nāḍīparīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated
nāḍīparīkṣā नाडीपरीक्षा is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 7 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 | nāḍīparīkṣā |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | नाडीपरीक्षा |
| Also written | nadi pariksha, naadi pareeksha, nadi vijnana, nadi vigyan |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 3 |
| 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.
pulse (item 1 of the eight domains of aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.4 aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā · comparator-standard
No standalone nāḍīparīkṣā entry found in my grep; the only nāḍī- headwords found were nāḍīvraṇaḥ (sinus), nāḍīsvedaḥ, nāḍīyantram (tubular instrument), which shows the Brihattrayi sense of nāḍī as a tube.
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.
pulse examination
J Ayurveda Integr Med 2024 review (PMID 38815517); Kurande et al. 2013 'pulse examination (nadipariksha)' (PMID 28664059) · abstracts · peer-reviewed
Most common neutral rendering in the research literature.
pulse diagnosis
Kurande et al., Glob Adv Health Med 2012 (PMID 27257530) · title · peer-reviewed
Widely used; implies the pulse alone yields a diagnosis, which the classical texts do not claim in isolation.
Ayurvedic pulse assessment / Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān
Palakurthi et al., J Maharishi Vedic Res Inst 2021 (PMID 37830034) · title · peer-reviewed (house journal)
Branded variant; 'nadi vijnana' is a modern coinage, not a Sharngadhara term.
"Nadi Pariksha" (pulse examination)
Upadhya et al., J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2014 (PMID 24934868) · abstract · peer-reviewed
Ethnographic usage among non-codified Belgaum practitioners.
Nadi Pariksha (Pulse Study) / (Pulse Examination)
Yadav & Singh, JAIMS 2022;7(8) · section 1 · journal-review
Textbook-style gloss.
(no rendering: term absent)
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita; Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita · grep of Kaviratna full text for 'pulse' returns only food 'pulses' and 'impulses' · public-domain-translation · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Pulse examination is not a Brihattrayi procedure; it first appears in Sharngadhara Samhita (13th c.).
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.
Sharngadhara SamhitaPūrvakhaṇḍa 3 (नाडीपरीक्षाविधिः; colophon: इति श्रीशार्ङ्गधरसंहितायां पूर्वखण्डे नाडीपरीक्षादिविधिर्नाम तृतीयोऽध्यायः):1 (printed ॥ १ ॥ on the page image, NSP ed. p. 28) · checked against the source
करस्याङ्गुष्ठमूले या धमनी जीवसाक्षिणी । तच्चेष्टया सुखं दुःखं ज्ञेयं कायस्य पण्डितैः ॥१॥
Śārṅgadhara Pū. 3.1 as printed in the Nirnaya Sagar edition with Adhamalla's Dīpikā: the dhamanī at the root of the thumb is jīvasākṣiṇī, and from its movement the learned (paṇḍitaiḥ) are to know the body's sukha and duḥkha. The two OCR garbles in the earlier quote (जीवसाल्लिणी, परिडतेः) are scan damage only; Adhamalla's gloss re-quotes जीवसाक्षिणी and पण्डितैः in its own words, which is what settles them.
Sharngadhara SamhitaPūrvakhaṇḍa 3:2-4 and 7 (as printed) · checked against the source
नाडी घत्ते मरुत्कोपे जलौकासर्पयोर्गतिम् २ ... कृलिङ्गकाकमर्डूक गतिं पित्तस्य कोपतः ३ ... हंसपारावतगतिं धत्ते ङ्लेष्मप्रकोपतः ४ ... स्थित्वा स्थित्वा चलति यासा स्मृता प्राणनाशिनी स्रतित्तीणा च शीता च जीवितं हन्त्यसंशयम् ७
Gaits of the pulse in vāta (leech/serpent), pitta (kulinga bird/crow/frog), kapha (swan/pigeon) aggravation, and the fatal pulse (intermittent, very feeble, cold).
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha अथ नाडीपरीक्षा:1, 7, 8, 10 (as printed in ASS 1889) · checked against the source
नारीमङषठम्राधः र्एशेदक्षिणके करे । ज्ञानां रोगिणो वेथो निजदक्तिण- पाणिना ॥ १ ॥ ... वातं पित्तं कफं न्द्रं त्रितयं सानिपासिकम् । साध्यासाध्यविवेकं च स्वं नादी प्रकारयेत् ॥ ७ ॥ ्नायुर्नादी ततो हंसी धमनी धरणी धरा । तन्वु- की जीवनज्ञाना शब्दाः पर्यायवाचकाः ॥ ८ ॥ ... अङ्षटमूरमागे या धमनी जीवसाक्िणी । तचेष्टया सुखं दःखं ज्ञेयं कायस्य पण्डितेः ॥ १० ॥
Yogaratnakara's nāḍīparīkṣā: palpate below the thumb root of the right hand with the physician's right hand; the pulse reveals vāta, pitta, kapha, dual and triple involvement and the distinction sādhya/asādhya; synonyms snāyu, nāḍī, haṃsī, dhamanī, dharaṇī, dharā, tantukī, jīvanajñānā.
Not to be confused with
- nāḍī (Brihattrayi sense: tube, channel, sinus)
- In Charaka/Sushruta nāḍī is a tubular structure (nāḍīvraṇa = sinus, nāḍīsveda = tube fomentation, nāḍīyantra = tubular instrument), not the pulse; the pulse sense is post-classical.
- dhamanī / sirā
- Sharngadhara calls the pulsating vessel a dhamanī; nāḍī in his usage is the felt pulse, and Yogaratnakara lists dhamanī among its synonyms, so the words overlap but are not interchangeable in anatomical contexts.
- sparśana
- Pulse examination is one application of sparśana (touch), the second of the AH trividhā parīkṣā; sparśana is the broader act.
- nadi vijnana / nadi vigyan
- Modern coinage used by branded schools (e.g., 'Maharishi Nādi-Vigyān'); not a classical title.
- Chinese pulse diagnosis (mai zhen)
- Independent system with different positions, depths and theory; cross-mapping is speculative.
Renderings that do not hold
- nerve examination. Rests on the yogic/tantric sense of nāḍī as subtle channel; Sharngadhara explicitly names an artery (dhamanī) at the thumb root.
- pulse diagnosis. Overstates: Yogaratnakara says the pulse 'reveals' dosha involvement and prognosis; the texts do not present it as a stand-alone diagnostic of disease entities.
- Vedic pulse reading. No Vedic or Brihattrayi source; earliest located text is 13th-century Sharngadhara.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, nāḍīparīkṣā
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/nadi-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.