# samprāpti (सम्प्राप्ति) > Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/samprapti/ An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 8 different ways across 9 sources. The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean. ## Identification | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Transliteration | samprāpti | | Devanagari | सम्प्राप्ति | | Also written | samprāptiḥ, jāti, āgati, samprapthi, sampraapti | | Category, as gathered | nidana | | Grouped under | Causation and the course of disease | | 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. ### Evolution or natural course of disease WHO international standard terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.5.16 (samprāptiḥ, jātiḥ, āgatiḥ) · standards body WHO's head term, and it codes all three of Charaka's synonyms under it. Description: 'The sequence of events from etiology to manifestation of a disease, which is classified into six stages .' The trailing space before the full stop is in the extracted text. NOTE THE ERROR: 'six stages' describes ṣaṭ-kriyākāla (which WHO codes separately at ITA-4.6.6), whereas WHO's own samprāpti-bheda entries at ITA-4.5.18 to 4.5.23 are six SUBTYPES, not stages. The description conflates two different sixfold schemes. 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. ### Classification of pathogenesis WHO international standard terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.5.17 (samprāptibhedaḥ) · standards body Head term present, DESCRIPTION EMPTY in the 2022 PDF as extracted. Recorded as a defect in the source. 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. ### Number of subtypes of pathogenesis WHO international standard terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.5.18 (saṅkhyāsamprāptiḥ) · standards body First of WHO's six bheda. The remaining five, verbatim: 'Significance-based pathogenesis' (ITA-4.5.19, prādhānya), 'Classification-based pathogenesis' (ITA-4.5.20, vidhi), 'Fraction-specific pathogenesis' (ITA-4.5.21, vikalpa), 'Intensity-specific pathogenesis' (ITA-4.5.22, bala), 'Time-specific pathogenesis' (ITA-4.5.23, kāla). These six map exactly onto Ca. Ni. 1.12, which is strong independent corroboration of that verse. 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. ### Stages of disease manifestation and management WHO international standard terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.6.6 (kriyākālaḥ / ṣaṭkriyākālaḥ) · standards body Recorded because WHO's samprāpti description borrows this entry's 'six stages'. Description: 'A comprehensive term for the six prominent stages in disease management indicating the stepwise progression of its pathogenesis.' 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. ### words of the same import Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (public domain) · Nidana Sthanam, Lesson I, aphorism 5 · public-domain translation Kaviratna does not render samprāpti at all, he transliterates it and says only that samprāpti, jāti and āgati are 'words of the same import'. His footnote glosses the other two: "'Jati' is otherwise called 'janma' or birth. 'Agati' is coming in, as 'gati' means 'going out'." There is no public-domain English WORD for samprāpti. ### ascertainment of the strength or otherwise of the disease Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (public domain), translator's footnote · Nidana Sthanam, Lesson I, footnote listing the five members · public-domain translation Kaviratna's only substantive gloss, and it is unlike every modern rendering: he reads samprāpti as an assessment of severity rather than as a process of formation. Recorded because it is public-domain and idiosyncratic. ### pathogenesis Charak Samhita New Edition (carakasamhitaonline.com) · Ca. Ni. 1.6 and 1.11 running English · modern scholarly edition CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 comparator. The dominant modern rendering. ### mode of manifestation of the disease easyayurveda.com rendering of Ashtanga Hridaya Ni. 1.2 and 1.8 · AH Ni. 1.2, 1.8 · modern textbook website In-copyright comparator. Its 1.8 gloss adds the mechanism: 'The genesis or process of manifestation of the disease by the vitiated Doshas which are constantly circulating'. ### (the source's rendering is a full definition and is not reproduced here) easyayurveda.com rendering of Madhava Nidana 1.10 · MN 1.10 · modern textbook website The source's