Njavarakizhi

Overview

Njavarakizhi is a warming, nourishing therapy in which small cloth bundles of cooked rice are warmed and pressed over the body. The name joins two words: njavara, a fine variety of rice long grown in the south, and kizhi, a bundle or poultice tied in cloth. So the name is simply the njavara-rice bundle, which is exactly what the therapy uses.

What sets this treatment apart from the other bundle therapies is its filling. Where some bundles hold dry herbs or powders, this one holds rice that has been cooked soft in milk and a herbal decoction. That soft, milky, oiled bundle gives the therapy its particular character: it is among the most nourishing and building of the warming treatments, and the texts class it with the brimhana, the building therapies, as much as with the warming ones.

Where it sits in Ayurveda

Njavarakizhi belongs to two of the great classical headings at once. It is a form of swedana, the sudation or warming therapies, and it is joined with snehana, the oiling therapies, because the body and the bundles are both worked with warm oil.

The tradition often places it within the broader frame of Panchakarma, the classical programme of cleansing and renewal, where warming and oiling treatments are used to prepare and to restore the body. But it is also given on its own, as a nourishing, settling treatment outside any larger programme. The reasoning behind it is the reasoning behind all the oiling and warming therapies: warmth and oil are the contraries of the dry, cold, light quality of Vata, and bringing them to the body meets that quality with its opposite.

What it is used for

The therapy is reached for above all to nourish the body and to settle Vata. The texts link Vata to dryness, to coldness and to the wearing-down of the tissues, and they describe its rise in the muscles and the frame as a source of stiffness and weakness. The warm, oiled, milky bundle answers all of this at once: it warms, it oils, and it feeds.

Because the rice is cooked in milk and the body is worked with warm oil, the tradition counts the treatment among its brimhana, building, measures, suited to a body that is run down, thin or worn. It is one of the treatments the texts favour for the muscle tissue, the mamsa dhatu, and for the strength of the frame. The rice itself is held to be cooling in its nature, so the warmth comes from the heat of the bundle rather than from a heating ingredient, which makes the treatment a gentle, well-tempered one.

How the bundles are made

The making is careful, and it is done fresh, shortly before the treatment.

Njavara rice is cooked until soft, not in plain water but in milk together with a herbal decoction, so that the grain takes up both. While it is still warm, the cooked rice is divided into several portions and each is tied into a bundle of fine cotton cloth. The bundles are kept warm, often by dipping them in the warm milk-and-decoction mixture through the treatment, and warm medicated oil is used on the body and on the bundles as the work goes on. Because the heat and the softness matter, the bundles are made for the session and not kept.

How it is given

The person lies on the treatment table, and warm oil is first applied to the body. The practitioner then takes the warm bundles and presses and strokes them over the body in a steady, rhythmic way, following the lie of the limbs and giving care to the larger muscles. As a bundle cools it is dipped again in the warm liquid, or exchanged for a fresh warm one, so that the heat and the moisture are kept up throughout.

A session usually runs for around three quarters of an hour to an hour, moving over the body in turn. Afterward the person rests for a while in the warm, and a warm bath follows once the oil has been taken up. The tradition treats the rest and the warm bath afterward as part of the treatment, not as an afterthought, and it advises keeping out of cold and wind and taking warm, easily digested food for the rest of the day.

Who it suits, and when

The tradition gives these treatments by measure, not freely. Njavarakizhi, as a warm and nourishing treatment, suits a body that is dry, run down or unsettled by Vata, and the texts favour it in the cooler seasons and when there is time to rest around it.

As with all the warming therapies, the classics name times to hold back. They counsel against warming, building treatments during an acute illness, a high fever, or when the body is heavy with ama, the sticky residue of weak digestion, since these call for a different approach first. The texts ask that the therapy be matched to the person, the season and the moment, the classical rule of kala and desha, time and place. It is best received from a practitioner trained in the method, who can judge the heat, the oil and the timing for the person in front of them.

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

Frequently asked

What is in the bundles? Njavara rice, cooked soft in milk together with a herbal decoction, then tied into cloth bundles. Warm medicated oil is used on the body and the bundles during the treatment.

How is it different from other kizhi treatments? Other bundle therapies hold dry herbs or powders. Njavarakizhi holds milk-cooked rice, which makes it one of the more nourishing and building of the bundle treatments rather than a drying one.

Why is the rice cooked in milk? Because the treatment is meant to nourish as well as to warm. The milk and the herbal decoction soak into the grain and make the bundle a building, feeding one, in keeping with its place among the brimhana therapies.