khara: what the term means and how it is translated
khara खर is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 6 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 | khara |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | खर |
| Also written | karkaśa (Sushruta's term in the second decade of guṇas, Su.Su. 46.521) |
| Category, as gathered | guṇa (one of the twenty gurvādi guṇas; opposite of ślakṣṇa) |
| 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.
Roughness/coarseness
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), entry DG0119 khara · DG0119: 'Roughness/coarseness; one among 20 gurvadi gunas; caused due activated vayu; denotes physiological & pharmacological roughness & harshness; causes depletion.' A separate entry AF1006 khara: 'Rough tongue'. · comparator standard
Comparator. WHO's vāta attribute list also reads 'Rūkṣa (dry), Laghu (light), Śīta (cold), Khara ...'.
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.
keen
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson I (verse printed as 58 by him; standard 1.59) · archive.org BIUSante_47357 · public-domain translation
'Wind, which may be dry, cold, light, subtile, unstable, clear, keen' renders rūkṣa śīta laghu sūkṣma cala viśada khara; 'keen' for khara is a translator's choice that matches Monier-Williams' 'sharp' sense, not the pharmacological 'rough'.
sharp or pungent
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson XXVI (his no. 22; standard 26.11) · archive.org BIUSante_47357, printed p. 300 · public-domain translation
'heavy, sharp or pungent, hard, mild, immobile, clear, thick, gross, and possessed of scent' for guru khara kaṭhina manda sthira viśada sāndra sthūla gandha; 'sharp or pungent' for khara is doctrinally odd and collides with kaṭu.
rough (to tactual perception)
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana ch. XLVI · wisdomlib doc141678; archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.43171 printed p. 567 · public-domain translation
'Parchedness is the opposite of oleaginousness; it produces stypsis and makes a thing rough to tactual perception.' Here khara is rendered as an effect of rūkṣa, following the Sanskrit of Su.Su. 46.516. For the twenty-guṇa list proper Bhishagratna renders karkaśa as 'Roughness'.
hard, harsh, rough, sharp, pungent, acid (opposed to mṛdu and ślakṣṇa)
Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), p. 337 · dictionary
Confirms both the 'rough' and 'sharp' senses; the Ayurvedic technical sense fixes on 'rough' as opposite of ślakṣṇa.
Rough
Common textbook rendering (gurvādi guṇa tables) · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Near-universal in modern teaching.
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 1:59 (standard; Kaviratna prints 58 after the passage) · checked against the source
रूक्षः शीतो लघुः सूक्ष्मश्चलोऽथ विशदः खरः| विपरीतगुणैर्द्रव्यैर्मारुतः सम्प्रशाम्यति||५९||
Khara listed among the seven qualities of vāta. Kaviratna: 'Wind, which may be dry, cold, light, subtile, unstable, clear, keen, is cured by objects which have adverse attributes.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:11 (standard; Kaviratna prints 22 and 23 after the pārthiva and āpya sentences) · checked against the source
तत्रद्रव्याणिगुरुखरकठिनमन्दस्थिरविशदसान्द्रस्थूलगन्धगुणबहुलानि पार्थिवानि, तान्युपचयसङ्घातगौरवस्थैर्यकराणि; ... लघुशीतरूक्षखरविशदसूक्ष्मस्पर्शगुणबहुलानि वायव्यानि, तानि रौक्ष्यग्लानिविचारवैशद्यलाघवकराणि;
Khara is an attribute of both pṛthvī-dominant and vāyu-dominant substances.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 46:516 (numbering as printed in the Sanskrit on easyayurveda.com, which follows the common Trikamji/Nirnaya Sagar numbering; verify against a printed edition) · checked against the source
स्नेहमार्दवकृत् स्निग्धो बलवर्णकरस्तथा | रूक्षस्तद्विपरीतः स्याद्विशेषात् स्तम्भनः खरः ||५१६||
In Sushruta's guṇa-karma passage khara appears as a characteristic of rūkṣa, while the second decade of guṇas uses karkaśa (46.521: 'श्लक्ष्णः पिच्छिलवज्ज्ञेयः कर्कशो विशदो यथा'). Bhishagratna: 'Parchedness is the opposite of oleaginousness; it produces stypsis and makes a thing rough to tactual perception.' and 'Humidity is like sliminess. Roughness is like absorption.'
Aṣṭāṅga HṛdayaSutrasthana 1:18 (as printed on easyayurveda.com; verify in a printed edition) · address only, nothing quoted to check
Enumerates the twenty guṇas as ten named qualities 'with their opposites' (ślakṣṇa named, khara implied as its opposite). No public-domain English translation; no quotation recorded.
Not to be confused with
- rūkṣa (dry)
- Both are vāta attributes and Sushruta 46.516 even lists khara as a property of rūkṣa; but rūkṣa is the opposite of snigdha (unctuous) while khara is the opposite of ślakṣṇa (smooth).
- kaṭhina (hard)
- Kaviratna's 'sharp... hard' and Monier-Williams' 'hard, harsh' invite confusion; kaṭhina pairs with mṛdu, khara with ślakṣṇa.
- tīkṣṇa (sharp/penetrating)
- Kaviratna's 'keen' and 'sharp' for khara are the standard English for tīkṣṇa; the pharmacological khara is tactile roughness.
- karkaśa
- Sushruta's term for the same slot in the twenty-guṇa list (Su.Su. 46.521); treat as synonym in Sushruta, not a 21st guṇa.
Renderings that do not hold
- sharp / keen / pungent. Kaviratna's renderings at Ca.Su. 1.59 and 26.11; follow the dictionary's secondary sense and collapse khara into tīkṣṇa or kaṭu.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, khara
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/khara/, 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.