nasya: what the term means and how it is translated
nasya नस्य is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 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 | nasya |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | नस्य |
| Also written | nasyam, nastaḥ, nasta-karma, nastaḥkarma, nāvana, nasya-karma, śirovirecana (sub-type), pratimarśa (sub-type), snuff (Kaviratna, Bhishagratna), errhine (Kaviratna, Bhishagratna) |
| Category, as gathered | chikitsa |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| 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.
Intranasal administration
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-9.2.86 nasyam/nastam: 'A procedure in which medicine either in liquid or powder form is administered through the nose.' Also 'errhine therapy' used for the fifth pañcakarma in ITA-9.2.2; 'nasyam (viṣopakramaḥ)' 'Nasal medication for detoxification' in the toxicology chapter; 'Nasyam (vraṇacikitsā)' ITA-9.6.173; morbidity entries 'nasya vyāpadaḥ'. · comparator-standard
WHO's headword is route-based and neutral; its pañcakarma entry uses the older 'errhine therapy' for the same procedure, so the standard is internally inconsistent in English.
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.
Administration of drugs by nasal route, all drugs and measures introduced through nose spread throughout the head and its constituent drugs may influence all the Doṣas, poisons and disease situated in these parts.
NIA Jaipur / WHO-APW draft terminology (2011) · entry AT0229 nasya; also SV0203 pratiamarśa [sic] nasya 'Nasal installation which is done daily and frequently' · comparator-draft
Draft gloss; the 'spread throughout the head' claim is the Sushruta/Vagbhata rationale stated as definition.
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.
snuff (of oil); 'cerebral purgative or errhine' (for śirovirecana); 'the use of oily snuff'
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lessons II and V · archive.org BIUSante_47357 OCR; Lesson V his printed 48-54 (standard 5.56-62); Lesson II his printed 3 and footnote · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna never uses 'nasya'; 'snuff' for sneha nasya and 'cerebral purgative/errhine' for śirovirecana are Victorian pharmacological categories.
Nasya (Snuff); Shiro-Virecana (errhines); 'snuffs, errhines'
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita vol. 4, Cikitsasthana ch. XL · wisdomlib doc142964, 'Description of medicated fumes, snuffs, errhines and gargles', his section 17 · public-domain-translation
Bhishagratna keeps the Sanskrit and adds 'Snuff'; he distinguishes Nasya (snuff) from Shiro-Virecana (errhine) as the two broad kinds.
nasal therapy / nasal drops / errhine therapy / Nasya karma
PubMed usage: PMID 36384709 'Nasya karma (nasal therapy)'; PMID 32278669 'Rechana Nasya Karma (Errhine therapy)' and 'nasal drops'; PMID 35370376 'Brimhana Nasya (nourishing nasal drop)' · textbook-usage
'Nasal therapy' and 'nasal drops' dominate recent papers; 'errhine' survives for the cleansing type.
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 5 (Mātrāśitīya):56-57 (carakasamhitaonline numbering; half-verse endings as displayed); Kaviratna prints 48-49 · checked against the source
वर्षे वर्षेऽणुतैलं च कालेषु त्रिषु ना चरेत्||५६|| नस्यकर्म यथाकालं यो यथोक्तं निषेवते||५७||
The compound nasyakarma in Charaka's daily-regimen chapter: one who uses it in season and as prescribed gains the benefits listed in 57-62 (sense organs, hair, head and neck).
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson V:Kaviratna's printed 48-49 (standard 5.56-57 per carakasamhitaonline; he runs eight behind in this block) · checked against the source
One should at all times use anutaila or such oils as are beneficial to the senses. These should not, however, be used when the sky remains cloudless in these three seasons, viz., the rainy season, the autumn, and the spring. He who uses snuff (of oil) in proper times and as directed will have his eyes and nose and ears uninjured.
Kaviratna's rendering of Su 5.56-57, evidence of his English, not of Charaka's directive: he renders nasyakarma (5.57) as 'snuff (of oil)', keeps 'anutaila', and in his footnote reports the Commentator's gloss ('oil that is good for the anu or the senses'), which he also folds into his running text as 'or such oils as are beneficial to the senses'. His first sentence prints the opposite of the Sanskrit: वर्षे वर्षेऽणुतैलं च कालेषु त्रिषु ना चरेत् | प्रावृट्शरद्वसन्तेषु गतमेघे नभस्तले (ना = नरः) prescribes anutaila every year in the rainy season, autumn and spring when the sky is clear; Kaviratna read ना चरेत् as न आचरेत् and printed 'These should not, however, be used when the sky remains cloudless in these three seasons'.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson V:Kaviratna's printed 51-54 (page image leaf 90, printed p. 59: '51' after 'become relieved', '52' and '53' after 'acquire great strength', '*54' after 'decrepitude does not prevail in such parts'; the quote stops before that last sentence of 54). Standard Su 5.59b-62 (carakasamhitaonline): मन्यास्तम्भः शिरःशूलमर्दितं हनुसङ्ग्रहः ||59|| ... न चास्य रोगाः सहसा प्रभवन्त्यूर्ध्वजत्रुजाः ||62||; the omitted sentence is 63a जीर्यतश्चोत्तमाङ्गेषु जरा न लभते बलम्. His printed 50 / standard 58 (eyes, hair and beard) is not quoted. · checked against the source
By the use of such snuff, stiff-neck, headache, hemiplegia (or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face and neck), lock-jaw, coryza, hemicrania, and trembling of the head, become relieved. Moistened by such snuff, the nerves, the joints, and the tendons and longer arteries of the head and skull of such a person acquire great strength. The face becomes lighted and full; the voice becomes smooth, steady, and deep; and all the organs become purified (of defects) and acquire great strength. Diseases of parts above the clavicle do not easily appear in such a person.
