# śukravaha srotas (शुक्रवहस्रोतस्)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/shukravaha-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 | śukravaha srotas |
| Devanagari | शुक्रवहस्रोतस् |
| Also written | śukravahāni srotāṃsi, śukravāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/19), śukravahasrotaḥ |
| Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology |
| 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.

### Channel carrying structural components of reproduction

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.5.17 · standards-body comparator

WHO deliberately avoids 'semen': 'The pathway for structural components of reproduction. Entities related to this channel are the testicles and penis.' This is the most cautious rendering of any source here.

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 semen

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.11 shukravahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · standards-body comparator (disorder term)

WHO reverts to 'semen' in the disorder term while avoiding it in the anatomy term, an internal inconsistency.

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 reproductive tissues

NAMASTE Portal, Standardised Ayurveda Terminologies · SAT-B.485 · national terminology comparator

Definition: 'originates from vṛṣaṇa and śepha and is associated with diseases such as klaibya.'

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 shukravahasrotas

NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EI-1, referenced to Ca.Vi.5/8 · 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.

### injury to shukravahasrotas

NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC LH-4.9, referenced to 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 two semen-carrying Srotas (ducts)

Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1911) · Śārīrasthāna IX (Sanskrit 9.12) · public-domain translation

### shukra dhatu i.e. reproductive elements

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

> शुक्रवहानां स्रोतसां वृषणौ मूलं शेफश्च|

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana

Root = the two vṛṣaṇa (testes) and śepha (penis). Purely male anatomy.

### Caraka Saṃhitā Vimāna Sthāna 5:5/19, checked against the source

> अकालयोनिगमनान्निग्रहादतिमैथुनात्| शुक्रवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति शस्त्रक्षाराग्निभिस्तथा||१९||

Sanskrit mūla · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php/Sroto_Vimana

Causes: untimely coitus, suppression of the urge, excessive coitus, and injury by instruments, alkali and fire.

### Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīra Sthāna 9:12 (Sanskrit numbering), corrected against the source

> The two semen-carrying Srotas (ducts) have their roots in the breasts and the testes. An injury to any of them leads to loss of manhood, delayed emission of semen, or blood-streaked character of that fluid.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142889.html

Suśruta's root = BREASTS and testes, not penis. This is the textual hinge that connects śukravaha and stanyavaha (see that record): at Śā.9 Suśruta says the same pair of dhamanīs carries milk in women and śukra in men.

### Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīra Sthāna 9:5 (Sanskrit numbering), corrected against the source

> two of them (ducts), attached to the breasts of a woman, carry milk of her breasts, which, coursing through the breast of a man, convey his seminal fluid.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911) · https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sushruta-samhita-volume-3-sharirasthana/d/doc142889.html

Explains Suśruta's otherwise baffling 'roots in the breasts': one pair of upward-coursing dhamanīs is milk-carrying in women and śukra-carrying in men.

## Not to be confused with

- **śukra dhātu vs retas/bīja.** śukra is the seventh dhātu, present in both sexes in classical physiology; retas/semen is the ejaculate. WHO's 'structural components of reproduction' is an attempt to preserve this.
- **ārtavavaha srotas.** Suśruta enumerates both, giving the female reproductive channel separately; śukravaha in Suśruta is nevertheless rooted partly in the breasts, so the two are not simply male/female counterparts.
- **stanyavaha srotas.** Su.Śā.9 makes them share a dhamanī pair, sex-differentiated function of one structure, not two structures.
- **mūtravaha srotas.** Caraka roots śukravaha in vṛṣaṇa+śepha and mūtravaha in basti+vaṅkṣaṇa; the shared urethra tempts conflation.

## Renderings that do not hold

- the male reproductive system. Caraka's roots are male, but Suśruta's are breasts and testes, and śukra is classically present in both sexes. The gendered reading is Caraka-only.
- 'semen'. WHO explicitly avoids it in the anatomy term. śukra is a dhātu, not an ejaculate.
- 'roots in the breasts' as a scribal error. It is not an error; Su.Śā.9/5 gives the rationale explicitly. Editors who 'correct' it to 'penis' are emending the text to match Caraka.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Is śukravaha srotas in Caraka intended as male-only, given that śukra is elsewhere said to pervade the whole body in both sexes?

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "śukravaha srotas", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/shukravaha-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.