sthūla: what the term means and how it is translated

sthūla स्थूल is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 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	sthūla
Devanagari	स्थूल
Also written	sthula guna, sthoola, sthaulya (the state), gross, bulky
Category, as gathered	dravyaguna-4
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.

grossness/bulkiness; one of the 20 gurvadi gunas; caused due activated pṛthvī; denotes physiological & pharmacological grossness & bulkiness; causes covering or protection.

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · code DG0329 (headword OCR'd as 'स्थूर' in the PDF text layer; Devanagari verified from Sanskrit text instead) · comparator

Only comparator entry for the guna. WHO also has 'atisthūla' SV0045 'Overweight; Obese' (the clinical sense) and uses 'Sthūla (macro) and Aṇu (micro)' for srotas size under DG0322-area text.

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.

gross

Charaka Samhita tr. A. C. Kaviratna, public domain · Su.22 his 11 (brimhana list: 'heavy, cooling, soft, exceedingly oily, gross, slimy, mild stable, and smooth'); Su.26 his 22 (parthiva: 'hard, mild, immobile, clear, thick, gross'); footnote to Su.22 his 10: 'Sukshma in Sthula' · public-domain translation

Stable rendering 'gross'; in the Su.26 list 'thick' sits beside it, which from the Sanskrit order (सान्द्र, स्थूल) is sāndra.

thick

Sushruta Samhita tr. K. L. Bhishagratna, public domain, via wisdomlib · Su.41 (parthiva substance 'thick, pithy, compact, dull, immobile, rough, heavy (hard to digest)') · public-domain translation

Which English word maps to sthūla here is not established without a Sanskrit Sushruta; recorded as the list containing the term's likely slot.

Sthula Guna means 'bulkiness / stoutness' quality

easyayurveda.com 'Gurvadi Gunas' (Hebbar), modern · https://www.easyayurveda.com/2019/06/12/gurvadi-gunas/ · modern web textbook

Typical textbook; pairs it with sukshma and assigns earth element.

gross (as opposite of subtle, sukshma)

common textbook usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Not verbatim from a single source; recorded as the prevailing classroom gloss.

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 22:Standard 22.13 (per carakasamhitaonline danda placement; the unit runs into the first line after ||13||); Kaviratna prints 11 · checked against the source

Such things as are heavy, cooling, soft, exceedingly oily, gross, slimy, mild stable, and smooth, are generally said to be Vringhana.

tr. A. C. Kaviratna · source

Sthūla as a bṛṁhaṇa (bulk-promoting) quality. Sanskrit as retrieved: गुरु शीतं मृदु स्निग्धं बहलं स्थूलपिच्छिलम्||१३|| प्रायो मन्दं स्थिरं श्लक्ष्णं द्रव्यं बृंहणमुच्यते| (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Langhanabrimhaniya_Adhyaya). 'Vringhana' is OCR of Vrimhana.

Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 26:Standard 26.11 (one prose unit ending ||११||); Kaviratna splits it and prints 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 after its five sentences · 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

Sthūla as a pārthiva (earth-dominant) quality. Sanskrit as retrieved: तत्र द्रव्याणि गुरुखरकठिनमन्दस्थिरविशदसान्द्रस्थूलगन्धगुणबहुलानि पार्थिवानि, तान्युपचयसङ्घातगौरवस्थैर्यकराणि (https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Atreyabhadrakapyiya_Adhyaya). Kaviratna's 'sharp or pungent' is khara (rough), not tīkṣṇa.

Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 1:18 (Das and Emmerick edition numbering as given in the GRETIL e-text) · checked against the source

guru-manda-hima-snigdha-ślakṣṇa-sāndra-mṛdu-sthirāḥ | guṇāḥ sa-sūkṣma-viśadā viṃśatiḥ sa-viparyayāḥ || 18 ||

tr. none; Sanskrit only. No public-domain English translation exists · source

The twenty gunas are enumerated as ten named (guru, manda, hima, snigdha, ślakṣṇa, sāndra, mṛdu, sthira, sūkṣma, viśada) 'with their opposites'; sthūla is therefore present only as the unnamed opposite of sūkṣma. Reference only; no English quotation permitted.

Not to be confused with

sūkṣma: Opposite member of the pair (Kaviratna's note 'Sukshma in Sthula'; AH Su.1.18 names only sūkṣma 'with its opposite').
guru: Heavy (digestive load) is a different gurvadi pair; both appear together in the bṛṁhaṇa list, so textbooks blur them.
sāndra: Dense/solid; sits beside sthūla in Ca.Su.26.11 and Kaviratna renders the pair 'thick, gross'.
sthaulya / atisthūla: The clinical state of obesity (WHO SV0045 'Overweight; Obese'; Ca.Su.21 'ati-sthūla'), not the drug quality.
sthūla srotas: 'Sthūla (macro)' as channel size in WHO's srotas text, an anatomical not pharmacological use.

Renderings that do not hold

fat / obese (for the guna). Confuses the gurvadi quality with the sthaulya/atisthūla clinical state.
heavy. Collapses sthūla into guru; the texts list both separately in the same verse (Ca.Su.22.13).

Open questions

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

Which English word in Bhishagratna's Su.41 parthiva list corresponds to sthūla (needs a Sanskrit Sushruta).
Whether Trikamji numbers the Ca.Su.26 rasa-karma prose as 26.42 or 26.43 (carakasamhitaonline places ||43|| after it).

How to cite this entry

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, sthūla, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sthula/, 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.