# samāgni (समाग्नि)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sama-agni/

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 | samāgni |
| Devanagari | समाग्नि |
| Also written | sama agni, samā agnayaḥ, sama (as adjective of agni) |
| Category, as gathered | physiology / functional state |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| 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.

### Normal state of digestive, metabolic factors

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.6.8 · terminology-standard

WHO description verbatim: 'A state in which the action of transformative factor is normal due to all three dosha being in functional balance.'

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.

### Samagni

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sūtrasthāna Chapter XXXV, p. 319 (= Su.Sū.35.24) · public-domain-translation

Bhishagratna keeps the term transliterated as a section heading and defines it in English: 'The digestive heat, which fully digests the ingested food at the proper time without the least irregularity, thus reflecting the continuance of the bodily humours in their normal state, is called Samagni.' The best public-domain English definition of the term.

### even

Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimānasthāna Lesson VI (= Ca.Vi.6.12) · public-domain-translation

Kaviratna translates the four states as 'Keen, mild, even, and uneven' and adds a footnote: 'I have rendered "Sama" even, and "Visama" uneven. The sense is that of equable and unequable. The words may also mean normal and abnormal.' A rare case of a translator showing his working.

### normal or regular appetite

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sūtrasthāna Chapter XXXV, p. 320 · public-domain-translation

Bhishagratna's parenthetical gloss, which he immediately contradicts in his own footnote distinguishing agni from appetite. Recorded as a documented inconsistency.

### no NAMASTE code

NAMASTE / National AYUSH Morbidity Codes (NAMC) · NAMC block DB codes only mandāgni (DB-1), viṣamāgni (DB-2), tīkṣṇāgni (DB-3), atyagni/bhasmaka (DB-4) · terminology-standard · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Structurally revealing: NAMC is a morbidity list, so it codes the three abnormal states and omits samāgni entirely. Charaka says the same thing at Ca.Ci.15.71, the three others, excluding sama, are the grahaṇī-faults.

### no ICD-11 TM2 category found

ICD-11 MMS v2026-01, TM2 · classification · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Expected: a classification of disorders has no slot for a state of health.

### balanced digestion / balanced digestive fire

General textbook usage · secondary-literature · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Widespread; 'balanced' imports a doṣa-equilibrium claim that WHO does make explicit but Sushruta's definition states only as a consequence.

## The classical passages

### Sushruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna XXXV (Ātura-upakramaṇīya):24, checked against the source

> Sama'gni and Vishama'gni :— The digestive heat, which fully digests the ingested food at the proper time without the least irregularity, thus reflecting the continuance of the bodily humours in their normal state, is called Samagni.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/stream/b24758619_0001/b24758619_0001_djvu.txt

The definitional criterion is threefold: complete digestion, at the proper time, without irregularity. Doṣa-balance is presented as what this reflects, not as the definition. Quoted as printed, including the typesetting of the heading.

### Sushruta Saṃhitā (Sanskrit) Sūtrasthāna 35:24, checked against the source

> प्रागभिहितोऽग्निरन्नस्य पाचकः  स चतुर्विधो भवति दोषानभिपन्न एकः विक्रियामापन्नस्त्रिविधो भवतिविषमो वातेन तीक्ष्णः पित्तेन मन्दः श्लेष्मणा चतुर्थः समः सर्वसाम्यादिति  तत्र यो यथाकालमुपयुक्तमन्नं सम्यक् पचति स समः समैर्दोषैः

tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/सुश्रुतसंहिता/सूत्रस्थानम्/अध्याय_३१-४६

Fixes the verse number as 35.24 and shows the structure: one agni untouched by doṣa, three deranged. Corroborates NAMASTE's own citation 'Su.Su.35/24' for the abnormal three.

### Charaka Saṃhitā (Sanskrit) Vimānasthāna 6 (Roganīka Vimāna):12, checked against the source

> अग्निषु तु शारीरेषु चतुर्विधो विशेषो बलभेदेन भवति। तद्यथा- तीक्ष्णो, मन्दः, समो, विषमश्चेति। ... तत्र समवातपित्तश्लेष्मणां प्रकृतिस्थानां समा भवन्त्यग्नयः

tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.siva.sh/caraka-samhita/vimana-sthana/6/12

Charaka's fourfold division is by balabheda (difference of strength), and samāgni belongs to those whose vāta, pitta and kapha are equable and in their natural state.

