Kushmanda

What is Kushmanda?

Kushmanda is the ash gourd, the fruit of Benincasa hispida, a broad trailing vine of the gourd family that is grown across the warm country of India. The fruit is large and rounded, pale green when young and, as it matures, covered in a fine waxy bloom that gives it the look of having been dusted with ash. It is this same waxy coat that lets the ripe fruit keep for many months, which is why it also travels under the names winter melon and wax gourd.

The tradition draws a clear line between the young fruit and the old one. Where a cook might reach for the tender gourd, the Ayurvedic texts prize the fully mature fruit above it for medicine, and much of the classical writing on Kushmanda is really writing about that ripe, waxy, long-kept gourd. In English it is usually called ash gourd or white gourd, and in the kitchens of India it is well known as petha or kohla.

What Ayurveda uses it for

In the classical texts Kushmanda is valued first as a cooling and nourishing food, one the tradition sets among its gentlest tonics. Its sweet, heavy and unctuous nature was understood to feed the tissues, an action Ayurveda calls brimhana, while its cooling virya settles the heat of Pitta. Alongside this it is described as medhya, supporting the intellect and mind, and hridya, kindly to the heart, and it is counted among the herbs that steady bleeding.

Within that role the dravyaguna texts describe the mature fruit and its juice as traditionally indicated in a familiar set of conditions, each named here in its classical Sanskrit term with a plain gloss:

• Raktapitta: a classical bleeding tendency, one of its foremost and most celebrated uses.
• Unmada: the classical group of disturbances of the mind, where its medhya and cooling nature is called upon.
• Apasmara: the classical group with seizure-like episodes, named alongside Unmada in the texts.
• Mutrakrichra: difficult urination, for which its cleansing action on the bladder is described.
• Kshaya: wasting and depletion, where its building, nourishing quality is drawn on.
• Daha: burning sensation, met by its cooling virya.
• Trishna: excessive thirst, another expression of that same cooling, moistening nature.

These are the traditional textual indications recorded in the classical literature. They set out how Ayurveda has long understood the herb and are given for reference and study, not as statements of medical effect or as advice to treat any condition.

Its qualities, in plain words

Ayurveda describes every herb by a short list of qualities, and for Kushmanda they line up neatly behind its reputation as a cooling nourisher.

Its taste is sweet, and in Ayurveda a sweet taste is the taste of nourishment. It is heavy and unctuous, so rather than lightening or drying the body it feeds and grounds it, the way a rich, watery food does. It is cooling, which is why it suits the heat and irritation the texts link to Pitta and why it is reached for in states of burning and thirst. And it finishes sweet after digestion, a sign that it builds tissue rather than wearing it down. Put together, these qualities describe a heavy, cool, moist and nourishing fruit, which is why the tradition settles most firmly on its Pitta-pacifying action, with a steadying effect on Vata as well.

How it is taken

The simplest classical form is the fresh juice pressed from the mature fruit, valued in its own right as a cooling, steadying drink. The ripe pulp is also used, and it is the ripe fruit rather than the tender one that the texts call for.

From the mature gourd the classical writers made a range of nourishing preparations. The best known is Kushmanda Rasayana, also called Kushmanda Avaleha, a celebrated restorative confection in which the fruit is cooked slowly with other ingredients into a rich, sweet paste. The fruit also gives its name to Kushmandaka Khanda, another sugar-based preparation. As a sweet, cooling tonic these forms were understood to carry the nourishing, mind-steadying action of the gourd into the body.

Good to know

Kushmanda is one of the cooling, building foods of Ayurveda, valued for the ripe fruit rather than the tender one and taken as part of a nourishing regimen rather than as a single dose. It belongs to the nourishing, settling side of the tradition rather than the clearing side. One point is worth repeating: the classical writers hold the fully mature, well-kept fruit to be the one prized for medicine, and much of what the texts say of Kushmanda is said of that old gourd in particular.

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

Frequently asked

Why is the mature fruit preferred over the young one? Because the classical texts prize the fully ripe, waxy, long-kept gourd above the tender one for medicine. The old fruit is the grade the tradition describes as cleansing to the bladder and kindly to the heart, and it is the one the nourishing preparations call for.

Which part is used? The fruit, and in particular its juice. The fresh juice pressed from the mature gourd is valued as a cooling drink, while the ripe pulp is cooked into the classical confections such as Kushmanda Rasayana.

Is Kushmanda cooling or warming? Cooling. Its sweet, heavy, moist and cooling nature is why the tradition reaches for it in states of heat, burning and thirst, and why it is counted chiefly as a settler of the Pitta dosha.