Where Ayurvedic theory disagrees with itself

Ayurvedic theory is usually written about as though it were settled. It is not. These 28 concept records hold 147 questions on which the sources genuinely disagree, with 461 positions given as their sources state them, and 384 statements of what is not established. Where Charaka and Sushruta differ, this says so and says which is which.

No question below is answered with a pick. The answer to a contested question is the disagreement, attributed. Where a concept has no established physical referent, the record says that in those words rather than implying one.

What is here

Concepts	28, with 4 withheld as not yet verified
Contested questions	147
Attributed positions	461
Stated as not known	384
Classical citations	389, 338 quoting the text
Research papers assessed	249
Component terms	267, 67 cross-linked to the terminology lexicon

Every contested question

Each links to the concept that holds it, where the competing positions are set out with their sources.

How the body is held to work

• Is agni identical with pitta, or distinct from it? · Agni and digestion, 3 positions
• How many agnis are there? · Agni and digestion, 3 positions
• Do the four agni states map onto the doshas in the conventional way? · Agni and digestion, 2 positions
• Are the four agni states discrete types or points on a continuum? · Agni and digestion, 2 positions
• Are the four agni states four kinds of person, or three derangements of one person's fire plus one normal state? · Agni and digestion, 4 positions
• How is samagni, the balanced state, actually defined? · Agni and digestion, 4 positions
• Is an agni state a stable trait of the person, or a condition that comes and goes? · Agni and digestion, 3 positions
• How long does the full transformation from rasa to shukra take, and do the two texts actually disagree? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 5 positions
• Is agni a single principle identical with pitta, and how many dhatvagnis are there? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 6 positions
• Are the three nyayas competing explanations or complementary aspects of one process? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 3 positions
• Is nutrient supply to tissues sequential or simultaneous? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 2 positions
• Is ojas an eighth dhatu produced at the end of the chain? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 2 positions
• Does the three-fold resolution of each stage belong to the texts, to Dalhana, or to the translator? · Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition, 3 positions
• Is sattva a guna, a dosha, or the mind itself? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 4 positions
• Is mental constitution a fixed trait or a current state? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 4 positions
• What is sattvavajaya, operationally? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 5 positions
• Does the manasa disease category require dosha involvement? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 4 positions
• Do the sixteen sattva types have any modern referent? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 4 positions
• Is the graded sattva of Vimana 8 the same construct as the triguna of Sharira 4? · Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health, 4 positions
• What is ojas, materially? · Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease, 7 positions
• Is there a para/apara division, and what are the quantities? · Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease, 4 positions
• What is the modern correlate of ojas, if any? · Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease, 5 positions
• Is ojas equivalent to immunity at all? · Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease, 3 positions
• Is ojo-kshaya at its extreme truly incurable? · Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease, 2 positions
• What exactly does the mental clause, prasanna atmendriya manah, require? · Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health, 3 positions
• Which classical definition is authoritative? · Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health, 3 positions
• Is swasthya a binary state or a continuum? · Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health, 2 positions
• Does the definition anticipate the WHO 1948 definition? · Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health, 2 positions
• Can the clauses of the definition be ascertained reliably by trained clinicians, as opposed to by questionnaire? · Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health, 3 positions
• Are there three doshas or four factors? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 3 positions
• Is agni a separate principle or a function of pitta? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 3 positions
• Do the doshas denote substances, functions, or regulatory systems? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 3 positions
• Do the prakriti genomics findings validate tridosha? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 3 positions
• Is prakriti fixed for life? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 2 positions
• Are the fifteen subdosha names classical text or commentary? · Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body, 3 positions
• Does rakta kshaya denote anaemia? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 3 positions
• Does an increase in one dhatu necessarily increase the next? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 3 positions
• Is the object of vriddhi and kshaya quantity or quality? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 2 positions
• Are kshaya of a dhatu and vriddhi of a dosha the same event described twice? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 2 positions
• Is sthaulya (obesity) medo-vriddhi? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 3 positions
• Does Sushruta Sutrasthana 15 state the causes of kshaya? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 3 positions
• Does Su.Su.15.17 warn against reducing a constituent below normal? · Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of, 2 positions
• Is vyadhikshamatva the same as immunity? · Vyadhikshamatva: resistance to disease, 3 positions
• Is ojas a substance or a principle? · Vyadhikshamatva: resistance to disease, 4 positions
• Is vyadhikshamatva primarily constitutional or modifiable? · Vyadhikshamatva: resistance to disease, 4 positions
• Where does the two-part analysis of vyadhikshamatva come from? · Vyadhikshamatva: resistance to disease, 3 positions

