mūtraparīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated
mūtraparīkṣā मूत्रपरीक्षा is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 6 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 | mūtraparīkṣā |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | मूत्रपरीक्षा |
| Also written | mutra pariksha, mootra pareeksha, taila-bindu pariksha (sub-procedure) |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| 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.
urine (item 2 of the eight domains of aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.4 aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā: 'Clinical examination of eight domains: 1. pulse ; 2. urine; 3. excreta; 4. tongue; 5. voice and other body-sounds such as breathing and heart; 6. tactile examination; 7. eyes and eyesight; 8. build and appearance.' · comparator-standard
WHO ISTA has no standalone mūtraparīkṣā entry that my grep of the PDF text found (mūtra- entries are anatomical/morbidity: mūtravahasrotaḥ, mūtrakṛcchram etc.). Urine appears only as a domain inside the eightfold list.
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.
Mutra Pariksha (urine examination)
Jakhmola RK, AYU 2010 (PMID 22048553), article title · title · peer-reviewed
Standard modern-journal gloss.
Taila Bindu Pariksha (oil drop test)
Kar AC et al., AYU 2012 (PMID 23723648), article title · title · peer-reviewed
Names the sub-procedure, not mūtraparīkṣā as a whole.
Mutra Pariksha (Examination of Urine)
Yadav N, Singh AK, J Ayurveda Integr Med Sci 2022;7(8):46- · list of Ashtasthana Rogi Pariksha items · journal-review
Typical textbook/journal rendering.
अथ मूत्रपरीक्षा (section heading; no English)
Yogaratnakara, Anandashrama Sanskrit Series 4, ed. Anna Moreshvar Kunte, 1889 (archive.org OCR) · section following 'इति नाडीपरीक्षा' · sanskrit-edition
The term exists as a section title in the medieval compendium; the Brihattrayi do not use it as a named procedure.
(no rendering: term not found)
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita (1896-1913); Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1907-1916) · n/a · public-domain-translation · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Neither public-domain translator has an occasion to render 'mutra-pariksha' because the Brihattrayi do not describe urine examination as a formal procedure; Charaka's Vi 4/7 covers inspection by eye generically. Urine descriptions in prameha chapters are disease descriptions, not an examination protocol.
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.
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha (first half), rogi-parīkṣā section अथ मूत्रपरीक्षा (section following nāḍīparīkṣā):1-6 of the mūtraparīkṣā section as printed in ASS 1889 edition (OCR of printed numbers ॥ १ ॥ to ॥ ६ ॥) · checked against the source
॥ अथ मूत्रपरीक्षा ॥ अथातः संप्रवक्ष्यामि मृजस्य च परीक्षणम् । सेन विज्ञातमात्रेण रोगचिन्हं पर कार्यते ॥ १ ॥ निशान्तया्म घटिकाचतष्टये उत्याप्य वेद्यः किरु रोगिणं च। मूत्र धृतं काचमये च पात्रे इूयादयं तत्सततं परीक्ष्य ॥ २ ॥ ... परीक्षा वि- धिवत्काया रोगिगत्रस्य तत्त्वतः | तृणेन दापयेत्तेखविन्दुं तत्रातिरूधवात् ॥ ॥ ९ ॥ विकासित तंरुपथाशु मत्रे साध्यः सरोग न विकासित चत् । स्यात्क- एसाध्यस्तछरगे त्वसाध्यो नागाज्ञेनेनेव कृता परीक्ना ॥६॥
That Yogaratnakara has a titled mūtraparīkṣā section: urine collected at the last watch of night, held in a glass vessel, first stream discarded and middle stream kept; a drop of oil placed on it with a grass stalk; spreading quickly = sādhya, not spreading = kṛcchrasādhya/asādhya. This is the textual root of taila-bindu parīkṣā.
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha अथ रोगिणां अष्टस्थानानि लक्षयेत् (OCR reads 'रक्षयेत्'):1 (as printed ॥ १ ॥) · checked against the source
रोगाक्रान्तशरीरस्य स्थानान्यष्टौ निरीक्षयेत् । नादं भत्रं मरं जिब्हां शब्दं स्प हगाकृती ॥ ९ ॥
Urine (mūtra) is the second of the eight sites examined in the diseased body.
Not to be confused with
- taila-bindu parīkṣā
- A single prognostic sub-test (oil drop on urine) within mūtraparīkṣā; modern papers often use the two interchangeably.
- prameha urine descriptions in Charaka/Sushruta
- Those are symptom descriptions of a disease (colour, quantity, turbidity of urine in prameha), not an examination protocol; mūtraparīkṣā as a named procedure is medieval (Yogaratnakara, Basavarajiyam, Atreya's Sara Sangraha).
- mūtravahasrotas / mūtramārga (WHO ITA-4.x anatomical entries)
- Channels carrying urine, not the examination of urine.
- modern urinalysis
- Chemical/microscopic analysis; mūtraparīkṣā is visual inspection of colour, consistency and oil-drop behaviour.
Renderings that do not hold
- urinalysis. Imports dipstick/microscopy connotations absent from the procedure.
- urine test for diagnosis. In Yogaratnakara the oil-drop portion is explicitly prognostic (sādhya / kṛcchrasādhya / asādhya), not diagnostic of a disease entity.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, mūtraparīkṣā
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/mutra-pariksha/, 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.