# drava (द्रव)

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

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 | drava |
| Devanagari | द्रव |
| Also written | drava guna, liquid, liquidity, fluidity |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-1 |
| Grouped under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| 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.

### Liquid; one among the 20 gurvadi guna

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code DG0075 'drava' · comparator

Minimal entry; no mahabhuta or karma stated (unlike guru, kaṭhina entries).

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.

### liquid

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 (his 59) Pitta 'liquid'; Su.22 (his 13, 14) snehana/svedana lists 'liquid'; Su.26 (his 23) water-dominant objects 'principally liquid' · public-domain translation

Consistent 'liquid' for the guna.

### solubility (for dravānta, 'ending with drava')

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.26 his 21 (= standard 26.10): 'heaviness, &c., ending with solubility' · public-domain translation

Odd rendering: drava is liquidity, not solubility. Translator's word choice, not doctrine.

### Liquidity (paired with Sandra 'Solidity')

easyayurveda.com 'Gurvadi Gunas' (J. V. Hebbar), modern · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2019/06/12/gurvadi-gunas/ · modern web textbook

Typical textbook rendering.

### fluidity (opposed to Sāndra 'thickness'/'dense')

wisdomlib.org Ayurveda glossary (Wisdom Library entry) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/drava · web glossary

Also states drava 'increases the Kapha' and is ap-predominant; secondary source.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard 26.10; Kaviratna prints 21, checked against the source

> The attributes which inhere in objects are Sound, &c., heaviness, &c., ending with solubility. The operations performed with their aid are five, beginning with vomiting, as has been already said.

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

Drava is the terminal member of the gurvādi series (gurvādayaś ca dravāntāḥ). Sanskrit as retrieved: तस्य गुणाः शब्दादयो गुर्वादयश्च द्रवान्ताः, कर्म पञ्चविधमुक्तं वमनादि||१०|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya).

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard 1.60 — printed ॥ ६० ॥ in Trikamji's Nirnaya Sagar Carakasaṃhitā with the Āyurvedadīpikā, Sūtrasthāna p. 16 (archive.org TheCarakasahitOrCharakasamhitaOfCarakaEditedByYadavaarman leaf n84), and listed as verse 60 'पित्तस्य गुणास्तत्प्रशमनानि च' in that edition's own index; Kaviratna prints 59, checked against the source

> 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

Drava is one of the seven attributes of pitta listed at Charaka Sutrasthana 1.60, which prescribes treating them with substances of opposite quality: सस्नेहमुष्णं तीक्ष्णं च द्रवमम्लं सरं कटु| विपरीतगुणैः पित्तं द्रव्यैराशु प्रशाम्यति||६०||, sasneha (unctuous), ushna (hot), tikshna (sharp), drava (liquid), amla (sour), sara (mobile), katu (pungent). The claim rests on the Sanskrit द्रवम्. The English quoted here is Kaviratna's, and only four of his seven words render the verse: 'hot' = ushna, 'keen' = tikshna, 'sour' = amla, 'liquid' = drava. His 'cold', 'soft' and 'bitter' answer to nothing in it, the Sanskrit having sasneha, sara and katu in those places; 'cold' goes further and contradicts ushna inside his own sentence. His English is recorded as a specimen of how he rendered the verse, not as the Samhita's list of pitta's qualities.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 22:Standard 22.15 (snehana) and 22.16 (svedana) per carakasamhitaonline danda placement; Kaviratna prints 13 and 14, checked against the source

> Such things as are liquid, subtile, stable, oily, slimy, heavy, cooling, not pungent or mild, and soft, are generally regarded as Snehana.

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

Drava heads the snehana-guna list. Sanskrit as retrieved: द्रवं सूक्ष्मं सरं स्निग्धं पिच्छिलं गुरु शीतलम्| प्रायो मन्दं मृदु च यद्द्रव्यं तत्स्नेहनं मतम्||१५|| ; svedana: उष्णं तीक्ष्णं सरं स्निग्धं रूक्षं सूक्ष्मं द्रवं स्थिरम्| द्रव्यं गुरु च यत् प्रायस्तद्धि स्वेदनमुच्यते||१६|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Langhanabrimhaniya_Adhyaya). Kaviratna is two behind standard in this chapter (his 10-14 = standard 12-16).

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard number NOT verified (expected 26.11, the pañcabhautika-dravya unit after 26.10); Kaviratna prints 23

**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://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Drava as the lead quality of ap-dominant substances (āpya dravya). Standard verse number was not read in the Sanskrit source; located in the chapter only.

## Not to be confused with

- **sāndra.** The opposite member of the pair (dense/thick/solid).
- **snigdha.** Unctuousness; a liquid can be rūkṣa (water) and an unctuous thing can be solid (ghee).
- **sara.** Mobility/flowing tendency, listed separately alongside drava in Su.1.60 and Su.22.15-16.
- **dravya.** 'Substance' - a near-homograph; dravya is the substratum in which drava (a guna) inheres.
- **drava as a dosage-form category (liquid preparations).** Pharmaceutical use of the word for liquids (e.g., 'dravānna', WHO SV0092 'Treated with liquid food') is not the pharmacological guna.

## Renderings that do not hold

- solubility. Kaviratna's rendering of dravānta; drava is the state of being liquid, not the capacity to dissolve.
- watery. Suggests the ap-mahabhuta or dilution rather than the guna; Kaviratna uses 'watery' for Kapha in Su.1.61 where the Sanskrit is snigdha.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Standard verse number for the pañcabhautika-dravya unit in Su.26 (Kaviratna 22-26).
- Whether Sushruta Su.42 or Su.46 Sanskrit uses drava as a guna (Bhishagratna's English of Su.42 does not mention it).

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "drava", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/drava/, 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.