svedavaha srotas: what the term means and how it is translated
svedavaha srotas स्वेदवहस्रोतस् is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 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 | svedavaha srotas |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | स्वेदवहस्रोतस् |
| Also written | svedavahāni srotāṃsi, svedavāhīni srotāṃsi (Ca.Vi.5/22), swedavaha srotas (common transliteration) |
| Category, as gathered | srotas (body channel) — anatomy/physiology |
| Grouped here 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.
Vitiation of channels carrying sweat
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-5.5.15 svedavahasrotoduṣṭiḥ · standards-body comparator (disorder term ONLY)
CRITICAL: WHO codes the DISORDER but has NO anatomical entry for svedavaha srotas. Its body-channel block (ITA-2.5.1 to 2.5.20) runs prāṇa, udaka, anna, rasa, rakta, māṃsa, medas, asthi, majjā, śukra, ārtava, mūtra, purīṣa, and stops. Sweat is omitted from the anatomy while being coded in the pathology. I verified this by reading the whole 2.5 block.
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.
derangement of svedavaha srotas
NAMASTE National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes · NAMC EF-5, referenced to Ca.Vi. 5/8 · morbidity-code comparator
NAMASTE likewise has NO SAT-B anatomical entry for svedavaha srotas; I searched the full combined SAT table for every 'vaha'/'srotas' string and svedavaha appears only as a disorder. Both international and national standards treat it as a pathology without an anatomy.
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.
sweda or sweat
carakasamhitaonline.com (CSRTSL), 2020 · Sroto Vimana 5/6-7 commentary · modern translation (in copyright; rendering recorded as comparator only)
swedavaha (one of three channels performing gross excretory functions, with purishavaha and mutravaha)
carakasamhitaonline.com (CSRTSL), 2020 · Sroto Vimana, abstract · modern translation (in copyright; paraphrase of the source's framing, recorded as comparator) · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
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
स्वेदवहानां स्रोतसां मेदो मूलं लोमकूपाश्च, प्रदुष्टानां तु खल्वेषामिदं विशेषविज्ञानं भवति; तद्यथा-अस्वेदनमतिस्वेदनं पारुष्यमतिश्लक्ष्णतामङ्गस्य परिदाहं लोमहर्षं च दृष्ट्वा स्वेदवहान्यस्य स्रोतांसि प्रदुष्टानीति विद्यात्||८||
Root = medas (fat) and lomakūpa (hair follicles); vitiation signs = absence of sweating, excessive sweating, roughness, excessive smoothness of the limbs, burning, horripilation. This is the closing clause of Ca.Vi.5/8.
Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/22
Quotation withheld: nobody has yet read this quotation against its printed source, and an unchecked quotation is not published here. The passage is at this address.
Causes: exercise, excessive heat, irregular use of cold and hot, and anger, grief and fear. Notably the only srotas in the Caraka list whose causes of vitiation are explicitly emotional as well as physical.
Caraka SaṃhitāVimāna Sthāna 5:5/7 · checked against the source
तद्यथा प्राणोदकान्नरसरुधिरमांसमेदोस्थिमज्जशुक्रमूत्रपुरीषस्वेदवहानीति
sveda-vaha closes Caraka's enumeration of thirteen. It is absent from Suśruta's eleven pairs at Śā.9, which I verified by reading that passage in full.
Not to be confused with
- svedana (sudation therapy)
- A therapeutic procedure, not a channel. The English 'sweating channels' invites the confusion.
- medovaha srotas
- Caraka gives BOTH a root in medas, medovaha at vṛkka + vapāvahana, svedavaha at medas + lomakūpa. sveda is classically a mala of medas, which is why they share territory.
- udakavaha srotas
- Both concern body water; udakavaha is rooted in palate and kloma and governs thirst, svedavaha is rooted in fat and hair follicles and governs perspiration.
- tvak / romakūpa
- Skin and hair follicle are the peripheral root, not the channel; svedavaha is not a synonym for 'the skin'.
Renderings that do not hold
- the sweat glands. lomakūpa is the hair follicle; sweat glands are not named in the Sanskrit, and the primary root is medas, not skin.
- 'the integumentary system'. Imports a system boundary the text does not draw, and drops the medas root entirely.
- treating sveda purely as a waste product. Caraka places svedavaha among the srotas whose vitiation is triggered by anger, grief and fear, i.e. it carries a psychophysiological load that 'excretory channel' erases.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Why do WHO and NAMASTE code the disorder without coding the anatomy? Editorial oversight or a deliberate decision that sweat has no channel?
- Does 'medas' as the root here mean subcutaneous fat specifically, given the pairing with hair follicles?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, svedavaha srotas
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/svedavaha-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.