laghu: what the term means and how it is translated
laghu लघु is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 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 | laghu |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | लघु |
| Also written | lāghava (abstract noun, Ca.Su. 26.11) |
| Category, as gathered | guṇa (one of the twenty gurvādi guṇas; opposite of guru); also one of the eight vīryas in some schools |
| Grouped here under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| 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.
Light/ lightness
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), entry DG0143 laghu · DG0143: 'Light/ lightness; one among 20 gurvadi gunas. opposite of guru guna; caused due to activated vayu, agni, akasha mahabhutas; denotes physiological & pharmacological lightness; manifested by lightness in the body, easy to digest, stimulates Agni, decreases all body tissues, pacifies kapha, aggravates Vata, heals wounds;' · comparator standard
Comparator; WHO folds Sushruta's lekhana/ropaṇa actions into the definition.
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.
light
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson I and XXVI · archive.org BIUSante_47357 · public-domain translation
'heavy and light, heat and cold, &c.' (his 48, standard 1.49); 'heavy, light, cold, hot, oily, and dry' (Varyovida's opinion, standard 26.8); 'It is light, warm, and dry' (kaṭu rasa, standard 26.43). He also renders the eight vīryas 'mild and keen, heavy and light, oily and dry, and hot and cooling'.
Lightness
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana ch. XLVI · archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.43171 printed p. 568 · public-domain translation
'Lightness is the opposite of heaviness. It acts as a liquefacient and healing agent.' Elsewhere in ch. 46 he uses 'light of digestion' / 'light in digestion' for foods.
light, quick, swift... light in the stomach, easily digested, Suśr.
Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), p. 893 · dictionary
Dictionary already records the Suśruta technical sense 'easily digested'.
Light (easy to digest)
Common textbook rendering · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Textbooks typically gloss toward digestibility; the classical guṇa is broader (reducing, scraping).
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 1:49 (standard; Kaviratna prints 48 after the passage) · checked against the source
सार्था गुर्वादयो बुद्धिः प्रयत्नान्ताः परादयः| गुणाः प्रोक्ताः . प्रयत्नादि कर्म चेष्टितमुच्यते||४९||
The gurvādi (guru-first) qualities are listed among the guṇas; the verse names the series by its first member only. Kaviratna: 'pairs of opposites (such as heavy and light, heat and cold, &c.)'.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:59 (standard; Kaviratna 58) · checked against the source
रूक्षः शीतो लघुः सूक्ष्मश्चलोऽथ विशदः खरः| विपरीतगुणैर्द्रव्यैर्मारुतः सम्प्रशाम्यति||५९||
Laghu as an attribute of vāta. Kaviratna: 'Wind, which may be dry, cold, light, subtile, unstable, clear, keen'.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:9 (standard) · checked against the source
तेष्वाश्रयेषु द्रव्यसञ्ज्ञकेषु गुणा गुरुलघुशीतोष्णस्निग्धरूक्षाद्याः;
Guru-laghu head the list of guṇas residing in substances. Kaviratna: 'Those virtues are heavy, light, cold, warm, oily, dry, and others.'
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 46:518-519 (numbering as printed in the web Sanskrit text; verify in a printed edition) · checked against the source
सादोपलेपबलकृद्गुरुस्तर्पणबृंहणः ||५१८|| लघुस्तद्विपरीतः स्याल्लेखनो रोपणस्तथा |
Laghu is the opposite of guru and is lekhana (scraping) and ropaṇa (healing). Bhishagratna (p. 568): 'Heaviness produces languor, increases excrements, and is tonic, pleasing and flesh-building. Lightness is the opposite of heaviness. It acts as a liquefacient and healing agent.' ('liquefacient' is his rendering of lekhana; OCR reads 'liquefadent').
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 42:Sushruta Sutrasthana 42/7 (siva.sh numbering); Bhishagratna Chapter XLII, the unnumbered paragraph beginning 'According to certain authorities' · checked against the source
The tastes such as sweet, acid and saline are heavy and emollient in their character, while the pungent, astringent and bitter ones are dry and light.
Suśruta reporting the view of 'some' (kecid āhuḥ) at Su 42.7: within a two-fold Saumya/Āgneya division of the rasas, madhura, amla and lavaṇa are snigdha and guru, while kaṭu, tikta and kaṣāya are rūkṣa and laghu. Bhishagratna's 'According to certain authorities' marks the same framing. This is a cited opinion, not Suśruta's own siddhānta; in his own voice at 42.8 he assigns lāghava to kaṣāya (vāyu-samānayoni) and to kaṭu (pitta-samānayoni), and does not there list tikta. Sanskrit: तत्र मधुराम्ललवणाः स्निग्धा गुरवश्च, कटुतिक्तकषाया रूक्षा लघवश्च ॥७॥.
Not to be confused with
- guru (heavy)
- Its paired opposite; the pair is the eponym of the whole gurvādi list.
- laghu as vīrya
- Some schools count laghu among eight vīryas (Kaviratna: 'mild and keen, heavy and light, oily and dry, and hot and cooling, are the eight kinds of Energy'; AH 9 also records this view). Same word, different category (vīrya vs guṇa).
- laṅghana (lightening therapy)
- A treatment principle derived from the same root; laghu is the quality, laṅghana the procedure.
- sūkṣma (subtle)
- Both vāta attributes often glossed 'light/fine'; sūkṣma is about penetration into minute channels (Su.Su. 46.524), laghu about weight/digestibility and reduction.
Renderings that do not hold
- low-calorie / easy to digest only. Narrows a guṇa with lekhana (scraping/reducing) and ropaṇa (healing) actions to one dietary attribute.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, laghu
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/laghu/, 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.