trividhā parīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated
trividhā parīkṣā त्रिविधपरीक्षा is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 different ways across 6 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 | trividhā parīkṣā |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | त्रिविधपरीक्षा |
| Also written | trividha pariksha, trividha pareeksha, trividha rogi pariksha, darshana-sparshana-prashna pariksha, trividha roga-vishesha-vijnana (Charaka's distinct triad) |
| Category, as gathered | diagnostics / clinical examination |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| 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.
Standard three-component examination
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · Term ID ITA-4.7.2, Chapter 4 'Morbidity and diagnostic terms (general)', p. 115; Sanskrit given as trividhaparīkṣā (darśana, sparśana, praśna) / त्रिविधपरीक्षा (दर्शन, स्पर्शन, प्रश्न) · comparator standard
Description reads: 'Examination of the patient by observation (darshana), palpation (sparshana) and interview (prashna).' WHO lists this under 4.7 'Clinical methods' next to ITA-4.7.1 rogīparīkṣā 'Patient examination' and ITA-4.7.3 ṣaḍvidhaparīkṣā 'Six ways of clinical examination'. Retrieved from the PDF mirrored at ayurvedadoctor.co.uk (ISBN 978-92-4-006493-5); the WHO IRIS link returned HTML.
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.
three especial means of ascertaining disease ... 1. The Instructions of the inspired or wise, 2. Observation, and 3. Inference
Charaka Samhita tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913), Vimanasthana Lesson IV · Kaviratna prints his aphorism number '2' AFTER this passage; standard numbering Vi. 4.3 read separately from carakasamhitaonline.com · public-domain translation
This is Charaka's trividha ROGA-VISHESHA-VIJNANA (āptopadeśa, pratyakṣa, anumāna), which is a different triad from the darśana-sparśana-praśna triad. Kaviratna's footnote: "'Apta' is rendered 'inspired'." His chapter colophon calls it 'the Vimanam about the three means of ascertaining diseases'.
the physician should view the body of his patient, touch it with his own hands, and enquire (about his complaint)
Sushruta Samhita tr. Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907-1916), Sutrasthana ch. X 'Qualifications of a physician' · wisdomlib.org doc122899; Bhishagratna prints no Sanskrit verse numbers; the Sanskrit (siva.sh numbering) is Su.Su. 10.4 · public-domain translation
Sushruta states the see-touch-ask triad and then immediately widens it to a sixfold method (five senses plus interrogation). Bhishagratna's wording is 'view', 'touch', 'enquire' rather than inspection/palpation/interrogation.
easyayurveda.com (Dr J V Hebbar), Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 1 commentary page · A.H. Su. 1.22 as printed on the page · modern web textbook rendering (in copyright; recorded as rendering only)
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
Typical modern Indian textbook gloss. Note 'percussion' is an addition not in the Sanskrit sparśana (touch).
Sangolli A, Puttur G, Madhushree HS, Narayan P. J Ayurveda Integr Med Sci 2022;7(4):86-91 · jaims.in article 1844; cites Ch. Vi. 4/3 and A.H. Su. 1/22 · modern review article
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
Shows the term is used in BAMS literature for BOTH triads; the paper itself notes darshana and sparshana 'are already included under Pratyaksha'. No DOI seen on the article page.
parīkṣā: investigation or examinations which leads to correct knowledge
NIA Jaipur / WHO-APW 'Standardization of Non-Clinical Terminologies of Ayurveda' draft (nia.nic.in TERMINOLOGIES.pdf) · entry BP0187 परीक्षा · comparator standard (draft, c. 2011)
Only the base term parīkṣā is defined; no entry for trividha parīkṣā or darśana/sparśana/praśna was found in a text search of the PDF (the Devanagari OCR in this PDF is poor, IAST column searched).
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 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.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 1 (Āyuṣkāmīya):22 · checked against the source
दर्शनस्पर्शनप्रश्नैः परीक्षेत च रोगिणम्| रोगं निदानप्राग्रूपलक्षणोपशयाप्तिभिः||२२||
The locus classicus of the darśana-sparśana-praśna triad for examining the patient (rogin), paired with the fivefold examination of the disease (nidāna, prāgrūpa, lakṣaṇa, upaśaya, āpti/samprāpti).
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana 4 (Trividha-roga-viśeṣa-vijñānīya):3 (carakasamhitaonline.com numbering); Kaviratna prints '2' after the same passage · checked against the source
त्रिविधं खलु रोगविशेषविज्ञानं भवति; तद्यथा आप्तोपदेशः, प्रत्यक्षम्, अनुमानं चेति॥३॥
Charaka's own 'threefold' examination is epistemological (āptopadeśa, pratyakṣa, anumāna), not the see-touch-ask triad. Both are called trividha parīkṣā in modern usage.
