# mūtra (मूत्र)

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

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 3 different ways across 6 sources.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | mūtra |
| Devanagari | मूत्र |
| Also written | mūtram, mutra, mootra (NAMASTE SAT-C.154 spelling), mutram, urine |
| Category, as gathered | mala |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 7 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-07 |

## How it is translated, and whether the translation holds

Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.

### Urine

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.4.4 mūtram; 'A by-product of digestion, whose function is to remove excess watery waste from the body.' · standard

WHO classes urine as a by-product of DIGESTION (āhāramala), consistent with Charaka Chi 15/18 and AH Sha 3/61. Function wording follows the kleda-vāhana of AH Su 11/5.

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.

### urine

NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.460 mūtram; 'one of the āhāra-mala whose function is to carry away kleda (watery waste) from the body' · standard

Same as WHO, with the Sanskrit kleda retained.

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.

### urine; mUtra vitiation (mūtravaiṣamyam)

NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC CA mūtravaiṣamyam; CA-1 mūtrakṣayaḥ 'oliguria/anuria/anuresis'; CA-2 mūtravṛddhiḥ 'polyuria' · classification

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.

### Urinary passage (mūtramārgaḥ); Urinary retention (mūtrāghātaḥ)

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-3.11.18 mūtramārgaḥ; ITA-5.39.10 mūtrāghātaḥ · standard

Recorded for disambiguation of compounds.

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.

### urine

Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Sutrasthana Lesson XXVIII; Lesson XVII (his 71) · translation

Uniform.

### urine

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907) · Sutrasthana XV · translation

Uniform. All sources agree on 'urine'; the disagreements are in the function clause and in the compounds.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 28:4 (standard), checked against the source

> किट्टात् स्वेदमूत्रपुरीषवातपित्तश्लेष्माणः ... पुष्यन्ति| / kiṭṭāt svēdamūtrapurīṣavātaPittaślēṣmāṇaḥ ... puṣyanti| — Kaviratna: 'From the Refuse arise urine, sweat, faeces* wind, bile, and phlegm'

tr. Sanskrit from carakasamhitaonline; English by Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Vividhashitapitiya_Adhyaya ; https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Urine is nourished from kiṭṭa; Charaka lists sweat, urine, faeces in that order (Kaviratna reorders to urine, sweat, faeces).

### Charaka Samhita Chikitsasthana 15:18 (standard); Kaviratna's printed 17, checked against the source

> किट्टमन्नस्य विण्मूत्रं / kiṭṭamannasya viṇmūtraṁ — Kaviratna: 'That which Is called the ‘Kitta’ (refuse) of the food taken, consists of stools and urine'

tr. Sanskrit from carakasamhitaonline; English by Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Grahani_Chikitsa ; https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Faeces and urine are the kiṭṭa of FOOD (āhāramala), as against the dhātu-level malas.

### Charaka Samhita Sutrasthana 17:71 (standard); Kaviratna's printed 71 (aligned), checked against the source

> मूत्रक्षये मूत्रकृच्छ्रं मूत्रवैवर्ण्यमेव च| पिपासा बाधते चास्य मुखं च परिशुष्यति||७१|| — Kaviratna: 'When the urine decreases below the normal quantity, the symptoms that appear are strangury, and loss of color of the urine itself. Besides this, the patient suffers from thirst, and his mouth becomes dry.'

tr. Sanskrit from carakasamhitaonline; English by Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Kiyanta_Shiraseeya_Adhyaya ; https://archive.org/download/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Mūtra-kṣaya signs; source of WHO ITA-5.4.3 and NAMC CA-1 descriptions (NAMC cites Ca.Su.17/71).

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 15:5 (siva.sh numbering); Bhishagratna prints no verse numbers, checked against the source

> बस्तिपूरणविक्लेदकृन्मूत्रं / bastipūraṇavikledakṛn mūtram — Bhishagratna: 'The urine fills the receptacle of the bladder, and is possessed of the property of washing or draining off the waste or refuse matter of the organism'

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (English); Sanskrit from siva.sh · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc122907.html ; https://www.siva.sh/sushruta-samhita/sutra-sthana/15/

Sushruta's two functions of urine: filling the bladder (basti-pūraṇa) and vikleda. Bhishagratna's 'washing or draining off the waste or refuse matter' is an expansive gloss of vikleda-kṛt; the Sanskrit says only 'producing moistening/kleda'.

