tīkṣṇāgni: what the term means and how it is translated
tīkṣṇāgni तीक्ष्णाग्नि is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 7 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 | tīkṣṇāgni |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | तीक्ष्णाग्नि |
| Also written | tīkṣṇa agni, tīkṣṇo 'gniḥ, atyagni (the intensified extreme), bhasmaka (the intensified extreme), paittika agni-doṣa |
| Category, as gathered | pathophysiology / functional state |
| Grouped here under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 6 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Intense state of digestive, metabolic factors
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.6.9 · terminology-standard
WHO description verbatim: 'A state in which the action of transformative factor is considerably intensified due to the dominant influence of pitta.'
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.
elevated digestive power
NAMASTE / National AYUSH Morbidity Codes (NAMC), Ministry of Ayush · NAMC code DB-3 (tIkShNAgniH / तीक्ष्णाग्निः); NAMC cites Su.Su.35/24, As.Sa.6/70, Ah.Sa.3/75 · terminology-standard
NAMASTE separates tīkṣṇāgni (DB-3, 'elevated') from atyagni/bhasmaka (DB-4, 'highly elevated digestive power'), preserving a distinction WHO does not code.
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.
"Keen" (Tikshnagni)
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sūtrasthāna Chapter XXXV, p. 320 · public-domain-translation
Bhishagratna's rendering, in his own quotation marks. He also renders the intensified form Atyagni as 'an excessive or voracious appetite'.
keen
Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Vimānasthāna Lesson VI (= Ca.Vi.6.12) · public-domain-translation
Kaviratna's footnote: 'Keen is that which can digest every food, good and bad, or food however improper in itself or improperly taken.' Both public-domain translators independently chose 'keen'.
sharp or intense state of metabolic fire
Anc Sci Life 2015 (PMID 26283805) · abstract · secondary-literature
Verbatim from the abstract's gloss.
Excessive digestive, metabolic factors
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.11.2 (atyagniḥ / bhasmakaḥ) · terminology-standard
WHO codes the disorder form under atyagni/bhasmaka, not under tīkṣṇāgni: 'A disorder characterized by some or all the following signs and symptoms: rapid digestion of food of varied quantity and quality.' So WHO treats tīkṣṇāgni as a state only, and atyagni as the disorder.
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 ICD-11 TM2 category found
ICD-11 MMS v2026-01, TM2 · classification · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
I found no TM2 index term for tīkṣṇāgni, atyagni or bhasmaka in the blocks I retrieved.
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.
Sushruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna XXXV (Ātura-upakramaṇīya):24 · checked against the source
Tikshna'gni: -The digestive heat, which helps the digestion of even a heavy meal within an incredibly short space of time is called " Keen " (Tikshnagni) and which becoming abnormally augmented begets an excessive or voracious appetite (Atyagni), helps a glutton to digest his frequent meals, and produces a parched throat, palate and lips, heat and other discomforts.
The full public-domain definition, including the graded relation to atyagni and the characteristic dryness of throat, palate and lips. Quoted as printed (the OCR renders 'time is' as 'timer's' in the scan; I have restored only that obvious scanning artefact and flag it here).
Sushruta Saṃhitā (Sanskrit)Sūtrasthāna 35:24 · checked against the source
यः प्रभूतमप्युपयुक्तमन्नमाशुपचति स तीक्ष्णः स एवाभिवर्धमानोऽत्यग्निरित्याभाष्यते स मुहुर्मुहुः प्रभूतमप्युपयुक्तमन्नमाशुतरं पचति पाकान्ते च गलताल्वोष्ठशोषदाहसंतापाञ्जनयति
Sanskrit confirming the verse number and the explicit graded relation 'sa evābhivardhamāno 'tyagnir ity ābhāṣyate' — atyagni is tīkṣṇāgni intensified, not a separate kind.
Sushruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna XXXV:25-26 · checked against the source
A keen (Tikshna) digestive fire brings on bilious (Pittaja) affections ... In a case of abnormally keen digestive fire, the medical treatment should consist in prescribing purgatives and a diet in the composition of which sweet, cooling, and fatty or albuminous matters largely enter.
Doṣa attribution (pitta) and management (madhura, snigdha, śīta, virecana), public domain.
Charaka Saṃhitā (Sanskrit)Vimānasthāna 6:12 · checked against the source
तत्र तीक्ष्णोऽग्निः सर्वापचारसहः ... पित्तलानां तु पित्ताभिभूते ह्यग्न्यधिष्ठाने तीक्ष्णा भवन्त्यग्नयः
Charaka's criterion is tolerance, not speed: tīkṣṇa agni is 'sarvāpacāra-saha', it withstands all dietary abuse. This is a genuinely different criterion from Sushruta's 'digests a heavy meal fast'.
Charaka Saṃhitā (Sanskrit)Cikitsāsthāna 15:50 · checked against the source
तीक्ष्णो मन्देन्धनो धातून् विशोषयति पावकः॥५०॥
The harm mechanism: a keen fire with insufficient fuel dries up the dhātus. Kaviratna's English for the same verse (his v.49): 'If, when its force or energy is great, it does not get sufficient fuel (in the shape of food and drink), it consumes the dhatus.'
Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya (Sanskrit)Śārīrasthāna 3:73, 75 · checked against the source
pittābhimūrchite tīkṣṇo mando 'smin kapha-pīḍite || 73 || ... tīkṣṇo vahniḥ pacec chīghram a-samyag api bhojanam || 75 ||
Vāgbhaṭa's pitta attribution and speed criterion. NAMASTE cites Ah.Sa.3/75 for tīkṣṇāgni, matching.
Not to be confused with
- atyagni / bhasmaka
- Su.Sū.35.24 makes atyagni the intensified continuation of tīkṣṇāgni, not a separate type. NAMASTE codes them separately (DB-3 vs DB-4) and WHO puts the disorder entry under atyagni (ITA-5.11.2) while keeping tīkṣṇāgni as a state (ITA-2.6.9). Three sources, three treatments of the same boundary.
- kṣudhā / polyphagia
- Hunger is a consequence; tīkṣṇāgni is defined by what happens to the food, not by the appetite. Bhishagratna's own footnote at this chapter insists on the distinction and then blurs it by glossing atyagni as 'voracious appetite'.
- amlapitta / hyperacidity
- Often equated in clinical writing. ICD-11 TM2 has a separate SM3A Hyperacidity disorder; no source I retrieved equates it with tīkṣṇāgni.
- pitta prakṛti
- Ca.Vi.6.12 says pitta-predominant persons tend to tīkṣṇāgni, but constitution and current agni state are different variables (PMID 35101333 treats them as an association to be tested, not an identity).
Renderings that do not hold
- good digestion / strong digestion. Directly inverts the classical valence. Su.Sū.35.25 lists tīkṣṇāgni as a cause of pittaja diseases and Ca.Ci.15.50 says it consumes the tissues. Only samāgni is the healthy state.
- fast metabolism. Charaka's criterion is tolerance of dietary abuse, not speed; Sushruta's is speed. 'Fast metabolism' picks one of two classical criteria without saying so, and also implies systemic basal metabolism rather than digestive performance.
- hyperthyroidism. A popular biomedical equation with no support in any source I retrieved, and one that cannot account for tīkṣṇāgni being a normal constitutional variant in pitta-predominant persons.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Is atyagni a distinct diagnosis or a severity grade of tīkṣṇāgni? WHO, NAMASTE and Sushruta imply different answers.
- Does Ca.Ci.15.219-221 (cited by NAMASTE for atyagni/bhasmaka) actually contain that material?
- Is there a physiological correlate, gastric emptying, appetite hormone, that has been tested against tīkṣṇāgni?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, tīkṣṇāgni
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/tikshna-agni/, 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.