stanyavaha srotas: what the term means and how it is translated

stanyavaha srotas स्तन्यवहस्रोतस् is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 3 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.

Identification
Transliteration	stanyavaha srotas
Devanagari	स्तन्यवहस्रोतस्
Also written	stanyavaha-srotas (NAMASTE hyphenated form), kṣīravahā sirāḥ (क्षीरवहाः सिराः), the term Caraka actually uses, stanya-vahā dhamanyaḥ (implied at Su.Śā.9)
Category, as gathered	srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology; post-classical / reconstructed
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.

derangement of stanyavahasrotas

NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EC-4.5, referenced to Ca.Ci.30/236-238 · morbidity-code comparator

NAMASTE codes the DISORDER only. It has NO SAT-B anatomical entry for stanyavaha srotas, I searched the complete SAT combined table. And see classical below: the Caraka verses it cites do not contain the word.

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.

Breast milk

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.3.2 stanyam · standards-body comparator (for the substance stanya, NOT the channel)

WHO description: 'Supportive structural component of primary circulating nutrient fluid. It is composed predominantly of the basic element water and nourishes the baby.' WHO has NO entry for stanyavaha srotas anywhere, not in the body-channel block (2.5) and not in the channel-disorder block (5.5). I verified both by reading them in full. WHO does code stanyavaiṣamyam, stanyakṣayaḥ and stanyavṛddhiḥ as breast-milk disorders.

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.

two of them (ducts), attached to the breasts of a woman, carry milk of her breasts

Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, Sushruta Samhita (1911) · Śārīrasthāna IX.4 (Bhishagratna) = 9/5 in the Sanskrit · public-domain translation

Suśruta describes milk-carrying DHAMANĪS, not a stanyavaha SROTAS.

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.

Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīra Sthāna 9:4 (Bhishagratna's numbering; Sanskrit ॥५॥) · checked against the source

Two of the Dhamanis (ducts) carry the fluid of lachrymation, 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) · source

The closest classical warrant for a milk-carrying channel: a pair of upward-coursing DHAMANĪS, milk-bearing in women and śukra-bearing in men. Suśruta does NOT call this a srotas and does not include it in his eleven pairs of srotas later in the same chapter.

Suśruta SaṃhitāŚārīra Sthāna 9:5 (Sanskrit numbering ॥५॥) · checked against the source

द्वे चाश्रुवाहिन्यौ, द्वे स्तन्यं स्त्रिया वहतः स्तनसंश्रिते, ते एव शुक्रं नरस्य स्तनाभ्यामभिवहतः

Sanskrit mūla · source

The Sanskrit behind the Bhishagratna passage above: 'two carry tears; two, situated in the breasts, carry stanya in a woman; those same two carry a man's śukra from the breasts.' Confirms the word used is a dhamanī description, and that stanya is the object carried, not a compounded channel-name.

Caraka SaṃhitāCikitsā Sthāna 30 (Yonivyāpat Cikitsā):236 · checked against the source

दोषाः क्षीरवहाः प्राप्य सिराः स्तन्यं प्रदूष्य च| कुर्युरष्टविधं भूयो दोषतस्तन्निबोध मे ||२३६||

Sanskrit mūla · source

DECISIVE NEGATIVE: this is the verse NAMASTE cites for 'stanyavaha-srotoduṣṭi', and the word it uses is kṣīravahāḥ SIRĀḤ (milk-carrying veins/vessels), not stanyavaha srotas. The doṣas reach the milk-carrying sirās, vitiate the stanya, and produce eightfold stanya-duṣṭi. I string-searched the whole retrieved chapter: neither 'स्तन्यवह' nor 'आर्तववह' occurs anywhere in Ca.Ci.30.

Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/7 · checked against the source

तद्यथा प्राणोदकान्नरसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जशुक्रमूत्रपुरीषस्वेदवहानीति

Sanskrit mūla · source

Negative evidence, quoted: stanya-vaha is absent from Caraka's thirteen, as it is from Suśruta's eleven.

Not to be confused with

kṣīravahā sirā: This is Caraka's actual term (Ci.30/236). Anyone citing Ca.Ci.30 under the head-word 'stanyavaha srotas' is substituting a later coinage for the text's own word.
śukravaha srotas: Su.Śā.9 gives both Suśruta's śukravaha srotas roots in the BREASTS and a breast dhamanī pair that is milk-bearing in women and śukra-bearing in men, so in Suśruta these are one structure with two sex-specific outputs, not two channels.
stanya (the substance): WHO codes stanyam as an upadhātu of rasa (ITA-2.3.2). The milk exists in the standards; its channel does not.
rasavaha srotas: stanya is classically an upadhātu of rasa, so milk disorders are often routed through rasavaha pathology, NAMASTE in fact files stanyavaha-srotodushti as EC-4.5, i.e. INSIDE its rasavaha (EC) code block.

Renderings that do not hold

'the lactiferous ducts'. No classical text names such a channel. The Suśruta passage describes systemic dhamanīs running to the breast, explicitly shared with male śukra transport, not intramammary ducts.
'the 14th srotas' / 'one of the two extra srotas in women'. A textbook convention, not a textual fact. Caraka lists thirteen (no stanya, no ārtava); Suśruta lists eleven pairs (ārtava yes, stanya no). No enumeration in either text contains stanyavaha.
citing Ca.Ci.30/236-238 for 'stanyavaha srotas'. The verses say kṣīravahāḥ sirāḥ. The citation is real but the term is not in it, exactly the kind of inherited reference that looks verified and is not.

Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.

Does any pre-modern text actually use the compound stanyavaha srotas, or is it entirely a modern textbook coinage back-formed from stanya + srotas?
If Suśruta's breast dhamanīs are shared between milk and śukra, should stanyavaha be an entry at all, or a cross-reference under śukravaha?

How to cite this entry

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, stanyavaha srotas, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/stanyavaha-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.