# kāla (कालः)

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

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 5 different ways across 6 sources.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | kāla |
| Devanagari | कालः |
| Also written | kala, kālaḥ, pariṇāma (as the third cause of disease, Ca.Sū.11.42-43), nityaga kāla and avasthika kāla (the two divisions), saṃvatsara (the seasonal year, Ca.Sū.11.42) |
| Category, as gathered | padartha / nidana |
| Grouped under | Foundations and categories |
| 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.

### Time

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-1.9.3.4.1 kālaḥ · standard

COMPARATOR. Description: 'Time as a continuum, one of the nine elementary causal substances (karanadravya).' A second entry ITA-1.11.9 kālaḥ, also 'Time': 'Time in general including the seasons, the point when something occurs (which may refer to diseases).' WHO ITA-4.4.9 renders the third cause of disease as 'transformation under the effect of time'.

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.

### Time in general ,the point or period when something occurs , Proper time or occasion, time of the death

National Institute of Ayurveda terminology list · SK0090 kāla · standard

COMPARATOR. A second NIA entry SV0116 kāla: 'Kala is of two types Nityaga and Avasthika Kala.Externally moving time is Nityaga and conditional moving time is Avasthika.'

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.

### Time

Charaka Samhita tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Sūtrasthāna 1 (his 53), Sūtrasthāna 11 (his 42), Vimānasthāna 6 (his 10) · translation

Public domain. Consistent.

### Time or Parinama

Charaka Samhita tr. Kaviratna · Sūtrasthāna 11, his aphorism 42 · translation

Public domain. 'Time has another name, viz., Parinama' (OCR 'Ratinanta'); and at Vi.6 footnote 'By Parinama is meant Time.' In a later footnote he glosses 'Parinama, i.e., time, in the sense of both the season and age or years.'

### The Eternal Time

Sushruta Samhita tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907) · Sūtrasthāna 6 (Ṛtucaryā), opening · translation

Public domain. 'The Eternal Time is without origin, middle, or end, self-begotten, and the lord of all attributes.' Bhishagratna adds an etymology paragraph of his own headed 'Etymology of the term Kala (time)'.

### time / season / the time factor

common textbook and translation renderings (Charak Samhita Online: 'time factor', 'seasonal effects' for pariṇāma) · other · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Charak Samhita Online renders pariṇāma in Sū.11.43 as 'seasonal effects', which narrows it to ṛtu.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 1:48 (standard; Kaviratna prints 47), checked against the source

> khādīnyātmā manaḥ kālō diśaśca dravyasaṅgrahaḥ| sēndriyaṁ cētanaṁ dravyaṁ, nirindriyamacētanam||48||

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

Kāla is one of the nine dravyas (kāraṇa-dravya), with the five bhūtas, ātmā, manas and diś. Basis of WHO ITA-1.9.3.4.1.

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 1:54 (standard; Kaviratna prints 53), checked against the source

> kālabuddhīndriyārthānāṁ yōgō mithyā na cāti ca| dvayāśrayāṇāṁ vyādhīnāṁ trividhō hētusaṅgrahaḥ||54||

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

Kāla heads the etiological triad. Kaviratna's footnote here: 'Time is of two kinds, viz., (1) that portion of eternity with which human life is concerned and which goes on ceaselessly, and (2) the age of man, that is, his infancy, youth, manhood, and decrepitude.' That is the nityaga/avasthika division, but stated in a TRANSLATOR'S FOOTNOTE, not in the verse; and his preface gives a different second kind ('the seasons of the year').

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 11:42 (standard; Kaviratna's 42 spans this and the opening clause of 43), checked against the source

> शीतोष्णवर्षलक्षणाः पुनर्हेमन्तग्रीष्मवर्षाः संवत्सरः, स कालः| तत्रातिमात्रस्वलक्षणः कालः कालातियोगः, हीनस्वलक्षणः (कालः) कालायोगः, यथास्वलक्षणविपरीतलक्षणस्तु (कालः) कालमिथ्यायोगः| कालः पुनः परिणाम उच्यते||४२||

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

The etiological definition: kāla IS the year marked by cold, heat and rain (hemanta, grīṣma, varṣā); its ati-, a- and mithyā-yoga are excess, deficiency and reversal of a season's own character; and 'kāla is also called pariṇāma'. Kaviratna: 'Heat, cold, and rain, or autumn, summer, and rain, constitute the indications of the year. That is also called Time. When the particular indication of a particular period of Time manifests itself in excess, that is called excess of correlation in respect of Time ... When indications, that are the reverse of those which are normal, are manifested, that is called improper correlation (such as heat in winter or cold in summer). Time has another name, viz., [Parinama].' English at https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt; 'Ratinanta' in the OCR is a scan error for Parinama.

