# majjāvaha srotas (मज्जावहस्रोतस्)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/majjavaha-srotas/

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

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | majjāvaha srotas |
| Devanagari | मज्जावहस्रोतस् |
| Also written | majjavaha srotas (मज्जवह-, the form in Ca.Vi.5/8), majjavahāni srotāṃsi, majjavāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/18) |
| Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| 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 marrow

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.16 · standards-body comparator

WHO description: 'The pathway for bone marrow. Entities related to this channel are bone and joints.'

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 marrow

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.10 majjāvahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · 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 marrow

NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.484 · national terminology comparator

Definition: 'originates from asṭhi and sandhi'. WHO and NAMASTE agree exactly.

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 majjAvahasrotas

NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EH-1, referenced to Ca.Vi.5/8 · morbidity-code comparator

NAMASTE gives NO Suśruta reference for this channel, consistent with its absence from Su.Śā.9.

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.

### majja dhatu or marrow

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

> मज्जवहानां स्रोतसामस्थीनि मूलं सन्धयश्च|

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana

Root = asthīni (bones) and sandhi (joints). Note the text reads majja-vahānām (short stem), whereas WHO, NAMASTE and most textbooks head the term majjā-vaha.

### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/18, checked against the source

> उत्पेषादत्यभिष्यन्दादभिघातात् प्रपीडनात्| मज्जवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति विरुद्धानां च सेवनात्||१८||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana

Causes: crushing, excessive abhiṣyanda, trauma, compression, and incompatible food.

## Not to be confused with

- **asthivaha srotas.** The two are mirror images and are constantly swapped: asthivaha is rooted in medas + jaghana; majjāvaha in asthi + sandhi.
- **majjā (as marrow) vs majjā (as nervous tissue).** A large modern literature reads majjā as including nervous tissue/brain, which would make majjāvaha srotas a neural channel. Neither WHO nor NAMASTE endorses this; both say 'bone marrow'.
- **manovaha srotas.** If majjā is read as nervous tissue, majjāvaha and manovaha begin to overlap. Keeping them apart matters: manovaha is rooted in hṛdaya, majjāvaha in bone.
- **vasā and medas.** Three distinct fatty/marrow substances; only majjā has this srotas.

## Renderings that do not hold

- the nervous system. Rests on reading majjā as nervous tissue. The classical root is bones and joints, and both international standards render majjā as bone marrow. Recording it as 'nervous system' imports a conclusion the sources do not make.
- 'majjavaha' and 'majjāvaha' as different terms. They are the same word; Caraka uses the short stem, the standards use the long one.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Does majjā in the srotas context include nervous tissue, and if so on whose authority?
- Why are joints (sandhi) a root of the marrow channel rather than of the bone channel?

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "majjāvaha srotas", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/majjavaha-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.