dravya: what the term means and how it is translated

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.51 (carakasamhitaonline numbering); Kaviratna prints 50 · checked against the source

That in which actions and attributes inhere, and that which is the cause, is called substance. That, on the other hand, which is inherent, and which is the passive cause, is called attribute.

The definition of dravya as the substratum of karma and guna and as the (inherent) cause. Sanskrit as retrieved from https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya&action=raw : यत्राश्रिताः कर्मगुणाः कारणं समवायि यत्| तद्द्रव्यं समवायी तु निश्चेष्टः कारणं गुणः||५१||. Kaviratna's 'the cause' drops 'samavāyi' (inherent); the Sanskrit says dravya is the samavāyi-kāraṇa.

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.48; Kaviratna prints 47 · checked against the source

Those having ether for the first (i.e., ether, air, fire, water, and earth), soul, mind, and the quarters, are constituent elements (of all things) United with the senses, elements are called animate; without the senses, they are called inanimate.

Kaviratna's English names EIGHT dravyas: the five bhūtas (via his bracketed gloss '(i.e., ether, air, fire, water, and earth)' on 'those having ether for the first'), soul, mind, and 'the quarters' (diś). It omits kāla (time), which the Sanskrit has: खादीन्यात्मा मनः कालो दिशश्च द्रव्यसङ्ग्रहः| सेन्द्रियं चेतनं द्रव्यं, निरिन्द्रियमचेतनम्||४८|| (carakasamhitaonline). The ninefold list therefore rests on the Sanskrit alone; his footnote at this aphorism discusses only 'quarters' and does not explain the omission. The passage does establish the division into sendriya/cetana ('united with the senses... animate') and nirindriya/acetana ('without the senses... inanimate'). '(of all things)' is also his gloss. Note he renders dravya here as 'constituent elements', not 'substance'.

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.28-29; Kaviratna prints 27-28 · checked against the source

Those great Rishis (then) beheld duly, with the eye of knowledge, similarities, dissimilarities, properties, objects, and operations, as also compositions.

Dravya ('objects') as one of the six things the sages saw. Sanskrit: महर्षयस्ते ददृशुर्यथावज्ज्ञानचक्षुषा| सामान्यं च विशेषं च गुणान् द्रव्याणि कर्म च||२८|| समवायं च तज्ज्ञात्वा...||२९||.

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 40 (Bhishagratna's chapter XL, 'Dravya-rasa-guna-virya-vipaka-vijnaniya'):Standard 40.3 per siva.sh (https://www.siva.sh/sushruta-samhita/sutra-sthana/40/3); Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers · checked against the source

Hence a drug or a substance (Dravyam) is the most important factor (which the science of medicine has got to deal with). A substance or drug necessarily implies action and attributes with which it is intimately connected and of which it is the primary cause, or to put it more explicitly, these attributes have an inseparable inherence in and are intimately associated with the substance by way of cause and effect (Samavayi-Karana).

Sushruta's statement of the dravya-pradhāna view with nine reasons (permanence, nityatva, retention of own class, perceptibility by all five senses, being the substratum (āśraya) of rasa etc., being the starting point of a procedure, scriptural usage, dependence of rasa on the stage of the dravya, curability by a single part). Sanskrit opening as retrieved from siva.sh: केचिदाचार्या ब्रुवते- द्रव्यं प्रधानं, कस्मात्? व्यवस्थितत्वात्... Note the passage is one of several rival views (rasa, vīrya, vipāka each have their advocates) before the reconciliation.

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 40 (Bhishagratna's chapter XL), closing reconciliation:Sushruta Sutrasthana 40/13-18 (siva.sh Devanagari numbering; Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers): 'equal importance... co-operation of all these five factors' = 40/13 (चतुर्णामपि सामग्र्यम्); 'Digestive reaction is impossible without drug potency... greatest of them all' = 40/15; 'greatest of all the aforesaid five factors... attributes lie inherent' = 40/18 (with 40/17 on the eight guṇas resting on dravya) · checked against the source

The wise and the erudite set an equal importance to each of them, and ascribe the curative efficacy of a medicine to the co-operation of all these five factors. [...] Digestive reaction is impossible without drug potency. There is no potency without a taste, and taste without a drug or substance is an absurdity. Hence a substance (vegetable or otherwise) is the greatest of them all. [...] Hence a substance is the greatest of all the aforesaid five factors (of substance, taste, virtues, etc.) and the attributes lie inherent in the substance.

Sushruta's closing reconciliation of the chapter's rival doctrines: the wise want the conjunction of FOUR, caturṇām api sāmagryam (40/13), namely dravya, rasa, vīrya and vipāka, the four positions actually argued in the chapter; and dravya is the substratum, since there is no vipāka without vīrya, no vīrya without rasa, no rasa without dravya (40/15), and the remaining bhāvas rest on it (40/18, śeṣā bhāvās tadāśrayāḥ; 40/17, the eight guṇas called vīrya rest on dravya). 'All these five factors' and 'the aforesaid five factors (of substance, taste, virtues, etc.)' are Bhishagratna's wording: guṇa is not a contending party in the Sanskrit. Bracketed ellipses mark omitted sentences within the same paragraph.

Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 8:Standard 8.29; Kaviratna prints 28 (OCR shows '*23'; preceded by his 27, followed by his 29) · checked against the source

Dravya (substance), Guna (attribute), Samanya (similarity), Vigesha (dissimilarity), and Samavaya (combination), — these have been explained, by means of their respective indications, in the Place of flokas Sutrasthana before.

That in the debate chapter the six categories are referred back to the Sutrasthana definitions. Sanskrit as retrieved: द्रव्य-गुण-कर्म-सामान्य-विशेष-समवायाः स्वलक्षणैः श्लोकस्थाने पूर्वमुक्ताः||२९||. Kaviratna's list omits Karma (present in the Sanskrit); 'flokas' is OCR for 'Slokas'.