Mamsa Dhatu

Overview

Mamsa Dhatu is the muscle, the fifth of the seven tissues, the dhatus, on which Ayurveda builds the body. The word mamsa means flesh or muscle, and dhatu means a tissue, something that holds the body up. As the tradition understands it, Mamsa takes in not only the muscles we move with but the soft, fleshy, covering substance of the body more broadly.

The seven dhatus form an order, each made from the one before. Plasma (Rasa) becomes blood (Rakta); blood becomes muscle (Mamsa); and muscle in turn feeds the fat, the bone, the marrow and the reproductive tissue that follow. Mamsa stands in the middle of this line, made from the blood and giving rise to the fat beneath it.

What it does

The texts give Mamsa three plain tasks, and it is worth taking them one at a time.

The first is covering. Muscle is what clothes the frame of bone, the way plaster covers and finishes a wall. The old comparison is exactly that: Mamsa gives the body its shape and fills out its form. The second is strength. Mamsa is held to be the chief seat of bala, the bodily strength that lets a person work, carry, and keep going. When the muscle is sound and well-fed, the texts read it as the sign of a strong body. The third is shelter. Lying over the bone and around the organs and the channels, the muscle shields the deeper, more delicate parts from harm. The tradition reads this protection as more than a mechanical wall; it is part of how the body keeps its inner workings safe.

How it is formed

Mamsa is made from the tissue before it, the blood. As blood is nourished and refined, its finer part is carried on and worked, by the tissue’s own share of the digestive fire, into muscle. The coarser part left over becomes one of the body’s small wastes.

This is why the tradition treats every tissue as depending on the one before it. Muscle cannot be well-made if the blood that feeds it is poor, and the blood in turn depends on the plasma, and the plasma on sound digestion at the very start. Good muscle, in the Ayurvedic reading, is never only a matter of what is eaten. It rests on a fire strong enough to carry nourishment cleanly up the whole chain.

Its qualities

Ayurveda describes each tissue by its qualities, and for Mamsa they are heavy, stable and firm. These are the qualities of something solid and steadying, and they explain the tissue’s character.

Because muscle is heavy and stable, it leans toward the nature of Kapha, the steady, building dosha, and the texts say Kapha lends muscle its bulk and firmness. Vata, the light and mobile principle, governs the tone of the muscle and its movement, its tightening and its ease. Pitta, the principle of fire, governs the warmth and the working-over that goes on within the tissue. Sound muscle needs all three in their proper measure: Kapha for substance, Vata for tone, Pitta for the fire that makes it.

When it is out of balance

The texts describe muscle going wrong in two broad directions, as too little or as too much.

Too little, which the tradition calls mamsa kshaya, is the wasting or thinning of the tissue: the body grows lean, the muscle loses its fullness, and the strength that depends on it falls away. It is linked to the dry, depleting quality of Vata, to weak digestion, and to a long want of proper nourishment. Too much, the opposite, is an over-building of the tissue, linked to excess Kapha, and read as a heaviness that can weigh the body down. Between these, the tradition also describes muscle that is present in quantity but poor in quality, firm-looking yet without real strength. In every case the practitioner reads the muscle not by its bulk alone but by its tone, its firmness and the strength it actually carries.

What supports it

Since muscle is made from the tissues before it, the tradition supports it from two sides at once: by feeding the body well, and by keeping the fire that turns food into tissue clean and strong. The texts favour nourishing, substantial, easily digested food for the building of muscle, and they set great store by the strength of the digestion that must carry it.

Alongside food, the tradition values steady, suited exertion. The classical word is vyayama, exercise, and the texts treat a measured amount of it as building and toning the muscle, while warning that too much, taken without rest or nourishment behind it, wears the tissue down instead. The balance, sufficient to build but not to deplete, is the same balance the tradition seeks everywhere.

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

Frequently asked

Where does Mamsa Dhatu sit among the seven tissues? It is the fifth, made from the blood (Rakta) before it and giving rise to the fat (Meda) after it. It stands in the middle of the line of seven.

What is Mamsa Dhatu held to do? Three things: it covers the frame and gives the body its shape, it is the chief seat of bodily strength, and it shields the bones, organs and channels that lie beneath it.

What does the tradition say builds good muscle? Nourishing, easily digested food, a strong digestive fire to carry that nourishment up through the tissues, and a measured amount of suited exercise, taken with enough rest and food behind it.