# rasa (रस)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/rasa/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 7 different ways.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | rasa |
| Devanagari | रस |
| Also written | rasaḥ, rasa (taste), rasa dhatu, shadrasa / ṣaḍrasa, rasa (mercury, rasashastra sense) |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-3 |
| Grouped 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.

### Taste

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), PDF mirror (prints ITA- codes) · ITA-1.9.4.1.3 'Taste' description 'Trait of water element.' rasaḥ; ITA-6.2.1.1 'Taste' description 'There are six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. The term also indicates the fundamental structural component of primary circulating nutrient fluid (rasadhatu) as well as mercury.' · comparator

WHO itself flags the three senses (taste, rasa-dhatu, mercury) inside one entry.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### Primary circulating nutrient fluid, primary product of digestion

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.2.4, Sanskrit headword 'rasa-dhātuḥ, rasaḥ' · comparator

The dhatu sense gets its own headword; WHO avoids 'plasma', 'lymph' and 'chyle'.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### taste; Tastes

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 his 63 'The object of the tongue is taste'; his 64 'the sixfold catalogue of tastes'; Su.26 passim 'the six Tastes' · public-domain translation

Stable for the gustatory sense. For the dhatu sense he writes 'Rasa (liquid humour)' and 'the (seven) elements beginning with Rasa or humour' (Su.17 kshaya passage, not verse-verified).

### lymph chyle (Rasa)

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain, via wisdomlib · Su.Su.14 opening: 'giving rise to lymph chyle (Rasa) which is extremely thin or attenuated in its consistency and which forms the essence of the assimilated food' · public-domain translation

Edwardian physiology: 'lymph chyle' is a biomedical identification, not a translation.

### taste ... a water-origined principle

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain, via wisdomlib · Su.Su.42: 'taste is said to be a water-origined principle' · public-domain translation

Gustatory sense; agrees with Charaka Su.1.64 that water (and earth) is the substrate.

### rasa (taste)

Gilca & Dragos 2017, eCAM (PMID 28642799) · title/abstract; uses 'ayurvedic rasa' with 'cold' and 'hot' subgroups · modern literature

Research usage keeps the Sanskrit and glosses 'taste'.

### Taste (Shad Rasa)

easyayurveda.com 'Six Tastes Of Ayurveda' (Hebbar), modern web textbook · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2016/06/14/taste-shad-rasa/ (title seen in search results only; page not retrieved) · modern web textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Typical textbook rendering; recorded from the search-result title, not from the page.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard 1.64 (carakasamhitaonline); Kaviratna prints 63, checked against the source

> The object of the tongue is taste. Water and earth are the objective existences in which taste inheres. In its manifestation and as regards particular kinds of it, space, air, and light, are also its adjuncts.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

The definitional verse: rasa is the object of the tongue (rasana), its substrate is water and earth, and the other three bhutas account for its manifestation and varieties. Sanskrit as retrieved: रसनार्थो रसस्तस्य द्रव्यमापः क्षितिस्तथा| निर्वृत्तौ च विशेषे च प्रत्ययाः खादयस्त्रयः||६४|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Deerghanjiviteeya_Adhyaya).

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard 1.65; Kaviratna prints 64, checked against the source

> Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter, and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold catalogue of tastes.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

The six rasas. Sanskrit as retrieved: स्वादुरम्लोऽथ लवणः कटुकस्तिक्त एव च| कषायश्चेति षट्कोऽयं रसानां सङ्ग्रहः स्मृतः||६५||.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 26:Standard 26.8 (one clause of a long prose unit); Kaviratna prints 11, checked against the source

> There are six tastes, said the royal sage Varyovida. They are heavy, light, cold, hot, oily, and dry.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

In the rasa-number debate Varyovida's 'six rasas' are in fact six gunas (guru, laghu, shita, ushna, snigdha, ruksha); the text itself records the rasa/guna confusion the lexicon must undo. Sanskrit as retrieved: षड्रसा इति वार्योविदो राजर्षिः, गुरुलघुशीतोष्णस्निग्धरूक्षाः| (within ||८||, https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Atreya's ruling is 26.9: षडेव रसा इत्युवाच भगवानात्रेयः पुनर्वसुः, मधुराम्ललवणकटुतिक्तकषायाः॥९॥.