### Sushruta Samhita Sutrasthana 15:11 and 15 (siva.sh numbering), checked against the source

> मूत्रक्षये बस्तितोदोऽल्पमूत्रता च [11] ... मूत्रं मूत्रवृद्धिं मुहुर्मुहुः प्रवृत्तिं बस्तितोदमाध्मानं च [15] — Bhishagratna: 'the loss, (absence or scanty formation) of urine is marked by an aching pain in the bladder, causing it dribble or to come out in thin and scanty jets.' ... 'An excessive formation of urine is manifest by constant urging for micturition and distension of the bladder, attended by a kind of gnawing or aching pain.'

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (English); Sanskrit from siva.sh · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-1-sutrasthana/d/doc122907.html ; https://www.siva.sh/sushruta-samhita/sutra-sthana/15/11-15

Sushruta's mūtra-kṣaya and mūtra-vṛddhi signs.

### Ashtanga Hridaya Sutrasthana 11:5 (GRETIL numbering), checked against the source

> avaṣṭambhaḥ purīṣasya mūtrasya kleda-vāhanam | svedasya kleda-vidhṛtir vṛddhas tu kurute 'nilaḥ || 5 ||

tr. none (no public-domain English exists) · http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/7_ayur/vagaah_u.htm

The one-line function triad: faeces support (avaṣṭambha), urine carries kleda away (kleda-vāhana), sweat holds kleda in (kleda-vidhṛti). WHO's and NAMASTE's function clauses for mūtra derive from this line, not from Charaka.

### Ashtanga Hridaya Sharirasthana 3:61 (GRETIL numbering), checked against the source

> tatrācchaṃ kiṭṭam annasya mūtraṃ vidyād ghanam śakṛt || 61 ||

tr. none (no public-domain English exists) · http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/7_ayur/vagaah_u.htm

Urine is the liquid (accha) kiṭṭa of food, faeces the solid (ghana).

## Not to be confused with

- **mūtravaha srotas.** The channel, not the substance; separate lexicon record (Ca.Vi.5/8).
- **mūtrāghāta / mūtrakṛcchra.** Urinary diseases (retention, dysuria); WHO ITA-5.39.10 mūtrāghātaḥ. Mūtrakṛcchra is a SIGN of mūtra-kṣaya at Ca.Su.17/71 as well as a disease name.
- **mūtrakṣaya (two codings).** WHO ITA-5.4.3 (mala-disorder) and ITA-5.39.16 (urinary disease) carry the same Sanskrit; NAMC CA-1 vs EJ-3.4 likewise.
- **kleda.** The watery waste that urine carries (AH Su 11/5 kleda-vāhana); urine is the vehicle, kleda the load. The kleda paper (PMID 42127454) treats this distinction.
- **basti.** The bladder that urine fills (Su.Su.15/5 basti-pūraṇa); frequently conflated with 'urine' in loose English ('basti disorders').
- **mūtra-parīkṣā / taila-bindu parīkṣā.** Medieval urine examination (Basavarājīyam, Yogaratnākara); not in the Bṛhattrayī and not part of the definition of mūtra.

## Renderings that do not hold

- 'washing or draining off the waste or refuse matter of the organism' (Bhishagratna, Su.Su.15/5). Over-translation of vikleda-kṛt; the Sanskrit assigns moistening/kleda-production, and the 'carrying away of kleda' wording actually comes from AH Su 11/5. Quote Bhishagratna as his rendering, not as Sushruta's doctrine.
- urine = 'metabolic waste' only. WHO 2.4.4 and Charaka Chi 15/18 class urine as āhāramala (waste of food digestion), not dhātumala; NAMASTE SAT-B.458's 'metabolism-only' definition of kiṭṭa sits awkwardly with its own SAT-B.460.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Charaka's own statement of urine's function (as distinct from its origin) was not located; the function clause in modern standards traces to AH Su 11/5 and Su.Su.15/5. A human should check Ca.Su.28 and Ca.Vi.5 commentaries.
- Dalhana on vikleda in Su.Su.15/5 not checked.

## Citation

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