# marma (मर्म)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/marma/

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 | marma |
| Devanagari | मर्म |
| Also written | marmāṇi, trimarma, śākhāmarma, koṣṭhamarma, sadyaḥprāṇahara / kālāntaraprāṇahara / viśalyaghna / vaikalyakara / rujākara (the five functional classes) |
| Category, as gathered | anatomy (vulnerable junctional sites) |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 4 |
| 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.

### Mortal or vulnerable location

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-3.16.4; description: 'The 107 major vital locations or seats of life in the body are classified into various types based on their structure, dimensions, vulnerability to trauma or mortal outcome. Injury to these locations may result in death, deformity or severe pain.' · who-ista

WHO's chapter heading for the section is 'Vulnerable locations (marma)'. The whole framing is traumatological, injury and outcome, with no therapeutic-stimulation sense anywhere in the standard.

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.

### Heart, urinary bladder and head are considered as three most vulnerable locations (trimarma)

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-3.16.3 · who-ista

Records the Charaka triad separately from the Sushruta 107.

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.

### the Marmas or vital parts of the body

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · Śārīra-sthāna ch. VI, opening line (Pratyeka-marma-nirdeśa Śārīram); OCR renders 'Marmas' as 'Mannas' and 'Śārīram' as 'Sdrlram' · public-domain-translation

'Vital parts' is Bhishagratna's standing rendering throughout; he does not use 'points'.

### Places where veins, arteries, ligaments, joints and muscles unite and an injury to which proves generally fatal.

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna — translator's footnote · footnote at Śārīra-sthāna ch. VI.1 · public-domain-translation

A junctional, anatomical definition. Note that Bhishagratna's footnote defines marma by CONFLUENCE of structures, which is exactly what the mūla says at VI.22.

### The Vital parts, again, are the arms, the heart, the brain, and the like.

Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna · Sūtrasthāna ch. 11, his verse 47 (= CS Sū. 11.48) · public-domain-translation

IMPORTANT: Kaviratna writes 'the arms' where the Sanskrit reads basti (urinary bladder), 'marmāṇi punarbastihṛdayamūrdhādīni'. Either an error or an OCR corruption of a word like 'bladder'. Do not cite this sentence as evidence of what the marmas are.

### vital points / vital energy points

Contemporary clinical and therapeutic literature · textbook

The source's own wording is not reproduced here: "Contemporary clinical and therapeutic literature" is not a source this project has cleared for quotation.

The therapeutic literature has converted a traumatological category into a stimulation target. Neither WHO nor either public-domain translator supports 'point'; Sushruta's own dimensions are given in aṅgula-widths, i.e. areas.

## The classical passages

### Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna (public domain) Śārīra-sthāna VI (Pratyeka-marma-nirdeśa Śārīram):VI.2-4, checked against the source

> There are one hundred and seven Marmas (in the human organism), which may be divided into five classes, such as the Mansa-Marmas, Sira-Marmas, Snayu-Marmas, Asthi-Marmas and the Sandhi-Marmas. Indeed there are no other Marmas (vulnerable or vital parts) to be found in the body than the preceding ones. 2. ... There are eleven Mansa-Marmas (vulnerable muscle-joints); forty-one Sira-Marmas (similar veins, anastomosis); twenty-seven Snayu-Marmas (vital ligament-unions); eight Asthi-Marmas (bone-unions) and twenty Sandhi-Marmas (vulnerable joints). 3.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/download/englishtranslati00susruoft/englishtranslati00susruoft_djvu.txt

The count of 107, the five structural classes with their exact numbers (11+41+27+8+20 = 107), and the closure claim that there are no others. OCR artefacts in the scan are preserved above as retrieved.

### Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna (public domain) Śārīra-sthāna VI:VI.22, checked against the source

> Firm unions of Mansa (muscles), Sira (veins), Snayu (ligaments), bones or bone-joints are called Marmas (or vital parts of the body) which naturally and specifically form the seats of life (Pratna), and hence a hurt to any one of the Marmas invariably produces such symptoms as arise from the hurt of a certain Marma.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/download/englishtranslati00susruoft/englishtranslati00susruoft_djvu.txt

The definition proper: marma = firm union (sandhāna) of the five structure types, constituting seats of prāṇa. 'Pratna' in the quote is an OCR corruption of 'Prana' and is reproduced verbatim as it appears in the scan.

