# ārtavavaha srotas (आर्तववहस्रोतस्) > Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/artavavaha-srotas/ An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 7 different ways. The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean. ## Identification | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Transliteration | ārtavavaha srotas | | Devanagari | आर्तववहस्रोतस् | | Also written | ārtavavaha-srotas (NAMASTE/WHO hyphenated form), ārtavavahasrotaḥ, artava-bija-vaha srotas (modern coinage, see modern literature) | | Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology | | Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels | | Classical citations | 3 | | 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. ### Female reproductive system WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.18 · standards-body comparator WHO description: 'All channels which are physiologically important in the regulation of the menstrual cycle.' WHO gives the broadest, most functional rendering of any srotas in its list. 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. ### Vitiation of channels carrying menstrual flow WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.12 ārtavavahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · standards-body comparator (disorder term) 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. ### fallopian or uterine tubes NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.474 · national terminology comparator A MUCH narrower rendering than WHO's. NAMASTE then widens it in the definition: 'also includes the channels with physiological importance in regulation of menstrual cycles (hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis)'. WHO says system, NAMASTE says tubes-plus-axis. This is the sharpest standards disagreement in the whole set. Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, which is what that licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0. ### derangement of Artavavahasrotas NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EL-1, referenced to Su.Sa.9/12 · morbidity-code comparator NAMASTE cites ONLY Suśruta for this channel, correctly, since Caraka's Vi.5 list omits it. Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, which is what that licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0. ### injury to Artavavaha srotas NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC LH-4.10, referenced to Su.Sa.9/12 · morbidity-code comparator Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the Government of India NAMASTE terminology, which is what that licence permits, and deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is CC BY 4.0. ### The two artava-carrying Srotas (ducts) Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1911) · Śārīrasthāna IX.11–12 · public-domain translation Bhishagratna glosses artava as 'catamenial blood' in the list preamble and as 'ovarian product' in the entry itself, two different substances in one paragraph. ### Menstrual blood WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.3.3 ārtavam · standards-body comparator (for the substance ārtava, not the channel) 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 classical passages ### Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīra Sthāna 9:11–12 (Bhishagratna); cited as 9/12 elsewhere, checked against the source > The two artava -carrying Srotas (ducts) have their roots in the uterus as well as in the Dhamanis which carry the artava (ovarian product). An injury to any of these brings on sterility, suppression of the menses and incapacity for copulation. tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142889.html The ONLY classical enumeration of ārtavavaha srotas among the two great Saṃhitās. Root = garbhāśaya (uterus) + ārtava-carrying dhamanīs. Injury signs = sterility, amenorrhoea, dyspareunia/inability to copulate. ### Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīra Sthāna 9:11 (Bhishagratna preamble to the list), checked against the source > The ducts or channels respectively conveying the life, the food, the water, (the organic principle of) the Rasa (serum), the blood, the muscles, the fat, the urine, the stool, the semen, and the catamenial blood, naturally fall within the scope of Surgery ( Shalya-tantra ). tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142889.html Confirms ārtava as the eleventh and last member of Suśruta's list, and that the list is framed as a SURGICAL (śalya) concern about piercing, not a physiological taxonomy. ### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/7, checked against the source > तद्यथा प्राणोदकान्नरसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जशुक्रमूत्रपुरीषस्वेदवहानीति Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana Negative evidence, quoted: ārtava-vaha does NOT appear in Caraka's thirteen. Any entry that cites Ca.Vi.5 for ārtavavaha srotas is wrong. ## Not to be confused with - **ārtava (the substance).** WHO codes ārtavam separately as 'Menstrual blood' (ITA-2.3.3), classed as an upadhātu. The channel is not the fluid. - **ārtava as menstrual blood vs ārtava as ovum/bīja.** Bhishagratna glosses it both ways within one paragraph ('catamenial blood', 'ovarian product'). Modern authors coin 'artava-bija-vaha srotas' to capture the ovum sense. Which substance the channel carries is unsettled and the whole fallopian-tube identification depends on it. - **śukravaha srotas.** Often presented as the female counterpart, but Suśruta's śukravaha is rooted in breasts and testes, so they are not symmetrical. - **yoni / garbhāśaya.** The vagina/uterus are organs, one of which is the root; ārtavavaha srotas is not a synonym for the reproductive tract. ## Renderings that do not hold - fallopian tubes. NAMASTE's head-term, but the very paper most cited for this mapping (PMID 22131704) states that the fallopian tube is not mentioned in the classics. It is a 20th-century correlation presented as a translation. - the female reproductive system. WHO's rendering is defensible as a functional gloss but is far wider than the text, which names uterus + ārtava-carrying dhamanīs and nothing else. - 'menstrual channels'. Restricts the channel to menstruation when Suśruta's injury signs include sterility and inability to copulate, i.e. reproductive function broadly. ## Open questions Recorded rather than resolved. - Does ārtava here mean menstrual blood or the ovum/bīja? The fallopian-tube identification stands or falls on this. - Is there any pre-modern text that actually names ārtavavaha srotas outside Su.Śā.9? Aṣṭāṅga Saṅgraha/Hṛdaya should be checked (discussable, not quotable). ## Citation Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "ārtavavaha srotas", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/artavavaha-srotas/, 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.