Agni – Digestive Fire

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Life is constantly changing (nityaga). Energy is utilized for all physiological actions and functions in the body. Tissues are constantly being broken down and rebuilt. They need replenishment from the food, water and air we take in. The energy responsible for this discrimination and transformation is called agni. Each food you eat needs to be transformed into the units that body can utilize to build new tissues.

Healthy digestive fire keeps you healthy, otherwise develops diseases.

  • Agni is the teja mahabhuta (fire element) in the body.
  • Agni governs our life force, strength, general health, energy level, the radiance or luster of our skin, ojas and tejas.
  • Agni encourages health when balanced. When deranged, it causes disease.
  • Agni keeps us alive. If agni is extinguished, we die.

Functions of Agni

  • Digests food, and anything that comes in the body.
  • Nourishes the doshas:
  • Balanced vāta creates energy.
  • Balanced pitta creates radiance.
  • Balanced kapha creates strength.
  • Nourishes dhatus. Creates ojas, tejas and prana (subtle doshas).
  • Gives clarity to the mind, thoughts and ideas.
  • Maintains life force.
  • Separates sara and Kitta (mala, waste) with samana vayu.

Agni & Pitta: A Comparison

Agni and Pitta are closely related, however Angi is Dry (No water) whereas Pitta is Moist (Has water).

Pitta

Qualities: Hot, Moist, Light, Subtle, and Sharp
Bhoutic Composition: Fire + Water
In Digestion: Represents the enzymes

Agni

Qualities: Hot, Dry, Light, Subtle, and Sharp
Bhoutic Composition: Fire
In Digestion: Represents the acidity of the enzymes

States of Agni

Sama Agni

Relationship to the Doshas: Sama (Tridoshic)
Definition: Balanced Agni
Effect: Digests food well when eaten in the right quantity, at regular intervals. Helps build balanced dhātus.

Notice

Among all, Sama Agni is ideal. Our effort has to be to maintain sama state. Other three qualities tend to cause health problems.

Visama Agni (Variable Fire)

Relationship to the Doshas: Vata
Definition: Variable Agni
Effect: Variable, sometimes digests food well sometimes is weak or strong. This agni causes variability in dhātu state. Inconsistent hunger

Tīksna Agni (Sharp Fire)

Relationship to the Doshas: Pitta
Definition: Sharp Agni
Effect: Digests food quickly. Digests food that is taken in a large quantity or taken frequently. If food is less in quantity, it irritates the digestive tract and burns the dhātus. Feels hungry often, cannot tolerate skipping a meal.

Manda Agni (Slow or Weak Fire)

Relationship to the Doshas: Kapha
Definition: Slow or Weak Agni
Effect: Takes time to digest food and/or doesn’t digest food even when taken in a moderate quantity. The dhatus that are formed are poor in quality and greater in quantity. Skipping food easily, eating light meal, feeling heavy after food.

When the Doshas get aggraviated

When Vata aggravates, Agni tends to become Variable (Visama).
When Pitta aggravates, Agni tends to become Sharp (Tīksna).
When Kapha aggravates, Agni tends to become Weak (Manda).

Types Of Agni

The Caraka Samhita describes 13 agnis.

Jatharagni – Stomach

Number of Subtypes: 1
Subtypes: None

Bhutagni – The Five Elements

Number of Subtypes: 5
Subtypes: Prthvi (earth), Ap (water), Tejas (fire), Vayu (air), Akasa (ether)

Dhatu agni – Tissue Fire

Number of Subtypes: 7
Subtypes: Rasa, Rakta, Mamsa, Meda, Asthi, Majja, Sukra

Jathara (stomach)
Kostha (small intestine)

Jatharagni

The agni that resides in the lower part of the stomach and the small intestine is Jatharagni or Kosthagni (Pacaka pitta). This is the main agni. The quality of the other agnis depends on it because the small intestine and stomach are the main organs of digestion.

It is considered the main agni because it has to digest all sorts of food (pizza, ice cream, bread, chicken, chips, candies, etc.). The states of other agnis also depend on Jatharagni.
After digestion and absorption, Samana Vayu carries the digested food (Ahara rasa) to the Liver then to the Heart. With the help of Vyana Vayu, it is circulated throughout the body to all dhatus. There, with the help of bhutagni and dhatu agni, Ahara rasa is further broken down into bhoutic elements, and new tissues are built.

At the dhatu level, dhatu agnis do further digestion and absorb the needed elements. Each dhatu agni divides the sara and kitta (mala) from the rasa they receive. The sara helps to build dhatu, and kitta is removed from the body.

Bhutagnis

Bhutagnis are present everywhere in the body because they reside in the bhutas and the body is composed of the bhutas.

All five Mahabhutas (elements) have their own specific agni in the human body:
BhūtāgniRelated Mahābhūta
PārthivāgniEarth
JalāgniWater
TejāgniFire
VāyvagniAir
ĀkāśāgniSpace

The function of bhutagni is to convert Panca mahabhuta from food, water, and air, etc. into the Pañca mahabhutas in the body. They give a unique quality to mahabhutas.

Bhutagnis work with dhatu agnis. Dhatu agnis build/break down dhatus, and Bhutagnis give uniqueness to each dhatu. For example, water (jala) element is present in Rasa dhatu, Rakta dhatu, and Mamsa dhatu, but there is a difference between the quality, quantity, consistency, and structure. Bhutagnis give unique appearance and qualities, maintaining structural integrity. Bhutagnis also have a limited job of transforming a particular bhuta.

Example:

Mamsa dhatu will take elements required only to produce Mamsa dhatu, it will not create meda or other dhatus.

Dhatu Agni

Dhatu agnis performs further digestion by taking the respective mahabhutas and creating more dhatus. This is very important because dhatus are constantly broken down to convert energy, and they need to be replenished to their balanced state.

Seven dhatu agnis for seven dhatus
Rasa dhatu agni
Rakta dhatu agni
Mamsa dhatu agni
Meda dhatu agni
Asthi dhatu agni
Majja dhatu agni
Sukra dhatu agni

The dhatu agni is a part of subtle digestion (tissue nutrition). They convert the ahara rasa into respective dhatus (tissues). Pacaka Pitta is responsible for digesting all foods, complex or easy. Dhatu agnis are selective – they digest only the part which is required to make their own dhatus. Dhatu agnis are also responsible for the breakdown of dhatus, whenever the body needs it.

When dhatu agni is manda (weak)

  • Quality of dhatu decreases.
  • Quantity of dhatu is increased

When dhatu agni is tiksna (strong)

  • Quality of dhatu decreases.
  • Quantity of dhatu is decreased (it burns dhatus)

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