# dṛk-parīkṣā (दृक्परीक्षा)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/drik-pariksha/

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 | dṛk-parīkṣā |
| Devanagari | दृक्परीक्षा |
| Also written | dṛś-parīkṣā, drik pariksha, druk pariksha, netra-parīkṣā (modern paraphrase), dṛṣṭi-parīkṣā (modern paraphrase) |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha (examination of the patient's eyes; seventh member of the Yogaratnakara's eightfold examination) |
| Grouped under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| 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.

### eyes and eyesight (domain 7 of aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā, ITA-4.7.4)

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.4, p.115 (PDF page 133) · comparator

No stand-alone WHO entry for dṛk-parīkṣā; WHO glosses the domain as covering both the organ and the function.

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.

### Drik (eyes & vision)

Shekhawat, JVWU BAMS e-notes · https://www.jvwu.ac.in/documents/Book%20Chapter%20by%20Dr%20suman%20-Ashtavidha%20pariksha.pdf · textbook/teaching

### Druk (Eyes)

Shekhawat, JVWU BAMS e-notes (second list) · textbook/teaching

### Drika Pariksha (Eye Examination); 'Drik Pariksha indicates eye examination'

IJARSCT review on Ashtavidha Pariksha · https://ijarsct.co.in/Paper22641.pdf · journal review (non-indexed)

### Drik - In-Person Examination or Observation

web search summary of review articles · secondary · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

This rendering treats dṛk as the physician's looking (darśana); the Yogaratnakara section examines the PATIENT's eyes. Likely a confusion, see mistranslations.

## The classical passages

### Yogaratnakara Pūrvārdha, section 'atha rogiṇām aṣṭasthāna-nirīkṣaṇam' Nirnaya Sagar Press edition, text pp. 2-3:verse 1 of the section (see aṣṭavidha-parīkṣā record for the numbering caveat), checked against the source

> रोगाकान्तञ्मरीरस्य स्थानान्यष्टौ निरीक्षयेत्‌ । नाडीं मूं मलं जिह शब्दं स्पश दगाङरृती ॥

tr. none (Sanskrit OCR; 'दगाङरृती' = दृगाकृती) · https://archive.org/download/yogaratnakarakrishnasharmanavrenirnayasagarpress_366_b/Yoga%20Ratnakara%20Krishna%20Sharma%20Navre%20Nirnaya%20Sagar%20Press_djvu.txt

dṛk is the seventh of the eight sites to be inspected.

### Yogaratnakara Pūrvārdha, section headed 'atha dṛk-parīkṣā' Nirnaya Sagar Press edition, text pp. 6-7 per OCR headers:dṛk-parīkṣā verses 1-8; the fatal-sign verses are numbered 4-7 in the Nirnaya Sagar text (archive.org leaf n35, text p. 7), verse 8 being the Yāmala quotation that closes the section with 'इति दृक्परीक्षा', checked against the source

> एकं चक्षुर्यदा भीमं द्वितीयं मीलितं भवेत् ॥ ४ ॥ त्रिभिर्दिनैस्तदा रोगी स याति यममन्दिरम् । ज्योतिर्विहीनं सहसा रोगिणो यस्य लोचनम् ॥ ५ ॥ ईषत्कृष्णं स नियतं प्रयाति यमशासनम् । सरक्तं कृष्णवर्णं च रौद्रं च प्रेक्षते यदा ॥ ६ ॥ इति लिङ्गैर्विजानीयान्मृत्युरेव न संशयः । एकदृष्टिरचैतन्यो भ्रमन्स्फुरिततारकः । एकरात्रेण नियतं परलोकपथं व्रजेत् ॥ ७ ॥

tr. none (Sanskrit OCR, garbled: टक् = दृक्, रक्षा = रूक्षा, दटिर्थदा = दृष्टिर्यदा) · https://archive.org/download/yogaratnakarakrishnasharmanavrenirnayasagarpress_366_b/page/n35.jpg

Fatal eye signs, now read from the page image rather than the OCR: one eye terrible while the second is CLOSED (मीलितं) means death in three days (v. 4-5a); sudden loss of lustre in the patient's eye, with a slight blackness, means death (vv. 5b-6a); redness, blackness or a fierce look, likewise (v. 6); a fixed stare, unconsciousness and a wandering, flickering pupil mean death within one night (v. 7).

## Not to be confused with

- **darśana.** darśana is the physician's inspection (method); dṛk here is the patient's eyes (object). Reviews that gloss dṛk as 'observation' have collapsed the two.
- **dṛṣṭi (vision/pupil).** WHO glosses the domain as 'eyes and eyesight'; the Yogaratnakara verses read eye appearance (colour, moisture, lustre, steadiness) with dṛṣṭi used for the gaze; it is not a visual-acuity test.
- **netra-roga examination (Śālākya).** Dṛk-parīkṣā reads systemic dosha and prognosis from the eyes; it is not diagnosis of eye diseases.
- **dṛkprasādanam (WHO).** A therapeutic term (clearing the vision) that shares the stem; unrelated.

## Renderings that do not hold

- In-person examination / observation. Confuses dṛk (the patient's eye, object of the eighth-fold scheme) with darśana (the physician's looking).
- Vision test / eyesight examination. The Yogaratnakara verses examine the appearance and movement of the eyes for dosha and ariṣṭa, not acuity.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Exact verse count and numbering of the dṛk-parīkṣā section across editions.
- Whether the section includes the yāmala quotation on fatal signs (the Nirnaya Sagar OCR shows 'यामलखात्' before verse 8) in all editions.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "dṛk-parīkṣā", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/drik-pariksha/, 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.