### Sushruta Samhita Sūtrasthāna 6 (Ṛtucaryā):Su.Su.6.3 confirmed from a printed Sanskrit edition: Jadavji Trikamji / Nirnaya Sagar text-with-Dalhana, leaf n86, prints the mula closed with ||3||, checked against the source

> कालस्य निरुक्तिं कुर्वन्नाह,—स सूक्ष्मामित्यादि।—सः कालः, सूक्ष्मामपि स्तोकामपि, कलां भागम्, न लीयते गतिमत्त्वात् श्लिष्टो न भवति; अन्ये तु न लीयत इत्यत्र कलीयते इति पठन्ति। व्याख्यानयन्ति च—कलीयते संख्यायते इति कालः; निरुक्तिपक्षान्तरमाह, संकलयतीत्यादि।—संकलयति संहरणादेकराशीकरोति भूतानीति वा कालः, संकलयति सुखदुःखाभ्यां भूतानि योजयतीति वा कालः; कालयति संक्षिपतीति वा कालः, अथवा कालयति मृत्युसमीपं नयतीति वा कालः; अन्ये तु

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/download/sushrutasamhitanibhandasangrahadalhancharyajadavajitrikumjinirnaya_247_I/page/n86.jpg

Bhishagratna's closing sentence at Su.Su.6.3 ('Some assert that the name is due to the fact that time blends (kalanam) all beings with misery or happiness according to their respective acts, or to its leading all beings to destruction') translates Dalhana's Nibandhasamgraha, not the translator's own speculation: Dalhana offers 'sankalayati sukhaduhkhabhyam bhutani yojayatiti va kalah' and 'athava kalayati mrtyusamipam nayatiti va kalah' as two of four alternative niruktis. Only the qualifier 'according to their respective acts' is Bhishagratna's addition; Dalhana's clause contains no karma word.

### Sushruta Samhita Sūtrasthāna 6:not numbered in Bhishagratna, checked against the source

> The Sun-god, by his peculiar motions, divides eternal time which is measured by years (Samvatsaras) into (increasingly progressive but smaller subdivisions) such as, Nimeshas (lit:—time taken in closing the eyelids), Kashthas, Kalas, Muhurtas, days and nights, fortnights, months, seasons, solstices, years and Yugas.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sushruta_Samhita,_Volume_1/Chapter_6

The metrological division of kāla; note kalā (a sub-unit) is a different word from kāla and appears inside this list.

## The concept record for this term

A term entry answers what the word means. It does not answer whether the thing the word
names is settled, and often it is not. That is what the concept record is for: it sets out
the questions on which the sources disagree about this term, with each position attributed,
and states what is not established.

- [Kala-parinama (time, season and ripening as causes of disease)](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/kala-parinama/)

## Not to be confused with

- **pariṇāma.** Ca.Sū.11.42 says kāla is also called pariṇāma; in the triad of causes (11.43, Vi.6.6) the third cause is named pariṇāma. Textbooks sometimes render pariṇāma as 'transformation' (WHO ITA-4.4.9: 'transformation under the effect of time') and treat it as something other than kāla; the text equates them.
- **ṛtu.** Season. Ca.Sū.11.42 defines etiological kāla by the seasons, so Charak Samhita Online's 'seasonal effects' is defensible there, but kāla as kāraṇa-dravya (Sū.1.48) and as Suśruta's eternal time are wider.
- **vayas (age).** Kaviratna's footnote at Sū.1.54 makes age the second kind of time (avasthika kāla in later terminology, NIA SV0116). That division is commentarial/translatorial in the sources retrieved; not found in the verses quoted.
- **kalā.** A time sub-unit (Suśruta Sū.6) and, separately, the seven kalās (membranes) of Su.Śā.4. Different word, short a.
- **kāla as death (kāla-mṛtyu).** NIA SK0090 includes 'time of the death'; Bhishagratna's etymology paragraph derives kāla from destroying beings. A secondary sense, not the etiological one.

## Renderings that do not hold

- season. Correct only for the Sū.11.42 definition; wrong for kāla as one of the nine dravyas and for Suśruta's beginningless time.
- transformation (for pariṇāma). WHO ITA-4.4.9. Pariṇāma literally means transformation, but Ca.Sū.11.42 says 'kālaḥ punaḥ pariṇāma ucyate', so in this context the referent is time, and rendering it 'transformation' obscures the identity.
- Eternal Time. Bhishagratna's capitalised 'Eternal' personifies kāla beyond what 'anādimadhyanidhana' (without beginning, middle or end) says; acceptable but theological in tone.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Source of the nityaga/avasthika division within the Bṛhattrayī or its commentaries.
- Whether Cakrapāṇi reads 'kālaḥ punaḥ pariṇāma ucyate' as identity or as kāla-in-its-effect.

## Citation

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