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Background: Anupana is the substance taken with or after a medicine, such as water, honey, ghee, milk, buttermilk or a herbal juice, to aid its action. Classical texts prescribe specific anupanas for specific drugs and diseases, and modern authors increasingly interpret anupana as a bioavailability enhancer. Objective: To examine the classical concept of anupana in pharmacological terms and to review the experimental evidence on how vehicles and co-administered substances alter absorption and effect. Methods: A critical narrative review of classical descriptions, studies of herbal bioenhancers, and studies relevant to common anupanas. Results: The strongest evidence concerns Pippali-derived piperine, which inhibits drug-metabolising enzymes and, in human volunteers, markedly increased the bioavailability of curcumin. Lipid vehicles such as ghee can solubilise lipophilic constituents through digestion into mixed micelles, and ascorbic acid, a constituent of many acidic anupanas, increases iron uptake from Mandura bhasma in cell models. Cow urine distillate has been proposed as a bioenhancer. Direct pharmacokinetic studies of classical anupanas with Ayurvedic formulations are almost absent; one registered clinical protocol on sharkara (sugar) with Haritaki had not reported results. Conclusion: Anupana plausibly influences dissolution, absorption, metabolism and palatability, and some components have proven bioenhancing effects. Pharmacokinetic studies of formulations with and without their classical anupana are needed, and potential herb–drug interactions must be considered.