dhāraṇīya-vega: what the term means and how it is translated
dhāraṇīya-vega धारणीयवेग 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 | dhāraṇīya-vega |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | धारणीयवेग |
| Also written | dhāraṇīya-vegaḥ, dharaneeya vega, manasika/vachika/kayika vega (its three subdivisions) |
| Category, as gathered | swasthavritta |
| Grouped here 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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
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):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||
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 SamhitaSutrasthana 7:30 (carakasamhitaonline numbering) · checked against the source
पुण्यशब्दो विपापत्वान्मनोवाक्कायकर्मणाम्| धर्मार्थकामान् पुरुषः सुखी भुङ्क्ते चिनोति च||३०||
The result: sinlessness of mind, speech and body brings repute and happy enjoyment of dharma, artha and kāma.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 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.
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 HridayaSutrasthana 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 this address.
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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Confirm AH.Su.4 verse number for 'dhārayet tu sadā vegān' in a numbered Sanskrit edition.
- Resolve Kaviratna's OCR-damaged range '28-27'.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, dhāraṇīya-vega
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/dharaniya-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.