mandāgni: what the term means and how it is translated
mandāgni मन्दाग्नि is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 8 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 | mandāgni |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | मन्दाग्नि |
| Also written | manda agni, mando 'gniḥ, agnisāda, śītāgnitā, kāphaja agni-doṣa |
| Category, as gathered | pathophysiology / functional state |
| Grouped here under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| 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.
Depressed or weak state of digestive, metabolic factors
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.6.11 · terminology-standard
WHO description verbatim: 'A state in which the action of transformative factor is weak or depressed due to the dominant influence of kapha.'
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.
Subdued digestive, metabolic factors
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.11.1 (in the Indigestion section of the disorders chapter) · terminology-standard
Like viṣamāgni, mandāgni is listed twice, as a state and as a disorder. The disorder entry reads verbatim: 'A disorder characterized by some or all the following signs and symptoms: difficulty in digestion of food after a long time even though of proper quantity; heaviness of abdomen; heaviness of head; cough; breathlessness/difficulty in breathing; excessive salivation; vomiting; bodily exhaustion or tiredness; abdominal distension; constipation; gurgling intestinal sounds/borborygmi; dryness of mouth; inactivity/inertia of anus.' That list is a close modernisation of Su.Sū.35.24.
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.
subdued digestive power
NAMASTE / National AYUSH Morbidity Codes (NAMC), Ministry of Ayush · NAMC code DB-1 (mandAgniH / agnisAda, मन्दाग्निः / अग्निसाद); NAMC cites Su.Su.35/24, Ma.Ni.6/6, As.Sa.6/32, Ah.Sa.3/76 · terminology-standard
NAMASTE treats agnisāda as a synonym of mandāgni under one code, and adds a separate DB-1.1 mandAgni-ariShTaH, 'fatal signs of मन्दाग्नि' (citing Ca.I.6/11).
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, 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.
dull or sluggish (Mandagni)
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sūtrasthāna Chapter XXXV, p. 320 · public-domain-translation
Bhishagratna's rendering, given twice in the chapter.
mild
Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimānasthāna Lesson VI (= Ca.Vi.6.12) · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna's footnote: 'Mild is that which cannot digest all kinds of food; indeed, the fire that digests only light food is called mild.' 'Mild' is a weak choice in modern English and is worth flagging as an obsolete rendering.
mild or weak state of metabolic fire
Anc Sci Life 2015 (PMID 26283805) · abstract · secondary-literature
Verbatim from the abstract's gloss.
impaired digestion
NAMASTE / NAMC · NAMC code ACB-23 — SItAgnitA (agnimAndyam) (kEvala-kapha) / शीताग्निता (अग्निमान्द्यम्) · terminology-standard
NAMASTE renders the kaphaja variant śītāgnitā, glossed as agnimāndya, 'impaired digestion (due only to कफदोष)'.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, 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.
no ICD-11 TM2 index term found for mandāgni
ICD-11 MMS v2026-01, TM2 · classification · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
SM3B Indigestion disorder (TM2) carries agnimāndyam as an index term but not mandāgni. Statement limited to what I retrieved.
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.
Sushruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna XXXV (Ātura-upakramaṇīya):24 · checked against the source
Manda'gni :— The digestive fire or heat which causes the tardy digestion even of a scanty meal, and produces heaviness of the abdomen and head, cough, difficult breathing, water-brash, nausea, and weariness of the limbs simultaneously with the taking thereof, is called dull or sluggish (Mandagni).
The fullest public-domain English definition. The criterion is slow digestion of even a small meal, with symptoms arising at the time of eating. WHO's ITA-5.11.1 list is visibly derived from this. (The OCR renders 'fire' as 'ire' in one place in the scan; restored.)
Sushruta Saṃhitā (Sanskrit)Sūtrasthāna 35:24 · checked against the source
यस्त्वल्पमप्युपयुक्तमुदरशिरोगौरवकासश्वासप्रसेकच्छर्दिगात्रसदनानि कृत्वा महताकालेन पचति स मन्दः
Sanskrit for the definition, fixing the verse number and the symptom list (udara-śiro-gaurava, kāsa, śvāsa, praseka, chardi, gātra-sādana).
Sushruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna XXXV:25-26 · checked against the source
a sluggish (Manda) fire gives rise to diseases marked by a deranged state of the Kapham. ... Emetics should be administered in a case of dull or sluggish digestion (Mandagni), and the patient should be restricted to a diet consisting of articles of a pungent, astringent or bitter taste
Doṣa attribution (kapha) and management (vamana; kaṭu, tikta, kaṣāya diet), public domain.
Charaka Saṃhitā (Sanskrit)Vimānasthāna 6:12 · checked against the source
तद्विपरीतलक्षणस्तु मन्दः ... श्लेष्मलानां तु श्लेष्माभिभूतेऽग्न्यधिष्ठाने मन्दा भवन्त्यग्नयः
Charaka defines manda negatively against tīkṣṇa (it cannot withstand dietary abuse) and attributes it to kapha overwhelming agni's seat.
Charaka SaṃhitāCikitsāsthāna 15:51 and 57 · corrected against the source
The fire that is weak simply scorches the food taken. Such food (instead of contributing to the growth or harmony of the 'dhatus') issues out of the body in an upward or a downward course. ... When the digestive fire is weak, the 'Grahani' becomes vitiated, It then discharges only undigested food (called Ama)
The causal bridge from weak agni to grahaṇī-doṣa and to āma. This is the passage that makes mandāgni the pivot of Ayurvedic pathogenesis rather than a mere symptom.
Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya (Sanskrit)Śārīrasthāna 3:73, 76 · checked against the source
mando 'smin kapha-pīḍite || 73 || ... mandas tu samyag apy annam upayuktaṃ cirāt pacet || 76 (opening) ||
Vāgbhaṭa's kapha attribution and criterion (digests even properly-taken food only after a long time). NAMASTE cites Ah.Sa.3/76 for mandāgni, matching. The verse-number split between 75 and 76 at this half-verse should be checked against a printed edition.
Not to be confused with
- agnimāndya
- The most important distinction in this cluster and the one most often lost. mandāgni is the state or type of agni; agnimāndya is the condition of that state obtaining. WHO codes mandāgni (ITA-2.6.11, ITA-5.11.1) and has no entry for agnimāndya at all; ICD-11 TM2 carries agnimāndyam as an index term and no mandāgni. They are not interchangeable across standards.
- viṣamāgni
- manda is uniformly slow; viṣama alternates. WHO's viṣamāgni definition unhelpfully includes 'diminished', which erodes the boundary.
- agnisāda
- NAMASTE treats it as a synonym under DB-1. Some textbook traditions treat agnisāda as a distinct, deeper exhaustion of agni. The synonymy is a NAMASTE editorial decision, not a classical given.
- śītāgnitā
- Listed at Ca.Sū.20 as one of the twenty kaphaja disorders, and glossed by NAMASTE as agnimāndya. Whether it is a synonym of mandāgni or a specifically kaphaja subtype is not settled in the sources I saw.
- ajīrṇa
- Ajīrṇa is the event of non-digestion of a given meal; mandāgni is the standing capacity. ICD-11 SM3B groups them under one code, which erases the distinction.
- grahaṇī-roga
- Ca.Ci.15.56 makes weak agni the cause of grahaṇī vitiation; the disease is the sequel, not the state.
Renderings that do not hold
- mild (digestive fire). Kaviratna's 1890s choice. In modern English 'mild' reads as benign or moderate, the opposite of the intended deficiency. An obsolete rendering that should not be revived.
- loss of appetite / anorexia. Conflates cause with one possible symptom, and collides with a separate ICD-11 TM2 category (Anorexia disorder (TM2)). Sushruta's mandāgni definition does not mention appetite at all.
- hypometabolism / slow metabolism. Systemic-metabolic framing for what both Sushruta and WHO's disorder entry define by gastrointestinal performance and a specific symptom list.
- indigestion. Usable for ajīrṇa, but as a rendering of mandāgni it drops the standing-capacity sense and makes the term an event.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Is agnisāda genuinely synonymous with mandāgni, or has NAMASTE collapsed a distinction?
- Is śītāgnitā (Ca.Sū.20.17) a synonym, a kaphaja subtype, or a separate condition?
- Does Mādhava Nidāna 6/6 (cited by NAMASTE) define mandāgni, and in what terms?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, mandāgni
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/manda-agni/, 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.