śukravaha srotas: what the term means and how it is translated
śukravaha srotas शुक्रवहस्रोतस् is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 7 different ways, 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 | śukravaha srotas |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | शुक्रवहस्रोतस् |
| Also written | śukravahāni srotāṃsi, śukravāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/19), śukravahasrotaḥ |
| Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology |
| Grouped here 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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
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
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.
Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/8 · checked against the source
शुक्रवहानां स्रोतसां वृषणौ मूलं शेफश्च|
Root = the two vṛṣaṇa (testes) and śepha (penis). Purely male anatomy.
Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/19 · checked against the source
अकालयोनिगमनान्निग्रहादतिमैथुनात्| शुक्रवाहीनि दुष्यन्ति शस्त्रक्षाराग्निभिस्तथा||१९||
Causes: untimely coitus, suppression of the urge, excessive coitus, and injury by instruments, alkali and fire.
Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīra 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.
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 SaṃhitāŚārīra 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.
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. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Is śukravaha srotas in Caraka intended as male-only, given that śukra is elsewhere said to pervade the whole body in both sexes?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, śukravaha srotas
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/shukravaha-srotas/, 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.