# sādhya (साध्य) > Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sadhya/ An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 6 different ways. The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean. ## Identification | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Transliteration | sādhya | | Devanagari | साध्य | | Also written | sadhya-asadhya, sadhyasadhyata, sukhasadhya, krichchhrasadhya, yapya, anupakrama, pratyakhyeya | | Category, as gathered | prognosis | | Grouped under | Causation and the course of disease | | Classical citations | 8 | | 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. ### Prognosis (sādhyāsādhyatā); Diseases that are treatable (sādhyarogaḥ); Diseases that are easily treatable (sukhasādhyarogaḥ); Diseases that are difficult to treat or cure (kṛcchrasādhyarogaḥ); Diseases that are incurable (asādhyarogaḥ); Diseases that can be palliated (yāpyarogaḥ); Diseases that are terminal (pratyākhyeyarogaḥ); Terminal disease (anupakrama, pratyākhyeyaroga) WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.2.37 to 4.2.43; ITA-4.8.28 · comparator-standard WHO chooses 'treatable' for sādhya, which blurs cure versus management; its description of sādhyāsādhyatā: 'The classification of diseases based on their prognosis as either curable or incurable.' 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. ### Dependent variable ('The effect or dependent variable influenced by the independent variable.') WHO ISTA 2022 · ITA-1.8.2.7 sādhya · comparator-standard The logical/Nyaya sense of sādhya (probandum) given a modern statistical gloss; shows the homonym. 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. ### curable / incurable; easily curable / curable with difficulty; capable of being suppressed (yāpya) / those that have no treatment Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita Su 10 · his aphorism 3 (= standard 10/9) · public-domain-translation Kaviratna's 'suppressed/suppressible' for yāpya is Edwardian; it means kept under control, not hidden. ### the curable, the suppressible (Yapya) and the incurable (lit: fit to be pronounced as hopeless) Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita Su 35 · wisdomlib doc122935 · public-domain-translation Sushruta's three heads; Bhishagratna glosses pratyākhyeya literally. ### readily amenable to healing measures / only admits of a palliative treatment / past all remedy Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita Su 23 · wisdomlib doc122920 · public-domain-translation Applied to wounds (vraṇa). ### curable / treatable / amenable to treatment common textbook renderings · n/a · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words Routine. ## The classical passages ### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 10 (Maha-chatushpada):standard 10/9; Kaviratna prints 3 (his closing verse block restarts at 1, so his 1,2,3,4 = standard 7,8,9,10), checked against the source > As regards curable diseases, they are of two kinds, viz., those that are easily curable and those that are curable with difficulty. Incurable diseases, also, are of two kinds, viz., those that are capable of being suppressed, and those that have no treatment. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (OCR 'tw©' corrected to 'two') · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt Charaka's four-way scheme: sukhasādhya, kṛcchrasādhya; yāpya and anupakrama as subdivisions of asādhya. Sanskrit (siva.sh 10/9): 'सुखसाध्यंमतंसाध्यंकृच्छ्रसाध्यमथापिच। द्विविधंचाप्यसाध्यंस्याद्याप्यंयच्चानुपक्रमम् ॥९॥' at https://www.siva.sh/caraka-samhita/sutra-sthana/10/6-10 ### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 10:standard 10/10; Kaviratna 4, checked against the source > As regards diseases that are curable, they may again be regarded from three points of view, viz., those that are capable of being cured by the application of means that are easy, those that are curable by means neither easy nor difficult, and lastly those that are curable by means that are difficult. Incurable diseases, which have no treatment, do not admit of being looked upon from different points of view. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt Sādhya has three grades (alpa, madhya, utkṛṣṭa); asādhya-anupakrama has none. Sanskrit (siva.sh 10/10): 'साध्यानांत्रिविधश्चाल्पमध्यमोत्कृष्टतांप्रति। विकल्पो, न त्वसाध्यानांनियतानांविकल्पना ॥१०॥' ### Charaka Samhita (translator's footnote, NOT the text) Sutrasthana 10:footnote to Kaviratna's aphorism 3, checked against the source > 'Yapya' means those diseases which without admitting of radical cure can, by medicine and diet and change of air, be kept in a state of partial suppression. 'Anupakramam' is explained by the Commentator as those for which there is no treatment, i.e., those in which treatment is productive of no beneficial consequence. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (editorial note) · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt Kaviratna's own gloss of yāpya and anupakrama; cite as translator's note, not as Charaka. ### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 10:standard 10/18-20 (10/18-19ab = yāpya features closed by vidyād dvidoṣajam; 10/19cd-20 = pratyākhyeya features from tadvat pratyākhyeyaṃ tridoṣajam); Kaviratna prints 12-14 for the whole, checked against the source > When the disease is deeply ingrained (into the marrow and such other constituents of the body), when it affects many of the constituent parts, when it is attached to the vital limbs and joints of the body, when it manifests itself continuously, when it is chronic and very old, when it is born of the derangement of two of the three ingredients (of wind, bile, and phlegm) or of all the three, when it is beyond the operation of treatment, when it affects all the organs, when the patient is thoroughly cheerless and despairing, when the disease is characterised by a stupefaction of the mind, when the disease weakens the strength of all the organs (of knowledge and action), when the disease has reached the highest limit of aggravation and the patient has become entirely strengthless, and lastly when the disease exhibits indications of the patient's dissolution, it should be regarded as one that should not be taken up for treatment. