adhāraṇīya-vega: what the term means and how it is translated
adhāraṇīya-vega अधारणीयवेग is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways across 6 sources, which is the reason this page exists: the renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean.
| Transliteration | adhāraṇīya-vega |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | अधारणीयवेग |
| Also written | adhāraṇīya-vegaḥ, adharaneeya vega, vegadharana (the act of suppressing them) |
| Category, as gathered | swasthavritta |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-07 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Non-suppressible urges
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.7.3; description: 'The natural urges of the body which should not be curbed or inhibited, i.e. passage of urine, stools, semen, vomiting, sneezing, burping, yawning, hunger, thirst, tears, sleep and breath. Their inhibition results in a multitude of disorders.' · comparator-standard
WHO lists 12 items (omits śrama-śvāsa qualification; Charaka's list is 13 with niḥśvāsa śrameṇa).
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Non- suppressible urges-Suppression of natural urges which may end up with acute and chronic diseases. Natural urges are viz urge of flatus,faeces,urine,yawning,tears,eruction,vomiting,semen,hunger,thirst,dyspnoea sleep.
NIA Jaipur / WHO-APW draft (2011) · SV0014 · comparator-draft
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
urgings of nature; the calls of Nature
Kaviratna, Charaka-Samhita (1896-1913) · Sutrasthana Lesson VII: 'the inadvisability of suppressing the urgings of nature'; 'born of suppressing the calls of Nature' · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna never uses the term adhāraṇīya; the concept appears only as 'urgings ... should not suppress'.
natural urging(s)
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita Uttara-tantra Ch. LV (1916) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-6-uttara-tantra/d/doc143073.html · public-domain-translation
Non-suppressible urges
Charak Samhita New Edition wiki (carakasamhitaonline.com), Naveganadharaniya Adhyaya · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Naveganadharaniya_Adhyaya · textbook/secondary
natural urges that should not be suppressed; unsuppressible urges; non-suppressible reflexes
Common textbook renderings · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
The classical passages
Each citation gives its address so a reader can check it in a printed edition, our account of what the passage establishes, and the result of reading it against its source.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 7 (Naveganadharaniya):3-4 (numbering as printed on carakasamhitaonline.com) · checked against the source
न वेगान् धारयेद्धीमाञ्जातान् मूत्रपुरीषयोः| न रेतसो न वातस्य न छर्द्याः क्षवथोर्न च||३|| नोद्गारस्य न जृम्भाया न वेगान् क्षुत्पिपासयोः| न बाष्पस्य न निद्राया निःश्वासस्य श्रमेण च||४||
The list of 13 urges not to be suppressed: urine, faeces, semen, flatus, vomiting, sneezing, belching, yawning, hunger, thirst, tears, sleep, and breathing from exertion. The chapter's own title (7.1 अथातो नवेगान्धारणीयमध्यायं व्याख्यास्यामः) is the phrase 'na vegān dhāraṇīya'; the passage says nothing about when the compound adhāraṇīya-vega came into use.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 7:25 (carakasamhitaonline numbering) · checked against the source
वेगनिग्रहजा रोगा य एते परिकीर्तिताः| इच्छंस्तेषामनुत्पत्तिं वेगानेतान्न धारयेत्||२५||
Summary injunction: one wishing to avoid vega-nigraha-ja diseases should not hold these urges.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson VII (Kaviratna):Kaviratna's printed numbers (page images, archive.org BIUSante_47357 leaves 104-105 = printed pp. 73-74): '1' after '...vomitting and sneezing' (p. 73) and '3' after '...pronounced forms' (p. 74); no '2' is printed, his paragraph covering standard 4 and 5 carries only the closing '3'. His next numbers '*4', '†5', '6', '7' sit on standard 6, 7, 8, 9. Standard address of the quote: Su 7.3-5 (carakasamhitaonline: ||३|| ||४|| and एतान् धारयतो जातान् वेगान् रोगा भवन्ति ये | पृथक्पृथक्चिकित्सार्थं तान्मे निगदतः शृणु ||५||). Recorded separately, not converted. · checked against the source
One endued with intelligence should not suppress urgings, that have become pronounced, in respect of urine and faeces ; as also of the semen and the wind, and of vomitting and sneezing. The urgings also in respect of eructations, of yawns, of hunger and of thirst, of tears, of sleep, and of heavy breathing induced by toil (should not to be suppressed). Listen now to me as I discourse (to you) on the topic of treating the several diseases that are generated of the person who suppresses the urgings of these when they appear in pronounced forms.
Kaviratna's English of the 13-urge list and of the transition verse (std 7.5). In this chapter his printed numbers sit two behind the standard (his 1 = std 3, his 3 = std 5, his 4 = std 6), with no '2' printed; this is a measured local fact and must not be generalised to other chapters.
Sushruta SamhitaUttara-tantra LV (Udavarta-pratishedha; Bhishagratna's chapter number):Bhishagratna's section 2 (his own numbering, not Sanskrit verse numbers) · checked against the source
Udavarta is so called from its origin from the repression of any natural urging such as Vata (flatus), evacuation of bowels, micturition, yawning, lacrimation, sneezing, eructation, vomiting and discharge of semen...
Sushruta treats the suppressed urges as the cause of the disease group udāvarta (13 varieties per PMID 22556468) rather than in a swasthavritta chapter.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 4 (Roganutpadaniya):1 (verse numbers not printed on the retrieved page; conventionally 4.1)
Quotation withheld: nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at this address.
Vagbhata's list adds kāsa (cough) and reads 14 items; chapter is titled 'prevention of disease'. Retrieved page shows the Sanskrit with evident typos (क्षवतृट्क्षुधाम्) and no verse numbers.
Not to be confused with
- dhāraṇīya-vega
- The urges that SHOULD be restrained (greed, grief, anger, harsh speech, violence, etc.), Ca.Su.7.26-29; the opposite category.
- udāvarta
- The disease produced by suppressing urges (Su.Ut.55), not the urge itself.
- vega-dhāraṇa / vega-vidhāraṇa
- The act of suppressing; adhāraṇīya-vega names the urges.
- vega (ICD/TM2 sense)
- In toxicology and fever contexts vega means a paroxysm/impulse of poison (NIA 2011: vegāntara 'interval between two attacks'); unrelated.
Renderings that do not hold
- Suppressible urges. Direct inversion; adhāraṇīya means not-to-be-held.
- Natural reflexes. Hunger, thirst, sleep and tears are not reflexes in the physiological sense; 'urge' is the sense intended.
- 13 urges (as fixed number). Charaka lists 13, Vagbhata 14 (adds cough), WHO 2022 lists 12; the count is text-dependent.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Verify Kaviratna's second aphorism number (OCR shows '3' where '2' is expected).
- Verify AH.Su.4.1 verse number against a numbered Sanskrit edition.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, adhāraṇīya-vega
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/adharaniya-vega/, CC BY 4.0.
The whole lexicon is downloadable from the index.
Machine-readable source: Markdown.
Data exported 2026-10-08.
Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been translated. Nothing here is advice, and nothing here describes how any condition should be treated.