Benefits Charaka attaches to nasya with anutaila in the daily-regimen chapter, in Kaviratna's English: relief of stiff-neck, headache, ardita, lock-jaw, coryza, hemicrania and head tremor (5.59b-60a); strength to the sira, joints, snayu and kandara of the head (60b-61a); a clear, full face, a smooth firm deep voice, purified and strengthened senses (61b-62a); 'parts above the clavicle' = urdhvajatru (62b). The passage does not call this pratimarsa; the procedure the chapter prescribes for this oil (5.68-69; Kaviratna's printed 60-61) is half a pala by cotton wick after oiling and fomenting the head, repeated over seven days, i.e. a marsa-dose nasya.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson II:Kaviratna's printed 3 (standard number not established) · checked against the source
Jyotishmati, and Nagara, are to be used as cerebral purgatives (errhines).
Kaviratna's term for śirovirecana drugs: 'cerebral purgatives (errhines)'.
Sushruta SamhitaCikitsasthana XL (Dhūma-nasya-kavalagraha cikitsita):Bhishagratna's section 17 (his numbering; Sanskrit verse number not established) · checked against the source
The term “Nasya” (Snuff) is so called from the fact of its being composed of the powders of any drugs or of any Sneha (oleaginous substance) cooked with such drug or drugs, to be stuffed into the nostrils. It may be broadly divided into two kinds, viz. :— Shiro-Virecana (errhines) and Snehana (contributor of oleaginous principles); and may, however, be further grouped under five specific heads, viz. :— Nasya, Shiro-Virecana, Pratimarsha (a medicated Sneha poured into the nostrils to be discharged into the mouth), Avapida (the expressed juice of any drug put into the nostrils in drops by pressing it with the palms then and there) and Pradhamana (a medicinal snuff blown into the nostrils with the help of a blowpipe). Of these, the Nasya (snuff) Shiro-Virecana (errhines) are pre-eminently the most effective. Pratimarsha is a Nasya while Avapida and Pradhamana are Shiro-Virecana (errhines).
Sushruta's two-fold and five-fold typology of nasya in Bhishagratna's words; 'Nasya' is both the genus and one species.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 20 (Nasyavidhi) per standard editions; GRETIL plaintext lines show 'anya-trātyayikād vyādher atha nasyaṃ prayojayet || 13 ||' and the Aṇutaila verse '... nasyaṃ mahā-guṇam uśanty aṇu-tailam etat || 38 ||':13 and 38 per GRETIL numbering; chapter number not confirmed from markers · address only, nothing quoted to check
Vāgbhaṭa has a dedicated nasya chapter including the Aṇutaila recipe; located, not verse-verified.
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.
- Dinacharya: the classical rationale for a daily regimen
- Oil instilled or snuffed into the nose. Charaka Sutrasthana 5, Kaviratna's printed aphorism 48, directs that such oils should be used at all times but not 'when the sky remains cloudless in these three seasons, viz., the rainy season, the autumn, and the spring'. The restriction is conditional on the cloudless sky, not a flat seasonal ban.
Not to be confused with
- śirovirecana
- The cleansing (evacuative) type of nasya; Bhishagratna 'errhines', Kaviratna 'cerebral purgatives'; the fifth pañcakarma in Charaka's count (Su.2.15 region, Kaviratna's footnote) and WHO ITA-9.2.2 'errhine therapy'.
- pratimarśa
- Low-dose daily oil nasya (NIA SV0203); Bhishagratna classes it as a Nasya, not an errhine; Charaka's Su.5.56-62 regimen passage is of this type.
- dhūma / dhūmapāna
- Medicated smoke inhaled through nose or mouth; Sushruta Chi.40 and Charaka Su.5 treat it in the same chapter as nasya, but it is a separate procedure.
- nāvana
- A synonym for sneha nasya in Charaka (Su.5 uses नावन); Kaviratna renders it 'snuff' too, so the distinction is lost in English.
- jalaneti
- Yogic saline nasal irrigation (PMID 34736856); not an Ayurvedic nasya and uses no medicated sneha or powder.
Renderings that do not hold
- snuff. Kaviratna's and Bhishagratna's term; in English it means powdered tobacco inhaled for stimulation. The main classical form is medicated oil instilled in drops.
- nasal spray / nasal decongestant. Biomedical delivery forms with a local aim; nasya's stated aim is action on ūrdhvajatru (above the clavicle) disorders and sense organs (Ca.Su.5.57-62).
- errhine (for nasya generally). An errhine provokes sneezing and discharge; that is only the śirovirecana type. WHO's own ITA-9.2.2 uses 'errhine therapy' while ITA-9.2.86 uses 'Intranasal administration'.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Standard Trikamji numbers for Kaviratna's Lesson II printed 3 (śirovirecana drugs) were not established.
- Sanskrit verse numbers for the Sushruta Chi.40 typology were not established; Bhishagratna's section 17 is his own numbering.
- Charaka Siddhisthana 9 (Trimarmīya) on nasya was not consulted.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, nasya
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/nasya/, 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.