Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Buffalo milk (Bubalus bubalis), of the Bovidae (Mammalia) family. The water buffalo — a large slate-grey ruminant with swept-back crescent horns, wallowing by habit, kept for milk and draught; native range: the water buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, kept for milk and draught across the plains and the deltas. Globally recognized as mahiṣī kṣīra in Sanskrit, bhains ka doodh in Hindi, and buffalo milk, water-buffalo milk in English. The part used is the milk, fresh. Opaque and chalk-white — whiter than cow's milk, with none of its yellow — noticeably thick and rich on the tongue, sweet, and slower to leave the mouth.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
BUFFALO MILK
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- buffalo milk
- Scientific name
- Bubalus bubalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Family
- Bovidae (Mammalia)
Form
- Part used
- the milk, fresh
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sheeta) — colder than cow's milk
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- nidrakara (brings sleep), brimhana (builds the body), vrishya (aphrodisiac), sheetala (cools), and balya (strengthens)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- mandagni (weak digestive fire) and ama; kapha disorders, sthaulya (obesity) and medoroga; chronic congestion and heaviness; and any condition where sleep and dullness are already the complaint
- Toxicity
- a food, non-toxic; its heaviness is the whole of the caution
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