# raktavaha srotas (रक्तवहस्रोतस्) > Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/raktavaha-srotas/ An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 7 different ways. The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean. ## Identification | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Transliteration | raktavaha srotas | | Devanagari | रक्तवहस्रोतस् | | Also written | śoṇitavaha srotas (शोणितवहस्रोतस्), Caraka's own term at Vi.5/8, raktavāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/14), asṛgvahā (WHO ITA-2.5.12, for blood vessels) | | Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology | | Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels | | Classical citations | 3 | | 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 blood WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.11 · standards-body comparator WHO description: 'The pathway which carries blood. Entities related to this channel are the liver and spleen.' 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. ### Blood vessels WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.12 asṛgvahā · standards-body comparator (separate term) WHO keeps asṛgvahā ('blood vessels') as a SEPARATE entry from raktavahasrotaḥ, evidence that the standard does not equate the channel with the vasculature. 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 blood WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.6 raktavahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · 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 blood tissue NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.480 · national terminology comparator NAMASTE's 'blood tissue' preserves the dhātu sense that WHO's bare 'blood' loses. 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 raktavahasrotas NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC ED-1, referenced to Ca.Vi.5/8; Su.Sa.9/12 · morbidity-code comparator 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. ### The blood-carrying Srotas (channels) Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1911) · Śārīrasthāna IX.11–12 · public-domain translation ### rakta dhatu or red blood 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 > शोणितवहानां स्रोतसां यकृन्मूलं प्लीहा च| Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana Root = yakṛt (liver) and plīhā (spleen). Crucially, Caraka's word here is śoṇita-vaha, NOT rakta-vaha, the head-term of the modern lexicon is not the term of the locus classicus. ### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/14, checked against the source > विदाहीन्यन्नपानानि स्निग्धोष्णानि द्रवाणि च| रक्तवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति भजतां चातपानलौ||१४|| Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana Caraka uses rakta-vāhīni in the metrical section, confirming rakta- and śoṇita- as interchangeable stems within one chapter. ### Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīra Sthāna 9:11–12 (Bhishagratna); cited as 9/12 elsewhere, checked against the source > The blood-carrying Srotas (channels) are two in number and have their roots in the spleen and the liver, and the blood-carrying Dhamanis (capillaries in general). An injury to any of these channels is attended with pallor, bluishness of complexion, fever, burning sensations, excessive hemorrhage, and redness of the eyes. tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142889.html Suśruta agrees with Caraka on liver+spleen and adds the blood-carrying dhamanīs. One of the clearest Caraka/Suśruta agreements in the set. ## Not to be confused with - **asṛgvahā / sirā / dhamanī.** WHO codes asṛgvahā ('blood vessels') separately at ITA-2.5.12. Caraka at Vi.5/9 lists sirā and dhamanī among the NAMES for body spaces generally, so 'srotas = blood vessel' is a category error even where they overlap. - **rakta dhātu.** The tissue versus its conduit. - **raktapitta.** A disease of bleeding, listed by NAMASTE among the diseases involving this srotas; not the channel itself. - **rasavaha srotas.** Consecutive in the dhātu chain but with different roots (heart/dhamanīs vs liver/spleen). ## Renderings that do not hold - the circulatory system. Neither text names heart or vessels as the root, the roots are liver and spleen, i.e. haematopoietic/haemolytic organs. WHO keeps 'blood vessels' as a separate term precisely to avoid this. - capillaries. Bhishagratna's 1911 gloss on 'blood-carrying Dhamanis'. An imported histological category with no basis in the Sanskrit. - 'rakta' as red blood cells. rakta is a dhātu, the whole blood tissue including its formative and nutritive role, not a cell type. ## Open questions Recorded rather than resolved. - Is the śoṇita/rakta alternation purely metrical convenience, or do commentators read a distinction? - Why do both texts root a blood channel in liver and spleen rather than the heart, when the heart is the root of rasavaha in both? ## Citation Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "raktavaha srotas", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/raktavaha-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.