nirāmadoṣa: what the term means and how it is translated
nirāmadoṣa निरामदोष 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 | nirāmadoṣa |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | निरामदोष |
| Also written | nirāma doṣa, nirama dosha, nirāmāvasthā (related state), nirāmavāta / nirāmapitta / nirāmakapha |
| Category, as gathered | dosha-state |
| Grouped here under | Dosha and its subtypes |
| Classical citations | 4 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Dosha not associated with ama
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.8.24 (nirāmadoṣaḥ) · standard
Full description: 'When ama associated with dosha undergoes depletion, the resultant dosha is termed devoid of ama state; it is still in a vitiated state and has not returned to normal state.' The final clause is the whole point of the term and is routinely lost in translation.
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.
Transformative stage devoid of ama pathology
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.6.5 (nirāmāvasthā) · standard
A separate WHO entry for the disease stage, not the doṣa state. Described as 'The state when ama is converted either under the effect of time or by therapeutic measures.'
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.
Fever devoid- of ama, post-ama stage of fever
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.6.39 (nirāmaḥ / nirāmajvaraḥ) · standard
Quoted exactly as printed including the stray hyphen. Shows the prefix applied to a specific disease, where it has a defined symptom set (return of appetite, lightness, lessening fever).
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.
State of active digestion, and transformation of ama
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.6.3 (pacyamānāvasthā) · standard
The intermediate stage between sāma and nirāma. Recorded because a two-state reading (sāma vs nirāma) is a simplification the standard itself does not make.
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.
no entry located
ICD-11 MMS v2026-01, Traditional Medicine Module 2 · block SR10-SR2Z checked · classification · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
No āma-related doṣa pattern in the TM2 humoral-derangement block.
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.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 13:23-24 (general features; nirāma given as their opposites) · address only, nothing quoted to check
Located, not quoted. The retrieved page states that the general sāma features are at A.H. Sutrasthana 13/23-24 and that 'In case of state without ama (nirama), the opposite of above features are observed', i.e. the classical text defines nirāma privatively rather than by its own sign-list. The locator is a secondary attestation and has NOT been checked against the Ashtanga Hridaya text.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 11:4 · address only, nothing quoted to check
Located, not quoted. Cited on the retrieved page for the statement that in nirāma avasthā all seven dhātus perform their normal functions and are devoid of āma symptoms. Secondary attestation only.
BhavaprakashaPurva Khanda Jwara Chikitsa:51, 53, 55 · address only, nothing quoted to check
Located, not quoted. Cited on the retrieved page as the source of the per-doṣa nirāma sign-lists (nirāma vāyu, nirāma pitta, nirāma kapha). Secondary attestation; the verse numbers have not been verified against Bhavaprakasha.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 17 · address only, nothing quoted to check
Located, not read. Sushruta Sutrasthana 17 is titled Āmapakvaiṣaṇīya ('Features of Unripe and Ripe Swelling'), per the chapter list on the retrieved siva.sh page. It concerns the āma/pakva distinction in swellings rather than in doṣas, but it is the nearest Sushruta material and is lawfully quotable; it should be read before this record is published.
Not to be confused with
- prakṛtistha doṣa (doṣa in its normal state)
- THE critical disambiguation. WHO ITA-4.8.24 states explicitly that a nirāma doṣa 'is still in a vitiated state and has not returned to normal state'. Nirāma means āma-free, not healthy. Treating nirāma as 'normal' would license stopping treatment at the wrong point.
- nirāmāvasthā
- WHO ITA-4.6.5. A stage of a disease, not a state of a doṣa. Both are rendered with 'devoid of ama' in the same standard.
- pacyamānāvasthā
- WHO ITA-4.6.3, the intermediate stage of active āma transformation. Sāma and nirāma are not exhaustive.
- pakvāvasthā
- WHO ITA-4.6.4, 'Ripened stage of dosha', described as post-inflammatory or suppurative. Cognate vocabulary (āma/pakva) with a different referent.
- nirāmajvara
- WHO ITA-5.6.39, a specific stage of fever with its own symptom set. Not generalisable to doṣas.
- sāmadoṣa
- The complement. Note that the sāma/nirāma pair is a property of a doṣa that is already vitiated; a normal doṣa is described by neither term.
Renderings that do not hold
- balanced dosha / normal dosha. Directly contradicted by WHO ITA-4.8.24, which says the nirāma doṣa is still vitiated. The most consequential error available for this term, because it implies treatment is finished.
- detoxified dosha. Imports the toxin model that WHO's āma entry avoids, and carries the same false completion implication.
- clean / pure dosha. Wellness register with no standardised or classical warrant.
- chronic (as opposed to acute). A common clinical shorthand, sāma = acute, nirāma = chronic, which is a heuristic about timing, not what either term means.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- All three classical locators in this record are secondary: they were read on carakasamhitaonline's Ama page, not in Ashtanga Hridaya or Bhavaprakasha themselves. They are recorded as 'located' and MUST be verified before publication.
- Sushruta Sutrasthana 17 (Āmapakvaiṣaṇīya) is lawfully quotable and was not read; it is the most likely source of a quotable English passage for this family of terms.
- Whether any classical text gives nirāma doṣa positive signs rather than defining it as the negation of sāma signs was not established; Bhavaprakasha appears to, per the secondary source.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, nirāmadoṣa
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/nirama-dosha/, 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.