jala: what the term means and how it is translated

jala जल (WHO/NAMASTE form जलम्) is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways across 7 sources, 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	jala
Devanagari	जल (WHO/NAMASTE form जलम्)
Also written	jalam, āpaḥ / ap (Caraka's name in lists: पृथिव्यापस्तेजो...), toya (Ca.Śā. 4.6 ...तोय...), udaka / audaka (adj., Ca.Sū. 26.8), āpya (adj., substance with jala predominant), salila, vāri
Category, as gathered	mahabhuta
Grouped here under	Foundations and categories
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.

Water element

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-1.9.3.1.6 jalam, p.17 (PDF p.35); description: 'Responsible for cohesion and fluidity, acts as the substratum of taste, perceived by the tongue.' · comparator standard

WHO's index (p.507) also has a separate entry āpaḥ ITA-8.2.35, which from its section number is in a non-elemental (probably dietetic) part of the book; not retrieved.

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.

water element

NAMASTE Standardized Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-A.180 jalam; long definition: 'an entity which is responsible for fluidity' · comparator standard

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, 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.

1. Water. 2. One of the five basic elements (Paṅcamahābhūtas) that make up all the matter in the universe. Indicative of liquidity and cohesion.

NIA/WHO-APW draft (2011) · SK0086, PDF p.138 · comparator draft terminology

The draft's p.20 entry (not fully captured) also reads 'One of the pancha mahabhuta which is responsible for binding all particles within a substance; Synonym of Jala' for an āpaḥ-type headword.

water (Apa)

Bhishagratna, Su.Sū. 41 · wisdomlib doc141671 · public-domain translation

fluid (water); 'Apa (water or liquid)'

Bhishagratna, Su.Śā. 1 · wisdomlib doc142879, sections 6 and 20: 'The properties of Apa (water or liquid) are taste, the tongue, fluidity, heaviness, coldness, olioginousness and semen.' · public-domain translation

Water

Kaviratna, Caraka Sū. 26, Śā. 1, 4, 5 · archive.org BIUSante_47357; Śā. 5: 'the liquid secretions are Water' · public-domain translation

water

Common textbook usage · textbook usage · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

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.

Caraka SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna 26:Standard 26.11 (prose unit; carakasamhitaonline Atreyabhadrakapyiya); Kaviratna prints '23' after the two sentences, p. 300, Lesson XXVI (archive.org BIUSante_47357 leaf 414, read from the page image) · checked against the source

Those that are principally liquid, oily, cold, mild, soft, unctious, and mobile, are regarded as appertaining to Water. These objects promote impurities, oiliness, numbness, stoppage of secretions, and cheerfulness and joy (in both body and mind).

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · source

Kaviratna's two departures from the Trikamji text at Ca.Sū. 26.11 are variants of his named base edition, not his own errors: Jivananda Vidyasagara's Calcutta Charaka (1877, p. 156) reads picchila-SARA-rasaguṇabahulāny āpyāni, which is his 'mobile', and lists only five effects (upakleda, sneha, bandha, viṣyanda, prahlāda) without mārdava, which is his five. Kaviratna himself names 'the Calcutta edition (of Pandit Jibananda)' as his text. What is his own is the silent omission of rasaguṇabahula, which he renders in all four parallel bhūta clauses. The commented reading remains rasa: Cakrapāṇi re-quotes 'rasaguṇabahulāni' in his gloss on this very passage.

Suśruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna 41:Sushruta Sutrasthana 41.4, item (2) (siva.sh numbering); Bhishagratna 'Apyam Drugs' paragraph, no section number printed · checked against the source

A thing or substance, which is cold, moist, glossy, devoid of keenness, takes time to be digested, is mobile, compact, soft, slimy, sappy, and is largely endued with an acid, saline or sweet taste marked by a shade of astringent, is called a substance of dominant water (Apyam) principle.

tr. Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · source

Sushruta's apya dravya profile at Su 41.4: ten gunas, sita, stimita, snigdha, manda, guru, sara, sandra, mrdu, picchila, rasabahula, which Bhishagratna renders one for one (cold, moist, glossy, devoid of keenness, takes time to be digested, mobile, compact, soft, slimy, sappy); sara ('mobile') is genuinely in Sushruta's list, unlike Caraka Su 26.11. Taste: predominantly madhura (madhura-rasa-prayam), with a slight (isat) kasaya, amla and lavana. Bhishagratna's 'largely endued with an acid, saline or sweet taste marked by a shade of astringent' moves amla and lavana into the dominant group; that regrouping is his, not the Sanskrit's.

Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīrasthāna 1:Bhishagratna section 20; Sanskrit verse 19 per siva.sh · checked against the source

The properties of Apa (water or liquid) are taste, the tongue, fluidity, heaviness, coldness, olioginousness and semen.

tr. Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · source

Jala-derived bodily features including śukra (semen). 'Olioginousness' is as printed.

Caraka SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna 26:Kaviratna prints '15' after this unit; standard number not established (lies between 26.8 and 26.10 in the Sanskrit; I did not retrieve the verse)

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.

Water (ap) as the yoni of the six rasas, the classical reason jala is called the substratum of taste (WHO ITA-1.9.3.1.6).

Not to be confused with

kapha (doṣa): Kapha is the doṣa in which jala and pṛthvī predominate (NIA draft p.149); not the bhūta.
rasa dhātu: The first dhātu, 'dominated by Jala' (NIA draft p.261); a tissue, not the bhūta.
drinking water / jala varga: The NIA draft and Caraka's dietetics use jala for potable water and classify waters (antarikṣa jala, sāmudra jala, gāṁga jala, duṣṭa jala); WHO has a separate āpaḥ ITA-8.2.35 in the dietetic range.
'liquid' as a state of matter: Bhishagratna's 'fluid (water)', 'water or liquid' and footnote 'Liquid'; the bhūta is defined by rasa (taste) and dravatva/snigdhatva, including cohesion ('binding all particles').

Renderings that do not hold

liquid / fluid. Period-science equivalence (Bhishagratna); misses the cohesion sense that WHO, NAMASTE and the NIA draft all retain.
'promote impurities'. Kaviratna's rendering of the effects of āpya dravyas (Sū. 26) looks like Edwardian English for a Sanskrit term (probably kleda, moistening); do not record as Caraka saying water-substances cause impurity without checking the Sanskrit.

Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.

Standard verse number for Kaviratna's aphorism 15 ('their origin, is Water') in Sū. 26 needs a numbered Sanskrit check.
Content of WHO 2022 āpaḥ ITA-8.2.35 (seen only in the index).

How to cite this entry

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