# apāna vāta (अपानः)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/apana-vata/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 3 different ways across 5 sources.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | apāna vāta |
| Devanagari | अपानः |
| Also written | apāna vāyu, apāna, apana vayu, apana vata |
| Category, as gathered | vata-subtypes |
| Grouped under | Dosha and its subtypes |
| 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.

### Descending vata

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda · Term ID ITA-2.1.1.6 · terminology standard

WHO's description: 'Subtype of vata seated in the pelvic region and its vicinity. It exerts a downward force. It controls functions like defecation, micturition, parturition, menstruation and ejaculation.' This is the closest agreement between WHO and the classical loci of any term in the set, it matches Charaka Ci.28.10-11, Sushruta Ni.1.19 and AH Su.12.9 almost item for item. Lemma is bare apānaḥ.

Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that
licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0.

### the Apana (left untranslated); 'acts in the lower region of the intestines (Pakvadhana)'

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (public domain) · Nidanasthana ch. 1, Bhishagratna's section 11 · public-domain translation

Untranslated name plus a functional gloss. Bhishagratna's 'Pakvadhana' transliterates pakvādhāna (the receptacle of the digested).

### Apana — one of the 'five airs or breaths'; 'the second is that which has a downward course'

Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (public domain) · Sutrasthana, translator's footnote · public-domain translation

The only public-domain English gloss of apāna available, and it captures only the direction, not the seat or the five expulsions.

### (the source's rendering is a full definition and is not reproduced here)

Kerala Tourism (Government of Kerala) · keralatourism.org/ayurveda/pathology/five-vatas · government popular-reference page

The source's rendering is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.

Narrower than the classical loci: it reduces apāna to excretion and omits parturition (garbha-niṣkramaṇa) and menstruation (ārtava), both of which are explicit in Charaka Ci.28.10-11, Sushruta Ni.1.19 and AH Su.12.9.

### (the source's rendering is a full definition and is not reproduced here)

siva.sh, gloss accompanying Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 12.9 · siva.sh/astanga-hrudaya/sutra-sthana/12/9 · online textbook gloss

The source's rendering is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.

Complete five-item function list; a common modern textbook rendering. Note it renders the word apāna twice in the same sentence with two different senses (the subtype, and the large intestine), an instance of the polysemy noted under distinguishFrom.

## The classical passages

### Sushruta Samhita Nidanasthana 1 (Vatavyadhi Nidana):Bhishagratna's section 11 = Sanskrit 1.19-20a, checked against the source

> The Vayu known as the Apana acts in the lower region of the intestines (Pakvadhana). Its functions consist in bearing down the fetus and the feces and in evacuating the urine, semen and catamenial blood. An enraged condition of this Vayu tends to bring on serious diseases, which are peculiar to the urinary bladder and the distal portion of the large intestine (Guda).

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-2-nidanasthana/d/doc142857.html

Sushruta seats apāna in the pakvādhāna and gives it five downward expulsions, foetus, faeces, urine, semen and menstrual blood, with its disorders localised to basti (bladder) and guda (anus/rectum). Corresponding Sanskrit, cross-checked at a separate URL: 'पक्वाधानालयोऽपानः काले कर्षति चाप्यधः | समीरणः शकृन्मूत्रं शुक्रगर्भार्तवानि च ||१९|| क्रुद्धश्च कुरुते रोगान् घोरान् बस्तिगुदाश्रयान् |२०|'. Note the Sanskrit adds 'kāle', it draws these down AT THE PROPER TIME, which Bhishagratna does not render.

### Charaka Samhita Chikitsasthana 28 (Vatavyadhi Chikitsa):28.10-11, checked against the source

> वृषणौ बस्तिमेढ्रं च नाम्भूरू वङ्क्षणौ गुदम् | अपानस्थानमन्त्रस्थः शुक्रमूत्रशकृन्ति [२] च ||१०|| सृजत्यार्तवगर्भौ च युक्ताः स्थानस्थिताश्च ते | स्वकर्म कुर्वते देहो धार्यते तैरनामयः ||११||

tr. None quoted — Sanskrit mūla only · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Vatavyadhi_Chikitsa

Charaka gives apāna the widest seat list of any subtype: vṛṣaṇau (testes), basti (bladder), meḍhra (penis), nābhi and ūrū (navel and thighs), vaṅkṣaṇau (groins) and guda (anus); situated in the intestines, it releases semen, urine, faeces, menstrual fluid and the foetus. Verse 11 closes the whole five-subtype passage with the statement that when all five are in their proper seats and functioning, the body is sustained free of disease. NOTE: the retrieved page prints 'नाम्भूरू', which is almost certainly a transcription slip for नाभ्यूरू (nābhi + ūrū, navel and thighs). I have quoted the page exactly as retrieved rather than silently correcting it.

### Sushruta Samhita Nidanasthana 1 (Vatavyadhi Nidana):Bhishagratna's section 12 = Sanskrit 1.20b-21a, checked against the source

> An aggravated condition of both the Vyana and Apana Vayus may produce Prameha and disorders of the seminal fluid, while a simultaneous excitement of the five vital Vayus leads to a sure and speedy termination of life.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-2-nidanasthana/d/doc142857.html

A combined vyāna-apāna pathology (prameha and śukra disorders), and the prognosis of simultaneous derangement of all five.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana Lesson XII (Vatakalakaliya) in Kaviratna's numbering:Kaviratna's section 6, checked against the source

> It exists in the fivefold form of Prana, Udana, Samana, Vyana, and Apana.

