# sirāgranthi (सिराग्रन्थि)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sira-granthi/

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 | sirāgranthi |
| Devanagari | सिराग्रन्थि |
| Also written | sirāgranthiḥ, sirā-granthi, sirājagranthi (सिराजग्रन्थि, the disease entity), sirāṇāṃ granthayaḥ (सिराणां ग्रन्थयः, Charaka's actual phrasing), siragranthi / siraj granthi / siraja granthi |
| Category, as gathered | srotas-concept |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| 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.

### Body channel dysfunction involving bulging or growth

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · Entry ITA-4.8.8, section 4.8, p. 116; Sanskrit sirāgranthiḥ; description "Occurrence of a knot-like or nodular growth in the lumen of the body channels." · standards-body

Note WHO places the growth IN THE LUMEN. That is a specific reading and it conflicts with the Sushrutan disease picture, where the whole vein is drawn up into a raised knot rather than something growing inside it.

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.

### Nodular swelling, cyst of vascular origin

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · Entry ITA-5.49.6, section 5.49 Nodular swelling, cyst; Sanskrit sirājagranthiḥ; description "A disorder characterized by a raised round swelling; nonpulsatile nodule; painless micturition." · standards-body

CRITICAL: WHO carries TWO separate entries. ITA-4.8.8 sirāgranthiḥ is a channel-pathology sign; ITA-5.49.6 sirājagranthiḥ is a disease entity under Granthi. They are not the same headword and a lexicon must keep them apart. (The 'painless micturition' in WHO's description of 5.49.6 looks like an editorial error for 'painless' as an attribute of the swelling; flagging, not correcting.)

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.

### cystic tumours

Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (public domain) · Vimana Sthana Lesson V, aphorism 31 (= Ca.Vi.5/24) · public-domain-translation

Kaviratna's rendering of sirāṇāṃ granthayaḥ. 'Cystic' has no warrant in the Sanskrit and is his own anatomical guess.

### Sira-Granthi— (aneurism or varicose veins)

Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (public domain) · Nidana Sthana ch. XI, section heading for verse 7 in Bhishagratna's numbering · public-domain-translation

Bhishagratna's own section heading. His parenthetical identification with aneurysm or varicose veins is a 1907 interpretive equation, and both cannot be right, aneurysm is arterial, varicosity venous.

### Sira-Granthi (Reduction of the Lumen of the System)

Sharma S et al., Int. Res. J. Ayurveda & Yoga 6(12):98-102 (2023) · DOI 10.47223/IRJAY.2023.61218, section 3.11.3 · modern-journal-review

Recorded because it is in print and is representative of a widespread confusion. 'Reduction of the lumen' is the opposite of what granthi means; the paper's own next sentence says 'It denotes vein enlargement'. The heading and the body of that section contradict each other.

### dilatation or nodule formation

Standard BAMS-textbook usage · ubiquitous · textbook-convention · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

The commonest teaching gloss.

### not verified

NAMASTE portal / ICD-11 TM2 · registration wall; ICD-11 browser not queried directly · standards-body · our paraphrase of the source, not its words

Unretrieved. Of all eight terms in this batch, sirājagranthi is the one most likely to carry a NAMC code and an ICD-11 TM2 entity, since it is a named disease. This gap should be closed first. ICD-11 MMS carries BD74.1 Lower limb varicose veins as the biomedical counterpart, but I did not verify any TM2 linkage.

## The classical passages

### Charaka Samhita Vimana Sthana 5:24, checked against the source

> अतिप्रवृत्तिः सङ्गो वा सिराणां ग्रन्थयोऽपि वा|

tr. none (Sanskrit mula text) · https://www.carakasamhitaonline.com/index.php?title=Sroto_Vimana&action=raw

Charaka does NOT use the compound sirāgranthi. He writes 'sirāṇāṃ granthayaḥ', knots OF the siras, genitive plural plus plural noun. The single-word term sirāgranthi that WHO and every textbook use is a later compression. This is the single most important philological point in this record.

### Charaka Samhita Vimana Sthana 5:Kaviratna's aphorism 31 (= Ca.Vi.5/24), checked against the source

> or cystic tumours,

tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna · https://archive.org/stream/BIUSante_47357/BIUSante_47357_djvu.txt

Kaviratna's English for sirāṇāṃ granthayaḥ. Recorded verbatim; the word 'cystic' is his addition.

### Sushruta Samhita Nidana Sthana 11 (Granthi-Apachi-Arbuda-Galaganda Nidana):8-9, checked against the source

> व्यायामजातैरबलस्य तैस्तैराक्षिप्य वायुर्हि सिराप्रतानम् | सम्पीड्य सङ्कोच्य विशोष्य चापि ग्रन्थिं करोत्युन्नतमाशु वृत्तम् ||८|| ग्रन्थिः सिराजः स तु कृच्छ्रसाध्यो भवेद्यदि स्यात् सरुजश्चलश्च | अरुक् स एवाप्यचलो महांश्च मर्मोत्थितश्चापि विवर्जनीयः ||९||

tr. none (Sanskrit mula text) · https://www.easyayurveda.com/sushruta-samhita-nidanasthana-chapter-11-granthi-apaci-arbudam-galaganda-nidanam-benign-tumor-cervical-metastasis-malignant-tumor-and-cervical-lymphadenitis/

The disease entity. Note the Sanskrit reads 'granthiḥ sirājaḥ', the granthi BORN OF the siras, not 'sirāgranthi'. Vata, deranged by exertion in a weak person, seizes the network of siras (sirā-pratāna), compresses, contracts and dries them, and quickly makes a raised round knot. Prognosis: painful and mobile = curable with difficulty; painless, fixed, large, or arising at a marma = to be rejected.

