svasthavṛtta: what the term means and how it is translated
svasthavṛtta स्वस्थवृत्त is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 different ways across 5 sources, 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 | svasthavṛtta |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | स्वस्थवृत्त |
| Category, as gathered | swasthavritta |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| 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.
purposing the keeping up of health
Charaka Samhita tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna, Lesson V · archive.org BIUSante_47357 OCR ~line 4093 (his aphorism 8) · public-domain translation
Renders svasthavṛttim abhipretya (Cha.Su.5/14) periphrastically; no fixed English term.
that course of good conduct which has been indicated (in this Lesson)
Charaka Samhita tr. Kaviratna, Lesson VIII closing · OCR ~line 7720 (his closing-block number 2) · public-domain translation
Here the Sanskrit is svasthavṛttaṃ yathoddiṣṭam; Kaviratna renders it as 'good conduct', merging it with sadvṛtta.
One who exists free from diseases is called Swastha, the actions or procedures or conduct which should be adopted to maintain health continuously without break is known as Swasthavŗtta. It includes a regular adherance to Dinacharya, Ratricharya,Rtu charya and such other doctrines of Ayurveda
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), SV0275 svasthavṛttaṁ · PDF p.321 (mirror copy) · comparator
WHO's definition is the syllabus definition (dinacharya + ratricharya + ritucharya).
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.
Preventive and Promotive Health (124 terms)
NAMASTE portal, SAT-J (per Thrigulla & Narayanam 2023) · PMC10410508; doi 10.1016/j.jaim.2023.100781 · comparator
NAMASTE's section name for the Swasthavritta domain; the portal itself was not retrieved.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, 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.
Institutional / textbook usage · textbook
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
In India svasthavṛtta names an academic department equated with preventive and social medicine.
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 5 (Matrashitiya):Standard 5/14 (the form there is स्वस्थवृत्ति, svasthavṛtti); Kaviratna prints his number 8 after this passage · checked against the source
After this, purposing the keeping up of health, we shall speak, according to their qualities, of collyria and such other things which should certainly be used for the body.
The term introducing the daily-regimen procedures (añjana, dhūma, nasya etc.). Sanskrit seen at carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Matrashiteeya_Adhyaya: अत ऊर्ध्वं शरीरस्य कार्यमक्ष्यञ्जनादिकम्| स्वस्थवृत्तिमभिप्रेत्य गुणतः सम्प्रवक्ष्यते||१४||. That page reported no occurrence of the exact form स्वस्थवृत्त in chapter 5.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 8 (Indriyopakramaniya):Standard 8/31; Kaviratna prints '2' after it (closing block restarts numbering) · checked against the source
That man who duly practises that course of good conduct which has been indicated (in this Lesson) remains hale for a hundred years and is never cut off before the allotted period of human life runs out.
The exact word svasthavṛttam occurs here: स्वस्थवृत्तं यथोद्दिष्टं यः सम्यगनुतिष्ठति| स समाः शतमव्याधिरायुषा न वियुज्यते|| [31] (carakasamhitaonline.com, which has a transcription typo 'सवस्थवृत्तं'). Kaviratna does not translate the word as a term.
Sushruta SamhitaChikitsasthana XXIV (Anagatabadha-pratishedhaniya):Sanskrit verse numbers not established · checked against the source
Now we shall discourse on the rules of hygiene and the prophilactic measures in general. [...] A man should leave his bed early in the morning and brush his teeth.
Sushruta's equivalent chapter ('prevention of diseases not yet arisen'); the word svasthavṛtta was not seen in the translation.
Not to be confused with
- sadvṛtta
- Conduct rules (Cha.Su.8/18-29) are one component; Cha.Su.8/31 calls the whole chapter's teaching svasthavṛtta.
- dinacaryā
- Daily regimen is a component; WHO SV0275 lists it under svasthavṛtta.
- svasthavṛtti (Cha.Su.5/14)
- Charaka's own form in 5/14 is -vṛtti ('mode of life'), not -vṛtta; textbooks cite 5/14 as the locus classicus of 'swasthavritta' without noting the form.
- Preventive and Social Medicine
- Institutional equation; the classical term has no 'social'/public-health component.
Renderings that do not hold
- 'hygiene'. Older English equation (cf. Bhishagratna 'rules of hygiene'); svasthavṛtta includes diet, conduct and seasonal regimen, not cleanliness alone.
- 'Preventive and Social Medicine'. Administrative label; nothing in Cha.Su.5/14 or 8/31 concerns populations or society.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether svasthavṛtta occurs in Charaka beyond 5/14 (as -vṛtti) and 8/31: a Sanskrit full-text search (NIIMH e-Samhita) was not completed because chapter URLs could not be resolved.
- Kaviratna's Lesson V numbering (his 8 vs standard 14) should be checked against the scan; prose units in 5/1-13 may be grouped differently.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, svasthavṛtta
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/swasthavritta/, 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.