doṣavṛddhi: what the term means and how it is translated
doṣavṛddhi दोषवृद्धि 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 | doṣavṛddhi |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | दोषवृद्धि |
| Also written | doṣa-vṛddhi, vṛddhi, dosha vridhi, dosha increase, vṛddhi-lakṣaṇa |
| Category, as gathered | dosha-dynamics |
| Grouped here under | Dosha and its subtypes |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Aggravation of vata
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.2.1.2, Sanskrit 'vātaprakopaḥ / vātavṛddhilakṣaṇam' · standard
Significant: WHO has NO entry for doṣavṛddhi as a general concept. It appears only inside per-doṣa disorder entries, and there it is merged with prakopa under one English label. The merger is WHO's, not the classical texts'.
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.
Stage of a dosha increasing in its own location
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.6.7 (sañcayaḥ) · standard
The nearest WHO entry to 'increase of dosha' is for sañcaya, not vṛddhi.
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.
Hydrocoele and related disorders
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.45.1, Sanskrit 'vṛddhiḥ' · standard
Recorded as a trap, not as a rendering of this term. In WHO ISTA the bare headword vṛddhiḥ means hydrocoele, with vātaja-vṛddhiḥ, pittaja-vṛddhiḥ and kaphaja-vṛddhiḥ as its subtypes (ITA-5.45.2-4). A gatherer searching the standard for 'vriddhi' will land here first.
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.
Accumulation of Vata pattern (TM2) / Aggravation of vata pattern (TM2)
ICD-11 MMS v2026-01, Traditional Medicine Module 2 · SR11, SR12 · classification
ICD-11 has no 'increase of vata' for Ayurveda; it uses accumulation/aggravation/spreading/depletion. It DOES use 'Increase of Vaḷi pattern (TM2)' (SR1F) and 'Decrease of Vaḷi pattern (TM2)' (SR1J) for the Siddha triad. So increase/decrease vocabulary exists in TM2 but is reserved for Siddha, a comparator finding worth keeping.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from WHO ICD-11, 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.
increase / excess / abnormal increase
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna (1907) · Sutrasthana XV · translation
Bhishagratna uses 'excess', 'increase' and 'abnormally increased' interchangeably for the same Sanskrit.
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 17:62 · checked against the source
दोषाः प्रवृद्धाः स्वं लिङ्गं दर्शयन्ति यथाबलम्| क्षीणा जहति लिङ्गं स्वं, समाः स्वं कर्म कुवेते||६२|| / dōṣāḥ pravr̥ddhāḥ svaṁ liṅgaṁ darśayanti yathābalam| kṣīṇā jahati liṅgaṁ svaṁ, samāḥ svaṁ karma kuvētē||62||
The operational definition: increased doṣas display their own signs in proportion to the increase, depleted doṣas abandon their own signs, and balanced doṣas perform their own function. Vṛddhi is therefore defined by sign-expression, not by any quantity. NOTE: the hosting site prints 'कुवेते' where the reading should be 'कुर्वते'; the typo is reproduced here as retrieved and should be corrected against a critical edition.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 17:43-44 · checked against the source
वृद्धिक्षयकृतश्चान्यो विकल्प उपदेक्ष्यते||४३|| वृद्धिरेकस्य समता चैकस्यैकस्य सङ्क्षयः| द्वन्द्ववृद्धिः क्षयश्चैकस्यैकवृद्धिर्द्वयोः क्षयः ||४४|| / vr̥ddhikṣayakr̥taścānyō vikalpa upadēkṣyatē||43|| vr̥ddhirēkasya samatā caikasyaikasya saṅkṣayaḥ| dvandvavr̥ddhiḥ kṣayaścaikasyaikavr̥ddhirdvayōḥ kṣayaḥ ||44||
Vṛddhi and kṣaya are combinatorial: the text enumerates states in which one doṣa is increased, one normal and one decreased, and so on. The framework is a three-valued vector, not a single 'aggravated dosha'.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 15 · checked against the source
An excess of Vayu in the body is marked by such symptoms as roughness of the skin, emaciation of the body, darkness of complexion (lit: blackness of hue), a little tremor or trembling of the limbs, longing for heat, or for hot things, insomnia, thickness or increased consistency of the fecal matter and decrease of bodily strength. (Similarly, an abnormal) increase of Pitta is characterised by a sallow complexion or a yellowish colour of the skin, a general burning sensation in the body as well as insomnia, a craving for cold contacts and cooling things, diminution of strength, weakness of the sense organs, fits of fainting and yellowness of the conjunctive, stool and urine.
