Kottamchukkadi Thailam

What is Kottamchukkadi Thailam?

Kottamchukkadi Thailam is a medicated oil. The word thailam simply means a sesame-oil preparation that has been cooked with herbs, so that the oil takes on their qualities. This one is built around warming, pungent herbs, and it belongs to the group of oils used for stiff, cold, aching complaints.

The name points to the lead ingredient. Chukku is the southern word for dried ginger, the same herb Sanskrit calls Shunthi. Dried ginger is warming and drying, and it sets the character of the whole oil: this is a warm oil, made to be rubbed into a part of the body that has gone cold and tight.

What Ayurveda uses it for

In Ayurvedic terms the oil is vatahara, which means it settles Vata. Vata is the principle of movement, and it is the one the texts blame when a joint or a muscle becomes stiff, cold, dry or slow. When Vata is disturbed in the limbs, the classical answer is warmth and oil, applied from the outside.

So this is an oil for the body rather than the face. It is worked into a stiff shoulder, a tight lower back, an aching knee, the places where the texts describe Vata settling and the movement going out of a joint. The warming herbs and the warm oil together are meant to coax that ease back.

The herbs in the oil

The base is Tila Taila, sesame oil. Sesame is the classical first choice for any oil meant to settle Vata, because it is itself warming, nourishing and good at carrying herbs into the skin. Into it are cooked a set of warming, pungent and aromatic herbs.

Dried ginger (Shunthi) leads. Alongside it the classical formula uses Rasna, a root long named for stiff joints; Devadaru, the fragrant Himalayan cedar; Vacha, the sweet flag root; and a little rock salt (Saindhava), which the tradition adds to help the warmth travel deeper. The herbs share a direction: all of them are warming, and all of them work against the cold, dry quality of disturbed Vata.

How it is used

The oil is for external use. The simple way is the classical one: warm a little of the oil until it is comfortably hot to the touch, then rub it into the affected part with steady strokes, working along the muscle and around the joint. It is left to soak in for twenty or thirty minutes, and then washed off with warm, not cold, water.

This is the daily practice the texts call Abhyanga, the oiling of the body, here directed at one stiff region rather than the whole frame. In the classical Kerala therapies the same oil is used in the longer treatments, where warm oil is poured and rubbed over the body for a full session, and in the bolus and streaming therapies built around heat and oil.

Good to know

This is a warm oil for cold, stiff complaints, so it suits the cold seasons and the cold qualities of disturbed Vata. The warmth that makes it useful also means a little goes a long way, and that warming it gently before use helps it spread and soak in.

It stains cloth, as all sesame oils do, so old clothing and a warm towel are sensible. Like all such oils it keeps best in a cool, dark place in a closed bottle.

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

Frequently asked

Why is the oil warmed before use? Because warmth is the point. The oil works by carrying heat and the warming herbs into a cold, stiff part, so a gently warmed oil spreads more easily and suits the complaint better than a cold one.

Is it taken internally? No. It is an external oil, rubbed into the skin. It is not swallowed.

Why sesame oil? Because the tradition rates sesame oil as the best base for settling Vata. It is warming and nourishing in its own right, it soaks well into the skin, and it carries the cooked herbs with it.