kaṭhina: what the term means and how it is translated
kaṭhina कठिन is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 3 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 | kaṭhina |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | कठिन |
| Also written | kathina guna, kāṭhinya, hard, hardness |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-1 |
| Grouped here under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| Classical citations | 3 |
| 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.
Hardness; one among 20 gurvadi gunas. Caused due activated prithvi; denotes physiological & pharmacological hardness; causes hardening/ consolidation.
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code DG0114 'kaṭhina' · comparator
Comparator; 'consolidation' is WHO's gloss.
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.
hard
Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.22 his 10 (langhana) and 12 (rukshana); Su.26 his 22 (earth objects); footnote: ''Kathina' implies hard, the thing itself should be so.' · public-domain translation
Consistent; his footnote insists on literal physical hardness.
Hardness (paired with Mridu 'Softness')
easyayurveda.com 'Gurvadi Gunas' (Hebbar), modern · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2019/06/12/gurvadi-gunas/ · modern web textbook
Typical textbook.
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 22:Standard 22.12 (carakasamhitaonline places ||१२|| after the first half-line; the half-line containing kaṭhinaṁ follows it, so an edition may count it as 12 or 13); Kaviratna prints 10 · checked against the source
Such things as are light, warm, pungent, not slimy, dry, subtile, rough, unstable, and hard, are generally Langhana.
Kaṭhina among the laṅghana qualities. Sanskrit as retrieved: लघूष्णतीक्ष्णविशदं रूक्षं सूक्ष्मं खरं सरम्||१२|| कठिनं चैव यद्द्रव्यं प्रायस्तल्लङ्घनं स्मृतम्| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Langhanabrimhaniya_Adhyaya). Kaviratna's footnote (translator's note): 'Each of these attributes should be well understood. 'Laghu' is light, in the sense of being easily digestible.... 'Sara' means moving or unstable. 'Kathina' implies hard, the thing itself should be so.— T.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 22:Standard 22.14 (same half-verse caveat); Kaviratna prints 12 · checked against the source
Such things as are dry, productive of lightness, pungent, warm, stable, not slimy, and hard, are generally Rukshana.
Kaṭhina among rūkṣaṇa qualities. Sanskrit as retrieved: रूक्षं लघु खरं तीक्ष्णमुष्णं स्थिरमपिच्छिलम्||१४|| प्रायशः कठिनं चैव यद्द्रव्यं तद्धि रूक्षणम्| Kaviratna's translator's note on the pairs: '...Khara in Slakshma; and Kathina in Mridu. — T.'
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.
Kaṭhina as a pārthiva quality; agrees with WHO's 'activated prithvi'. Standard verse not read in Sanskrit.
Not to be confused with
- mṛdu
- Opposite member (soft); Kaviratna's pairing note.
- khara
- Rough (surface texture); Kaviratna renders 'rough' and 'Khara ... productive of roughness', distinct from 'hard'.
- sāndra
- Dense/thick (Kaviratna 'thick'); a dense liquid is sāndra, not kaṭhina.
- sthira
- Stable/immobile (Kaviratna 'stable', 'immobile'); hardness is not stability.
- stambha / kāṭhinya as a symptom
- Clinical stiffness/induration (e.g., 'hardness of the limbs' in Vata lists) is a sign, not the drug guna.
- kaṭhina (Pali kaṭhina, Buddhist robe-offering ceremony)
- Homograph in Buddhist literature (wisdomlib lists it).
Renderings that do not hold
- rigid / stiff. Those describe stambha; kaṭhina is hardness of the substance.
- solid. Solid vs liquid is sāndra vs drava; a soft solid is not kaṭhina.
- rough. That is khara.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Half-verse boundary of 22.12/13 and 22.14/15 in a printed Trikamji edition.
- Standard verse for the pārthiva-dravya unit in Su.26.
- Any sensory or texture-analysis literature attempting to operationalise kaṭhina: none found.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, kaṭhina
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/kathina/, 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.