# indriya (इन्द्रियम्)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/indriya/

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 | indriya |
| Devanagari | इन्द्रियम् |
| Also written | indriyam, indriyāṇi (pl.), akṣa, jñānendriya / buddhīndriya and karmendriya (the two classes), indriyādhiṣṭhāna (the seat, often confused with the indriya) |
| Category, as gathered | sharira / manas |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| 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.

### The motor or sensory faculty

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-3.10.1 indriyam, akṣam · standard

COMPARATOR. Description: 'A term that usually refers to the sense organs.' Section 3.10 is headed 'Motor or sensory faculties'. Elsewhere WHO glosses indriya as 'cognitive organ' (ITA-1.8.1.2 sannikarṣaḥ; ITA-1.9.3.3.1 manaḥ).

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.

### organs of motor action and sensory perception

National Institute of Ayurveda terminology list · BP0111 indriya · standard

COMPARATOR.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the National Institute of Ayurveda terminology list, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### senses / the five senses / organs of sense

Charaka Samhita tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Sūtrasthāna 8 passim ('there are five senses'; 'The senses become capable of seizing their respective objects only when they are led by the mind'); Sūtrasthāna 1 ('The union of body, senses, mind, and soul') · translation

Public domain. Kaviratna uses 'senses' for the jñānendriyas and 'organs (of knowledge and action)' when the ten are meant (Śā.1, his 24).

### organs of cognition, communication or sense perception

Sushruta Samhita tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · Śārīrasthāna 1, section 4-5 · translation

Public domain. Used for the eleven indriyas (ten plus manas).

### sense organs / sensory and motor organs / faculties

common textbook renderings · other · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

'Sense organ' is near-universal and is the problematic one (see mistranslations).

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 8 (Indriyopakramaṇīya):3 (standard; Kaviratna prints 1), checked against the source

> Iha khalu pañcēndriyāṇi, pañcēndriyadravyāṇi, pañcēndriyādhiṣṭhānāni, pañcēndriyārthāḥ, pañcēndriyabuddhayō bhavanti, ityuktamindriyādhikārē||3||

tr. Sanskrit text as printed on Charak Samhita Online · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Indriyopakramaniya_Adhyaya

The pañca-pañcaka: five indriyas, five indriya-dravyas (constituent elements), five adhiṣṭhānas (seats), five arthas (objects), five buddhis (cognitions). The indriya is listed separately from its seat, which is the key to the 'sense organ' problem. Kaviratna (his 1): 'It is certain that there are five senses, five materials that constitute those senses, five resting places of those senses, five objects of those senses, and five kinds of perceptions obtained through those senses.'

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 8:8-11 (standard; Kaviratna merges these into his aphorism 6), checked against the source

> Tatra cakṣuḥ śrōtraṁ ghrāṇaṁ rasanaṁ sparśanamiti pañcēndriyāṇi||8|| pañcēndriyadravyāṇi- khaṁ vāyurjyōtirāpō bhūriti||9|| Pañcēndriyādhiṣṭhānāni- akṣiṇī karṇau nāsikē jihvā tvak cēti||10|| Pañcēndriyārthāḥ- śabdasparśarūparasagandhāḥ||11||

tr. Sanskrit text as printed on Charak Samhita Online · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Indriyopakramaniya_Adhyaya

The indriyas are cakṣus, śrotra, ghrāṇa, rasana, sparśana (faculties of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching); their seats are the eyes, ears, nostrils, tongue and skin. Kaviratna: 'The five senses are vision, hearing, scent, taste, and touch. ... The resting places of the five senses are the two eyes, the two ears, the nose, the tongue, and the skin or whole body.'

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 8:7 and 14 (standard; Kaviratna prints 5 and 8-9), checked against the source

> Manaḥpuraḥsarāṇīndriyāṇyarthagrahaṇasamarthāni bhavanti||7|| ... Tatrānumānagamyānāṁ pañcamahābhūtavikārasamudāyātmakānāmapi satāmindriyāṇāṁ tējaścakṣuṣi, khaṁ śrōtrē, ghrāṇē kṣitiḥ, āpō rasanē, sparśanē'nilō viśēṣēṇōpapadyatē|...||14||

tr. Sanskrit text as printed on Charak Samhita Online · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Indriyopakramaniya_Adhyaya

Indriyas grasp objects only when preceded by manas (7); they are known by inference (anumānagamya), composed of all five bhūtas with one predominant each (14). 'Known by inference' is why 'organ' misleads: the indriya is not the visible eye. Kaviratna (his 5): 'The senses become capable of seizing their respective objects only when they are led by the mind.'

