kṛcchrasādhya: what the term means and how it is translated
kṛcchrasādhya कृच्छ्रसाध्य 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 | kṛcchrasādhya |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | कृच्छ्रसाध्य |
| Also written | kṛcchra-sādhya, krichra sadhya, kricchrasadhya, kashtasadhya (colloquial synonym in modern usage; not seen in sources retrieved) |
| Category, as gathered | prognosis (sub-class of sādhya) |
| Grouped here under | Causation and the course of disease |
| 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.
Diseases that are difficult to treat or cure (kṛcchrasādhyarogaḥ, ITA-4.2.40): 'Diseases and conditions that are curable with difficulty owing to various factors such as multiple etiological factors, depleted strength and functional imbalances.'
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.40, p.105 (PDF page 123) · comparator
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.
'curable with difficulty'
Kaviratna, Charaka-Samhita · Sutrasthana Lesson X, his aphorisms 3 and 8-11, pp. 110-111 · public-domain translation
'curable by means that are difficult' (for utkṛṣṭa-sādhya, the third grade of sādhya in 10/10, which Kaviratna's footnote links to 'Utkrishtasadhya')
Kaviratna · Sutrasthana Lesson X, his aphorism 4 and footnote · public-domain translation
A different threefold grading (alpa/madhya/utkṛṣṭa) of curable diseases by means required; not identical to kṛcchrasādhya.
'extremely hard to cure' (for a disease 'exhibiting traits common to both' curable and incurable types)
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita · Sutrasthana ch. XXXV · public-domain translation
Krichra sadhyata (scoring category)
NAMASTE portal, as described in secondary literature · comparator (indirect) · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Not verified on the portal.
palliable / 'hard to cure' used loosely
common textbook/online usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Often blurred with yāpya; see mistranslations.
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 SamhitaSutrasthana 10 (Mahācatuṣpāda):standard 10/9 (Sanskrit); Kaviratna's aphorism 3 · checked against the source
सुखसाध्यं मतं साध्यं कृच्छ्रसाध्यमथापि च| द्विविधं चाप्यसाध्यं स्याद्याप्यं यच्चानुपक्रमम् ||९||
kṛcchrasādhya is the second sub-class of sādhya (curable), alongside sukhasādhya.
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10:standard 10/14-16 (Sanskrit; first and last confirmed independently: 14 begins 'निमित्तपूर्वरूपाणां', 16 ends 'कृच्छ्रसाध्यं द्विदोषजम्'). Kaviratna's block printed '8-11' covers 14-17 (his 11 includes the yāpya verse 17). · checked against the source
निमित्तपूर्वरूपाणां रूपाणां मध्यमे बले| कालप्रकृतिदूष्याणां सामान्येऽन्यतमस्य च||१४|| गर्भिणीवृद्धबालानां नात्युपद्रवपीडितम्| शस्त्रक्षाराग्निकृत्यानामनवं कृच्छ्रदेशजम्||१५|| विद्यादेकपथं रोगं नातिपूर्णचतुष्पदम्| द्विपथं नातिकालं वा कृच्छ्रसाध्यं द्विदोषजम्||१६||
The defining features of kṛcchrasādhya: moderate strength of cause/prodrome/symptoms; one of kāla, prakṛti, dūṣya shared with the dosha; in pregnant women, the old, children; not very complicated; requiring śastra/kṣāra/agni; not new; arising in a difficult place; single-pathway with incomplete four requisites, or two-pathway, not very old, dvidoṣaja.
Caraka SamhitaSutrasthana 10, Kaviratna Lesson X, printed pp. 110-111:Kaviratna's '8-11' (printed after) = standard 10/14-17 · checked against the source
The characteristics of diseases that are curable with difficulty are as follows : when the causes, premonitory indications, and present symptoms, are of force neither slight nor very grave ; when any of these, viz., the season of the disease, its nature, and the character of those ingredients of the body which are known by the name of Dushya, is sympathetic with the derangement that induces the disease ; when the disease appertains to an elderly woman, an old man, and an infant ; when the disease is not characterised by excessively violent symptoms ; when the disease is such that it should be treated with the aid of operations by (surgical) instruments, by caustic alkali, and by fire ; when the disease is chronic ; when the disease, affecting some vital limb or some joint of the body, affects only one part; when the four principal requisites of treatment are wanting in some particular and the disease affects two parts; when the disease is not very old; and lastly when the disease has been induced by a double derangement ; such diseases should be known as curable with difficulty. Even diseases that are incurable in consequence of the exhaustion of one's allotted period of life may be kept in a suppressed state by means of regulated diet and (proper) nursing.
Public-domain English of the kṛcchrasādhya criteria. Note divergences from the Sanskrit worth flagging: Kaviratna has 'elderly woman' where the Sanskrit has garbhiṇī (pregnant woman); he renders kṛcchradeśajam loosely ('affecting some vital limb or some joint ... only one part') and 'anavam' as 'chronic'. The final sentence is the yāpya verse (10/17) which he runs into this block.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 35 (Bhishagratna ch. XXXV); Sanskrit verse number not established · checked against the source
A disease, which is marked by features other than those described above, should be regarded as incurable, while the one exhibiting traits common to both the abovesaid types, should be looked upon as extremely hard to cure.
Sushruta's criterion for the hard-to-cure class: mixed features of the curable and incurable types.
Not to be confused with
- yāpya
- Yāpya is a sub-class of ASĀDHYA (10/9): not curable, only maintainable. Kṛcchrasādhya is curable, with difficulty. Kaviratna's running of 10/17 into his kṛcchrasādhya block (his 8-11) makes this confusion easy.
- utkṛṣṭa-sādhya (10/10)
- The alpa/madhya/utkṛṣṭa grading is by the magnitude of MEANS required; kṛcchra/sukha is by the disease's features. They overlap but are distinct schemes in consecutive verses.
- asādhya
- Several kṛcchrasādhya features (dvidoṣaja, needs śastra/kṣāra/agni, in the old or very young) are shared by yāpya and pratyākhyeya in greater degree; the gradation is by degree, not by kind.
- kaṣṭasādhya
- Common modern synonym; not seen in Caraka 10 or WHO, which both use kṛcchra.
Renderings that do not hold
- palliable / manageable. That is yāpya; kṛcchrasādhya diseases are expected to be cured.
- Kaviratna's 'elderly woman' for garbhiṇī. The Sanskrit of 10/15 reads garbhiṇī-vṛddha-bālānām (pregnant women, the old, children); the translator's word is wrong, and should not be recorded as what the text says.
- chronic (for anavam). anavam means 'not new', i.e. not of recent onset; 'chronic' overstates duration, and Caraka reserves dīrghakālam avasthitam for yāpya (10/18).
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether to record Kaviratna's grouping (10/17 within the kṛcchrasādhya block) as a reading or as an error; the Sanskrit yāpya verse begins 'śeṣatvād āyuṣo yāpyam asādhyam'.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, kṛcchrasādhya
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/krichchhrasadhya/, 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.