The sign-lists for vāta-vṛddhi and pitta-vṛddhi in lawfully quotable English.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 15 · checked against the source
An excess of Kapha in the body is marked by such symptoms, as the whiteness, coldness and numbness of the body, heaviness of the limbs, a sense of drowsiness and languor, somnolence, and a feeling of looseness of the bone-joints.
The sign-list for kapha-vṛddhi.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 15 · checked against the source
The quantities of these humours, principles and secretion, are abnormally increased through the use of substances that primarily contribute to their formation in the organism.
The causal rule for vṛddhi, i.e. like increases like. Bhishagratna's footnote records that several editions treat this as an additional text, so its status is not uniform across manuscripts.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:44 (Kaviratna prints this as aphorism 43) · checked against the source
Of all things, at all times, similarity is the cause of increase ; and dissimilarity is the cause of decrease. A tendency exists towards both.
The sāmānya-viśeṣa principle that governs all vṛddhi and kṣaya, in lawfully quotable English. Verse number confirmed independently: the Sanskrit 'sarvadā sarvabhāvānāṁ sāmānyaṁ vr̥ddhikāraṇam| hrāsahēturviśēṣaśca, pravr̥ttirubhayasya tu||44||' is numbered 44 at https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya, establishing the one-verse offset in Kaviratna's Sutrasthana numbering.
Not to be confused with
- prakopa
- The most damaging confusion in this batch. Vṛddhi is quantitative/qualitative increase; prakopa is the second stage of the six-stage kriyākāla in which the increased doṣa reaches the threshold to leave its seat. WHO ISTA merges them into one entry (ITA-5.2.1.2 'vātaprakopaḥ / vātavṛddhilakṣaṇam'), which is a standardisation decision, not a textual identity.
- sañcaya
- Sañcaya is accumulation in the doṣa's own site (WHO ITA-4.6.7), the first kriyākāla stage. Charaka's vṛddhi in Sutrasthana 17 is not stage-indexed at all.
- vṛddhi as a disease name
- In WHO ISTA and in classical nosology, bare vṛddhi denotes hydrocoele and scrotal enlargement (ITA-5.45.1, with antra-vṛddhi for hernia at ITA-5.46.1). This is a true homograph and a search trap.
- dhātu-vṛddhi
- Sushruta Sutrasthana 15 treats increase of dhātus (rasa, rakta, māṃsa, medas...) in the same chapter and with the same vocabulary. The sign-lists are different and the therapeutic response is different.
- upacaya
- A general term for accretion, used e.g. in WHO ITA-9.x śukropacayaḥ. Not stage-indexed and not doṣa-specific.
Renderings that do not hold
- aggravation. The most common English rendering, and it is really the rendering of prakopa. Using it for vṛddhi erases a distinction both Charaka and the kriyākāla scheme maintain.
- excess. Implies a quantity above a threshold. Charaka Sutrasthana 17/62 defines the state by sign-expression, not by amount, and Sushruta Sutrasthana 15 states plainly that the exact quantity of doṣas in a body cannot be laid down.
- imbalance. Too weak and too broad: it covers vṛddhi, kṣaya and vaiṣamya indifferently, and is the usual route by which the whole vocabulary collapses into one word in English health writing.
- elevated levels of dosha. Borrows laboratory register for something with no assay; there is no unit and no reference range.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Does the WHO ISTA merger of vṛddhi-lakṣaṇa and prakopa into one English term appear in every doṣa's entry or only vāta's? Only the vāta entry was read in full.
- The Devanagari compound दोषवृद्धि was not itself attested in a retrieved source; वृद्धि and दोष were each verified separately (Cha.Su.17/43-44, 17/62).
- Whether Ashtanga Hridaya's vṛddhi treatment (Sutrasthana 11) differs from Charaka's was not checked; there is no quotable English translation in any case.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, doṣavṛddhi
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/dosha-vriddhi/, 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.