# amla (अम्ल)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/amla/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 4 different ways.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | amla |
| Devanagari | अम्ल |
| Also written | amla rasa, amlo rasaḥ, sour taste, acid taste |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-1 |
| Grouped under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| 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.

### Sour taste, having the acid taste

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code SK0022 'amla rasa'; also DG0025 'amla': 'Sour; One among six Rasa'; and RS0011 'amla': 'Acids- medium used for various processes including purification etc' (Rasashastra sense) · comparator

Three separate entries: taste sense (SK0022, DG0025) and a Rasashastra sense where amla = acids used as processing media (RS0011). Comparator only.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### sour / the Sour Taste

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna (1896-1913), public domain · Su.1 list of six tastes (his printed no. 64); Su.26 'The Sour Taste adds relish to food...' (his printed no. 59) · public-domain translation

Consistently 'sour'. Note he also renders Pitta's quality amla as 'sour' in Su.1 (his 59).

### acid (Amla) / an acid taste

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna (1907-1916), public domain, via wisdomlib · Sutrasthana ch. XLII (Rasa-vishesha-vijnaniya) · public-domain translation

Edwardian 'acid' = sour; modern readers may hear chemical acidity. Not a doctrine.

### sour

carakasamhitaonline.com editorial translation (modern, in copyright) · Su.1.65 gloss 'Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent' · modern textbook/online edition

Rendering noted as a fact about that source; not quotable at length.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard (Trikamji, as numbered on carakasamhitaonline) 1.65; Kaviratna prints 64 AFTER the passage, checked against the source

> Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter, and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold catalogue of tastes.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Amla is one of the six rasas. Sanskrit as retrieved: स्वादुरम्लोऽथ लवणः कटुकस्तिक्त एव च| कषायश्चेति षट्कोऽयं रसानां सङ्ग्रहः स्मृतः||६५|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya). Kaviratna's number 64 is one behind the standard here; recorded by reading, not conversion.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard 26.43, sub-section (2) as printed on carakasamhitaonline '(२)|४३|'; Kaviratna prints 59 (merits) and 60 (effects of excess) after the respective paragraphs, so there is no one-to-one mapping, checked against the source

> The Sour Taste adds relish to food ; excites the digestive fire ; gives nutrition to the body ; weakens objects by entering into them, enlivens the mind ; invigorates the senses ; increases the strength ; makes the wind flow in its natural course ; cools and gratifies the heart ; causes the mouth to be filled with saliva ; assists at deglutition ; generates impurities in the body ; and contributes to general cheerfulness. It is light, warm, and oily.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Karma and guna of amla rasa (laghu, ushna, snigdha). Sanskrit as retrieved: अम्लो रसो भक्तं रोचयति, अग्निं दीपयति, देहं बृंहयति ऊर्जयति, मनो बोधयति, इन्द्रियाणि दृढीकरोति, बलं वर्धयति, वातमनुलोमयति, हृदयं तर्पयति, आस्यमास्रावयति, भुक्तमपकर्षयति क्लेदयति जरयति, प्रीणयति, लघुरुष्णः स्निग्धश्च| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Kaviratna's 'cools... the heart' renders hṛdayaṁ tarpayati (gratifies/nourishes), not a cold quality.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard 26.40 (the mahabhuta-origin prose unit ends ||४०|| on carakasamhitaonline); Kaviratna prints 54, checked against the source

> From a preponderance of the attributes of Earth and Fire, arises the Taste called Sour.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Pañcabhautika constitution of amla: pṛthvī + agni. Agrees with Bhishagratna's Sushruta ('earth and fire').

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 42 (Rasa-vishesha-vijnaniya):Sanskrit verse number not established; Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers, checked against the source

> A taste, which produces tooth-edge and increased salivation, and increases the relish for food, is called acid (Amla).

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc141672.html

Sushruta's perceptual definition (lakshana) of amla. Same chapter, same page: 'An acid taste should be regarded as a digestant of assimilated food, and is endued with resolving, appetising and carminative properties. It sets in the natural emission of flatus and urine, restores the natural movements of the bowels, lessens the tendency to spasms, and gives rise to an acid (digestive) reaction in the stomach, and to a sensation of external shivering.' and 'An acid taste is pre-eminently possessed of attributes, which belong to the elementary principles of earth and fire.'

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard number NOT established (taste-identification block near chapter end); Kaviratna prints 31, checked against the source

> From tenderness of the teeth, the appearance of saliva, of perspiration (on the body), awakening of the mouth, and a burning sensation of both the mouth and the throat, as soon as the object is placed in the mouth, one should say that its taste is Sour.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Charaka's perceptual test for amla rasa. Kaviratna's 31 is his own count in the closing verse block (which restarts); standard verse not verified.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard 1.60; Kaviratna prints 59, checked against the source

> सस्नेहमुष्णं तीक्ष्णं च द्रवमम्लं सरं कटु | विपरीतगुणैः पित्तं द्रव्यैराशु प्रशाम्यति ||६०|| Kaviratna (his 59): "Bile, which may be cold, hot, keen, soft, sour, liquid, and bitter, is speedily cured by objects having adverse attributes."

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Amla as a quality of pitta itself, not of a drug: Su 1/60 lists seven attributes of pitta, sasneha (slightly unctuous), uṣṇa, tīkṣṇa, drava, amla, sara, kaṭu, and says pitta is quickly pacified by substances of opposite qualities. Kaviratna's English matches the Sanskrit on four (hot, keen, sour, liquid) and departs from it on three ('cold' for sasneha, 'soft' for sara, 'bitter' for kaṭu). Only amla and drava are taken from this verse for the entry; the English is kept as a record of Kaviratna's rendering, with the Sanskrit as the authority.

## Not to be confused with

- **āmalakī (Emblica officinalis), marketed as 'amla'.** Hindi/commercial 'amla' is the fruit; the Sanskrit guna-term amla is the sour taste. PubMed searches for 'amla' return the fruit almost exclusively.
- **amla (Rasashastra sense).** WHO RS0011 records amla as 'acids' used as media for purification processes, a pharmaceutical sense distinct from the rasa.
- **amla as a Pitta quality.** Ca.Su.1.60 lists amla among Pitta's gunas; this describes the dosha, not a drug's rasa.
- **anurasa amla.** A sour secondary taste perceived late or faintly (Ca.Su.26.28) is not the rasa proper.
- **vidāhī.** 'Producing burning' is a karma attributed to excess amla (Ca.Su.26.43) but is not the taste itself.

## Renderings that do not hold

- acid. Bhishagratna's Edwardian usage for sour; today it implies chemical pH or 'acidic foods' and misleads.
- Indian gooseberry / amla (fruit). Conflates the taste term with the fruit āmalakī.
- cooling (for 'hṛdayaṁ tarpayati'). Kaviratna's 'cools and gratifies the heart' adds 'cools'; amla is ushna in the same sentence.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Standard verse numbers for the Charaka taste-identification block (Kaviratna 30-35) and for Sushruta Su.42 passages were not established from a Sanskrit edition.
- Whether modern taste-threshold/sensory methods (as attempted for kashaya, PMID 25558164) have been applied to amla was not found.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "amla", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/amla/, CC BY 4.0.
Whole lexicon: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.json and https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.csv.

Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been
translated. Nothing here is advice.