How disease is held to arise

• What is ama? A product of failed digestion, or the doshas themselves? · Ama and its formation, 3 positions
• Is ama a localized gut phenomenon or a systemic circulating entity? · Ama and its formation, 3 positions
• Does the Ama score measure ama, or does it measure disease activity? · Ama and its formation, 3 positions
• Is coated tongue a valid sign of ama? · Ama and its formation, 3 positions
• Is ama-visha a distinct toxic entity or a descriptive label? · Ama and its formation, 2 positions
• Are there three modes of faulty contact or four? · Asatmyendriyartha-samyoga (unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects), 3 positions
• Is asatmya absolute or individual? · Asatmyendriyartha-samyoga (unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects), 3 positions
• Is this cause genuinely distinct from prajnaparadha? · Asatmyendriyartha-samyoga (unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects), 4 positions
• What does mithyayoga actually pick out? · Asatmyendriyartha-samyoga (unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects), 3 positions
• How many classifications are there, and which is primary? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 5 positions
• Is the nija/agantu distinction stable? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 3 positions
• Are the nanatmaja counts of 80, 40 and 20 a taxonomy or a mnemonic? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 3 positions
• Should Ayurvedic categories be mapped into ICD, or kept separate? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 3 positions
• Does a classification that always terminates in the doshas classify anything? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 3 positions
• Does the constitution-genomics line bear on disease classification at all? · Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga), 4 positions
• Where does the compound 'dosha-dushya-sammurchana' come from? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• Is sammurchana a distinct event, or just a name for the sthana-samshraya stage? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• What determines the site of lodgement? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• Is dosha alone sufficient, or is a susceptible dushya necessary? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• What does sammurchana mean? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• Should the headword be kept at all? · Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue), 3 positions
• Which mechanism does time act by? · Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease), 4 positions
• Is ageing and death a disease category or an exclusion from it? · Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease), 3 positions
• Is time a coordinate cause or the dominant one? · Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease), 3 positions
• How many seasons, and whose calendar? · Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease), 3 positions
• How wide is the category? Charaka gives two definitions that do not obviously coincide. · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 4 positions
• Is prajnaparadha genuinely independent of the other two general causes? · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 3 positions
• Is prajnaparadha a moral category, a cognitive one, or both? · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 4 positions
• Does prajnaparadha make Ayurvedic etiology unfalsifiable? Added in answer to a critic finding. · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 4 positions
• Does the category import blame onto the sick, and is it clinical or moral in use? Added in answer to a critic finding. This sharpens the moral-or-cognitive question above into a question about who is held at fault. · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 4 positions
• Is prajnaparadha one of three parallel causes, or the cause of the other two? Added in answer to a critic finding. · Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease), 5 positions
• What exactly does shakha cover? · Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease), 3 positions
• What is the extent of koshtha? · Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease), 3 positions
• How should the dual-pathway (ubhaya marga) diseases be understood? · Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease), 4 positions
• Is the middle pathway really the hardest to cure? · Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease), 4 positions
• Does roga-marga correspond to any modern physiological division? · Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease), 4 positions
• Does samprapti actually drive individualised Ayurvedic prescribing, as the curriculum claims? · Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis), 2 positions
• Are the 'samprapti ghataka' a classical list or a modern teaching device? · Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis), 2 positions
• Verse numbering of the key Charaka passages. · Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis), 3 positions
• Whether samprapti descriptions for modern disease entities are discoveries or restatements. · Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis), 2 positions
• Are samprapti's analytic heads five or six? · Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis), 3 positions
• How many srotas are there, and what are their roots? · Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti, 4 positions
• Is srotas the same category as sira and dhamani? · Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti, 4 positions
• What does 'kha' or channel space denote physically? · Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti, 3 positions
• Is the four-mode srotodushti scheme exhaustive and mutually exclusive? · Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti, 4 positions

