There is a very popular trend, that a person is asked to drink a minimum of 2-3litres of water daily. Keeping that in mind, one should remember that everything we eat needs to get digested, even if it's water.
Bhavaprakhasa text has given precise information with regards to the digestion(parinamana) of water.
Jala paka kala—time for digestion of water.
Uncooked water gets digested in one yama (3 hours), boiled and cooled water in half yama (1½ hours), boiled and slightly warm water in half of that (¾ hours)—these are three periods of time for digestion of water.
So one should not drink water unnecessarily, as even drinking water puts a load on the action of one's Agni. Water should be taken as and when one feels thirsty. Even the food we eat has liquid content, which should also be counted into the total water to be consumed daily.
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