# asthivaha srotas (अस्थिवहस्रोतस्) > Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/asthivaha-srotas/ An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 6 different ways. The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean. ## Identification | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Transliteration | asthivaha srotas | | Devanagari | अस्थिवहस्रोतस् | | Also written | asthivahāni srotāṃsi, asthivāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/17), asthivahasrotaḥ | | 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. ### Channel carrying bone WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.15 · standards-body comparator WHO description: 'The pathway for bone. Entities related to this channel are fat and the hip region.', follows Caraka exactly (medas + jaghana). 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 bone WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.9 asthivahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · 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. ### channels carrying bone tissue NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.483 · national terminology comparator Definition: 'originates from medas and jaghana'. 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 asthivahasrotas NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EG-1, referenced to Ca.Vi.5/8 · 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. ### injury to asthivahasrotas NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC LH-4.8, referenced to Su.Su.25/39 · morbidity-code comparator NAMASTE supplies a SUSHRUTA reference for injury to this channel even though Suśruta's Śārīra 9 list of eleven does not include it. See gatheringNotes, I could not verify this reference. 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. ### asthi dhatu or bone carakasamhitaonline.com (CSRTSL), 2020 · Sroto Vimana 5/6-7 commentary · modern translation (in copyright; rendering recorded as comparator only) ## The classical passages ### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/8, checked against the source > अस्थिवहानां स्रोतसां मेदो मूलं जघनं च| Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana Root = medas (fat) and jaghana (hip/buttock region). Counter-intuitive and unique: the bone channel is rooted in fat, reflecting the dhātu sequence medas → asthi. ### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/17, checked against the source > व्यायामादतिसङ्क्षोभादस्थ्नामतिविघट्टनात्| अस्थिवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति वातलानां च सेवनात्||१७|| Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana Causes: excessive exercise, excessive agitation, excessive friction/grinding of bones, and vāta-aggravating intake. ### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/7, checked against the source > तद्यथा प्राणोदकान्नरसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जशुक्रमूत्रपुरीषस्वेदवहानीति Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana asthi-vaha appears in Caraka's thirteen; it is absent from Suśruta's eleven pairs at Śā.9, which I verified by reading that passage in full. ## Not to be confused with - **majjāvaha srotas.** Caraka inverts the expected relation: asthivaha is rooted in medas, while majjāvaha is rooted in asthi and sandhi. The two are frequently swapped in secondary sources. - **asthi dhātu / asthi-dharā kalā.** Tissue and membrane versus conduit. - **medovaha srotas.** medas is the ROOT of asthivaha srotas and the dhātu served by medovaha srotas; the same word occupies two different structural positions in one passage. - **sandhi.** Joints belong to majjāvaha's root in Caraka, not to asthivaha, despite the obvious skeletal association. ## Renderings that do not hold - the skeletal system. The named roots are fat and the hip region; the channel is defined by nourishment of bone, not by the skeleton's extent. - 'bone marrow channels'. That is majjāvaha srotas. Caraka's asthivaha is rooted in medas, majjāvaha in asthi, reversing them is the single commonest error on this pair. - jaghana = buttocks (as a plain anatomical equivalent). WHO renders it 'the hip region' and NAMASTE leaves it in Sanskrit; jaghana in the Saṃhitās covers the pelvic girdle/loins and its exact extent is unsettled. ## Open questions Recorded rather than resolved. - Is NAMASTE's Su.Su.25/39 a real locus for asthivaha srotas injury, or a chapter-numbering slip? - Why is the bone channel rooted in medas rather than in bone itself, when every other dhātu-srotas is rooted at or near its own tissue? ## Citation Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "asthivaha srotas", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/asthivaha-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.