# dhāraṇīya-vega (धारणीयवेग)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/dharaniya-vega/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 5 different ways.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | dhāraṇīya-vega |
| Devanagari | धारणीयवेग |
| Also written | dhāraṇīya-vegaḥ, dharaneeya vega, manasika/vachika/kayika vega (its three subdivisions) |
| Category, as gathered | swasthavritta |
| Grouped under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 4 |
| 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.

### Suppressible urges

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.7.2: 'Emotions or thoughts which need to be expressed carefully or even suppressed or discouraged owing to the undersirable consequences of their expression, e.g. the urge to engage in adventures, extreme activities of the psyche (greed, grief, fear, anger, egoism, shamelessness/impudence, jealousy, excessive affliction and desire to acquire someone else's wealth); speech (harsh words, excessive talking, gossip intended to harm others or backbiting, lying and untimely discourse) and body (physical actions intended to trouble others, excessive indulgence in sex, stealing and forms of violence including persecution).' · comparator-standard

WHO's parent entry ITA-2.7.1 vegaḥ 'Urges': 'The natural urges are considered to be of two types: suppressible and non-suppressible'.

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.

### Urges which are suppressed. These urges are aimed towards the mental harmony. It includes urges like greed, grief, fear, anger, ego, shamelessness, jealousy, excessive attachment, desire for things possessed by others, speaking harsh words, back biting, lying, desire for other women & stealing.

NIA Jaipur / WHO-APW draft (2011) · SV0083 dhāraṇīyavega; also under vega: 'Dharaniya (Suppressible urges) such as Greed, Anger etc' · comparator-draft

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.

### these impulses also ... should suppress; the impulses of cupidity, grief, fear, wrath, pride, shamelessness, envy, violent propensities of every kind, and covetousness

Kaviratna, Charaka-Samhita (1896-1913) · Sutrasthana Lesson VII, his aphorisms 24, 26, '28-27' (OCR; probably 26-27) · public-domain-translation

Kaviratna has no noun for the category; he renders dhārayet as 'should suppress' and vega as 'impulses'.

### Restraint of psychological urges (suppressible urges)

Charak Samhita New Edition wiki (carakasamhitaonline.com), Naveganadharaniya Adhyaya · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Naveganadharaniya_Adhyaya · textbook/secondary

### urges to be suppressed; controllable urges; urges that should be controlled

Common textbook renderings · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 7 (Naveganadharaniya):26-29 (numbering as printed on carakasamhitaonline.com), checked against the source

> इमांस्तु धारयेद्वेगान् हितार्थी प्रेत्य चेह च| साहसानामशस्तानां मनोवाक्कायकर्मणाम्||२६|| लोभशोकभयक्रोधमानवेगान् विधारयेत्| नैर्लज्ज्येर्ष्यातिरागाणामभिध्यायाश्च बुद्धिमान्||२७|| परुषस्यातिमात्रस्य सूचकस्यानृतस्य च| वाक्यस्याकालयुक्तस्य धारयेद्वेगमुत्थितम्||२८|| देहप्रवृत्तिर्या काचिद्विद्यते परपीडया| स्त्रीभोगस्तेयहिंसाद्या तस्यावेगान्विधारयेत्||२९||

tr. none (Sanskrit) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Naveganadharaniya_Adhyaya

The locus classicus: one seeking welfare here and hereafter should restrain (dhārayet) the urges of rash, condemned acts of mind, speech and body; v.27 mental (greed, grief, fear, anger, pride, shamelessness, envy, excessive attachment, covetous thought), v.28 verbal (harsh, excessive, slanderous, untrue, untimely speech), v.29 bodily (acts harming others, sex, theft, violence). The compound dhāraṇīya-vega does not occur; the text says 'imāṁs tu dhārayed vegān'.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 7:30 (carakasamhitaonline numbering), checked against the source

> पुण्यशब्दो विपापत्वान्मनोवाक्कायकर्मणाम्| धर्मार्थकामान् पुरुषः सुखी भुङ्क्ते चिनोति च||३०||

tr. none (Sanskrit) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Naveganadharaniya_Adhyaya

The result: sinlessness of mind, speech and body brings repute and happy enjoyment of dharma, artha and kāma.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana Lesson VII (Kaviratna):Kaviratna's printed aphorisms 24, 25, 26-27 and 28 (Lesson VII, pp. 76-77; archive.org leaf n108) = standard Sutrasthana 7.26, 7.27, 7.28-29 and 7.30 (Trikamji, as printed on carakasamhitaonline). Two behind throughout this block. Recorded separately, not converted., checked against the source

> One desirous of one's good both here and hereafter should suppress these impulses also, viz., those of (ill-regulated) courage and all fruitless impulses of thought, word, and deed. The man of intelligence should also suppress the impulses of cupidity, grief, fear, wrath, pride, shamelessness, envy, violent propensities of every kind, and covetousness. One should also suppress the rising impulses of harshness, of doing anything that is disagreeable to others, of untruthfulness of speech, of speech that is inopportune, of whatever tendencies that exist for giving pain to others, of sexual congress, of appropriating the property of others, and of all wrongful propensities. Through sinlessness of thought, word, and deed, a person earns righteous fame, and lives happily, acquiring and enjoying religious merit, wealth, and (sources of) pleasure.

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Kaviratna's English; his footnote (translator's note, not text): 'As an example of ill-regulated courage the Commentator gives the instance of one's approaching an infuriate elephant.' In this chapter his numbers run two behind the standard.

### Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 4 (Roganutpadaniya):verse number not shown on retrieved page (conventionally 4.24)

**Quotation withheld:** nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at https://ahsutrasthana.blogspot.com/2013/10/4-roganutpadaniya.html

Vagbhata's restatement: one seeking welfare should always restrain the urges of greed, envy, hatred, malice, attachment etc. Retrieved page has evident typos (प्रत्य for प्रेत्य) and no verse numbers.

## Not to be confused with

- **adhāraṇīya-vega.** The bodily urges that must NOT be suppressed (Ca.Su.7.3-4); the opposite category, and the pair is often inverted in student writing.
- **sadvṛtta.** Positive code of conduct in Ca.Su.8; dhāraṇīya-vega is framed negatively (what to restrain) and sits inside the chapter on urges.
- **ācāra-rasāyana.** Conduct that produces rasayana effects (Ca.Ci.1.4.30-35); the NIA 2011 draft folds dhāraṇīya vega into achara rasayana, but the texts keep them apart.
- **manovega (Chakrapani's grouping).** The three subdivisions mānasika/vācika/kāyika are commentarial labels; the Samhita text itself lists by mind, speech and body without naming subtypes.

## Renderings that do not hold

- Suppressible urges. The standard rendering (WHO) but misleading in English: 'suppressible' means 'capable of being suppressed', whereas dhāraṇīya is a gerundive, 'to be restrained / that ought to be held'. The Sanskrit is an injunction, not a possibility.
- Natural urges that can be controlled. Greed, anger and theft are not 'natural urges' in the sense of the adhāraṇīya list; the two lists are categorically different (physiological vs. ethical).
- Suppression of emotions. Over-reads v.27: the text targets vegas (impulses to act) of greed, grief, anger etc., and includes speech and bodily acts, not emotional experience as such.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Confirm AH.Su.4 verse number for 'dhārayet tu sadā vegān' in a numbered Sanskrit edition.
- Resolve Kaviratna's OCR-damaged range '28-27'.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "dhāraṇīya-vega", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/dharaniya-vega/, 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.