vāyu: what the term means and how it is translated
vāyu वायु (nominative वायुः) is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 6 different ways across 7 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 | vāyu |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | वायु (nominative वायुः) |
| Also written | vāyuḥ, marut, anila, pavana, vāta (as bhūta name in some lists; usually the doṣa), vāyavya (adj., substance with vāyu predominant) |
| Category, as gathered | mahabhuta |
| Grouped here under | Foundations and categories |
| Classical citations | 4 |
| 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.
Air element
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-1.9.3.1.4, p.17 (PDF p.35); description: 'Responsible for movement, acts as the substratum of touch perceived by skin.' · comparator standard
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.
air element
NAMASTE Standardized Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-A.182 vāyuḥ; long definition: 'an entity which is responsible for movement' · comparator standard
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.
A synonym of Vāta, one of the three bodily Doṣas, that is predominant of Vāyu and Ākāśa Mahābhūtas.
NIA/WHO-APW draft (2011), entry vāyu · SK0210, PDF p.350 · comparator draft terminology
This draft defines vāyu ONLY as the doṣa, i.e. it conflates the bhūta with vāta. The bhūta sense appears in the draft only indirectly ('substances having vayu as the predominant mahābhūta', p.349).
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.
air (Marut)
Bhishagratna, Su.Sū. 41 · wisdomlib doc141671 · public-domain translation
air; 'Vayu (etherin)'
Bhishagratna, Su.Śā. 1 · wisdomlib doc142879, sections 6 and 20: 'The properties Vayu (etherin) are touch, the skin, all functional activities of the organism, throbbing of the whole body (Spandana) and lightness.' · public-domain translation
'Etherin' is an idiosyncratic coinage; the footnote on Su.Sū. 41 gives 'Gas'.
Wind; air
Kaviratna, Caraka · Sū. 26 uses 'Wind' ('Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Ether'); Śā. 1 and Śā. 4 use 'air'/'Air'; Śā. 5 'the life-breaths are Air' · public-domain translation
air / wind
Common textbook usage · textbook usage · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
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.
Caraka SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna 26:Kaviratna prints '25' (OCR '26') after this sentence; standard 26.11 (prose unit; Sanskrit clause लघुशीतरूक्षखरविशदसूक्ष्मस्पर्शगुणबहुलानि वायव्यानि per carakasamhitaonline.com) · checked against the source
Those that are principally light, cold, dry, sharp, clear, subtile, and largely endued with the attribute of touch, are regarded as appertaining to Wind.
Caraka's vāyavya dravya profile: laghu, śīta, rūkṣa, khara, viśada, sūkṣma, sparśa-guṇa-bahula. Kaviratna's 'sharp' renders khara (rough).
Suśruta SaṃhitāSūtrasthāna 41:Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers; Sanskrit at siva.sh places this in verse 4 (see pañcamahābhūta record for the caveat) · checked against the source
A thing or substance, which is subtle in its essence, and is dry, rough, light, cold and non-slimy, increases tactual sensation and is endued with a largely astringent taste marked by a shade of bitter, is called a substance of the dominant principle of air (Vayaviyam).
Suśruta's vāyavya dravya profile including taste (astringent with bitter), which Caraka's parallel omits.
Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīrasthāna 1:Bhishagratna section 20; Sanskrit verse 19 per siva.sh: वायव्यास्तु- स्पर्शः स्पर्शेन्द्रियं सर्वचेष्टासमूहः सर्वशरीरस्पन्दनं लघुता च · checked against the source
The properties Vayu (etherin) are touch, the skin, all functional activities of the organism, throbbing of the whole body (Spandana) and lightness.
Vāyu-derived bodily features: touch, tactile organ, all movements, pulsation, lightness. Matches the Sanskrit; 'etherin' is the translator's word.
Caraka SaṃhitāŚārīrasthāna 5:Caraka Śārīrasthāna 5.5 confirmed against a printed, numbered Sanskrit edition (Trikamji 1941, p. 325), not only against carakasamhitaonline; 5.4 closes at 'एत एव च षड्धातवः समुदिताः "पुरुष" इति शब्दं लभन्ते ॥४॥' and the correspondence list opens 5.5, exactly as the earlier repair stated. · checked against the source
तस्य पुरुषस्य पृथिवी मूर्तिः, आपः क्लेदः, तेजोऽभिसन्तापः, वायुः प्राणः, वियत् सुषिराणि, ब्रह्म अन्तरात्मा । — Caraka Śārīrasthāna 5.5, as printed in Carakasaṃhitā with Āyurvedadīpikā, ed. Jadavji Trikamji, Nirṇayasāgara 1941, p. 325 (the unit closes at ॥५॥). Preceding at 5.4: ... तद्यथा — पृथिव्यापस्तेजो वायुराकाशं ब्रह्म चाव्यक्तमिति ... ॥४॥
Ca. Śā. 5.5 reads वियत् सुषिराणि in the printed Trikamji/Cakrapāṇi edition (1941, p. 325) as well as on carakasamhitaonline, with no variant recorded at that word. वियत् is a synonym of ākāśa and stands in the ākāśa slot of the six-dhātu list given at Śā. 5.4; Kaviratna's 'the hollow places are Ether (or Space)' therefore renders the received text correctly and implies no different base text. The fuller loka-puruṣa correspondence list can be quoted without the caveat.
Not to be confused with
- vāta (doṣa)
- The central confusion. Vāta is a doṣa (NAMASTE SAT-B.393 vāyu-karma 'functions of vātadoṣa'; the NIA draft's SK0210 actually defines vāyu as 'A synonym of Vāta'); vāyu mahābhūta is the bhūta whose guṇa is sparśa and liṅga is calatva. Texts use vāyu for both, so context decides.
- prāṇa / the five vāyus (prāṇa, udāna, samāna, vyāna, apāna)
- Subtypes of vāta doṣa, not of the bhūta (NIA draft p.51, 239, 273, 334, 377 list them as 'subtypes of Vāta (Vāyu)').
- 'gas' as a state of matter
- Bhishagratna's footnote equivalence; the bhūta is defined by touch and motion, not by phase.
- atmospheric air / wind (weather)
- Kaviratna's 'Wind' and ordinary 'air' invite the meteorological sense; the bhūta is the principle of motion and tangibility.
Renderings that do not hold
- 'Vayu' = vāta doṣa, without distinguishing. Even a WHO-commissioned draft (NIA 2011, SK0210) made this slip; the 2022 WHO ISTA and NAMASTE correct it with separate 'Air element' entries.
- etherin / gas. Bhishagratna's coinages (Su.Śā. 1 section 20; footnote to Su.Sū. 41), period science rather than translation.
- wind. Kaviratna's Sū. 26 choice; acceptable for marut/anila etymologically, but in a mahābhūta list 'wind' reads as weather and blurs into vāta.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether the 2022 WHO ISTA has a separate vāta doṣa entry that cross-references the bhūta was not checked.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, vāyu
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/vayu/, 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.