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt Features of the pratyākhyeya (to-be-declined) disease, standard Su 10/19cd-20: born of all three doṣas (tridoṣaja), beyond the path of treatment (kriyāpatham atikrānta), running through all the channels (sarvamārgānusārin), causing restlessness, distress and stupefaction, destroying the senses, fully developed in a weak patient, and attended by fatal signs (sāriṣṭa). The opening clauses of Kaviratna's sentence (deep-seated, in many dhātus, lodged in vital parts and joints, continuous, long-standing, born of two doṣas = 10/18-19ab) are in the Sanskrit the description of the yāpya (palliable) disease, closed by vidyāt; Kaviratna merges the two lists into one sentence and renders dvidoṣaja/tridoṣaja as 'two of the three ... or of all the three'. ### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 18 (Trishothiya; Kaviratna's colophon 'Thus ends the Eighteenth Lesson, called Tritjothiya'):Kaviratna prints 45 (OCR '45' appears twice for consecutive paragraphs, so this may be 46); standard Trikamji number NOT established, checked against the source > Diseases are of two kinds, viz., Curable and Incurable. Distributing them according to the considerations of mildness and violence, they become of four kinds. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt The sādhya/asādhya x mṛdu/dāruṇa cross-classification (four kinds). Kaviratna's footnote (not text) adds: 'Among these, Mild and Incurable would mean Yapya or suppressible.' ### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 35 (Aturopakramaniya):Sanskrit verse number not established, checked against the source > All the diseases, whose names have been specifically enumerated before, may be grouped under any of the three different heads as the curable, the suppressible (Yapya) and the incurable (lit: fit to be pronounced as hopeless). tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc122935.html Sushruta's threefold scheme, with yāpya as a head of its own rather than a subdivision of asādhya as in Charaka Su 10/9. ### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 23 (Krityakritya-vidhi; wisdomlib title 'Prognosis of wounds'):Sanskrit verse number not established, checked against the source > A patient laid up with a disease, which only admits of a palliative treatment, lives so long as the course of the medical treatment is continued, and will die almost simultaneously with its discontinuance. tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc122920.html Operational meaning of yāpya in Sushruta: survival contingent on continued treatment. ### Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 1:printed on retrieved page as 29+(1), checked against the source > साध्योऽसाध्य इति व्याधिर्द्विधा, तौ तु पुनर्द्विधा| सुसाध्यः कृच्छ्रसाध्यश्च, याप्यो यश्चानुपक्रमः॥२९+(१)॥ tr. none (Sanskrit only; no public-domain English exists) · https://easyayurveda.com/2012/08/31/ashtanga-hrudaya-sutra-sthana-chapter-1-basic-principles-of-ayurveda/ Vagbhata follows Charaka's 2x2 scheme (susādhya, kṛcchrasādhya; yāpya, anupakrama). ## The concept record for this term A term entry answers what the word means. It does not answer whether the thing the word names is settled, and often it is not. That is what the concept record is for: it sets out the questions on which the sources disagree about this term, with each position attributed, and states what is not established. - [Sadhya-asadhya (prognosis and the decision to treat)](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/sadhya-asadhya/) ## Not to be confused with - **sādhya (logic: probandum / that which is to be established).** WHO ITA-1.8.2.7 glosses this sense as 'dependent variable'; same word, Nyaya meaning, unrelated to prognosis. - **yāpya.** In Charaka Su 10/9 and AH Su 1 it is a subdivision of asādhya; in Sushruta Su 35 it is a third head alongside sādhya and asādhya. Translating yāpya as 'curable' or lumping it under 'treatable' erases this. - **anupakrama / pratyākhyeya.** Disease with no treatment / to be declined; WHO treats them as synonyms ('Terminal disease'); Charaka Su 10/19 uses pratyākhyeya for the tridoṣaja type. - **sādhaka (pitta).** Different word (sādhaka = accomplishing); confusion arises in transliteration-only searches. - **mṛdu / dāruṇa.** Severity axis cross-cutting sādhya/asādhya (Ca Su 18; Vi 8/88), not a prognosis category. ## Renderings that do not hold - treatable (WHO for sādhya). Yāpya diseases are also treated; 'treatable' fails to separate cure from management. - suppressible (Kaviratna, Bhishagratna for yāpya). Period English; suggests hiding symptoms, whereas the sense is 'kept going/maintained' (Sushruta: patient lives while treatment continues). - benign / malignant. Oncological connotations absent from the Sanskrit. ## Citation Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "sādhya", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sadhya/, 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.