sāndra: what the term means and how it is translated

sāndra सान्द्र is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 6 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.

Identification
Transliteration	sāndra
Devanagari	सान्द्र
Also written	sandra, sāndraḥ, sandra guna, ghana (घन, often treated as synonym; see distinguishFrom)
Category, as gathered	dravyaguna-3
Grouped here under	Pharmacology and the action of substances
Classical citations	3
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.

Density, viscidity

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), PDF mirror · ITA-1.9.4.2.12 description 'The quality of a substance which is responsible for density.' sāndraḥ · comparator

'viscidity' is WHO's addition; the description uses only 'density'.

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.

thick

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.26 his 22 (pārthiva dravya list): 'heavy, sharp or pungent, hard, mild, immobile, clear, thick, gross, and possessed of scent' · public-domain translation

Positional match to सान्द्र in गुरुखरकठिनमन्दस्थिरविशदसान्द्रस्थूलगन्ध; 'thick' then 'gross' = sāndra then sthūla.

condensed

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain (translator's note on Sāndra-meha) · footnote at OCR line 65112: ''Sandra' is condensed, 'prasada,' liquid or watery. Hence, 'sandraprasada' implies...' · public-domain translation

Translator's gloss in the prameha context, not a guna definition.

Compactness

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain (archive.org OCR vol. 1 pp. 568) · Su.Su.46 guna-karma: 'Compactness is thickening and obstructive.' · public-domain translation

Positional match to सान्द्रः स्थूलः स्याद्बन्धकारकः (46.520). 'compact' also appears in his Su.Su.41 pārthiva list ('thick, pithy, compact, dull, immobile, rough, heavy') but there the word-to-word mapping was not established.

Sandra (dense)

Mithun & Singh, IJHSR 2026 review (DOI 10.52403/ijhsr.20260119) · 'Sandra-Drava (dense-fluid)'; 'Sandra denotes compactness, stability and reduced fluid mobility' · modern literature

Textbook rendering.

thickness

easyayurveda.com Su.Su.46 translation (Hebbar), modern, in copyright · the source's own wording is not reproduced here: "easyayurveda.com Su.Su.46 translation (Hebbar), modern, in copyright" is not a source this project has cleared for quotation · modern web textbook

Recorded as a rendering only; closest modern gloss to the Sanskrit of 46.520.

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 SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard 26.11 (pārthiva clause); Kaviratna prints 22 · checked against the source

Amongst objects those that are principally heavy, sharp or pungent, hard, mild, immobile, clear, thick, gross, and possessed of scent, are regarded as appertaining to Earth. These objects promote the growth, hardness, heaviness, and consistency of the body.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · source

Sāndra ('thick') is a quality of earth-dominant substances, whose karma is upacaya, kāṭhinya, gaurava, sthairya. Sanskrit as retrieved: तत्र द्रव्याणि गुरुखरकठिनमन्दस्थिरविशदसान्द्रस्थूलगन्धगुणबहुलानि पार्थिवानि (within ||११||, https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Note Kaviratna's 'sharp or pungent' stands where the Sanskrit has khara (rough).

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 25:Standard 25.36 (prose) · checked against the source

विंशतिगुणः, गुरुलघुशीतोष्णस्निग्धरूक्षमन्दतीक्ष्णस्थिरसरमृदुकठिनविशदपिच्छिलश्लक्ष्णखरसूक्ष्मस्थूलसान्द्रद्रवानुगमात्

tr. none (Sanskrit only; Kaviratna's rendering of this passage not retrieved) · source

Charaka's enumeration of the twenty gunas of food, with sāndra paired last against drava.

Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 46:Sanskrit 46.520 per the numbered text on easyayurveda.com; Bhishagratna prints no verse number (vol. 1 p. 568) · checked against the source

Now hear me describe the other ten properties of matter with their specific actions. Fluidity is moistening. Compactness is thickening and obstructive.

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · source

Sushruta's karma of sāndra: sthūla-making and bandhakāraka. Sanskrit as retrieved: दशैवान्यान् प्रवक्ष्यामि द्रवादींस्तान्निबोध मे| द्रवः प्रक्लेदनः, सान्द्रः स्थूलः स्याद्बन्धकारकः||५२०|| (https://www.easyayurveda.com/sushruta-samhitha-sutrasthana-46-annapana-vidhi-adhyaya-regimen-of-food-and-drinks/).

Not to be confused with

drava: Paired opposite (Ca.Su.25.36 सान्द्रद्रव; Su.Su.46.520).
ghana: WHO ITA-7.1.11 'ghanaḥ' is a pharmaceutical form (solid extract), not the guna; textbooks sometimes use ghana as a synonym of sāndra.
sthūla (gross/bulky): Adjacent in the pārthiva list and in Kaviratna ('thick, gross'); Su.Su.46.520 says sāndra makes a thing sthūla, so they are cause and effect, not synonyms.
picchila (slimy, viscous): WHO's 'viscidity' for sāndra invites confusion with picchila (WHO 'Sliminess, murkiness').
sāndra-meha / sāndra-prasāda-meha: Prameha subtypes (WHO ITA-5.41.5-6; Kaviratna's note 'Sandra is condensed'); the urine quality, not the drug guna.
bahala: In Ca.Su.22.13 the bṛṁhaṇa list has bahala ('dense, abundant') rather than sāndra; Kaviratna renders it 'exceedingly'.

Renderings that do not hold

solid. Sāndra is a quality on a continuum with drava (Ca.Su.25.36), applied to thick liquids such as condensed urine; 'solid' is kaṭhina's territory.
viscous / viscid. WHO's secondary word; viscosity is closer to picchila. Sushruta defines sāndra by bulk-making and binding, not by flow resistance.

Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.

Whether Bhishagratna's 'compact' in Su.Su.41 corresponds to sāndra or ghana in the Sanskrit (word order not checked against a Sanskrit Su.41).
Any measured density/specific-gravity study linking to sāndra (a Zenodo record 11044307 surfaced in search; not retrieved).

How to cite this entry

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, sāndra, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sandra/, 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.