### Sushruta Samhita Nidana Sthana XI:7 (Bhishagratna's numbering; = 8-9 in the Sanskrit editions cited above), checked against the source

> The bodily Vayu in weak and enfeebled persons, deranged by over-fatiguing physical exercises, straining or exertion or by pressure, presses on, contracts, dries or draws up the ramifications of veins (Sira) or arteries (of the affected locality), and speedily gives rise to a raised knotty formation which is called a Sira-Granthi, In the event of its being shifting and slightly painful, it can be cured only with the greatest difficulty. Whereas a case in which the knotty formation is painless, fixed, large and situated at any of the vital parts of the body (Marmas), should be deemed incurable.

tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna · https://archive.org/stream/englishtranslati00susruoft/englishtranslati00susruoft_djvu.txt

The lawfully quotable English of the disease description. NUMBERING WARNING: Bhishagratna prints this as verse 7 of Nidana XI; the Sanskrit editions number it 8-9. Do not assume the two numbering systems agree. Also note Bhishagratna hedges 'veins (Sira) or arteries', undoing his own usual sirā=vein equation.

### Sushruta Samhita Nidana Sthana XI:2 (Bhishagratna)

**Quotation withheld:** nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at https://archive.org/stream/englishtranslati00susruoft/englishtranslati00susruoft_djvu.txt

The genus under which sirāja granthi sits. Sushruta's granthi series is vataja, pittaja, kaphaja, medaja, sirāja, raktaja, so the vascular one is one of six, not a category of its own.

## Where this term does work in the theory

One concept record names this term as one of its components, and glosses it there as follows.

- **[Srotas (the channel system) and srotodushti](https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/concept/srotas-system/)** (as Siragranthi): Knot or nodular swelling in the vessel wall (third mode)

## Not to be confused with

- **sirāja granthi (सिराजग्रन्थि).** The disease entity of Sushruta Nidana 11 and WHO ITA-5.49.6. sirāgranthi as used in Ca.Vi.5/24 and WHO ITA-4.8.8 is a channel-pathology SIGN. Same root, two different levels of the system, and WHO deliberately gives them separate codes. Most English writing merges them.
- **granthi (ग्रन्थि).** The genus: any round knotty elevated swelling, of which Sushruta names six types by causative dosha or dhatu. WHO ITA-5.49.1 'Nodular swelling, cyst'. Calling sirāgranthi simply 'granthi' loses the vascular specification.
- **arbuda (अर्बुद).** Treated in the same Sushruta chapter but distinguished from granthi by being deep-rooted, slow-growing and non-suppurating (WHO ITA-5.50.1 'Tumour'). Granthi and arbuda are not interchangeable.
- **apachi (अपची).** Also in Sushruta Nidana 11: a chain or crop of hard glossy painless nodules about the jaw, neck and axilla from meda and kapha. A string of granthis, not a sirā lesion.
- **sirā vs dhamanī.** Bhishagratna renders the Sushrutan text as 'veins (Sira) or arteries', leaving it open. Anyone building a vascular correlate must decide whether sirā here means veins specifically; Bhishagratna himself would not commit.

## Renderings that do not hold

- reduction of the lumen of the system. In print (IRJAY 2023, section heading) and flatly wrong, granthi is a knot or nodular enlargement, and the same paper's next sentence says 'vein enlargement'. Also incompatible with WHO's own description ('bulging or growth').
- aneurysm. Bhishagratna's own parenthesis, but the Sushrutan mechanism is vata compressing, contracting and drying the sirā network, and the prognosis rules (painless, fixed, large, at a marma = incurable) do not match aneurysm's natural history. Aneurysm and varicosity cannot both be the referent.
- atherosclerosis. Widely offered as the modern example (IRJAY 2023 uses exactly this). Atherosclerosis is arterial intimal plaque; sirāja granthi is described as a raised round knot of the sirā network arising from exertion in a weak person. The equation is an analogy, not a translation.
- cystic tumour. Kaviratna's gloss. Nothing in the Sanskrit implies a cyst.
- sira granthi as a synonym for all four srotodushti signs' 'growth' category. Charaka's phrase is sirāṇāṃ granthayaḥ, plural knots of the siras. It is specifically vascular. Using it as a general term for any nodular channel lesion goes beyond the text.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Whether NAMASTE assigns a NAMC code to Sirajagranthi and whether that code is mapped into ICD-11 TM2. This is the most answerable and most valuable open item in the batch.
- Why Bhishagratna numbers the sirāgranthi passage as Nidana XI.7 while the Sanskrit editions give 8-9. Likely a difference in how the preceding medaja granthi verses are counted.
- Whether Ashtanga Hridaya's treatment of sirāgranthi (referred to by PMID 41404578 as recommending sirāvyadha) can be given a chapter-and-verse reference. I did not verify one, and Ashtanga Hridaya has no public-domain English translation, so no quotation could be recorded in any case.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "sirāgranthi", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/sira-granthi/, 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.