prabhāva: what the term means and how it is translated
prabhāva प्रभाव 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 | prabhāva |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | प्रभाव |
| Also written | prabhava, prabhāvaja (karma arising from prabhāva, AH) |
| Category, as gathered | pharmacological principle; fifth member of the rasa-pañcaka (rasa, guṇa, vīrya, vipāka, prabhāva) |
| Grouped here under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| 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.
Characteristic therapeutic effect of a substance
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), entry DG0230 prabhāva · DG0230: '1. Characteristic therapeutic effect of a substance; 2. A basis for nomenclature of plants' · comparator standard
Comparator; WHO's definition is descriptive and does not carry the 'unexplained by rasa/vīrya/vipāka' clause that the classical definition turns on.
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.
potency
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana Lesson XXVI (his 23-28 in the restarted numbering; standard 26.67-72) · archive.org BIUSante_47357, printed pp. 320-321 · public-domain translation
He uses 'potency' for prabhāva and 'Energy' for vīrya, the reverse of modern convention where 'potency' is the usual English for vīrya. Any reuse of his sentences needs this flagged.
(no rendering; term not used in the chapter)
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana ch. XLII · wisdomlib doc141672 · public-domain translation · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Su. 42 as translated does not use or render prabhāva; no Bhishagratna rendering recorded.
might, power, majesty, dignity, strength, efficacy... supernatural power
Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), p. 684 · dictionary
General sense; the Ayurvedic technical sense is not separately recorded.
Specific action / special potency / special effect / specific influential effect
Common textbook and journal renderings (e.g. PMID 32398906 abstract: 'Prabhava (special effect)'; carakasamhitaonline section heading 'Prabhava (specific influential effect)') · textbook
Modern usage is unstable across 'specific action', 'special potency', 'special effect'; 'specific potency' risks confusion with vīrya.
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 26:67 (standard; Kaviratna prints 23 after the passage in his restarted Lesson XXVI numbering) · checked against the source
रसवीर्यविपाकानां सामान्यं यत्र लक्ष्यते| विशेषः कर्मणां चैव प्रभावस्तस्य स स्मृतः||६७||
The defining verse: where rasa, vīrya and vipāka are the same but the action differs, that is prabhāva. Kaviratna: 'Where uniformity is observed (between two objects) in respect of taste, energy, and assimilation, but a difference or distinction occurs in their operation or effect, such distinction is said to arise from what is called the potency of the objects.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:68-70 (standard; Kaviratna 24-26; first and last confirmed separately) · checked against the source
कटुकः कटुकः पाके वीर्योष्णश्चित्रको मतः| तद्वद्दन्ती प्रभावात्तु विरेचयति मानवम् ||६८|| विषं विषघ्नमुक्तं यत् प्रभावस्तत्र कारणम्| ऊर्ध्वानुलोमिकं यच्च तत् प्रभावप्रभावितम्||६९|| मणीनां धारणीयानां कर्म यद्विविधात्मकम्| तत् प्रभावकृतं तेषां प्रभावोऽचिन्त्य उच्यते ||७०||
The stock examples (citraka vs dantī; poison as antidote; emetic vs purgative direction; worn gems) and the dictum that prabhāva is acintya. Kaviratna: 'Chitraka (Plumbago Zeylanica, Linn.) is pungent in taste, and pungent in assimilation, and hot in energy. So is Danti ... But Danti operates as a purgative (while Chitiaka does not). This occurs through the potency of Danti.' ... 'Potency is said to be inconceivable.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:71-72 (standard; Kaviratna 27-28) · checked against the source
किञ्चिद्रसेन कुरुते कर्म वीर्येण चापरम्||७१|| द्रव्यं गुणेन पाकेन प्रभावेण च किञ्चन| रसं विपाकस्तौ वीर्यं प्रभावस्तानपोहति||७२||
The hierarchy: vipāka overrides rasa, vīrya overrides both, prabhāva overrides all. Kaviratna: 'Taste is subjugated by Assimilation ; both of them, again, are subjugated by Energy ; and all three are subjugated by Potency. Even such is the natural force of each of these.'
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:9 (standard) · checked against the source
हिताहितौ प्रभावौ
A non-technical use of prabhāva in the same chapter ('their powers are beneficial and non-beneficial'; Kaviratna: 'Beneficial and Not-beneficial are their powers'), showing the word is not reserved for the technical sense even within Ca.Su. 26.
Aṣṭāṅga HṛdayaSutrasthana 9 (Dravyādi-vijñānīya):the rasādisāmye verse and the following override verse printed as 25 on easyayurveda.com; exact numbers to be verified in a printed edition · address only, nothing quoted to check
Vagbhata's compressed definition (rasādisāmye yat karma viśiṣṭaṃ tat prabhāvajam) and restatement of the Charaka hierarchy. No public-domain English; no quotation.
Not to be confused with
- vīrya (potency)
- Kaviratna renders prabhāva as 'potency' and vīrya as 'Energy'; modern English reverses this ('potency' = vīrya). Charaka 26.72 places prabhāva above vīrya in the override hierarchy, so they are distinct levels.
- karma (action)
- Prabhāva is the explanatory residual for a karma, not the karma itself (26.67: viśeṣaḥ karmaṇāṃ... prabhāvaḥ).
- prabhāva as 'power/effect' in ordinary usage
- Ca.Su. 26.9 uses 'hitāhitau prabhāvau' non-technically; the dictionary senses (might, majesty, supernatural power) are general.
- vipāka
- Also a non-sensory inferred principle; vipāka is the post-digestive rasa with three (Charaka) outcomes, while prabhāva is by definition what vipāka and the others fail to explain.
Renderings that do not hold
- potency. Kaviratna's term; in current English 'potency' denotes vīrya, so quoting him without a gloss inverts the hierarchy.
- magical / supernatural power. Monier-Williams' 'supernatural power' sense and the gem example (26.70) tempt this reading; the text's point is unexplained but observed drug action, declared acintya (not inferable), not supernatural.
- specific potency / specific effect without the defining clause. WHO DG0230's 'characteristic therapeutic effect' drops the condition 'given sameness of rasa, vīrya, vipāka', which is what makes prabhāva a residual category rather than a synonym for efficacy.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, prabhāva
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/prabhava/, 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.