dṛk-parīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated

dṛk-parīkṣā दृक्परीक्षा 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.

Identification
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 here 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.

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

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.

YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha, 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) · source

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

YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha, 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) · source

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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.

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.

How to cite this entry

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