sparśaparīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated
sparśaparīkṣā स्पर्शपरीक्षा 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 | sparśaparīkṣā |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | स्पर्शपरीक्षा |
| Also written | sparsha pariksha, sparsa pariksha, twak pariksha |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| 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.
tactile examination (item 6 of aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.4 · comparator-standard
No standalone sparśaparīkṣā headword found; sparśaḥ appears as ITA-1.9.4.1.5 'Touch: Trait of air element'.
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.
The touch, normal or abnormal (of the patient's body), should be examined by the (physician's) hand.
Kaviratna, Charaka Samhita Vi 4, his aphorism 10 (= standard 4/7) · p. 498 · public-domain-translation
Charaka's sparśa is the felt quality of the patient's body, examined by the hand (pāṇi).
perceptible by the sense of touch
Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita Su 10 · wisdomlib doc122899 · public-domain-translation
Lists heat/coldness, gloss, roughness, hardness, softness of the skin.
Sparsha Pariksha (Skin Examination)
Yadav & Singh, JAIMS 2022;7(8) · ashtasthana list · journal-review
'Skin examination' is a common textbook gloss because the qualities felt (temperature, texture) are at the skin, but it drifts toward visual dermatology.
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 4:standard 4/7; Kaviratna 10 · checked against the source
The touch, normal or abnormal (of the patient's body), should be examined by the (physician's) hand.
Sanskrit (siva.sh 4/7): 'स्पर्शं च पाणिना प्रकृतिविकृतियुक्तम्' at https://www.siva.sh/caraka-samhita/vimana-sthana/4/6-10
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 10:Sanskrit verse number not established · checked against the source
The heat and coldness of the body, or the gloss, roughness, hardness, or softness of the skin of the affected part as in fever, or in an edematous swelling of the body, are perceptible by the sense of touch.
The content of tactile examination in Sushruta.
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha अथ रोगिणां अष्टस्थानानि लक्षयेत्:1 (ASS 1889 leaf n40; verse marker printed १, the OCR's ९ is a misread) · checked against the source
रोगाक्रान्तशरीरस्य स्थानान्यष्टौ निरीक्षयेत् । नाडीं मूत्रं मलं जिह्वां शब्दं स्पर्शं दृगाकृती ॥ १ ॥
sparśa as the sixth of the eight sites of examination (nāḍī, mūtra, mala, jihvā, śabda, sparśa, dṛk, ākṛti).
Not to be confused with
- sparśana
- sparśana is the examiner's act/method (AH Su 1/22; WHO ITA-4.7.2 'palpation'); sparśa in aṣṭasthāna is the examined site/quality (temperature, texture of the patient's body).
- sparśaḥ (guṇa of vāyu, WHO ITA-1.9.4.1.5)
- Ontological quality, not an examination.
- tvak-parīkṣā / dermatological inspection
- Looking at the skin is darśana; sparśa is what is felt.
- nāḍīparīkṣā
- A specialised tactile examination; in Yogaratnakara nāḍī and sparśa are separate sites.
Renderings that do not hold
- skin examination. Shifts to visual dermatology; the classical content is temperature, texture, hardness/softness felt by hand.
- palpation. Better reserved for sparśana (the act); using it for both hides the act/site distinction.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, sparśaparīkṣā
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sparsha-pariksha/, 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.