asādhya: what the term means and how it is translated
asādhya असाध्य is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 8 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 | asādhya |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | असाध्य |
| Also written | asādhya-roga, asādhyatā, pratyākhyeya (the untreatable sub-class), anupakrama |
| Category, as gathered | prognosis (sādhyāsādhyatā) |
| Grouped here under | Causation and the course of disease |
| 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.
Diseases that are incurable (asādhyarogaḥ, ITA-4.2.41): 'Diseases which are incurable owing to the implication of all dosha, multiple structural components and channels.'
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.41, p.105 (PDF page 123) · comparator
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.
Prognosis (sādhyāsādhyatā, ITA-4.2.37): 'The classification of diseases based on their prognosis as either curable or incurable.'
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.37 · comparator
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.
Diseases that are terminal (pratyākhyeyarogaḥ, ITA-4.2.43): 'Diseases and conditions which cannot be successfully cured despite the best available care.'
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.43, p.106 · comparator
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.
Diseases that can be palliated (yāpyarogaḥ, ITA-4.2.42)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.42, p.106 · comparator
WHO treats yāpya as a sibling of asādhya rather than a sub-class of it, unlike Caraka Su. 10/9.
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.
incurable
Kaviratna, Charaka-Samhita (1896-1913) · Sutrasthana Lesson X, printed pp. 110-111 · public-domain translation
'incurable diseases ... those that are capable of being suppressed, and those that have no treatment' (yāpya / anupakrama)
Kaviratna · Sutrasthana Lesson X, his aphorism 3 · public-domain translation
'a case which is beyond all medical treatment'; 'incurable (lit: fit to be pronounced as hopeless)'
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1907-1916) · Sutrasthana ch. X and ch. XXXV · public-domain translation
Asadhyata (one of three prognostic scoring categories alongside Sukha sadhyata and Krichra sadhyata)
NAMASTE portal, as described in secondary literature (web search result) · comparator (indirect) · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Not verified on the portal itself.
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.
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10 (Mahācatuṣpāda Adhyāya):Trikamji/standard 10/9 (Sanskrit, carakasamhitaonline). Kaviratna prints '3' AFTER this passage (his aphorism 3; his numbering in this block runs six behind the standard). Standard number read directly from the Sanskrit source, not converted. · checked against the source
सुखसाध्यं मतं साध्यं कृच्छ्रसाध्यमथापि च| द्विविधं चाप्यसाध्यं स्याद्याप्यं यच्चानुपक्रमम् ||९||
asādhya is twofold: yāpya (palliable) and anupakrama (not amenable to treatment).
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10, Kaviratna Lesson X, printed p. 110:Kaviratna's aphorism 3 (number printed after the passage, on his printed p. 109, archive.org leaf 156; NOT p. 110) = Trikamji Sutrasthana 10/9 (carakasamhitaonline ||९||). Lesson X restarts his count at the verses: his 1-4 = standard 7-10. · checked against the source
As regards curable diseases, they are of two kinds, viz., those that are easily curable and those that are curable with difficulty. Incurable diseases, also, are of two kinds, viz., those that are capable of being suppressed, and those that have no treatment.
Public-domain English for the fourfold prognosis; renders asādhya 'incurable', yāpya 'capable of being suppressed', anupakrama 'have no treatment'.
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10:standard 10/19-20 (Sanskrit); Kaviratna's '12-14' covers standard 18-20 as one block · checked against the source
...तद्वत्प्रत्याख्येयं त्रिदोषजम्| क्रियापथमतिक्रान्तं सर्वमार्गानुसारिणम्||१९|| औत्सुक्यारतिसम्मोहकरमिन्द्रियनाशनम्| दुर्बलस्य सुसंवृद्धं व्याधिं सारिष्टमेव च||२०||
Features of the pratyākhyeya (to-be-refused) disease: tridoṣaja, beyond the path of treatment, following all channels, causing anxiety/restlessness/confusion, destroying the senses, well-grown in a weak patient, with ariṣṭa signs.
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10, Kaviratna Lesson X, printed p. 111:Kaviratna's '12-14' (printed after); corresponds to standard 18-20 read together · checked against the source
When the disease is deeply ingrained (into the marrow and such other constituents of the body), when it affects many of the constituent parts, when it is attached to the vital limbs and joints of the body, when it manifests itself continuously, when it is chronic and very old, when it is born of the derangement of two of the three ingredients (of wind, bile, and phlegm) or of all the three, when it is beyond the operation of treatment, when it affects all the organs, when the patient is thoroughly cheerless and despairing, when the disease is characterised by a stupefaction of the mind, when the disease weakens the strength of all the organs (of knowledge and action), when the disease has reached the highest limit of aggravation and the patient has become entirely strengthless, and lastly when the disease exhibits indications of the patient's dissolution, it should be regarded as one that should not be taken up for treatment.
Kaviratna's English for the pratyākhyeya features. Note he folds the dvidoṣaja features of standard v.18 (which the Sanskrit assigns to yāpya) into the 'not to be taken up' block; carakasamhitaonline reads 17-18 as yāpya and 19-20 as pratyākhyeya.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 10 (Bhishagratna ch. X, 'Essential qualifications of a physician'); Sanskrit verse number not established (Bhishagratna prints none; no numbered Sanskrit edition was reachable) · checked against the source
Having made these observations the physician will try to cure diseases that are curable, adopt palliative measures in cases where palliation is the only remedy that can be offered, and give up a case which is beyond all medical treatment, and mostly those which are of more than a year's standing.
Sushruta's threefold practical stance: cure the curable, palliate the palliable, give up the untreatable.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 35 (Bhishagratna ch. XXXV, 'Examination of the patient'); Sanskrit verse number not established · checked against the source
All the diseases, whose names have been specifically enumerated before, may be grouped under any of the three different heads as the curable, the suppressible (Yapya) and the incurable (lit: fit to be pronounced as hopeless).
Sushruta's threefold prognosis: sādhya, yāpya, asādhya (pratyākhyeya, glossed 'fit to be pronounced as hopeless').
Not to be confused with
- yāpya
- In Caraka Su. 10/9 yāpya is a SUB-class of asādhya (palliable but not curable). WHO 2022 lists yāpyarogaḥ as a separate category beside asādhyarogaḥ; Sushruta Su. 35 (Bhishagratna) also lists three parallel heads. The lexicon should not present one scheme as 'the' Ayurvedic one.
- pratyākhyeya / anupakrama
- The untreatable sub-class of asādhya ('to be refused', 'no treatment'). WHO renders pratyākhyeya 'terminal', which imports a modern end-of-life sense.
- kṛcchrasādhya
- Curable with difficulty is still sādhya; conflating 'difficult' with 'incurable' is the commonest error.
- ariṣṭa
- Ariṣṭa are fatal signs (Indriyasthana); their presence is one criterion of pratyākhyeya (Su. 10/20 'sāriṣṭam'), not a synonym of asādhya.
Renderings that do not hold
- terminal (for asādhya generally). Asādhya includes yāpya conditions (WHO's own example: persistent diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma), which are chronic, not terminal.
- fatal. Kaviratna's commentary note explicitly says incurable diseases may be 'quickly fatal or the reverse'; incurability and fatality are separate axes.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether the lexicon adopts Caraka's nested scheme (asādhya ⊃ yāpya, anupakrama) or the flat three/four-way scheme used by WHO and implied by Bhishagratna's Su. 35.
- Sushruta Sanskrit verse numbers for the Su. 10 and Su. 35 passages (needs a numbered Sanskrit edition; NIIMH e-Sushruta is JS-driven and could not be read).
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, asādhya
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/asadhya/, 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.