udāna vāta: what the term means and how it is translated
udāna vāta उदानः (compound उदानवायुः verified at Sharngadhara PK 5.45) is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 3 different ways across 5 sources, 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 | udāna vāta |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | उदानः (compound उदानवायुः verified at Sharngadhara PK 5.45) |
| Also written | udāna vāyu, udāna, udana vayu, udana vata |
| Category, as gathered | vata-subtypes |
| Grouped here under | Dosha and its subtypes |
| 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.
Ascending vata
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda · Term ID ITA-2.1.1.3 · terminology standard
WHO's description: 'Subtype of vata seated in the chest region which extends from the umbilical region to the neck or throat. Its functions include effort, strength, governing the voice and speech production.' This follows Charaka Ci.28.7 (nābhi-uras-kaṇṭha) closely. Lemma is bare udānaḥ, not udāna vāta.
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.
the Udana (left untranslated); 'The most important of the vital Vayus, which courses (sends its vibrations) upward'
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (public domain) · Nidanasthana ch. 1, Bhishagratna's section 8 · public-domain translation
The only public-domain English rendering of an individual vāta subtype's definition that is both quotable and substantive. Note Bhishagratna gives udāna NO seat, only a direction and a disease-territory (above the clavicles).
Udana — one of the 'five airs or breaths'; 'the fourth is that which rises up either in the form of eructations or passes into the head'
Charaka Samhita, tr. Avinash Chandra Kaviratna (public domain) · Sutrasthana, translator's footnote · public-domain translation
Kaviratna's footnote gloss is the yogic/Puranic description (eructation, rising to the head), not Charaka's own Ci.28.7 definition (speech, effort, strength, complexion). The two do not match, and Kaviratna's own text never gives udāna a definition.
Kerala Tourism (Government of Kerala) · keralatourism.org/ayurveda/pathology/five-vatas · government popular-reference page
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
'Breathing is controlled by this Vata' conflicts with Charaka Ci.28.6, which assigns śvāsa (respiration) to prāṇa, not udāna. A real disagreement between a government page and the classical locus, not a paraphrase artefact.
easyayurveda.com, gloss on Sushruta Nidanasthana 1 · easyayurveda.com Sushruta Samhita Nidanasthana Chapter 1 · online textbook gloss
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
Tracks Bhishagratna closely; recorded as a common modern textbook rendering.
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.
Sushruta SamhitaNidanasthana 1 (Vatavyadhi Nidana):Bhishagratna's section 8 = Sanskrit 1.14b-15 · checked against the source
The most important of the vital Vayus, which courses (sends its vibrations) upward, is called the Udana. It produces speech, song, etc. In its deranged state it brings on diseases which are specifically confined to regions lying above the clavicles. 8.
Sushruta defines udāna by DIRECTION (upward) and by DISEASE TERRITORY (ūrdhvajatru, above the clavicles), not by seat, and calls it pavanottama, the foremost of the vāyus. Corresponding Sanskrit, cross-checked at a separate URL: 'उदानो नाम यस्तूर्ध्वमुपैति पवनोत्तमः ||१४|| तेन भाषितगीतादिविशेषोऽभिप्रवर्तते | ऊर्ध्वजत्रुगतान् रोगान् करोति च विशेषतः ||१५||'.
Charaka SamhitaChikitsasthana 28 (Vatavyadhi Chikitsa):28.7 · checked against the source
उदानस्य पुनः स्थानं नाभ्युरः कण्ठ एव च | वाक्प्रवृत्तिः प्रयत्नौर्जोबलवर्णादि कर्म च ||७||
Charaka seats udāna in nābhi (navel), uras (chest) and kaṇṭha (throat); its karma is vākpravṛtti (initiation of speech), prayatna (effort), ūrjas (vigour), bala (strength) and varṇa (complexion). Note that Charaka gives udāna a navel-to-throat seat, whereas Sushruta gives it none.
Charaka SamhitaSutrasthana Lesson XII (Vatakalakaliya) in Kaviratna's numbering:Kaviratna's section 6 · checked against the source
It exists in the fivefold form of Prana, Udana, Samana, Vyana, and Apana.
Names udāna as one of the five in a lawfully quotable English Charaka. Gives it no seat or function.
