rajas: what the term means and how it is translated
rajas रजस् 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 | rajas |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | रजस् |
| Also written | rajaḥ, rajo |
| Category, as gathered | prakriti |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Agitation, activity
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-1.9.4.4 (rajaḥ) · standard
'Characterized by activity, initiation, action and attachment, it is capable of vitiating the mind.' WHO explicitly marks rajas as a vitiator, unlike sattva at ITA-1.9.4.3.
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.
agitation or activity (rajas)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-1.9.4.2 (triguṇāḥ) · standard
Within the triguṇa entry.
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.
Passion
Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimanasthana 6 and throughout · translation
Victorian Mahabharata-translation vocabulary; narrows a cosmological principle of motion into an emotional state.
Rajashika cast (of mind)
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sharirasthana I v.19 · translation
Does not translate the noun; gives the adjective and a trait list.
menstrual flow (rajaḥsrāvaḥ)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · rajasrāvaḥ entry · standard · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Recorded as a factual homonym carried by the same standard: rajas is also the ordinary Ayurvedic word for menstrual blood. Not a rendering of the guṇa, but the reason a bare 'rajas' citation is ambiguous.
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 6:5 · checked against the source
रजस्तमश्च मानसौ दोषौ| तयोर्विकाराः कामक्रोधलोभमोहेर्ष्यामानमदशोकचित्तोद्वेगभयहर्षादयः| वातपित्तश्लेष्माणस्तु खलु शारीरा दोषाः||५||
Rajas and tamas are the two mental doṣas, parallel to vāta/pitta/kapha as bodily doṣas; their vikāras are named. Sattva is pointedly absent from the mental doṣas. Verse number 5 printed inline on the retrieved page.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 6:5 · checked against the source
Rajas ( Passion ) and Tamas ( Darkness ) are the faults of the mind. Their modifications are Lust, Wrath, Cupidity, Heedlessness. Envy, Pride, Arrogance, Grief, Anxiety, Fear, Joy, &c.
Public-domain English for Vi 6/5. The stray full stop after 'Heedlessness' is an OCR artefact. Kaviratna's aphorism marker here is 7, not 5; the verse number comes from the Sanskrit, matched by content.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 6
Quotation withheld: nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at this address.
Rajas and tamas never occur apart, a structural claim with no parallel among the bodily doṣas. 'Ta?nas' is OCR corruption of 'Tamas'. Verse blank: Kaviratna marks this 10 but the corresponding Sanskrit verse number was not located.
Charaka SamhitaSharirasthana 4:38 · checked against the source
इत्येवं खलु राजसस्य सत्त्वस्य षङ्विधं भेदांशं विद्यात्, रोषांशत्वात्||३८||
Six rājasa sattva types characterised by roṣa, closing at verse 38.
Sushruta SamhitaSharirasthana 1:19 · checked against the source
Feeling of much pain and misery, a roving spirit, noncomprehension, vanity, untruthfulness, nonclemency, pride, an over winning confidence in ones own excellence, lust, anger and hilarity are the attributes which mark a mind of the Rajashika cast .
Sushruta's rājasa trait list. 'over winning' is the retrieved page's spelling of 'overweening'.
Sushruta SamhitaSharirasthana 1:21 · checked against the source
Of these the ether or Akasa abounds in attributes of the Sattvika stamp, the Vayu or etherin (ether?) in Rajashika, the Teja in Sattvika and Rajashika, the water in Sattvika and Tamashika and the earth in Tamasha attributes.
Maps the three guṇas onto the five mahābhūtas, rajas to vāyu and, with sattva, to tejas. Rarely cited, and it cuts against the popular rajas/pitta equation.
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.
- Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health as Rajas
- A manasa dosha: agitation, passion, craving, wrath. Vitiates the mind by activity
Not to be confused with
- rajas = menstrual blood
- A live homonym that WHO itself carries (rajaḥsrāvaḥ). An uncontextualised 'rajas' in a gynaecological chapter almost certainly means menstrual flow.
- rajas = dust, pollen
- The ordinary Sanskrit sense and the etymological root of the guṇa's agitation; appears in dravyaguṇa and nidāna contexts.
- vāta
- Both principles of motion and both called doṣa, but vāta is bodily and rajas mental (Vi 6/5). The texts do not equate them.
- pitta
- Popular writing pairs rajas with pitta on shared heat. No retrieved classical passage makes that equation, and Sushruta Sharira 1/21 assigns rajas to vāyu and tejas.
Renderings that do not hold
- Passion. Reduces a principle of motion and initiation to an emotion, and makes Vi 6/5 read as moralising.
- the pitta guna. Category error: guṇas and doṣas are different schemes, kept explicitly separate at Vi 6/5.
- energy / dynamism. Flattering rather than false; it drops WHO's own qualification that rajas is capable of vitiating the mind.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- What is the Sanskrit verse number for the 'no tamas without rajas' statement Kaviratna marks as aphorism 10 in Vimana 6? Not located.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, rajas
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/rajas/, 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.