# mānasika-roga (मानसरोगः)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/manasika-roga/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 9 different ways.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | mānasika-roga |
| Devanagari | मानसरोगः |
| Also written | manasa roga, mānasa-roga, manasika vyadhi, manovikara, manas roga |
| Category, as gathered | disease-kinds |
| Grouped under | Causation and the course of disease |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |

## How it is translated, and whether the translation holds

Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.

### Two types of psychological disease

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.4, Sanskrit headword dvividha-mānasika-rogaḥ, description: 'Diseases which affect the psyche can be classified as either agitative, reactive (rajasika) or inertia-prone conditions (tamasika).' · standard

WHO's English for the class is 'psychological disease'. The entry is for the twofold division, which comes from Cha.Ni.1/4.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### Diseases caused by agitative, reactive tendency

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.5, rājasarogaḥ (राजसरोगः): 'A disorder of the psyche caused by an increase in agitative, reactive tendency in the individual, e.g. excessive anger, jealousy or impetuousness.' · standard

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### Diseases caused by inertia prone tendency

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.6, tāmasarogaḥ (तामसरोगः): 'A disorder of the psyche caused by increase in the inertia-prone tendency in the individual, e.g. grief, slothfulness or excessive sleepiness.' · standard

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### Psychological cause

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.4.8, mānasikahetuḥ (मानसिकहेतुः): 'Causes leading to disturbances in the functions of the mind.' · standard

Confirms WHO's gloss of manasika as 'psychological' outside the disease-class context.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### Mental diseases are those that arise from non-attainment of objects desired or coveted, or from accession of those that are disliked.

Charaka Samhita, trans. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · Sutrasthana ch. 11 (Tistraishaniya), rendering Cha.Su.11/45 · translation (public domain)

Kaviratna: 'Mental'. His definition is cause-based and desire-based, matching the Sanskrit iṣṭasya alābhāt, aniṣṭasya ca upalabdheḥ.

### Mental (Manasa)

Sushruta Samhita, trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · Sutrasthana ch. I, 'Disease:—its Definition' · translation (public domain)

### Excessive anger, grief, fear, joy, despondency, envy, misery, pride, greed, lust, desire, malice, etc. are ... included within the category of mental (Manasa) distempers

Sushruta Samhita, trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · Sutrasthana ch. I, explanation of the four types. The ellipsis marks a page-layout interruption in the retrieved text where a footnote is interleaved; the words either side are verbatim. · translation (public domain)

'Distempers' is a period rendering. Note that Sushruta's manasa class is a list of AFFECTS (anger, grief, fear, envy), not of syndromes; the affects are themselves the diseases.

### The two other kinds of disease, viz., Rajasa and Tamasa', are, of course, mental.

Charaka Samhita, trans. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · translator's footnote to Nidana Sthana ch. 1 (his aphorism 2 = Ni.1/4 modern) · translation (public domain)

Kaviratna's own note, not text. It is the link between Cha.Ni.1/4 and the manasika class, and it is the same link WHO ISTA makes at ITA-4.2.4.

### mental disorder (manasa roga)

Balsavar A, Deshpande SN, Indian J Psychiatry 2014 · paper

The source's own wording is not reproduced here: "Balsavar A, Deshpande SN, Indian J Psychiatry 2014" is not a source this project has cleared for quotation.

An indexed psychiatry journal rendering manasa roga as 'mental disorder' without qualification.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 11:45, checked against the source

> त्रयो रोगा इति- निजागन्तुमानसाः| तत्र निजः शारीरदोषसमुत्थः, आगन्तुर्भूतविषवाय्वग्निसम्प्रहारादिसमुत्थः, मानसः पुनरिष्टस्यलाभाल्लाभाच्चानिष्टस्योपजायते||४५||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Tistraishaniya_Adhyaya

Charaka's manasa as the third class, defined by non-attainment of the desired and encounter with the undesired. Note the form is मानस, not मानसिक.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 11:47, checked against the source

> The treatment for all mental diseases is attention to the considerations of Religion, Wealth, and Pleasure, and the knowledge of how to reverentially wait upon persons that are well-conversant with those three topics, as also the knowledge of how to attend to the considerations connected with one's own self (viz., consideration in respect of one's own country, race, time, physical strength, and mental energy).

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/details/ZHNR_charaka-samhita-by-abhinash-chandra-english-pages-partly-damaged-missing-pages-1

Charaka's prescribed management of manasa roga, immediately after the definition at 11/45: it is dharma/artha/kama counselling and self-knowledge, not dravya therapy. Verse number is not legible in the scan at this point, so the verse field is left empty; the passage sits between the 11/45 definition and the rogamarga passage on the same printed page.

### Charaka Samhita Nidana Sthana 1:4, checked against the source

> अतस्त्रिविधा व्याधयः प्रादुर्भवन्ति- आग्नेयाः, सौम्याः,वायव्याश्च;-द्विविधाश्चापरे- राजसाः, तामसाश्च||४||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Jwara_Nidana

The twofold psychic division rajasa/tamasa, the direct source of WHO ISTA ITA-4.2.4 to 4.2.6.