rendering is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation. In-copyright comparator, and the most explicit about the narrative character of the concept. ## The classical passages ### Charaka Samhita Nidāna Sthāna 1 (Jvara Nidāna):11, checked against the source > सम्प्राप्तिर्जातिरागतिरित्यनर्थान्तरं व्याधेः||११|| tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Jwara_Nidana Charaka gives no definition, only three synonyms declared anarthāntara: samprāpti, jāti, āgati. Both alternatives are words of coming-into-being and arrival, which is the whole of the classical semantic content at this point. Retrieved and string-matched by me. ### Charaka Samhita Nidāna Sthāna 1 (Jvara Nidāna):12, checked against the source > सा सङ्ख्याप्राधान्यविधिविकल्पबलकालविशेषैर्भिद्यते|१२| tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Jwara_Nidana SIX bheda in the Sanskrit compound: saṅkhyā, prādhānya, vidhi, vikalpa, bala, kāla. The retrieved page's own English renders these as five by fusing the last two into 'bala-kala vishesha', which is a live translation disagreement visible within a single source. The page then supplies worked examples at 12.1 (eight jvara, five gulma, seven kuṣṭha for saṅkhyā). ### Charaka Samhita Nidāna Sthāna 1 (Jvara Nidāna):11-12 (numbered 5 and 6 in Kaviratna's edition), checked against the source > Samprapti, ' jati', and 1 agati' of disease, are words of the same import 'Samprapti' is distinguished by these considerations, viz., number (or enumeration), predominance, kind (or order), solution of doubt, strength](or intensity), and Time. tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt Public-domain English for both verses, and it preserves SIX considerations. Note his rendering of vikalpa as 'solution of doubt', which is unlike the modern 'fractional predominance of dosha attributes'. The stray '1' before agati and the ']' in 'strength](or intensity)' are scan artifacts, preserved verbatim. Retrieved and string-matched by me. ### Sushruta Samhita Sūtrasthāna 21 (running head 'Chap, xxi.] SUTRASTHANAM'):authoritative verse, not numbered in Bhishagratna's edition, checked against the source > The physician, who fully knows about the accumula- tion (Sanchaya), disturbance or aggravation (Prakopa , expansion (Prasaram), and differentiating traits of the deranged humours (Bheda), and is well conversant with the specific localities in which they are respectively confined in the course of their expansion (Sth3na- samshrayam), and with the symptoms which they respec- tively exhibit in connection with the incidental disease (Vyakti), is alone worthy of that epithet. tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/stream/b24758619_0001/b24758619_0001_djvu.txt THE SIX KRIYĀKĀLA IN A LAWFULLY QUOTABLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION, naming all six with their Sanskrit: sañcaya, prakopa, prasara, sthāna-saṃśraya, vyakti, bheda. This is what modern writing usually means by 'samprāpti as six stages', but it is Sushruta's kriyākāla, a separate doctrine, and Sushruta does not call it samprāpti here. 'Sth3na' and the unclosed parentheses are OCR artifacts, preserved verbatim. Retrieved and string-matched by me. ### Ashtanga Hridaya Nidāna Sthāna 1 (Sarvaroga Nidāna):8, with subtypes at 9-11, address only, nothing quoted to check Vagbhata DOES define it where Charaka only gives synonyms: the nirvṛtti of the disease by the vitiated dosha as they circulate. And his subtypes number FIVE, not six, saṅkhyā, vikalpa, prādhānya, bala, kāla, omitting Charaka's vidhi. Devanagari mūla and verse numbers sighted on the retrieved page; not quoted per the rule for this text. ### Madhava Nidana 1 (Pañca Nidāna Lakṣaṇa):10, with subtypes at 11-13, address only, nothing quoted to check Madhavakara follows Vagbhata's five subtypes, again without vidhi. So the count is six in Charaka and five in both Vagbhata and Madhavakara, while WHO codes six. Verse numbers from the modern English rendering on the retrieved page. ## 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. - [Samprapti (the Ayurvedic model of pathogenesis)](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/samprapti/) ## 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. - **[Nidana-panchaka (the five-fold diagnostic frame)](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/nidana-panchaka/)** (as Samprapti): Pathogenesis: the sequence by which the causes