nidānaparivarjana: what the term means and how it is translated
nidānaparivarjana निदानपरिवर्जन is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 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 | nidānaparivarjana |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | निदानपरिवर्जन |
| Also written | nidāna-parivarjana, nidana parivarjana, nidanaparivarjanam, hetu-parivarjana, hetuviparīta cikitsā (related) |
| Category, as gathered | chikitsa |
| 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.
Avoidance of etiological factors
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-9.1.56 nidānaparivarjanam: 'A prerequisite for the cure and prevention of recurrent disease.' Adjacent ITA-9.1.55 prakṛtivighātaḥ 'Creating conditions hostile to cause' and 9.1.54 apakarṣaṇam 'Removal of the dosha'. · comparator-standard
WHO's description states the function (prerequisite) rather than defining the term; the headword is the standard textbook rendering.
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.
to forego the primary pathological causes of that disease
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita vol. 6, Uttaratantra ch. I · wisdomlib doc142989, his section 12-13 (his numbering); Sanskrit 1.25 per sa.wikisource Hari Sastri edition · public-domain-translation
Bhishagratna does not transliterate the compound; 'forego' and 'pathological causes' are his Edwardian rendering of parivarjana and nidāna.
abstinance [sic] from the eitiological [sic] factors; avoidance of these etiologies (Nidanaparivarjana)
PubMed usage: PMID 39454285; PMID 22557423 · textbook-usage
'Avoidance of etiological/causative factors' is the dominant modern gloss; it matches WHO.
removal of the cause / eliminating the cause / nidana parivarjana as the first line of treatment
Common textbook usage (not traced to a quotable edition) · textbook-usage · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
'Removal' overstates parivarjana (abandoning, avoiding); see mistranslations.
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 SamhitaUttaratantra 1 (Aupadravika):25 (sa.wikisource text of the Hari Sastri 1980 edition) · checked against the source
सङ्क्षेपतः क्रियायोगो निदानपरिवर्जनम् / :वातादीनां प्रतीघातः प्रोक्तो विस्तरतः पुनः २५
The locus classicus: in brief, the application of treatment (kriyāyoga) is nidānaparivarjana; in detail it is the counteraction of vāta and the other doṣas.
Sushruta SamhitaUttaratantra I (Diseases of the eye and its appendages):Bhishagratna's section 12-13 (his numbering; corresponds to Sanskrit 1.24-25 in the Hari Sastri edition) · checked against the source
The simple maxim or principle to be followed in the treatment of a disease is simply to forego the primary pathological causes of that disease. The special remedial measures that would pacify the different Doshas, Vayu, etc. have been described in detail.
Bhishagratna's rendering of Ut.1.25; note that it appears inside the eye-disease chapter, which is where Sushruta states the general maxim.
Where this term does work in the theory
2 concept records name this term as one of their components. Each gloss is that record's own.
- Chikitsa Sutra (principles governing treatment choice) as Nidana parivarjana
- Removal or avoidance of the causative factor.
- Shodhana and Shamana (purification versus pacification) as Nidana parivarjana
- Withdrawal of the causative factor. UNSOURCED. Described in the secondary literature as a third limb alongside the pair, but no classical passage for it has been retrieved for this record, and the 2026-09-19 version's 'counted by several authorities as a third limb' named no authority. Not to be counted or published as an addressed component. See notKnown and findingResolutions missing[0].
Not to be confused with
- nidāna (as diagnosis / the Nidānasthāna)
- Nidāna means both cause and the science of diagnosis; nidānaparivarjana is avoidance of causes, not of diagnosis. Bhishagratna's 'Nidana' references in vol. 3 are to Madhava's Nidāna text.
- hetu-viparīta cikitsā
- Treatment opposed to the cause (Charaka's three-fold scheme hetu-, vyādhi-, ubhaya-viparīta); nidānaparivarjana removes exposure, hetuviparīta counteracts its effect. The Charaka locus was not verified.
- saṁprāpti-vighaṭana
- Breaking the pathogenesis once established; nidānaparivarjana acts before or alongside, on the inputs.
- prakṛtivighāta
- WHO ITA-9.1.55 'Creating conditions hostile to cause', a neighbouring entry that is active opposition rather than avoidance.
- pathya / apathya
- Wholesome and unwholesome regimen; apathya-tyāga overlaps nidānaparivarjana but is framed as diet-and-conduct rather than cause.
Renderings that do not hold
- removal / elimination of the cause. Parivarjana is abandoning or keeping away from; Sushruta's own detailed counterpart ('pratīghāta' of the doṣas) is the active counteraction, kept separate in the same verse.
- preventive medicine. Sushruta states it as the compendious form of treatment (kriyāyoga), i.e. for the diseased; WHO's description makes it a prerequisite for cure and for preventing recurrence.
- 'forego the primary pathological causes' (Bhishagratna) read as a technical term. It is his paraphrase; 'pathological causes' imports 1900s pathology into nidāna.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether Charaka uses the compound nidānaparivarjana anywhere was not established; a grep of the local Charaka Sanskrit corpora found no hit, but the corpora are incomplete and a single spelling was searched.
- Whether Ashtanga Hridaya or Madhava Nidana carry the maxim was not checked.
- The standard verse number 25 comes from the wikisource transcription of the Hari Sastri 1980 edition; the Trikamji/Nirnaya Sagar number was not cross-checked.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, nidānaparivarjana
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/nidana-parivarjana/, 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.