svāsthya: what the term means and how it is translated
svāsthya स्वास्थ्य 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 | svāsthya |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | स्वास्थ्य |
| 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.
health ('protection of the health of the hale')
Charaka Samhita tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna, Lesson XXX · archive.org BIUSante_47357 OCR ~line 27981 · public-domain translation
Plain 'health'.
Health; sound state of body/soul health, ease, comfort, contentment, satisfaction. State of well being.
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022), SV0272 · PDF p.319 (mirror copy); contrast AF0355 asvāsthya 'Discomfort, Disease' p.? (line 1524 of extraction) · comparator
WHO's gloss adds 'ease, comfort, contentment' which echoes the dictionary sense of svāsthya (self-abiding ease).
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.
no separate rendering seen; Su.Su.15 defines the healthy person (svastha) rather than the abstract noun
Sushruta Samhita tr. Bhishagratna · public-domain translation · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
See swastha record.
health; positive health
Common textbook usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Often paired with the WHO 1948 health definition in Indian textbooks; that pairing is a modern comparison, not a classical statement.
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 30 (Arthedashamahamuliya):Standard 30/26; Kaviratna's printed number OCRs as '®1' and was not established · checked against the source
The purpose of the Science of Life is protection of the health of the hale and alleviation of disease of one that is ailing.
svāsthya-rakṣaṇa as the first prayojana of Ayurveda. Sanskrit seen at carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Arthedashmahamooliya_Adhyaya: प्रयोजनं चास्य स्वस्थस्य स्वास्थ्यरक्षणमातुरस्य विकारप्रशमनं च||२६||.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 5 (Matrashitiya):Standard 5/13 contains स्वास्थ्यं per carakasamhitaonline.com's report; the verse itself was not displayed to me · address only, nothing quoted to check
A second Sutrasthana occurrence of the noun svāsthya; verse text not verified.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana XV:Sanskrit 15/41 (easyayurveda numbering) · checked against the source
A person with an uniformly healthy digestion, and whose bodily humours are in a state of equilibrium, and in whom the fundamental vital fluids course in their normal state and quantity, accompanied by the normal processes of secretion, organic function, and intellection, is said to be a healthy person.
The operative classical description of the state of health, stated through the person (svastha) rather than the abstract noun.
The concept record for this term
A term entry answers what the word means. It does not answer whether the thing the word names is settled, and often it is not. That is what the concept record is for: it sets out the questions on which the sources disagree about this term, with each position attributed, and states what is not established.
Not to be confused with
- svastha
- Adjective/person 'healthy one'; svāsthya is the abstract noun 'health' (Cha.Su.30/26 uses both: svasthasya svāsthya-rakṣaṇam).
- ārogya
- 'Absence of disease' (Cha.Su.8/18 ārogyam as one aim of sadvṛtta); svāsthya in WHO's gloss carries the positive sense of ease and contentment.
- asvāsthya
- WHO AF0355 'Discomfort, Disease', the negation.
- WHO 1948 'health' definition
- Routinely juxtaposed with Su.Su.15/41 in textbooks; the Sushruta verse has no social dimension.
Renderings that do not hold
- 'well-being' (alone). Acceptable as a gloss but hides that the classical definition (Su.Su.15/41) is a list of physiological equilibria plus prasanna ātman/indriya/manas.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Kaviratna's printed aphorism number for Cha.Su.30/26 (OCR '®1'); read from the scan.
- Verify Cha.Su.5/13 wording containing svāsthyam.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, svāsthya
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/swasthya/, 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.