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Names apāna as one of the five in a lawfully quotable English Charaka. No seat or function given.

### Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 12 (Doshabhediya):12.9, address only, nothing quoted to check

Vagbhata gives apāna a single self-contained verse: seated in the apāna (large intestine/rectum), ranging over the pelvis (śroṇi), bladder (basti), genitals (meḍhra) and thighs (ūru), and performing the expulsion of semen, menstrual fluid, faeces, urine and the foetus. The verse opens 'apāno 'pānagaḥ', using the word apāna twice in two senses in three syllables. Sanskrit mūla and verse number verified on the retrieved page; not quoted, as Ashtanga Hridaya has no public-domain English translation.

### Sharngadhara Samhita Purva Khanda 5 (Kaladikakhyana); and ch. 2 (Bhaishajyakhyanaka):5.27-28; and PK 2, address only, nothing quoted to check

PK 5.27-28: the seat list begins with malāśaya (the receptacle of waste), which the naming verse maps to apāna. Separately, Purva Khanda 2 states that medicine is best given BEFORE food when apāna is disordered (भैषज्यं विगुणेऽपाने भोजनाग्रे प्रशस्यते), a rare classical instance of a vāta subtype determining drug timing, and useful evidence that the subtypes were treated as clinically operative, not merely descriptive. Sanskrit mūla verified on the retrieved page; not quoted, as Sharngadhara has no public-domain English translation.

## Not to be confused with

- **apāna as the anus / large intestine (the anatomical sense).** The single most confusing feature of this term. Sanskrit apāna denotes both the vāta subtype AND the lower bowel or anus. Ashtanga Hridaya Su.12.9 opens 'apāno 'pānagaḥ' — 'apāna, which goes in the apāna' — and modern glosses render this as 'Apana Vata is located in the Apana – large intestine'. Reading the second occurrence as the subtype produces a circular definition.
- **samāna vāta.** Both operate in the pakvāśaya. The division of labour is that samāna separates the nutrient essence from the waste and apāna expels the waste. Sushruta gives samāna an explicit pakvāśaya range (Ni.1.16), so the two genuinely overlap in that text.
- **apāna vāyu of yoga.** The yogic apāna is the downward current worked with in mūla bandha and aśvinī mudrā, tied to the mūlādhāra cakra. The Ayurvedic apāna is defined by five specific expulsions and a seat list of organs. The overlap is real (both downward, both pelvic) which is why the conflation goes unnoticed.
- **vyāna vāta.** Sushruta Ni.1.20 pairs them: aggravated together they produce prameha and śukra disorders. Because apāna alone governs śukra expulsion, papers sometimes cite the combined statement as though it were about apāna alone.
- **vāta in pakvāśaya generally.** Classical Ayurveda calls the pakvāśaya the general seat (sthāna) of the vāta doṣa as a whole. Not every vāta pathology localised to the colon is an apāna pathology, though clinical writing often treats the two as equivalent.
- **adhoga vāta / flatus.** 'Adhoga vāta' in clinical usage often just means flatus. Apāna is the agency that moves it downward, not the gas itself. The easyayurveda gloss on Su.Ni.1.19 lists 'flatus' first among what apāna eliminates, which makes the slide easy.

## Renderings that do not hold

- flatulence / gas / wind. Confuses the subtype with one of the substances it expels. 'Apana' is not a synonym for flatus in any of the classical loci retrieved.
- the elimination vata / the excretory vata. Drops parturition and menstruation, which are explicit in Charaka Ci.28.10-11, Sushruta Ni.1.19 and AH Su.12.9. Apāna governs downward release generally, including reproductive events that are not excretion. The Kerala Tourism rendering makes exactly this cut.
- the Hypogastric plexus. Bhishagratna's 1911 footnote, 'the Apana is identical with the force of the Hypogastric plexus'. A colonial-era neuroanatomical equation from a translator's note, frequently requoted as if it were Sushruta's own statement.
- the root chakra / mūlādhāra. Imported from yoga. No classical Ayurvedic locus for apāna mentions a cakra; the seat lists are anatomical (testes, bladder, penis, groins, anus, thighs).
- the colon. An organ-for-agency substitution. The colon is where apāna acts (and, confusingly, is also called apāna). Rendering the subtype AS the colon collapses the very distinction AH Su.12.9's wordplay depends on.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Does a second Sanskrit edition of Charaka Ci.28.10 read नाभ्यूरू rather than the नाम्भूरू printed on the page I retrieved?
- Is the 'kāle' (at the proper time) qualifier in Sushruta Ni.1.19 discussed by Dalhana, and does any modern rendering preserve it?
- Does NAMASTE assign apāna vāta a Sharira Kriya code, and does its English term follow WHO's 'Descending vata'?
- Sharngadhara PK 2 ties drug timing to which subtype is disordered. Is that scheme found earlier, or is it Sharngadhara's innovation?

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "apāna vāta", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/apana-vata/, CC BY 4.0.
Whole lexicon: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.json and https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon.csv.

Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been
translated. Nothing here is advice.