# snigdha (स्निग्ध)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/snigdha/

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 | snigdha |
| Devanagari | स्निग्ध |
| Also written | snigdha guna, snigdhaḥ, sneha (स्नेह, the noun: unctuousness / fat), sasneha (सस्नेह, Ca.Su.1.60), snehana (स्नेहन, the therapy) |
| Category, as gathered | dravyaguna-3 |
| Grouped under | Pharmacology and the action of substances |
| Classical citations | 4 |
| 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.

### Unctuousness, oiliness

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), PDF mirror · ITA-1.9.4.2.8 description 'The quality of a substance which is responsible for imparting smoothness, oiliness and moisture.' snigdhaḥ · comparator

Standard; the description's 'smoothness' overlaps WHO's own ślakṣṇa entry.

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.

### watery

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 his 60 (Kapha qualities): 'Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy' · public-domain translation

Positional match to स्निग्ध in गुरुशीतमृदुस्निग्धमधुरस्थिरपिच्छिलाः; 'watery' is wrong for snigdha.

### cold (for sasneha)

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.1 his 59 (Pitta qualities): 'Bile, which may be cold, hot, keen, soft, sour, liquid, and bitter' · public-domain translation

The Sanskrit is सस्नेहमुष्णं तीक्ष्णं च द्रवमम्लं सरं कटु (1.60): sasneha, not śīta. This is the exact 'cold Pitta' trap named in the task brief; Kaviratna's 'cold' is a mistranslation of snigdha/sasneha.

### oily

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.22 his 11 'exceedingly oily', his 13 'oily', his 14 'oily'; Su.26 his 11 Varyovida 'oily'; Su.26 his 23 water objects 'oily'; Su.26 footnote ''Ruksha' is dry, being the reverse of oily.' · public-domain translation

His usual rendering from Su.22 onward.

### emollient; Oleaginousness

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain · Su.Su.42 'sweet, acid and saline are heavy and emollient in their character' (wisdomlib); Su.Su.46 guna-karma 'Oleaginousness imparts a gloss or oiliness, and acts as an emollient tonic, and cosmetic.' (archive.org OCR vol. 1 p. 567); Kaviratna also uses 'emollients' for the Snigdha drug group (OCR line 73664) · public-domain translation

'emollient' is a pharmacy-of-the-period word; 'oleaginousness' is his noun for the guna.

### glossy; moist

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain, via wisdomlib · Su.Su.41 āpya list 'cold, moist, glossy' · public-domain translation

Word-to-word mapping to a Sanskrit Su.41 not established.

### Snigdha (unctuous)

Mishra et al., AYU 2011 (PMID 22408303); Mithun & Singh, IJHSR 2026 · modern literature

The source's own wording is not reproduced here: "Mishra et al., AYU 2011 (PMID 22408303); Mithun & Singh, IJHSR 2026" is not a source this project has cleared for quotation.

'unctuous' is the settled research rendering.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 1:Standard 1.60-61 (carakasamhitaonline Deerghanjiviteeya); Kaviratna prints 59 and 60 after the two sentences, p. 6, Lesson I (archive.org BIUSante_47357 leaf 15, read from the page image; the djvu OCR gives 69 and 80), checked against the source

> Sanskrit (carakasamhitaonline, Trikamji numbering): "सस्नेहमुष्णं तीक्ष्णं च द्रवमम्लं सरं कटु| विपरीतगुणैः पित्तं द्रव्यैराशु प्रशाम्यति||६०|| गुरुशीतमृदुस्निग्धमधुरस्थिरपिच्छिलाः| श्लेष्मणः प्रशमं यान्ति विपरीतगुणैर्गुणाः||६१||" Kaviratna (his 59-60): "Bile, which may be cold, hot, keen, soft, sour, liquid, and bitter, is speedily cured by objects having adverse attributes. Heavy, cold, mild, watery, sweet, stable, and slimy, these attributes of phlegm are cured by objects having adverse attributes."

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Kaviratna's 'cold' in the pitta list at his Su.1.59 is a translator's error, not a variant reading. The printed 1921 Āyurvedadīpikā edition, whose verse numbering matches Kaviratna's exactly (58 vāta / 59 pitta / 60 kapha / 61), reads सस्नेहमुष्णं तीक्ष्णं च द्रवमम्लं सरं कटु and Cakrapāṇi glosses सस्नेहमिति ईषत्स्नेहं, building the doctrine that ghee is a pitta remedy on that very word. No retrievable witness reads śīta, and Kaviratna prints no variant footnote.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 22:Standard 22.11 (first half, definition) and 22.15 (snehana list); Kaviratna prints 7-9 and 13, checked against the source

> That which leads to secretions of oily matter, softness of the body, and increase of impurities, is said to be Snehana. [...] Such things as are liquid, subtile, stable, oily, slimy, heavy, cooling, not pungent or mild, and soft, are generally regarded as Snehana.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Snehana defined as producing sneha-viṣyanda, mārdava, kleda; snigdha ('oily') among snehana qualities. Sanskrit as retrieved: स्नेहनं स्नेहविष्यन्दमार्दवक्लेदकारकम्| (11a) and द्रवं सूक्ष्मं सरं स्निग्धं पिच्छिलं गुरु शीतलम्| प्रायो मन्दं मृदु च यद्द्रव्यं तत्स्नेहनं मतम्||१५|| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Langhanabrimhaniya_Adhyaya). Note Kaviratna's 'stable' where the retrieved Sanskrit has saram (mobile).

