gurvādi guṇa: what the term means and how it is translated
gurvādi guṇa गुर्वादि गुण 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 | gurvādi guṇa |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | गुर्वादि गुण |
| Also written | gurvādiguṇa, gurvadi gunas, twenty gunas, viṁśati guṇa, śārīra guṇa, ten pairs of qualities |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-1 |
| Grouped here 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.
Group of 20 pharmacological properties of the medicinal substances
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code DG0088 'gurvādi guṇa'; related DG0086 'guṇa': 'properties of a substance; present in the substance as a co inherent factor to perform a definite set of actions; might be physical, chemical, pharmacological, etc. but mainly pertains to the pharmacological properties.' · comparator
Comparator; 'pharmacological' is the WHO frame, not the texts' word.
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.
'pairs of opposites (such as heavy and light, heat and cold, &c.)'; 'heaviness, &c., ending with solubility'; '(Besides the attributes, numbering 20, of heaviness or weight, &c., of objects, already mentioned)'
Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 his 48; Su.26 his 21; Su.26 his 46 (parenthesis) · public-domain translation
Kaviratna never renders gurvādi as a fixed term; the number 'twenty' appears only inside his parenthesis.
'ten opposing pairs of qualities of drugs'; 'twenty Śārīraguṇa (or Gurvādiguṇa)'
wisdomlib.org Ayurveda glossary · https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/drava (entry text) · web glossary
Records the alternative name śārīra guṇa.
the group of qualities begins with guru quality
easyayurveda.com 'Gurvadi Gunas' (Hebbar), modern · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2019/06/12/gurvadi-gunas/ · modern web textbook
Etymological gloss (guru + ādi).
basic properties/ qualities
carakasamhitaonline.com section heading at Su.1.49 · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya · modern online edition
Heading only.
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.
The gurvādi group is one of the classes of guna, named by its first member. Sanskrit as retrieved: सार्था गुर्वादयो बुद्धिः प्रयत्नान्ताः परादयः| गुणाः प्रोक्ताः प्रयत्नादि कर्म चेष्टितमुच्यते||४९|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya). Charaka does NOT enumerate the twenty here; the list in Kaviratna's parenthesis is his.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 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 series is bounded: begins with guru, ends with drava (gurvādayaś ca dravāntāḥ). Sanskrit: तस्य गुणाः शब्दादयो गुर्वादयश्च द्रवान्ताः (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard number NOT verified (the parādi-guna unit; Kaviratna prints 46)
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.
Marks the boundary between gurvādi (20) and parādi (10) gunas. The count 'numbering 20' sits inside the translator's parenthesis, not the text.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 1:1.18 (as cited by easyayurveda.com; not verified against a Sanskrit edition) · address only, nothing quoted to check
Reported as the locus of the explicit 'viṁśatiḥ saviparyayāḥ' list of twenty gunas (guru manda hima snigdha ślakṣṇa sāndra mṛdu sthira sūkṣma viśada, with their opposites). Secondary citation only; no quotation permitted and verse not independently verified.
Not to be confused with
- sārtha guṇa (śabdādi, the five sense-objects)
- The other guna class in Ca.Su.1.49 / 26.10; rasa (taste) belongs here, not among the gurvādi.
- parādi guṇa (ten)
- Paratva, aparatva, yukti, saṁkhyā, saṁyoga, vibhāga, pṛthaktva, parimāṇa, saṁskāra, abhyāsa (Kaviratna Su.26 his 46): 'means for the success of treatment', not drug qualities.
- buddhi-prayatnānta (ātma-guṇa, six)
- Intellect, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, effort: psychological gunas in the same verse.
- Vaiśeṣika guṇas (24)
- A philosophical list overlapping only partly; gurutva and dravatva are among them, but Ayurveda's twenty is a different enumeration.
- vīrya
- Potency; many authors treat vīrya as a selection of gurvādi gunas (two or eight), but that is a doctrinal position not verified here.
Renderings that do not hold
- twenty physical properties. The texts tie each guna to bodily effect (Su.22, Su.26); WHO says 'pharmacological'. 'Physical' invites density/viscosity reductionism (see IJHSR review).
- ten pairs of gunas (as if ten qualities). The count is twenty; the pairing is a mnemonic. Charaka's own texts list them functionally, not as pairs.
- 'ending with solubility' (Kaviratna for dravāntāḥ). Drava is liquidity.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- No single verse in Charaka Sutrasthana 1 or 26 was found that lists all twenty; Charaka's enumeration is distributed (Su.22.12-16, Su.26 element lists). Confirm whether Chakrapani supplies the full list on 1.49.
- Verify Ashtanga Hridaya Su.1.18 in a Sanskrit edition (reference only).
- Standard verse for the parādi unit in Su.26.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, gurvādi guṇa
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/gurvadi-guna/, 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.