saṃhanana: what the term means and how it is translated
saṃhanana संहनन 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 | saṃhanana |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | संहनन |
| Also written | saṃhati, saṃyojana, saṅghāta |
| Category, as gathered | prakriti |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| 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.
compactness of tissues or organs
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.5 item 4 · standard
The ONLY place saṃhanana appears in the WHO standard. It has no headword of its own anywhere in the document; it exists only as a phrase inside the ten-domain gloss. That absence is the most useful fact about the term's standing.
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.
body : the words samhanana, sanghata, and samyojana are of the same import
Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimanasthana 8 · translation
Kaviratna does not translate the headword; he reproduces the samhita's own three-way synonymy.
firm or compact
Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimanasthana 8 · translation
His adjective for susaṃhata.
compactness / body build
Indian Ayurvedic college usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
'Compactness' follows WHO and is near-universal; 'body build' is looser and imports somatotype.
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 8:116 · checked against the source
saṁhananataścēti saṁhananaṁ, saṁhatiḥ, saṁyōjanamityēkō'rthaḥ| tatra samasuvibhaktāsthi, subaddhasandhi, suniviṣṭamāṁsaśōṇitaṁ, susaṁhataṁ śarīramityucyatē| tatra susaṁhataśarīrāḥ puruṣā balavantaḥ, viparyayēṇālpabalāḥ, madhyatvāt saṁhananasya madhyabalā bhavanti||116||
The whole term in one verse. saṃhanana, saṃhati and saṃyojana are declared one in meaning. Three criteria only: bones evenly well distributed, joints well bound, flesh and blood well set. Tripartite grading by strength.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 8:116 · checked against the source
Next, as regards (examination of the patient by observation of his) body : the words samhanana, sanghata, and samyojana are of the same import. In respect of this, that body is said to be firm or compact which consists of symetrical and well-formed bone.s, well-knit joints, and well-placed flesh and blood. Those men who are possessed of firm and compact bodies become endued with strength.
Public-domain English for Vi 8/116. Kaviratna reads the second synonym as sanghata where the retrieved Sanskrit has saṃhati, a genuine textual variant, not OCR. 'symetrical' and 'bone.s' are scanning artefacts.
Not to be confused with
- saṅghāta (asthisaṅghāta)
- WHO gives asthisaṅghātaḥ / saṅghātaḥ its own anatomical entry at ITA-3.13.64, 'Conglomeration of bones'. So the same word is a synonym of saṃhanana in Vimana 8 and a distinct structure in the śārīra vocabulary.
- pramāṇa
- The next examination item. Pramāṇa measures dimensions in aṅgulas; saṃhanana judges how well the parts are put together.
- sāra
- Sāra grades each tissue's quality; saṃhanana grades the assembly. A person may be māṃsa-sāra and still not susaṃhata.
- bala
- An indicator from which bala is inferred, not bala itself.
- śarīra-sampat
- WHO ITA-3.1.4, a functional state of all dhātus, not a structural grade.
Renderings that do not hold
- body build. Imports somatotype. The three classical criteria are about articulation and distribution, not mass or shape.
- muscularity. Only one criterion mentions māṃsa, and only that flesh and blood are well set.
- physique. Too general; it swallows pramāṇa and sāra as well.
- bone density. A modern medicalisation. samasuvibhaktāsthi is about even distribution of bone, with no claim about density.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Is the saṃhati / saṅghāta variant at Vi 8/116 an editorial difference between recensions or a misreading? Not resolved.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, saṃhanana
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/samhanana/, 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.