mṛdu: what the term means and how it is translated

mṛdu मृदु is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways across 6 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.

Identification
Transliteration	mṛdu
Devanagari	मृदु
Also written	mridu, mrudu, mārdava (abstract noun), mṛtsna (WHO's kapha-list variant)
Category, as gathered	guṇa (one of the twenty gurvādi guṇas; opposite of kaṭhina); also one of the eight vīryas in some schools; also a grade of koṣṭha and of therapeutic intensity
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.

Softness/mildness

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), entry DG0173 mṛdu · DG0173: 'Softness/mildness; One of the 20 gurvadi gunas. Caused due activated akash & jala; denotes physiological & pharmacological softness & mildness; causes relaxation; relieves burning sensation.' Also DG0174 mṛdu vīrya: 'Mild Potency'. · comparator standard

Comparator; WHO gives both guṇa and vīrya senses.

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.

soft

Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson I (his 59, OCR '69'; standard 1.60) and Lesson XXVI (his 23; standard 26.11) · archive.org BIUSante_47357 · public-domain translation

'Bile, which may be cold, hot, keen, soft, sour, liquid, and bitter' (standard 1.60: sasneham uṣṇaṃ tīkṣṇaṃ ca dravam amlaṃ saraṃ kaṭu; 'soft' and 'cold' here do not match the Sanskrit, which has sasneha, and 'bitter' for kaṭu is also off; this is the known 'Bile, which may be cold' problem). In 26.11 'liquid, oily, cold, mild, soft, unctious, and mobile' gives 'soft' for mṛdu.

mild

Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson I (standard 1.61) and Lesson XXVI (eight vīryas, standard 26.64-65 region) · archive.org BIUSante_47357 · public-domain translation

'Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy, these attributes of phlegm' (guru śīta mṛdu snigdha madhura sthira picchila); 'mild and keen, heavy and light, oily and dry, and hot and cooling, are the eight kinds of Energy'. So Kaviratna oscillates between 'soft' and 'mild'.

Mildness or softness

Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana ch. XLVI · archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.43171 printed p. 568 · public-domain translation

'Keenness or sharpness begets burning and suppuration, and arrests secretions. Mildness or softness is the opposite of sharpness.' (OCR 'b^ets', 'suppmation' corrected). Note Bhishagratna pairs mṛdu with tīkṣṇa here, following Sushruta 46.518, whereas AH and textbooks pair mṛdu with kaṭhina and manda with tīkṣṇa.

soft, delicate, tender, pliant, mild, gentle... slight, moderate, Suśr.

Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), p. 830 · dictionary

Records the Suśruta sense 'slight, moderate' (the dosage/intensity use).

Soft

Common textbook rendering · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Standard in gurvādi tables.

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 1:61 (standard; Kaviratna's printed number by sequence 60, OCR '80') · checked against the source

गुरुशीतमृदुस्निग्धमधुरस्थिरपिच्छिलाः| श्लेष्मणः प्रशमं यान्ति विपरीतगुणैर्गुणाः||६१||

tr. Sanskrit quoted; English by Kaviratna · source

Mṛdu is an attribute of kapha. Kaviratna: 'Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy, these attributes of phlegm are cured by objects having adverse attributes.'

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:11 (standard; Kaviratna 23) · checked against the source

द्रवस्निग्धशीतमन्दमृदुपिच्छिलरसगुणबहुलान्याप्यानि, तान्युपक्लेदस्नेहबन्धविष्यन्दमार्दवप्रह्लादकराणि; ... मृदुलघुसूक्ष्मश्लक्ष्णशब्दगुणबहुलान्याकाशात्मकानि, तानि मार्दवसौषिर्यलाघवकराणि||११||

tr. Sanskrit quoted; English by Kaviratna · source

Mṛdu is an attribute of jala- and ākāśa-dominant substances; both produce mārdava (softness). Kaviratna: 'Those that are principally liquid, oily, cold, mild, soft, unctious, and mobile, are regarded as appertaining to Water.'

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 46:518 (first half) and 521 (numbering as printed in the web Sanskrit text; verify in a printed edition) · checked against the source

दाहपाककरस्तीक्ष्णः स्रावणो, मृदुरन्यथा | ... सुखानुबन्धी सूक्ष्मश्च सुगन्धो रोचनो मृदुः ||५२१||

tr. Sanskrit quoted; English by Bhishagratna · source

Sushruta defines mṛdu negatively as the opposite of tīkṣṇa, and uses mṛdu as a descriptor of sugandha. Bhishagratna: 'Mildness or softness is the opposite of sharpness.' and 'Odoriferousness is pleasurable, subtile, mild and relishing.'

Aṣṭāṅga HṛdayaSutrasthana 1 and 9:1.18 (twenty guṇas); 9.12-13 region (eight vīryas including mṛdu), numbering as printed on easyayurveda.com · address only, nothing quoted to check

Mṛdu appears both in Vagbhata's twenty-guṇa list and in the eight-vīrya view he reports. No public-domain English; no quotation.

Not to be confused with

manda (slow/dull): Kaviratna renders both 'mild'; Sushruta 46.518 even opposes mṛdu (not manda) to tīkṣṇa. Textbook pairing: mṛdu vs kaṭhina, manda vs tīkṣṇa.
mṛdu vīrya: WHO DG0174 and the eight-vīrya school treat mṛdu as a potency; same word, different category.
mṛdu koṣṭha / mṛdu virecana: Clinical grades of bowel sensitivity and purgative strength (WHO text mentions 'Krūra (hard bowel movements) Mṛdu (soft bowel...'); not the drug guṇa.
snigdha (unctuous): Kaviratna's 'watery' and 'unctious' for snigdha sit next to his 'mild/soft' for mṛdu; softness is tactile/structural, unctuousness is oiliness.

Renderings that do not hold

mild (unqualified). Collides with manda and with the dosage sense 'moderate'; 'soft' is the structural guṇa sense.
'soft' in Kaviratna's Ca.Su. 1.60 pitta list. The Sanskrit of 1.60 (sasneham uṣṇaṃ tīkṣṇaṃ ca dravam amlaṃ saraṃ kaṭu) contains no mṛdu; his 'cold... soft... bitter' there are translator's errors, not doctrine.

How to cite this entry

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, mṛdu, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/mridu/, 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.