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 42:Sanskrit verse number not established; Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers, checked against the source

> taste is said to be a water-origined principle.

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc141672.html

Sushruta's chapter on rasa (Rasa-Vishesha-Vijnaniya) makes water the originating bhuta of taste, agreeing with Charaka Su.1.64.

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 14:Sushruta Sutrasthana 14.3 (standard numbering; siva.sh Devanagari ॥३॥). Bhishagratna Ch. XIV, opening paragraph [1] and the first sentence of the following paragraph, wisdomlib doc122906; he prints no verse numbers., checked against the source

> The food is fully digested with the help of the internal heat and ultimately assimilated in the system, giving rise to lymph chyle (Rasa) which is extremely thin or attenuated in its consistency and which forms the essence of the assimilated food. The lymph chyle (Rasa), though running through the whole organism, has its primary seat in the heart, whence it flows through the twenty-four vessels which branch off from the latter (heart) to the remotest parts and extremities of the body.

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc122906.html

The dhātu sense: rasa is the subtle essence (sāra) of fully digested food, its seat (sthāna) is the heart, and from the heart it enters the twenty-four dhamanīs to nourish the whole body (Su.Su.14.3: 'तस्य हृदयं स्थानं, स हृदयाच्चतुर्विंशतिधमनीरनुप्रविश्य'). 'Lymph chyle' is Bhishagratna's biomedical identification, not the text's.

## Not to be confused with

- **guṇa (gurvādi).** Ca.Su.26.8 records Varyovida calling heavy/light/cold/hot/unctuous/dry 'six rasas'; Atreya rejects this (26.9). Rasa is perceived by the tongue; gunas are inferred from action.
- **rasa-dhātu.** The first of seven dhatus (WHO ITA-2.2.4; Su.Su.14 'lymph chyle'). Same word, different category; WHO ITA-6.2.1.1 explicitly warns of the overlap.
- **anurasa.** The secondary or after-taste (Ca.Su.26.28 व्यक्तः शुष्कस्य चादौ च रसो द्रव्यस्य लक्ष्यते| विपर्ययेणानुरसो रसो नास्ति हि सप्तमः||२८||).
- **rasa (pārada, mercury) and rasaśāstra.** WHO ITA-6.2.1.1 lists mercury as a third sense; ITA-19008 'rasaśāstram' is the alchemical discipline.
- **vipāka.** Post-digestive taste; a separate member of the rasapañcaka (WHO ITA-6.2 'rasapañcakam').
- **rasāyana.** Rejuvenative therapy; Kaviratna's notes gloss it separately. Not the taste or the dhatu.

## Renderings that do not hold

- flavour. Common in popular writing; rasa in the texts is a defined gustatory category with pharmacological entailments (Ca.Su.26), not aroma-plus-taste.
- lymph chyle / plasma (for rasa-dhātu). Bhishagratna's 'lymph chyle' and modern 'plasma' are biomedical identifications; the Sanskrit defines rasa-dhatu functionally (first product of digestion, nourishing). WHO's 'primary circulating nutrient fluid' avoids the identification.
- 'heavy, light, cold, hot, oily, and dry' as tastes. Kaviratna faithfully translates Varyovida's rejected position at Ca.Su.26.8; a reader lifting the sentence without 26.9 would take gunas for rasas.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Verse-number the Su.Su.14 and Su.Su.42 passages against a Sanskrit Sushruta edition.
- Kaviratna's Su.17 'Rasa (liquid humour)' kshaya passage (his 63) was seen but its chapter and standard verse were not verified from a page header.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "rasa", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/rasa/, CC BY 4.0.
Whole lexicon: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.json and https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.csv.

Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been
translated. Nothing here is advice.