laṅghana: what the term means and how it is translated
laṅghana लङ्घन is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 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 | laṅghana |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | लङ्घन |
| Also written | laṁghana, langhana, laṅghana-cikitsā, apatarpaṇa (related), Langhana (Kaviratna) |
| Category, as gathered | chikitsa |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 8 |
| 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.
Lightness promoting therapy
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-9.1.46 laṅghanam: 'One of the six types of treatment modalities: a procedure that induces lightness in the body.' Listed in ITA-9.1.42 ṣaḍvidhopakramāḥ (spelled 'laṁghanaṁ' there). Separate ITA-9.1.41 apatarpaṇam 'Depleting therapy' and ITA-9.1.47 'Therapeutic sustained hunger'. · comparator-standard
WHO's headword follows the Ca.Su.22.9 definition (lāghava) literally; 'depleting' is reserved for apatarpaṇa.
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.
Therapy which produces lightness of the body is called laṁghana. Reduction therapy consists of two parts Pallative and Purification. Laṁghana consist of 10 methods. The first 4 are types of purification process excluding blood letting.
NIA Jaipur / WHO-APW draft terminology (2011) · entry SV0141 laṁghana (text as printed, including 'Pallative') · comparator-draft
Draft gloss adds the śamana/śodhana split (which is Vāgbhaṭa's, AH Su.14.4) and the ten-method count (Charaka's 22.18).
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.
Langhana: 'Any thing that lightens or attenuates (the aggravated humours and altered constituents) in the body'
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson XXII · archive.org BIUSante_47357 OCR, his printed 7-9 (standard 22.9) · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna keeps the Sanskrit term and glosses it; the parenthesis is his addition. His footnote says the term is 'clearly explained in course of the Lesson'.
depleting therapy / reducing therapy / lightening therapy / fasting therapy
PubMed and textbook usage: PMID 23723649 'Langhana (depleting therapy)'; carakasamhitaonline section heads 'Langhana (reducing/lightening) therapy'; PMID 22131738 'Upavasa ... (among ten types of Langhanas)' · textbook-usage
'Depleting' and 'reducing' dominate; 'fasting' narrows it to one of the ten.
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 (Laṅghanabṛṁhaṇīya):9 (carakasamhitaonline numbering); Kaviratna prints 7-9 for the block · checked against the source
तदग्निवेशस्य वचो निशम्य गुरुरब्रवीत्| यत् किञ्चिल्लाघवकरं देहे तल्लङ्घनं स्मृतम्||९||
Definition: whatever produces lightness (lāghava) in the body is laṅghana.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson XXII:Kaviratna's printed 7-9 (standard 22.9-11) · checked against the source
Any thing that lightens or attenuates (the aggravated humours and altered constituents) in the body has been said to be a Langhana.
Kaviratna's rendering; parenthesis is his gloss.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 22 (Laṅghanabṛṁhaṇīya):18 (carakasamhitaonline numbering); Kaviratna also prints 18 · checked against the source
चतुष्प्रकारा संशुद्धिः पिपासा मारुतातपौ| पाचनान्युपवासश्च व्यायामश्चेति लङ्घनम्||१८||
The ten laṅghanas: fourfold saṁśuddhi, thirst, wind, sun, pācana drugs, fasting, exercise. The Sanskrit does not name the four śuddhis.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson XXII:Kaviratna's printed 18 (standard 18) · checked against the source
The four kinds of corrective processes (viz., administration of emetics, of purgatives, of errhines or cerebral purgatives, and dry enemata), as also bearing thirst and wind and the heat of the Sun, drinking the medicines called Pachana, fast, and physical exercise, — these are all included under Langhana.
