Caturdasa: Meaning and Definition

What does Caturdasa mean in yoga?

In yoga, Caturdasa ordinarily means “fourteen.” It may appear when a teacher counts in Sanskrit, when a text presents fourteen items, or when a commentary identifies a teaching, verse, chapter, or sequence by number.

Caturdasa is not, by itself, a central philosophical concept. If the number fourteen carries symbolic importance in a particular scripture, lineage, or system, that significance comes from the surrounding teaching rather than from the numeral alone.

Why do Sanskrit dictionaries show different forms?

Traditional lexicons may distinguish caturdasan as the numeral stem meaning “fourteen” from caturdasa as an adjective meaning “fourteenth” or “consisting of fourteen.” In Sanskrit sentences, however, caturdasa commonly appears as the visible form of the cardinal numeral because the final n of the underlying stem is absent in several grammatical forms.

Modern Sanskrit learning materials therefore often list Caturdasa directly as “fourteen.” Both approaches reflect genuine features of Sanskrit grammar. For yoga students, “fourteen” is the clearest primary translation, while “fourteenth” should be used when the word identifies an item’s position in an ordered series.

• Cardinal meaning: fourteen items
• Ordinal or adjectival meaning: the fourteenth item
• Descriptive meaning: made up of or containing fourteen

How is Caturdasa formed?

Caturdasa combines catur, “four,” with dasan, “ten.” Sanskrit numbers from eleven through nineteen are generally constructed by placing the smaller number before the element for ten. Caturdasa therefore expresses four together with ten, or fourteen.

This formation places Caturdasa within the same numerical series as Trayodasa, thirteen, Pancadasa, fifteen, and Sodasa, sixteen. Some members of the series undergo sound changes, so their forms are not always predictable from simple addition alone.

How is Caturdasa pronounced and transliterated?

Caturdasa is pronounced in four syllables: cha-tur-da-sha. The initial c represents an unaspirated sound similar to ch in “chair.” The final sibilant is pronounced like a soft sh sound.

The scholarly IAST spelling is given separately as caturdaśa. Caturdasha and Chaturdasha are common English-friendly spellings. The spelling Chaturdasha can help English speakers approach the pronunciation, but it is not standard IAST transliteration.