madhura: what the term means and how it is translated
madhura मधुर is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 3 different ways across 5 sources, 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 | madhura |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | मधुर |
| Also written | svādu (AH Su. 1.14 'svādv-amla-lavaṇa...'), madhura rasa |
| Category, as gathered | rasa (taste); first of the six rasas |
| 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.
Sweet
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), entries DG0159, SK0118, DG0160 · DG0159 madhura: 'Sweet; one among six rasa.' SK0118 madhura rasa: 'Sweet, something that is sweet to taste'. DG0160 madhura skandha: 'Class of substances having actions attributed to Madhura Rasa.' · comparator standard
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.
Sweet
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson XXVI · archive.org BIUSante_47357, printed pp. 309-310 · public-domain translation
'the Taste that is Sweet'; 'Sweetness' for mādhurya.
Sweet (Madhura)
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana ch. XLII · wisdomlib doc141672; Wikisource djvu/489 · public-domain translation
Consistent.
sweet, pleasant, charming, delightful
Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), p. 781 · dictionary
The 'pleasant' sense underlies Sushruta's definition by comfort and relish.
Sweet
Common textbook rendering · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Uncontested; the lexicon work is in what 'sweet' covers (grains, milk, ghee, meats), not the word.
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 26:9 (standard) · checked against the source
षडेव रसा इत्युवाच भगवानात्रेयः पुनर्वसुः, मधुराम्ललवणकटुतिक्तकषायाः|
Madhura heads the six rasas.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:43 sub-paragraph (1) standard; Kaviratna prints 57 after the actions and 58 after the excess-effects · checked against the source
तत्र, मधुरो रसः शरीरसात्म्याद्रसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जौजःशुक्राभिवर्धन आयुष्यः षडिन्द्रियप्रसादनो बलवर्णकरः पित्तविषमारुतघ्नस्तृष्णादाहप्रशमनस्त्वच्यः केश्यः कण्ठ्यो बल्यः प्रीणनो जीवनस्तर्पणो बृंहणः स्थैर्यकरः क्षीणक्षतसन्धानकरो ... स्निग्धः शीतो गुरुश्च|
Actions of madhura and its guṇas (snigdha, śīta, guru). Kaviratna: 'the Taste that is Sweet, in consequence of its being well-adapted to the body, increases the juices, blood, flesh, fat, bones, marrow, Ojas, and vital seed. ... It is exceedingly liked by bees and ants. It is oily, cool, and heavy.' Excess: 'generates corpulency, softness of the body, idleness or aversion to labour, excessive sleep, heaviness ... and such other diseases as are born of (the excitement of) the Phlegm.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 1:61 (standard; Kaviratna's printed number read as 60 by sequence, OCR shows '80') · checked against the source
गुरुशीतमृदुस्निग्धमधुरस्थिरपिच्छिलाः| श्लेष्मणः प्रशमं यान्ति विपरीतगुणैर्गुणाः||६१||
Madhura listed among the attributes of kapha. Kaviratna: 'Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy, these attributes of phlegm are cured by objects having adverse attributes.' Note his 'watery' for snigdha and 'mild' for mṛdu.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 42:not established (Bhishagratna prints none) · checked against the source
A taste, which is pleasant, proves comfortable to, and contributes to the life-preservation of a man, keeps his mouth moist, and increases the quantity of bodily Kapha, is called Sweet (Madhura).
Sushruta's recognition criterion. Same chapter: 'A sweet taste is largely endued with attributes which specifically appertain to the material principles of earth and water.' and 'the sweet taste is possessed of the virtue of increasing the quantity of lymph-chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone marrow, albumen (ojas), semen, and milk in a parturient woman.' (Wikisource scan prints 'Kapham'.)
Not to be confused with
- madhura vipāka
- Post-digestive 'sweet' (Kaviratna: 'The Sweet and the Saline change into the Sweet') is a different level from madhura rasa; lavaṇa is madhura in vipāka but not in rasa.
- madhu (honey) and madhura as plant name
- Monier-Williams lists madhura as names of specific plants and drugs (jīvaka, sugarcane); honey is madhu, which is itself madhura-kaṣāya in rasa.
- sugar/sweetener
- The rasa covers staple grains, milk, ghee and many meats (Bhishagratna's Su. 42 groups), not just sugary foods; kapha-promoting effects attach to the whole class.
Renderings that do not hold
- sugary. Reduces a broad nutritive class to refined sweeteners; most madhura dravyas are not sweet to a modern palate.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, madhura
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/madhura/, 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.