guru: what the term means and how it is translated
guru गुरु 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 | guru |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | गुरु |
| Also written | guru guna, gurutva, heavy, heaviness |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-1 |
| Grouped here under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| 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.
1. Heavy / heaviness; one among 20 guravdi guna. caused due to activated prithvi & jala mahabhuta; denotes physiological & pharmacological heaviness; manifested by causing heaviness in the living system, difficult to digest, diminishes the Agni(digestive & metabolic enzymes), increases all body tissues, pacifies Vata, increases kapha; excessive use can cause fatigue, obesity. 2. Synonym of Kapikachhu (Mucuna pruritus Linn.) 3. A spiritual parent or preceptor
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code DG0087, headword printed 'gurū' (sic) and 'guravdi' (sic) · comparator
Fullest comparator entry; note typographic errors in the headword.
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.
heavy; heaviness
Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 his 48 ('heavy and light' in his parenthesis), his 60 Kapha 'Heavy'; Su.22 his 11 brimhana 'heavy'; Su.26 his 21 'heaviness, &c.', his 22 earth objects 'heavy' · public-domain translation
Stable rendering.
heavy
Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain, via wisdomlib · Su.42: 'The tastes such as sweet, acid and saline are heavy and emollient in their character'; Su.46: 'The lightness or heaviness of a potion (Panaka) should be determined according to the quantities, properties and preparations...' · public-domain translation
Consistent.
Heaviness
easyayurveda.com 'Gurvadi Gunas' (Hebbar), modern · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2019/06/12/gurvadi-gunas/ · modern web textbook
Typical textbook.
Guru (heavy to digest)
Jagtap et al., AYU 2012 (PMID 23723671) · abstract · modern literature
Research usage glossing guru by digestibility rather than mass.
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 1:Standard 1.49; Kaviratna prints 48 · checked against the source
The properties (of vision, taste, scent, touch, and hearing), pairs of opposites (such as heavy and light, heat and cold, &c.), the intellect, pleasure and pain, and desire and aversion and will, and the qualities of dissimilarity and others (i.e., dissimilarity, contrariety, union, number, composition, division, separateness, measure, inertia and contiguity) are called attributes, while all functions such as (of the mind in) will, are called action.
Guru heads the gurvādi series named as gunas. All parentheses are the translator's glosses; the Sanskrit says only gurvādayaḥ: सार्था गुर्वादयो बुद्धिः प्रयत्नान्ताः परादयः| गुणाः प्रोक्ताः प्रयत्नादि कर्म चेष्टितमुच्यते||४९|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:Standard 1.61; Kaviratna prints 60 · checked against the source
Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy, these attributes of phlegm are cured by objects having adverse attributes.
Guru as the first quality of Kapha. Sanskrit as retrieved: गुरुशीतमृदुस्निग्धमधुरस्थिरपिच्छिलाः| श्लेष्मणः प्रशमं यान्ति विपरीतगुणैर्गुणाः||६१||. Kaviratna's 'watery' is snigdha (unctuous).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 22:Standard 22.13 per carakasamhitaonline danda placement; Kaviratna prints 11 · checked against the source
Such things as are heavy, cooling, soft, exceedingly oily, gross, slimy, mild stable, and smooth, are generally said to be Vringhana.
Guru as the leading bṛṁhaṇa quality. Sanskrit as retrieved: गुरु शीतं मृदु स्निग्धं बहलं स्थूलपिच्छिलम्||१३|| प्रायो मन्दं स्थिरं श्लक्ष्णं द्रव्यं बृंहणमुच्यते| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Langhanabrimhaniya_Adhyaya). 'Vringhana' is OCR of Vrimhana.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard 26.43 (final sub-section, kashaya); Kaviratna prints 67 · checked against the source
It is dry, cool, and heavy.
Kaviratna renders alaghu ('not light') as 'heavy'. Sanskrit as retrieved: ...रूक्षः शीतोऽलघुश्च| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Useful for showing guru/alaghu are not simply interchangeable.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 42:Sanskrit verse number not established · checked against the source
The tastes such as sweet, acid and saline are heavy and emollient in their character, while the pungent, astringent and bitter ones are dry and light.
Guru/laghu assignment of the six rasas in Sushruta (note: Charaka 26.43 calls kashaya alaghu, agreeing against Sushruta's 'light' here; a real inter-text disagreement worth flagging).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard number NOT verified (expected 26.11); Kaviratna prints 22
Quotation withheld: nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at this address.
Guru as lead quality of pārthiva dravya and its karma (upacaya, gaurava). Standard verse not read in Sanskrit.
Not to be confused with
- laghu
- Opposite member; WHO DG0143 'Light/ lightness ... opposite of guru guna'.
- alaghu
- 'Not light' (Ca.Su.26.43 for kashaya); Kaviratna renders it 'heavy', but the text avoids calling kashaya guru outright.
- sthūla
- Gross/bulky (a separate pair with sūkṣma); Kaviratna 'gross' in the bṛṁhaṇa list alongside 'heavy'.
- guru = preceptor; guru = Mucuna pruriens synonym
- WHO DG0087 senses 2 and 3; wisdomlib (Raj Nighantu 3.50-53) lists Guru as a Kapikacchu synonym.
- gaurava (symptom of heaviness)
- A clinical sign (Kaviratna 'Gurugatrata implies a sense of heaviness in all the limbs'), not the drug quality.
Renderings that do not hold
- heavy (as physical weight/mass). The texts define guru by effect (hard to digest, builds tissue, increases Kapha); a dense but light-to-digest food is not guru.
- gurū. WHO headword misspelling; IAST is guru.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Standard verse for the pārthiva-dravya unit in Su.26.
- Reconcile Sushruta Su.42 (kashaya 'light') with Charaka Su.26.43 (kashaya alaghu) in Sanskrit.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, guru
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/guru/, 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.