Examination and assessment

• Is the five-limbed set canonical, or a later editorial convention? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 3 positions
• Is rupa the third limb, or is it linga? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 2 positions
• Does samprapti individualise treatment in actual practice? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 2 positions
• Is upashaya a diagnostic instrument or an early therapeutic trial? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 2 positions
• Is samprapti subdivided into five headings or six? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 2 positions
• What is the relation between nidana-panchaka and Sushruta's shatkriyakala? · Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame), 3 positions
• Is the classification three-fold or four-fold? · Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat), 4 positions
• Is refusing an incurable case an ethical duty or professional self-protection? · Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat), 4 positions
• Should a terminal prognosis be disclosed? · Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat), 4 positions
• Do arishta signs have prognostic content? · Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat), 5 positions
• Is yapya a useful category today? · Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat), 5 positions
• Is nadi pariksha a legitimate part of classical Ayurvedic diagnosis? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 2 positions
• What is the relation between vikriti and the disease diagnosis? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 2 positions
• Is high raw agreement on a final diagnosis evidence of a working method? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 2 positions
• Can vikriti be assessed without first establishing prakriti, and is the pair circular? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 3 positions
• Is ama a measurable state? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 2 positions
• Does instrumenting the pulse escape the reliability problem? · Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state), 2 positions

Principles of treatment

• Is chikitsa sutra a genuine decision procedure or a post-hoc rationalisation of choices made on other grounds? · Chikitsa Sutra (principles governing treatment choice), 4 positions
• What is the correct relation between hetu-viparita (opposite to cause) and vyadhi-viparita (opposite to disease) when the two point to different measures? · Chikitsa Sutra (principles governing treatment choice), 4 positions
• Does daivavyapashraya (invocatory therapy) belong inside the therapeutic system or is it a historical residue? · Chikitsa Sutra (principles governing treatment choice), 3 positions
• What are the five karmas? · Panchakarma rationale, 5 positions
• Do the preparatory steps have an independent rationale or are they part of the eliminative act? · Panchakarma rationale, 4 positions
• Does purification kindle the digestive fire or dull it? · Panchakarma rationale, 4 positions
• Is panchakarma a treatment, a preparatory measure, or a seasonal health practice? · Panchakarma rationale, 3 positions
• What does the Peterson 2016 metabolomic finding show? · Panchakarma rationale, 2 positions
• What can be said about the safety of panchakarma? · Panchakarma rationale, 4 positions
• Is prior shodhana actually necessary for rasayana to work? · Rasayana theory, 3 positions
• Is rasayana a pharmacological category or a regimen? · Rasayana theory, 4 positions
• Does achara rasayana claim that conduct replaces the drug, or that conduct conditions it? · Rasayana theory, 3 positions
• Which English rendering of Charaka's rasayana outcome list is correct? · Rasayana theory, 3 positions
• What plants do the classical medhya rasayana names denote, and does the single-herb trial literature test them? · Rasayana theory, 4 positions
• Do the classical rasayana formulations share any common active principle? · Rasayana theory, 2 positions
• Where does the kamya / naimittika / ajasrika classification come from? · Rasayana theory, 2 positions
• Is shamana genuinely less durable than shodhana? · Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification), 4 positions
• Is shodhana the opposite of shamana, or a species of langhana that contains shamana measures as a sibling? · Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification), 4 positions
• What counts as shodhana? · Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification), 3 positions
• Should shamana be given after shodhana as a matter of course? · Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification), 3 positions
• Are the classical shodhana-eligibility lists mutually consistent? · Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification), 4 positions

Regimen and prevention

• How many kinds of viruddha are there? · Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara), 2 positions
• Is viruddha ahara an absolute hazard or a conditional one? · Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara), 3 positions
• Does 'eat after the previous meal is digested' mean a fixed interval or a symptom-based judgement? · Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara), 2 positions
• Is 'eat warm, unctuous food' a digestibility rule or a doshic rule? · Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara), 2 positions
• Do the texts agree that eating before the previous meal is digested is always a fault? · Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara), 2 positions
• Is the 'dosha clock' of the day, kapha in the morning, pitta at midday, vata in the evening, and so on, a classical doctrine? · Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen, 2 positions
• When should one rise? · Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen, 3 positions
• Is abhyanga appropriate for everyone daily? · Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen, 3 positions
• Is daily vigorous exercise prescribed or restricted? · Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen, 3 positions
• Where do the boundaries of adana and visarga fall, and which season starts the year? · Ritucharya: the classical rationale for seasonal regimen, 2 positions
• Does a dosha accumulating in a season need treating in that season, or only when it manifests in the next? · Ritucharya: the classical rationale for seasonal regimen, 3 positions
• How should ritucharya be applied outside the north Indian calendar and climate? · Ritucharya: the classical rationale for seasonal regimen, 2 positions
• Is 'unseasonal weather causes epidemics' a public-health observation or a moral doctrine? · Ritucharya: the classical rationale for seasonal regimen, 2 positions
• Does suppressing urges cause disease, or does disease cause the suppression? · Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges, 3 positions
• Is shukra vega (semen) genuinely non-suppressible? · Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges, 2 positions
• Is the list thirteen items long, and is it the same across Charaka, Sushruta and Vagbhata? · Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges, 2 positions
• Are the mental urges to be suppressed a medical doctrine or an ethical one? · Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges, 2 positions
• Is udavarta the classical umbrella name for all disorders of suppressed urges? · Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges, 2 positions

