praśna: what the term means and how it is translated
praśna प्रश्न 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 | praśna |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | प्रश्न |
| Also written | prashna pariksha, praśnaparīkṣā, aturapariprashna (Charaka's phrase) |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 4 |
| 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.
interview (prashna)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.2 trividhaparīkṣā: 'Examination of the patient by observation (darshana), palpation (sparshana) and interview (prashna).' Index also lists praśna under ITA-4.7.2. · comparator-standard
WHO gives praśna no headword of its own; it appears only inside trividhaparīkṣā and as 'by interview' in ṣaḍvidhaparīkṣā (ITA-4.7.3).
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.
questioning the patient
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthana 4 · Kaviratna aphorisms 9 and 11 of Vi 4 (= standard Vi 4/7 and 4/8) · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna renders Charaka's āturaparipraśna as 'questioning the patient'; Charaka does not use the bare noun praśna as a method name.
oral enquiry / directly interrogating the patient
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita, Sutrasthana 10 · wisdomlib doc122899 · public-domain-translation
Two renderings in one chapter.
interrogation / history taking
common textbook renderings (e.g., JAIMS 2022 review lists Trividha Pariksha) · n/a · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
'History taking' is the closest biomedical analogue.
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 SamhitaVimanasthana 4 (Trividha-roga-vishesha-vijnaniya):standard (Trikamji) 4/7; Kaviratna prints this sentence under his aphorism 9 · checked against the source
Verily, the taste occurring in the body of the patient, though an object of sense, should be ascertained by Inference; since, the ascertainment of this by the employment of the physician's own tongue cannot very well take place. Therefore, it is by questioning the patient that the taste of his mouth should be known.
Questioning is introduced inside pratyakṣa/anumāna as the route to what the physician cannot perceive directly (taste in the patient's mouth). Sanskrit (siva.sh, standard 4/7): 'तस्मादातुरपरिप्रश्नेनैवातुरमुखरसं विद्यात्'.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 4:standard 4/8; Kaviratna aphorism 11 · checked against the source
The softness or roughness of the Grahani, dreams, purposes, which things are disagreeable, which are agreeable, what is pleasing, and what is painful, should be ascertained by questioning the patient.
The list of things knowable only by questioning. Sanskrit (siva.sh 4/8): 'ग्रहण्यास्तु मृदुदारुणत्वं स्वप्नदर्शनमभिप्रायं द्विष्टेष्टसुखदुःखानि चातुरपरिप्रश्नेनैव विद्यादिति ॥८॥' at https://www.siva.sh/caraka-samhita/vimana-sthana/4/6-10
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 1 (Ayushkamiya):22 (as printed on the retrieved page) · checked against the source
दर्शनस्पर्शनप्रश्नैः परीक्षेत च रोगिणम्| रोगं निदानप्राग्रूपलक्षणोपशयाप्तिभिः||२२||
The canonical trividhā parīkṣā: the patient is examined by darśana, sparśana, praśna; the disease by nidāna, prāgrūpa, lakṣaṇa, upaśaya, āpti (samprāpti).
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 10 (Vishikhanupraveshaniya; closing line: 'Thus ends the tenth Chapter of the Sutrasthana in the Sushruta Samhita which treats of the essential qualifications of a physician.'):Sanskrit verse number not established (Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers) · checked against the source
the five sense-organs of hearing, sight, etc. and oral enquiry materially contribute to a better diagnosis. ... the time or season (of the first appearance) of the disease, the caste which the patient belongs to...the cause of the disease, the aggravation of pain, the strength of the patient, and his state of digestion and appetite, the emission of stool, urine and flatus, or their stoppage...should be specifically ascertained by directly interrogating the patient
Sushruta's six-fold scheme (five senses + questioning) and the content of the interrogation.
Not to be confused with
- āptopadeśa (authoritative instruction)
- Both involve words, but āptopadeśa is testimony of the authoritative teacher/text; praśna is the physician's questioning of the patient and in Charaka serves anumāna, not a separate pramāṇa.
- praśna in jyotiṣa (horary astrology) and the Praśna Upaniṣad
- Homonyms; 'prashna' searches return astrology results.
- ṣaḍvidhaparīkṣā
- In Sushruta's scheme questioning is the sixth element alongside five senses; in AH it is the third of three. The count differs by text.
Renderings that do not hold
- questionnaire. Implies a fixed written instrument; the texts describe open clinical questioning.
- interview. Acceptable (WHO) but loses the point that Charaka frames it as the inferential route to the imperceptible (taste, dreams, likes/dislikes).
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, praśna
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/prashna/, 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.