as a single reliable unit.

Is Dashamula a finished medicine? Not by itself. It is a base. It becomes a finished preparation once it is made into a decoction, a powder, a fermented tonic, an oil or a paste.

What is the difference between the greater and lesser roots? The five greater roots come from trees and are more grounding and steadying. The five lesser roots come from smaller plants and are lighter and more moving. Together they make the full Dashamula.