### Charaka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 6:12 (Kaviratna prints 14-15), checked against the source

> In the fires dwelling in the physical system, a fourfold distinction may be made agreeably to difference of strength. It is as follows: Keen, mild, even, and uneven. ... That fire is said to be even which becomes vitiated by dietary riotousness, but which exists without being deranged when no dietary riotousness is indulged in. ... Amongst these, of those persons that are of equable wind, bile, and phlegm, and that are in their normal state, the (digestive) fires are even.

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Public-domain English. Note Charaka's samāgni is defined by conditional vulnerability (it deranges under dietary abuse and recovers under good regimen), which is subtly different from Sushruta's 'digests fully and on time'.

### Charaka Saṃhitā (Sanskrit) Cikitsāsthāna 15:71, checked against the source

> यश्चाग्निः पूर्वमुद्दिष्टो रोगानीके चतुर्विधः। तं चापि ग्रहणीदोषं समवर्जं प्रचक्ष्महे॥७१॥

tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.siva.sh/caraka-samhita/chikitsa-sthana/15/71

Charaka cross-references his own Vimāna 6 classification and declares the four agnis to be grahaṇī-faults 'sama-varjam', excluding sama. This is the textual warrant for treating samāgni as a state of health and not a diagnosis.

### Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya (Sanskrit) Śārīrasthāna 3:73-74, checked against the source

> samaḥ samāne sthāna-sthe viṣamo 'gnir vi-mārga-ge |
> pittābhimūrchite tīkṣṇo mando 'smin kapha-pīḍite || 73 ||
> 
> samo 'gnir viṣamas tīkṣṇo mandaś caivaṃ catur-vidhaḥ |
> yaḥ pacet samyag evānnaṃ bhuktaṃ samyak samas tv asau || 74 ||

tr. none — no public-domain English translation of Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya exists · http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/corpustei/transformations/plaintext/sa_vAgbhaTa-aSTAGgahRdayasUtra.txt

Vāgbhaṭa adds a mechanism Charaka and Sushruta do not: agni is sama when samāna vāyu is in its own place, and viṣama when samāna goes astray. Verse numbers confirmed by the file's own internal variant markers (3.74dv, 3.75av).

## Not to be confused with

- **agni (general).** samāgni is a state of agni, not a kind of agni alongside jāṭharāgni/dhātvagni/bhūtāgni. The 13-fold and the 4-fold schemes are orthogonal axes and are routinely presented as if they were one list.
- **prakṛti (constitution).** Ca.Vi.6.12 links samāgni to sama-doṣa constitution, but Charaka argues in Vi.6.13 that vāta/pitta/kapha-prakṛti persons are not thereby diseased. Agni state and constitutional type are correlated (PMID 35101333) but not identical.
- **svastha.** samāgni is one marker of health, not health itself.
- **dīpta agni / good appetite.** Bhishagratna's own footnote at Su.Sū.35 warns that agni and appetite are different, then he glosses sama as 'normal or regular appetite' in the same passage. The two are not interchangeable.

## Renderings that do not hold

- strong digestion. Reverses the doctrine. Excessive strength is tīkṣṇāgni, which is a fault. Sama is adequacy and regularity, not maximum power.
- balanced / balanced fire. Not wrong, but it smuggles in the doṣa-equilibrium explanation as if it were the definition. Sushruta defines sama by digestive performance and treats doṣa balance as what that reflects.
- normal agni (unqualified). Charaka's sama is explicitly still derangeable by dietary abuse (Ca.Vi.6.12); 'normal' in English suggests a stable trait rather than a conditional equilibrium.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Is there any classical time criterion for 'digests at the proper time'?
- Do Bhishagratna's and Kaviratna's definitions reflect a real Sushruta/Charaka divergence or translator choice?
- Has any instrument demonstrated it can separate samāgni from mild viṣamāgni?

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "samāgni", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sama-agni/, 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.