### Charaka Samhita Śārīrasthāna 1:17 and 24-26 (standard; Kaviratna prints 24 and 31-33), checked against the source

> manō daśēndriyāṇyarthāḥ prakr̥tiścāṣṭadhātukī||17|| ... ēkaikādhikayuktāni khādīnāmindriyāṇi tu| pañca karmānumēyāni yēbhyō buddhiḥ pravartatē||24|| hastau pādau gudōpasthaṁ vāgindriyamathāpi ca| karmēndriyāṇi pañcaiva pādau gamanakarmaṇi||25||

tr. Sanskrit text as printed on Charak Samhita Online · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Katidhapurusha_Sharira

The ten indriyas (daśendriya) of the 24-fold puruṣa: five inferred from their actions, five karmendriyas. Kaviratna (his 24): 'These are mind, the ten organs (of knowledge and action), the five objects of the five organs of knowledge, and the eight modifications of Prakriti.'

### Sushruta Samhita Śārīrasthāna 1:Bhishagratna's sections 4-5; Sanskrit verse number not established, checked against the source

> The eleven organs of cognition, communication or sense perception have emanated from the co-operation of the aforesaid Vaikarika Ahamkara with the Taijasa or Rajasa. They are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue, nose, speech, hands, genitals, anus, feet and the mind (Manah). Of these foregoing organs the first five are intellectual or sense organs (Vuddhi-Indriya); the next five being operative (Karma-Indriya). The mind (Manah) partakes of the character of both the intellectual and operative organs alike.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142879.html

Suśruta counts eleven indriyas including manas (ubhayātmaka), and derives them from ahaṃkāra in Sāṃkhya fashion. Caraka (Sū.8.4) instead calls manas atīndriya. The two texts differ on whether manas is an indriya.

## Not to be confused with

- **indriyādhiṣṭhāna.** The seat (eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin) is a separate member of the pañca-pañcaka (Ca.Sū.8.10). The indriya is the inferred faculty; 'sense organ' names the seat.
- **indriyārtha.** The object (śabda etc.), the thing grasped, not the grasper.
- **indriya-buddhi.** The resulting cognition (Ca.Sū.8.12), momentary and determinative.
- **manas.** Caraka Sū.8.4: manas is atīndriya, beyond the indriyas; Suśruta Śā.1 counts it as the eleventh indriya. A lexicon must say which text it follows.
- **Indriyasthāna.** The fifth section of the Caraka Saṃhitā, on prognostic signs (ariṣṭa), takes its name from indriya in the sense of 'signs perceptible to the physician's senses'; Kaviratna (Sū.30): 'The fifth division, called Indriya, treats of the Senses in particular'. Not the sensory faculty doctrine.
- **jñānendriya vs karmendriya.** The two classes of the ten; see their own records.

## Renderings that do not hold

- sense organ. Universal and misleading: Ca.Sū.8.3 and 8.10 separate indriya from adhiṣṭhāna, and 8.14 says the indriya is anumāna-gamya (inferred). The organ is the seat, the indriya is the faculty. WHO's 'faculty' is the more careful choice.
- senses. Kaviratna's default. Adequate for the five jñānendriyas but makes nonsense of karmendriya ('sense of grasping') and of daśendriya.
- organs of cognition, communication or sense perception. Bhishagratna's triple hedge for eleven items including feet and genitals; 'communication' has no Sanskrit warrant.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Whether Caraka anywhere counts manas among the indriyas (Sū.8.4 says atīndriya; Śā.1.17 lists mano daśendriyāṇi separately), against Suśruta's eleven.
- Whether Cakrapāṇi reads Sū.8.14 as bhautika origin of indriyas in deliberate opposition to Sāṃkhya.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "indriya", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/indriya/, 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.