āhāra: what the term means and how it is translated
āhāra आहार is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways, 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 | āhāra |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | आहार |
| Also written | āhāraḥ, anna (food, often synonymous), anna-pāna (food and drink) |
| 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.
Food
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-8.1.2: 'Any substance which is consumed for the purpose of nutrition and energy. It includes all types of food items whether eatable, biteable, drinkable, lickable or chewable.' · comparator-standard
WHO has a second entry ITA-10.2.2 'Food' with a different description: 'Food is a substance taken to sustain life and is broadly classified into liquids and solids...'
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.
food and drink
Kaviratna, Charaka-Samhita (1896-1913) · Sutrasthana Lesson XXVII opening; also 'eating' for āhāra among the three upastambhas (Lesson XI) and 'diet' passim · public-domain-translation
Food; Diet
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana Ch. XLVI (1907) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc141678.html · public-domain-translation
food; diet (ashita, khadita, pita, lidha)
Charak Samhita New Edition wiki (carakasamhitaonline.com) · textbook/secondary
diet; nutrition; food intake
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 27 (Annapanavidhi):349-350 (numbering as printed on carakasamhitaonline.com) · checked against the source
प्राणाःप्राणभृतामन्नमन्नंलोकोऽभिधावति। वर्णःप्रसादःसौस्वर्यंजीवितंप्रतिभासुखम्॥३४९॥ तुष्टिःपुष्टिर्बलंमेधासर्वमन्नेप्रतिष्ठितम्। लौकिकंकर्मयद्वृत्तौस्वर्गतौयच्चवैदिकम्॥३५०॥
Food (anna) is the life of living beings; complexion, clarity, voice, life, intelligence, happiness, contentment, nourishment, strength and intellect all rest on food. Note the verse uses anna, not āhāra.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 11 (Tistraishaniya):35 (carakasamhitaonline numbering) · checked against the source
त्रय उपस्तम्भा इति- आहारः, स्वप्नो, ब्रह्मचर्यमिति; एभिस्त्रिभिर्युक्तियुक्तैरुपस्तब्धमुपस्तम्भैः शरीरंबलवर्णोपचयोपचितमनुवर्तते यावदायुःसंस्कारात् संस्कारमहितमनुपसेवमानस्य , य इहैवोपदेक्ष्यते||३५||
Āhāra is the first of the three upastambhas (supports) of the body alongside sleep and brahmacarya.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 25 (Yajjah Purushiya):31 (carakasamhitaonline numbering) · checked against the source
तमुवाच भगवानात्रेयः- हिताहारोपयोग एक एव पुरुषवृद्धिकरो भवति, अहिताहारोपयोगः पुनर्व्याधिनिमित्तमिति [१] ||३१||
Use of hita (wholesome) āhāra alone promotes growth of the person; ahita āhāra is the cause of disease.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson XXVII (Kaviratna):Kaviratna Sutrasthana Lesson XXVII, printed p. 329 (archive.org BIUSante_47357 leaf 449), his aphorism 2 only (his printed '2' follows 'they become injurious'; his 1 closes the two opening sentences, his 3 the Agnivesa sentence) = standard Sutrasthana 27.3 (carakasamhitaonline ||3||; GRETIL Car_1,27.3). His 1 merges standard 27.1-2. · checked against the source
Physicians skilled in the science of Life say that food and drink that are agreeable in point of color, scent, taste, and touch, and consistent with the ordinances laid down, are the very Life of those living creatures that are said to be animated. This appears from the visible effects thereof. In consequence, again, of the fuel of food and drink is the existence of the (digestive) fire; Food and drink develop strength of both body and mind. If taken according to the measure that is directed, food and drink lead to the growth of the several ingredients of the body, of strength and complexion, and contribute to the cheerfulness of the senses. If taken otherwise, they become injurious.
Kaviratna renders anna-pāna as 'food and drink': the Sanskrit of this sutra is 'vidhivihitam annapānaṁ' and the chapter title annapānavidhi, which he gives as 'the ordinances relating to food and drink'. The passage says nothing about his rendering of āhāra, which does not occur in it; that half of the earlier claim needs a passage where the mula actually has āhāra.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana XLVI (Annapana-vidhi; Bhishagratna's chapter number):Sanskrit verse number not established (Bhishagratna prints none) · checked against the source
Food is the source of the growth, strength, and healthful glow of organic beings. It is food that imparts strength to the organs of sense and makes them operative in their respective fields of action. It is irregularity (Vaishamya) of diet which brings about ill-health. Diet may be divided into four kinds such as, solid food, (Ashitha) drink, Līdham (food taken by licking), and the Khadita (food that is chewn and assimilated only for the enjoyment of a specific taste).
Sushruta's statement of food as source of strength and the four modes of intake (ashita, pita, lidha, khadita).
The concept record for this term
A term entry answers what the word means. It does not answer whether the thing the word names is settled, and often it is not. That is what the concept record is for: it sets out the questions on which the sources disagree about this term, with each position attributed, and states what is not established.
Not to be confused with
- anna
- 'Food/cooked grain'; often interchangeable (Ca.Su.27 uses anna in the key verse) but anna can mean specifically cooked rice/grain.
- pathya
- Pathya is the wholesome subset of āhāra and vihāra; āhāra is the whole category of food.
- auṣadha
- Medicine; Ayurveda treats food and medicine as a continuum (āhāra as the 'great medicine'), but the categories remain distinct in the texts.
- vihāra
- Activities/regimen (WHO ITA-10.2.14), the behavioural counterpart to āhāra.
Renderings that do not hold
- Diet. In modern English 'diet' connotes a restrictive or prescribed regimen; āhāra is simply what is eaten. Acceptable only when context makes it neutral.
- Nutrition. A biochemical abstraction; āhāra is the ingested substance, and the texts classify it by mode of intake (eaten, drunk, licked, chewed), not nutrient content.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Standard verse numbers for the Ca.Su.27 opening prose (Kaviratna 1-3) were not established.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, āhāra
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/ahara/, 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.