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 1:25, checked against the source

> मानसास्तु क्रोधशोकभयहर्षविषादेर्ष्याभ्यसूयादैन्यमात्सर्यकामलोभप्रभृतयः इच्छा द्वेषभेदैर्भवन्ति

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2023/05/04/sushruta-samhita-sutrasthanam-chapter-1-vedotpatti-adhyaya-origin-of-the-science-of-life/

Sushruta's manasa class enumerated as affects (krodha, shoka, bhaya, harsha, vishada, irshya, asuya, dainya, matsarya, kama, lobha) arising through iccha and dvesha. Content-identical to Bhishagratna's English.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:55, checked against the source

> शरीरं सत्त्वसञ्ज्ञं च व्याधीनामाश्रयो मतः| तथा सुखानां, योगस्तु सुखानां कारणं समः||५५||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya

Sattva (mind) as one of the two ashrayas of disease. Note Charaka's word here is sattva, not manas, which is a further lemma problem for this headword.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:54, checked against the source

> कालबुद्धीन्द्रियार्थानां योगो मिथ्या न चाति च| द्वयाश्रयाणां व्याधीनां त्रिविधो हेतुसङ्ग्रहः||५४||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya

dvayāśrayāṇāṃ vyādhīnām, diseases of the two seats, share a single threefold cause. Establishes that Charaka does not give manasika diseases a separate etiology from sharirika ones.

## Where this term does work in the theory

One concept record names this term as one of its components, and glosses it there as follows.

- **[Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/manas-in-health/)** (as Manasa roga): Mental disease, classified at Su. 11.45 as arising from non-attainment of the desired or contact with the disliked, distinct from nija and agantu disease. The nosology chapters add a pathogenesis the Su. 11.45 definition does not mention: see Ni. 7.4-5 for unmada and Ci. 10 for apasmara.

## Not to be confused with

- **sharirika-roga.** The complementary seat. But Cha.Su.1/54 gives both seats the SAME threefold etiology, so the split is by seat and not by cause, which is the opposite of how the modern 'psychological vs physical' opposition is usually understood.
- **manasika-bhava.** WHO ISTA ITA-1.9.3.3.13 defines mānasika-bhāvaḥ as 'Psychological or mental attributes', i.e. normal features of the mind (dhi, dhriti, smriti and the rest). These are the substrate, not the disorder, and the two are routinely conflated in English writing because both come out as 'mental factors'.
- **unmada / apasmara / atattvabhinivesha.** Named psychiatric NOSOLOGICAL entities in the samhitas. Manasika-roga is the class; these are members of it. ICD-11 TM2 codes entities of this kind, not the class term.
- **rajas and tamas (as manasa doshas).** The two mental doshas are the causal factors; rajasa-roga and tamasa-roga are the resulting classes. WHO ISTA codes the disease classes (ITA-4.2.5, 4.2.6) but has no mānasadoṣa headword at all, which I confirmed by searching the full text.
- **bhutonmada / graha-roga.** Disorders attributed to possessing entities. In Charaka these fall under AGANTU (bhuta is listed in the agantu causes at Su.11/45), not under manasa, even though their presentation is psychiatric. This is one of the most consequential misfilings in English Ayurvedic writing.

## Renderings that do not hold

- psychiatric disorder. Imports a clinical specialty and a diagnostic apparatus that the classification does not carry. Sushruta's manasa list at 1/25 is a list of ordinary affects including joy (harsha), which no psychiatric nosology treats as a disorder.
- psychosomatic disease. Wrong on both sides. Manasika is seated in manas; the psychosomatic category in WHO ISTA sits under a different headword, ādhyātmikarogaḥ (ITA-4.2.11).
- mental illness. Defensible but carries a modern implication of persistent pathology. Charaka's definition at Su.11/45 (non-attainment of the desired, encounter with the undesired) covers ordinary situational distress, and his prescribed management is counselling on dharma, artha and kama.
- emotional disorder. Too narrow for Charaka, whose manasa class is defined by a desire relation rather than by affect, and too narrow for the rajasa/tamasa scheme of Cha.Ni.1/4, which classifies by guna dominance.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Is mānasika (with -ika) attested as a disease-class term in the samhitas, or only mānasa? Every classical instance retrieved uses मानस/मानसाः. The -ika form is what WHO ISTA and modern textbooks use.
- How do Charaka's two mental schemes relate: manasa as a third class alongside nija and agantu (Su.11/45), versus rajasa/tamasa as a twofold psychic division (Ni.1/4)? No retrieved source reconciles them.
- Where do bhutonmada and the graha disorders sit, given that bhuta is listed under agantu causes?

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "mānasika-roga", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/manasika-roga/, CC BY 4.0.
Whole lexicon: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.json and https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.csv.

Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been
translated. Nothing here is advice.