mūtra: what the term means and how it is translated
mūtra मूत्र is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 3 different ways across 6 sources, 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 | mūtra |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | मूत्र |
| Also written | mūtram, mutra, mootra (NAMASTE SAT-C.154 spelling), mutram, urine |
| Category, as gathered | mala |
| Grouped here 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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
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 SamhitaSutrasthana 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'
Urine is nourished from kiṭṭa; Charaka lists sweat, urine, faeces in that order (Kaviratna reorders to urine, sweat, faeces).
Charaka SamhitaChikitsasthana 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'
Faeces and urine are the kiṭṭa of FOOD (āhāramala), as against the dhātu-level malas.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana 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.'
Mūtra-kṣaya signs; source of WHO ITA-5.4.3 and NAMC CA-1 descriptions (NAMC cites Ca.Su.17/71).
Sushruta SamhitaSutrasthana 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'
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 SamhitaSutrasthana 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.'
Sushruta's mūtra-kṣaya and mūtra-vṛddhi signs.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 11:5 (GRETIL numbering) · checked against the source
avaṣṭambhaḥ purīṣasya mūtrasya kleda-vāhanam | svedasya kleda-vidhṛtir vṛddhas tu kurute 'nilaḥ || 5 ||
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 HridayaSharirasthana 3:61 (GRETIL numbering) · checked against the source
tatrācchaṃ kiṭṭam annasya mūtraṃ vidyād ghanam śakṛt || 61 ||
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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- 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.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, mūtra
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/mutra/, 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.