disturb dosha and tissue to produce this disease. Charaka gives jati and agati as words of the same import, and subdivides it. How many subdivisions is itself contested and the record previously got it wrong: the Sanskrit of Ni. 1/12 reads sankhya-pradhanya-vidhi-vikalpa-BALAKALA-visesha, compounding strength and time into one member, and the definitional run that follows defines five, not six. Kaviratna's English lists 'strength (or intensity), and Time' separately, which is where the widely repeated 'six considerations' comes from. The five are: sankhya, enumeration (eight fevers, five tumours, seven leprosies); pradhanya, which dosha is stronger or strongest; vidhi, class (two as natural or accidental, three by dosha, four by curable, incurable, mild, violent); vikalpa, the measure in which combined doshas have been excited; and balakala, strength and time together, read off season, day, night and the hours of eating. See contested[4]. ## Not to be confused with - **ṣaṭ-kriyākāla.** THE CENTRAL CONFUSION, and WHO's own ITA-4.5.16 description commits it by saying samprāpti is 'classified into six stages'. Samprāpti is Charaka's member of the pentad, subdivided at Ni. 1.12 into six ASPECTS (number, predominance, kind, and so on). Kriyākāla is Sushruta's six-stage temporal sequence (sañcaya to bheda), quoted here from Bhishagratna. Different texts, different doctrines, different sixes. Modern writing routinely presents the kriyākāla stages AS the content of samprāpti. - **nidāna.** Cause versus process. WHO separates them into chapter 4.4 and chapter 4.5. - **samprāpti-ghaṭaka.** A modern analytic breakdown into named participant slots (dosha, dūṣya, srotas, agni, and so on). Not classical, and WHO has no entry for it. See that record. - **samprāpti-bheda.** The six aspects at Ca. Ni. 1.12, coded by WHO at ITA-4.5.18-4.5.23. Dimensions along which a samprāpti varies, not components of it and not stages in it. - **jāti and āgati.** Declared synonyms at Ni. 1.11 and coded under the same WHO ID, but Kaviratna's footnote treats them as differently-angled: jāti as birth, āgati as coming-in versus going-out. Recording them as bare synonyms loses that. - **pathogenesis (biomedical).** The standard rendering, and it carries a mechanistic commitment the Sanskrit does not. Samprāpti as classically divided is about counting subtypes, judging dominance and timing severity, closer to a structured characterisation of a disease episode than to a causal mechanism. ## Renderings that do not hold - the six stages of disease. Conflates samprāpti with ṣaṭ-kriyākāla. WHO's ITA-4.5.16 description makes exactly this error, which means the error now has standards-body authority. - pathophysiology. Implies a physiological mechanism specified at the level of function. Ca. Ni. 1.12's six divisions specify no mechanism at all. - etiopathogenesis. Folds nidāna back into samprāpti. The pentad separates them deliberately. - disease progression. Captures the kriyākāla sense and loses the bheda sense entirely, including saṅkhyā (how many types) and vidhi (curable, difficult, incurable), neither of which is about progression. - ascertainment of the strength or otherwise of the disease. Kaviratna's own gloss, recorded above as a rendering because it is public-domain and historically interesting, but it is wrong: it promotes one of six divisions (bala) into the meaning of the whole. ## Open questions Recorded rather than resolved. - Whether the six-versus-five subtype count is a genuine doctrinal difference or a textual variant. Charaka's compound at Ni. 1.12 contains vidhi; the Ashtanga Hridaya and Madhava Nidana lists as rendered on the retrieved pages do not. Someone with the Sanskrit of AH Ni. 1.9 should confirm. - Why the retrieved carakasamhitaonline English fuses bala and kāla into one item when its own Sanskrit gives six. Possibly following a commentary. Worth checking Chakrapani. - Whether any paper proposes a measurable correlate for any stage of kriyākāla. Across the three papers recorded here, none does; all three propose future work. PubMed returns 15 records for 'samprapti' and I read the abstracts of the three most relevant. - Whether WHO's ITA-4.5.17 blank description is an error or intentional. ## Citation Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "samprāpti", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/samprapti/, 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.