### Charaka Samhita Siddhi-sthāna 9 (Trimarmīya Siddhi):9.9-10, checked against the source

> हृदये मूर्ध्नि बस्तौ च नृणां प्राणाः प्रतिष्ठिताः| तस्मात्तेषां सदा यत्नं कुर्वीत परिपालने||९|| आबाधवर्जनं नित्यं स्वस्थवृत्तानुवर्तनम्| उत्पन्नार्तिविघातश्च मर्मणां परिपालनम्||१०||

tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Trimarmiya_Siddhi

Charaka's trimarma doctrine (prāṇa established in hṛdaya, mūrdhan, basti) AND his prescription for marma care: avoidance of injury, adherence to healthy regimen, and treatment of arising affliction. Note that 'paripālana' here is protection, not stimulation.

### Charaka Samhita Sūtrasthāna 11:11.48, checked against the source

> मर्माणि पुनर्बस्तिहृदयमूर्धादीनि, अस्थिसन्धयोऽस्थिसंयोगास्तत्रोपनिबद्धाश्च स्नायुकण्डराः, स मध्यमो रोगमार्गः

tr. none (Sanskrit mūla) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Tistraishaniya_Adhyaya

That marma is a constituent of the madhyama rogamārga, and that Charaka's exemplary marmas are basti, hṛdaya and mūrdhan, the trimarma, not Sushruta's 107.

## Not to be confused with

- **prāṇāyatana.** WHO ITA-3.16.1 lists TEN 'seats of vital life force' (temporal regions, heart, urinary bladder, head, throat, rectum, blood, semen, ojas). Marmas number 107. Both are called 'seats of life' in English, and Charaka's Sū. 28.7 passage on grave disease distinguishes prāṇāyatana-arising from marma-injuring as separate aggravating factors.
- **trimarma.** Charaka's three (hṛdaya, mūrdhan, basti); Sushruta's 107 is a different enumeration in a different text. 'The three most vulnerable' (WHO ITA-3.16.3) is not a subset ranking Sushruta endorses.
- **acupoint.** The comparison is a live research question (PMID 37494833), not an identity. Marmas are defined by anatomical confluence and sized in aṅgulas; acupoints sit on a meridian system that has no counterpart in Sushruta.
- **varmam (Siddha).** The Tamil Siddha tradition's vital-spot system, historically related but with its own enumeration and literature. Routinely conflated in English-language writing.
- **sandhi.** Sandhi-marma is only one of the five classes (twenty of the 107). Not every joint is a marma and not every marma is a joint.

## Renderings that do not hold

- points. Sushruta assigns each marma a dimension in aṅgula (finger-widths), they are areas, not points. 'Point' is an import from acupuncture vocabulary and drives the false equation with acupoints.
- energy points / chakras. No classical text assigns prāṇa-flow channels to marmas in the way the popular literature implies; VI.22 grounds them in structural confluence.
- pressure points. Reverses the classical polarity entirely. Both Sushruta (injury produces death, deformity or pain) and Charaka (Si. 9.10: ābādhavarjana, avoidance of injury) treat marmas as things to PROTECT.
- vital organs. Used loosely for trimarma. Basti, hṛdaya and mūrdhan are organs/regions in that triad, but the 107 are mostly junctional soft-tissue sites, not organs.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Whether Charaka anywhere accepts the 107 enumeration, or works only with trimarma plus scattered references.
- The relationship between the five FUNCTIONAL classes (sadyaḥprāṇahara, kālāntaraprāṇahara, viśalyaghna, vaikalyakara, rujākara, described at Su.Śā. VI.16-21 in Bhishagratna) and the five STRUCTURAL classes at VI.2. Both are fivefold and are frequently confused.
- Whether marma locations have been mapped to modern anatomical landmarks with any published inter-observer reliability.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "marma", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/marma/, 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.