majjāvaha srotas: what the term means and how it is translated
majjāvaha srotas मज्जावहस्रोतस् 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 | 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 here 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. 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 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. 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 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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
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.
Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/8 · checked against the source
मज्जवहानां स्रोतसामस्थीनि मूलं सन्धयश्च|
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 SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/18 · checked against the source
उत्पेषादत्यभिष्यन्दादभिघातात् प्रपीडनात्| मज्जवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति विरुद्धानां च सेवनात्||१८||
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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- 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?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, majjāvaha srotas
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/majjavaha-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.