Kaviratna's rendering; his parenthetical naming of the four is gloss, not text.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 22 (Laṅghanabṛṁhaṇīya):34-35 (carakasamhitaonline numbering); Kaviratna prints 32-33 · checked against the source
वातमूत्रपुरीषाणां विसर्गे गात्रलाघवे| हृदयोद्गारकण्ठास्यशुद्धौ तन्द्राक्लमे गते||३४|| स्वेदे जाते रुचौ चैव क्षुत्पिपासासहोदये| कृतं लङ्घनमादेश्यं निर्व्यथे चान्तरात्मनि||३५||
Signs of properly completed laṅghana (samyak-laṅghana lakṣaṇa).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson XXII:Kaviratna's printed 32-33 (standard 22.34-35) · checked against the source
When wind, Urine, and stools are passed (freely), when the body becomes light, when the thorax, the eructations, and the throat become purified, when dulness and exhaustion disappear, when perspiration shows itself, when liking for food returns, when hunger and thirst arise together, and when the mind becomes cheerful, it should then be held that the Langhana desirable to be observed has been properly observed.
Kaviratna's rendering of the samyak-laṅghana signs.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 14 (Dvividhopakramaṇīya):2 and 4 (GRETIL e-text numbering) · checked against the source
bṛṃhaṇo laṅghanaś ceti tat-paryāyāv udāhṛtau | bṛṃhaṇaṃ yad bṛhat-tvāya laṅghanaṃ lāghavāya yat || 2 || ... bhūtānāṃ tad api dvaidhyād dvitayaṃ nātivartate | śodhanaṃ śamanaṃ ceti dvi-dhā tatrāpi laṅghanam || 4 ||
Vāgbhaṭa defines laṅghana by lāghava, makes it a synonym of apatarpaṇa, and divides it into śodhana and śamana. This is the source of the two-part split the NIA gloss attributes to laṅghana generally.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 4 (GRETIL section; variant markers '4.26cv' in the block):26 · checked against the source
doṣāḥ kadā-cit kupyanti jitā laṅghana-pācanaiḥ | ye tu saṃśodhanaiḥ śuddhā na teṣāṃ punar-udbhavaḥ || 26 ||
Vāgbhaṭa repeats Charaka's contrast (Ca.Su.16.20): doṣas subdued by laṅghana and pācana may recur, those removed by saṁśodhana do not.
Not to be confused with
- apatarpaṇa
- The depleting half of the twofold scheme (WHO ITA-9.1.41); Vāgbhaṭa treats laṅghana as its synonym (AH Su.14.2), WHO keeps separate entries.
- upavāsa (fasting)
- One of the ten laṅghanas (Ca.Su.22.18), not the whole; WHO ITA-9.1.47 'Therapeutic sustained hunger' is a separate entry.
- śodhana / saṁśuddhi
- Charaka counts the fourfold saṁśuddhi inside laṅghana (22.18); Vāgbhaṭa makes śodhana one of laṅghana's two divisions (AH Su.14.4).
- rūkṣaṇa
- Another of the six upakramas, defined by dryness and roughness (Ca.Su.22.10); Kaviratna notes its over- and under-dose signs are those of laṅghana.
- pācana
- Digestive drugs are one laṅghana method (22.18) and are paired with laṅghana in the recurrence verse (Ca.Su.16.20; AH Su.4.26).
Renderings that do not hold
- fasting / fasting therapy. Reduces ten methods (including exercise, sun, wind, purification) to one.
- weight-loss therapy / slimming. The defined aim is lāghava (lightness), the signs of success are elimination, appetite and mental clarity (22.34-35), not weight.
- detoxification. Only the four saṁśuddhis within laṅghana remove doṣa; the rest (thirst, wind, sun, pācana, fasting, exercise) do not expel anything.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Kaviratna's offset in Lesson XXII shifts from two behind (7-9 for 9-11) to aligned (18) to two behind again (32-33 for 34-35); the exact point of each shift was not mapped.
- The 'ten laṅghanas' count depends on reading catuṣprakārā saṁśuddhi as four items; the Sanskrit of 22.18 does not enumerate them, so any list of the four is gloss (Kaviratna supplies one).
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, laṅghana
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/langhana/, 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.