Charaka SamhitaVimanasthana Lesson IV (Kaviratna):Kaviratna's printed aphorism '2' (printed after the passage); standard Vi. 4.3 · checked against the source
There are three especial means of ascertaining disease. They are:— i. The Instructions of the inspired or wise, 2. Observation, and 3. Inference.2
Public-domain English for Charaka's triad; OCR text, spacing normalized. Kaviratna's footnote reads: "'Apta' is rendered 'inspired'." His chapter title: 'the Lesson on the three especial means of ascertainment of disease'.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 10 (Viśikhānupraveśanīya; Bhishagratna titles it 'Qualifications of a physician'):Sanskrit 10.4 per siva.sh online edition (Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers) · checked against the source
ततो दूतनिमित्तशकुनमङ्गलानुलोम्येनातुरगृहमभिगम्य, उपविश्य, आतुरमभिपश्येत् स्पृशेत् पृच्छेच्च।
Sushruta states the see (abhipaśyet) - touch (spṛśet) - ask (pṛcchet) method in prose, then (same verse, per siva.sh) says 'षड्विधो हि रोगाणां विज्ञानोपायः' (the means of knowing disease are sixfold). The verse number is siva.sh's; the printed edition it follows is not stated on the page.
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana X 'Qualifications of a physician' (Bhishagratna):no verse number printed by Bhishagratna; Sanskrit Su.Su. 10.4 per siva.sh · checked against the source
the physician should view the body of his patient, touch it with his own hands, and enquire (about his complaint).
Public-domain English for the Sushruta triad; the same chapter continues with examination by hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell and interrogation (sixfold). Bhishagratna footnote on taste: 'The sweet, or any other taste of the discharges should be inferred from the fact of their being or not being swarmed with hosts of ants or flies, etc.'
Where this term does work in the theory
One concept record names this term as one of its components, and glosses it there as follows.
- Vikriti assessment (assessing the present deranged state) as Trividha pariksha
- Charaka's three means of knowing: authoritative instruction (aptopadesha), direct perception (pratyaksha) and inference (anumana). The epistemic warrant under which vikriti findings are taken as knowledge. NOT sourced in this record: no passage stating the three pramanas was retrieved, so the component is carried from the project's general knowledge of Vimana IV and VIII and is flagged rather than left to look cited.
Not to be confused with
- trividha roga-viśeṣa-vijñāna (āptopadeśa, pratyakṣa, anumāna) — Ch. Vi. 4.3
- Also called 'trividha pariksha' in textbooks, but it is a theory of valid knowledge sources (testimony, perception, inference), not a bedside sequence. Darśana and sparśana both fall under pratyakṣa; praśna is closer to āptopadeśa/anumāna. A record that cites Charaka for darśana-sparśana-praśna is mis-citing.
- ṣaḍvidha parīkṣā (Su.Su. 10)
- Sushruta's sixfold examination by the five senses plus questioning; WHO IST lists it separately as ITA-4.7.3. The threefold triad is a compression of it, not a synonym.
- caturvidha parīkṣā / pramāṇa (pratyakṣa, anumāna, āptopadeśa, yukti) — Ch. Su. 11
- Charaka's fourfold means of examination adds yukti (reasoning); epistemological, not bedside.
- aṣṭasthāna / aṣṭavidha parīkṣā (nāḍī, mūtra, mala, jihvā, śabda, sparśa, dṣk, ākṛti)
- Later (Yogaratnākara-era) eightfold examination of specific sites, WHO ITA-4.7.4; frequently conflated with the threefold method in popular writing.
- daśavidha parīkṣā (Ch. Vi. 8)
- Tenfold examination of the patient (prakṛti, vikṛti, sāra, saṁhanana, ...), WHO ITA-4.7.5; a different axis (what to assess) from trividha (how to assess).
- nidāna-pañcaka (roga parīkṣā)
- A.H. Su. 1.22 pairs the threefold ROGI (patient) examination with the fivefold ROGA (disease) examination; the two halves of the verse are often merged in summaries.
Renderings that do not hold
- 'Percussion' or 'auscultation' for sparśana. Sparśana is touch/palpation; percussion and auscultation are additions from modern clinical method, found on textbook websites but not in the Sanskrit.
- 'Trividha pariksha = Charaka's three-fold examination by inspection, palpation, interrogation'. Charaka's trividha (Vi. 4.3) is āptopadeśa-pratyakṣa-anumāna. The see-touch-ask triad is Vāgbhaṭa's (A.H. Su. 1.22) and, in prose, Suśruta's (Su.Su. 10).
- 'Interview' for praśna. WHO IST's choice; acceptable, but praśna is simply 'questioning/interrogation'. Not wrong, just softer than the classical sense.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Which printed Sanskrit edition siva.sh follows for Sushruta verse numbering (10.4) is not stated; confirm against the Trikamji/Nirnaya Sagar edition before publishing a verse number.
- Does Ashtanga Sangraha carry a parallel verse to A.H. Su. 1.22? Not checked.
- NAMASTE portal (namaste.ayush.gov.in) is a JavaScript application; its terminology entries could not be retrieved. Check manually for a trividha parīkṣā code.
- ICD-11 TM2 was not checked; coverage of an examination-method term is unlikely but unestablished.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, trividhā parīkṣā
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/trividha-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.