The concepts themselves

Each page states how much weight the concept bears before it explains the concept, because that is the thing a reader most needs and least often gets.

How the body is held to work 8

• Agni and digestion

  7 contested, 13 stated unknown, 14 papers assessed.

• Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition

  6 contested, 15 stated unknown, 5 papers assessed.

• Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health

  6 contested, 17 stated unknown, 10 papers assessed.

• Ojas and the Ayurvedic Account of Resistance to Disease

  5 contested, 14 stated unknown, 11 papers assessed.

• Swasthya: the Ayurvedic definition of health

  5 contested, 14 stated unknown, 9 papers assessed.

• Tridosha: vata, pitta and kapha as the regulatory principles of the body

  6 contested, 15 stated unknown, 19 papers assessed.

• Vriddhi and Kshaya: What the Body Has Too Much and Too Little Of

  7 contested, 13 stated unknown, 8 papers assessed.

• Vyadhikshamatva: resistance to disease

  4 contested, 13 stated unknown, 6 papers assessed.

How disease is held to arise 9

• Ama and its formation

  5 contested, 11 stated unknown, 11 papers assessed.

• Asatmyendriyartha-samyoga (unwholesome contact of the senses with their objects)

  4 contested, 13 stated unknown, 10 papers assessed.

• Disease classification in Ayurveda (vyadhi-vibhaga)

  6 contested, 13 stated unknown, 10 papers assessed.

• Dosha-dushya-sammurchana (a modern Ayurvedic term for the meeting of disturbed dosha and susceptible tissue)

  6 contested, 13 stated unknown, 6 papers assessed.

• Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease)

  4 contested, 13 stated unknown, 9 papers assessed.

• Prajnaparadha (error of judgement as a cause of disease)

  6 contested, 14 stated unknown, 8 papers assessed.

• Roga-marga (the three pathways of disease)

  5 contested, 12 stated unknown, 6 papers assessed.

• Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis)

  5 contested, 11 stated unknown, 10 papers assessed.

• Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti

  4 contested, 12 stated unknown, 9 papers assessed.

Examination and assessment 3

• Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame)

  6 contested, 13 stated unknown, 8 papers assessed.

• Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat)

  5 contested, 14 stated unknown, 10 papers assessed.

• Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state)

  6 contested, 19 stated unknown, 12 papers assessed.

Principles of treatment 4

• Chikitsa Sutra (principles governing treatment choice)

  3 contested, 13 stated unknown, 9 papers assessed.

• Panchakarma rationale

  6 contested, 12 stated unknown, 9 papers assessed.

• Rasayana theory

  7 contested, 11 stated unknown, 11 papers assessed.

• Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification)

  5 contested, 11 stated unknown, 5 papers assessed.

Regimen and prevention 4

• Ahara vidhi: dietary principles and incompatible food (viruddha ahara)

  5 contested, 13 stated unknown, 8 papers assessed.

• Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen

  4 contested, 14 stated unknown, 4 papers assessed.

• Ritucharya: the classical rationale for seasonal regimen

  4 contested, 15 stated unknown, 4 papers assessed.

• Vega dharana: suppressible and non-suppressible urges

  5 contested, 23 stated unknown, 8 papers assessed.

What is withheld, and why

A concept publishes here only when every quoted classical citation in it has been read against its source and carries a verdict, and no refutation against it is outstanding. 4 records are held back on that rule: three because a repair came back needing a human judgement, and one because part of its citation set has not been read yet. A quotation is withheld if it cannot be cleared for publication or if nobody has checked it, and the citation still publishes its address and our account of it, because an address a reader can follow to a library is most of the value.

Download

concepts.json and concepts.csv, CC BY 4.0. The JSON keeps the record structure. The CSV is one row per attributed position, 461 of them, because the position is the atom: group the rows by question to get the per-question view back.

Exported 2026-10-08 from the concept corpus, so this cannot drift from it. Machine-readable twin of every concept page: append .md to its URL.