ārtavavaha srotas: what the term means and how it is translated
ārtavavaha srotas आर्तववहस्रोतस् is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 7 different ways, 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 | 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 here 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. 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 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. 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.
Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīra 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.
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 SaṃhitāŚārīra 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 ).
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 SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/7 · checked against the source
तद्यथा प्राणोदकान्नरसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जशुक्रमूत्रपुरीषस्वेदवहानीति
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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- 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).
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, ārtavavaha srotas
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/artavavaha-srotas/, 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.