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 46:Sanskrit 46.516 per the numbered text on easyayurveda.com; Bhishagratna prints no verse number (vol. 1 p. 567), checked against the source

> Oleaginousness imparts a gloss or oiliness, and acts as an emollient tonic, and cosmetic.

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/download/englishtranslati01susruoft/englishtranslati01susruoft_djvu.txt

Sushruta's karma of snigdha: sneha, mārdava, bala, varṇa. Sanskrit as retrieved: स्नेहमार्दवकृत् स्निग्धो बलवर्णकरस्तथा| रूक्षस्तद्विपरीतः स्याद्विशेषात् स्तम्भनः खरः||५१६|| (https://www.easyayurveda.com/sushruta-samhitha-sutrasthana-46-annapana-vidhi-adhyaya-regimen-of-food-and-drinks/). 'tonic' = bala-kara, 'cosmetic' = varṇa-kara.

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 42:Sushruta Sutrasthana 42.8, third sub-clause (the ślesma/madhura samāna-yoni clause), checked against the source

> माधुर्यस्नेहगौरवशैत्यपैच्छिल्यगुणलक्षणः श्लेष्मा, तस्य समानयोनिर्मधुरो रसः, सोऽस्य माधुर्यान्माधुर्यं वर्धयति, स्नेहात्स्नेहं, गौरवाद्गौरवं, शैत्याच्छैत्यं, पैच्छिल्यात्पैच्छिल्यमिति ॥ (३) ॥

tr. K. L. Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/download/in.ernet.dli.2015.327618/page/n226_w800.jpg

Ḍalhaṇa's Nibandhasaṅgraha on Su.Su. 42.7 passes no judgement on whether Sushruta accepts the kecit two-fold saumya/āgneya division of rasas: he glosses agnīṣomīyatva and reads the two ca-s as implying a further twofold division by sneha/rūkṣa and guru/laghu, and records no dissent. Sushruta's mūla at 42.7 also lacks the rejection marker he uses elsewhere (Su.Su. 36, 'tat tu na samyak'). A Sushruta-voice link between sneha and madhura rasa is available instead at Su.Su. 42.8, third sub-clause, where kapha is characterised by mādhurya, sneha, gaurava, śaitya and paicchilya and madhura is named its samāna-yoni rasa.

## Not to be confused with

- **rūkṣa.** Paired opposite (Su.Su.46.516; Kaviratna's footnote 'Ruksha in Snigdha').
- **sneha.** The noun: both the quality (unctuousness) and the substance class (ghee, oil, fat, marrow). Snigdha is the adjective/guna.
- **snehana.** The therapy (Ca.Su.22.11); WHO ITA-9.1.44 'snehanam' separate.
- **picchila (slimy).** Distinct guna, co-listed with snigdha in Kapha and snehana lists; Kaviratna 'slimy'.
- **drava (liquid).** Kaviratna's 'watery' and 'liquid' blur snigdha into drava; the Sanskrit lists both separately in Ca.Su.22.15.
- **ślakṣṇa.** Smoothness; WHO's snigdha description mentions 'smoothness' but the texts keep them apart (ākāśa substances are ślakṣṇa, not snigdha).

## Renderings that do not hold

- cold (Kaviratna, Pitta verse Ca.Su.1.60). The Sanskrit is sasneha; Pitta is uṣṇa. This is a translator's slip, not a doctrine.
- watery (Kaviratna, Kapha verse Ca.Su.1.61). Snigdha is unctuous, not aqueous; 'watery' is drava's territory.
- moist / wet. Confuses unctuousness with kleda/ārdratā, which are its effects (Ca.Su.22.11).
- greasy / fatty (as a food-composition claim). Snigdha is defined by effect (sneha, mārdava, bala, varṇa; Su.Su.46.516); milk is snigdha without being 'greasy'.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Kaviratna's 'stable' at Su.22 his 13 vs saram in the retrieved Sanskrit: variant reading (Gangadhara?) or slip.
- Sanskrit word mapping for Bhishagratna's 'glossy, moist' in Su.Su.41.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "snigdha", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/snigdha/, 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.