kedārī-kulyā-nyāya: what the term means and how it is translated
kedārī-kulyā-nyāya केदारीकुल्यान्यायः is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 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 | kedārī-kulyā-nyāya |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | केदारीकुल्यान्यायः |
| Also written | kedara kulya nyaya, kedari kulya nyaya, kedārikulyā-nyāya |
| Category, as gathered | dhatu |
| 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.
Theory of serial distribution
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.6.20 · standard
WHO's description: 'it states that primary circulating nutrient fluid (primary product of digestion) is supplied to all seven structural components through channels for their nourishment, just as tributary canals subdivide and distribute irrigation water to every part of a paddy field.'
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.
Theory of Transmission
Int J Res Ayurveda Pharm 11(6):2020, nyāya survey · section 'Kedari kulya nyaya' · paper
COMPARATOR. Glosses kedārī as 'the field' and kulyā as 'the canal'.
analogy of irrigation
Charak Samhita Online (carakasamhitaonline.com) · Grahani Chikitsa · website
COMPARATOR ONLY, in copyright. Note it reverses the usual gloss, making kedarika the reservoir and kulyas the small canals.
transportation of nutrients via channels
J Ayurveda Integr Med, PMID 32855015 (2021) · abstract · paper
Law of Transmission
common BAMS lecture/textbook usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Widespread; paired in teaching with 'passive diffusion'.
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.
Charaka Samhita with Cakrapāṇidatta's ĀyurvedadīpikāSūtrasthāna 28 (Vividhāśitapītīya):commentary on v.4, Cakrapāṇi's segment 28 · checked against the source
kedārīkulyānyāyas tu tulyabala eva khalekapotanyāyena yato yad uktaṃ vṛṣyaprabhāvaṃ prati tat kedārīkulyāpakṣe'pi prabhāvādeva śīghraṃ raktādidhātūnabhigamya śukraṃ janayiṣyati vṛṣyaṃ yathā khalekapotapakṣe'pi prabhavāditi
The nyāya is named here in so many words, and Cakrapāṇi rules it of EQUAL FORCE (tulyabala) with khale-kapota, not inferior to it. He explicitly does not decide between them.
Charaka Samhita with Cakrapāṇidatta's ĀyurvedadīpikāSūtrasthāna 28:commentary on v.4, Cakrapāṇi's segment 31 · checked against the source
evamanayoḥ pakṣayormahājanādṛtatvena tulyanyāyatvena ca naikamapi niścitaṃ buddhivibhavānna pakṣabalābalam atra na kaścit kāryavirodha ityuparamyate
Cakrapāṇi closes the discussion by declining to settle it: both positions are held by great authorities and are of equal cogency, neither is established, and nothing practical turns on the choice. Any presentation of these nyāyas as a settled classical doctrine misrepresents the source.
Sushruta SamhitaSūtrasthāna 14:not numbered in Bhishagratna · checked against the source
The Rasa or the lymph chyle, thus flowing out of the heart, constantly soothes, maintains, and irrigates by transudation the body, and further contributes to its growth, and supports life
Sushruta uses irrigation language for rasa's distribution, but does NOT name the nyāya. Secondary sources cite Su.Sū.14/10 with Dalhaṇa for it; the nyāya name is not in Bhishagratna's English.
Where this term does work in the theory
One concept record names this term as one of its components, and glosses it there as follows.
- Dhatu Formation and the Three Models of Tissue Nutrition as Kedari-kulya nyaya
- 'Field-and-irrigation-channel' analogy: the law of transmission. A common nutrient stream is carried through channels (srotas) and fills each tissue-field in turn.
Not to be confused with
- khale-kapota-nyāya
- Kedārī-kulyā is a delivery mechanism with no selection: water goes where the channels go, and the nearest field fills first. Khale-kapota has each dhātu actively select its own nutrient. Teaching them as passive vs active transport captures this, but the classical contrast is about routing vs selection, not about membrane energetics.
- kṣīra-dadhi-nyāya
- Kedārī-kulyā leaves the dhātus distinct and nourishes them from a common supply; kṣīra-dadhi has each dhātu convert into the next.
- srotas
- Srotas are the channels themselves, an anatomical/physiological category. The nyāya is an explanatory simile about how nutrient moves through them.
Renderings that do not hold
- passive diffusion. A modern gloss taught alongside the simile, not a translation. Diffusion runs down a concentration gradient; the simile's point is gravity-fed sequential filling by proximity, which is a different mechanism.
- Theory of irrigation canals as blood vessels. Over-literal. The simile is about the pattern of distribution, not an anatomical claim about vessels.
- reservoir theory. Sources disagree about which element of the simile is the reservoir. IJRAP makes kedārī the field and kulyā the canal; Charak Samhita Online makes kedarika the reservoir. Any rendering that fixes the roles is picking a side.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Whether kedārī denotes the field or the reservoir. Retrieved sources contradict each other, and the Sanskrit compound in Cakrapāṇi is not glossed in the passage retrieved.
- The Dalhaṇa citation at Su.Sū.14/10 could not be verified; no retrievable Sanskrit Sushruta-with-Dalhaṇa text was located.
- JAIMS 7(1):2022 'Physiological study of Kedari Kulya Nyaya in reference to transport of Particles through Cell Membrane' was retrieved and read (jaims.in/jaims/article/view/1689) but carries no DOI or PMID, so it is not recorded in the modern array.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, kedārī-kulyā-nyāya
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/kedari-kulya-nyaya/, 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.