Ashtanga HridayaSutrasthana 12 (Doshabhediya):12.5b-6a · address only, nothing quoted to check
Vagbhata seats udāna in the chest (uraḥ sthānam udānasya) and has it move in nose, navel and throat (nāsā-nābhi-galān); functions given at the start of 12.6 are speech, effort, vigour, strength, complexion and MEMORY (smṛti). The inclusion of smṛti is Vagbhata's addition over Charaka Ci.28.7. Sanskrit mūla and verse numbering verified on the retrieved page; not quoted, as Ashtanga Hridaya has no public-domain English translation.
Sharngadhara SamhitaPurva Khanda 5 (Kaladikakhyana):5.27-28 and 5.45 · address only, nothing quoted to check
5.27-28 place udāna at the throat (kaṇṭha). Separately and more strikingly, 5.45 states that the LUNGS (phupphusa) are the ādhāra (support/seat) of udāna vāyu, a claim found in neither Charaka nor Vagbhata, and the clearest classical basis for the modern 'udāna = respiratory' reading. Sanskrit mūla and verse numbers verified on the retrieved page; not quoted, as Sharngadhara has no public-domain English translation.
Not to be confused with
- prāṇa vāta
- The hardest pair in the set, and the texts do not agree on the boundary. Charaka Ci.28.6-7 gives both a chest-and-throat presence; Ashtanga Hridaya Su.12.4-5 puts prāṇa in the head moving to chest/throat and udāna in the chest moving to nose/navel/throat, i.e. they cross. Sushruta gives prāṇa a seat (mouth) and udāna none. Speech is the one function consistently udāna's across all three.
- udāna vāyu of yoga
- In the yogic scheme udāna is the ascending current used in meditation and at death, associated with the throat cakra. Classical Ayurveda ties it to speech, effort, strength and complexion. The shared name and the shared 'upward' direction make the two collapse into each other in popular writing.
- vyāna vāta
- Ashtanga Hridaya Su.12.6 puts the udāna function list and the vyāna definition in the SAME verse, so careless citation attributes vyāna's 'seated in the heart, whole-body-ranging, great velocity' to udāna. Check where the verse break falls before citing AH Su.12.6 for either.
- prāṇavaha srotas / respiratory system
- WHO renders udāna 'Ascending vata' and never says respiratory; Kerala Tourism says 'Breathing is controlled by this Vata'. Respiration (śvāsa) belongs to prāṇa at Charaka Ci.28.6. The respiratory reading of udāna rests on Sharngadhara PK 5.45 (lungs), not on Charaka or Sushruta.
- the act of vomiting or emesis (vamana)
- Charaka Ci.28 prescribes upward-moving therapy for udāna morbidity, which leads some writers to define udāna AS emesis. The therapy is not the definition.
Renderings that do not hold
- the thyroid / the throat chakra. Neither is in any retrieved classical locus. Both are later organ- or cakra-substitutions imported from modern anatomy and from yoga respectively.
- exhalation / the upward breath. Kaviratna's own footnote says udāna 'rises up either in the form of eructations or passes into the head', but that is his gloss on a yogic list, and Charaka Ci.28.6 assigns belching (udgāra) and respiration to PRĀṆA, not udāna. The breath reading is yogic, not Ayurvedic.
- the speech centre / Broca's area. From Bhishagratna's 1911 footnote, 'the Udana with that of the one which is situated in the speech centre'. A colonial-era neuroanatomical equation. The same footnote is internally corrupt: it then names Udana a SECOND time as 'the energy of the Motor-Sensory Nerves', a slot that context shows must belong to Vyana. Anyone citing that footnote is citing a typo.
- self-expression / willpower / enthusiasm. Wellness-register expansions of prayatna and ūrjas. 'Utsāha' (enthusiasm) is listed by WHO as a function of vata as a whole (ITA-2.1.1.8), not of udāna specifically.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Does Dalhana supply a seat for udāna where Sushruta gives none, and does it match Charaka's nābhi-uras-kaṇṭha?
- Is Sharngadhara PK 5.45 (phupphusa as seat of udāna) the earliest text to link udāna to the lungs, and did WHO consider it?
- Why does WHO's 'Ascending vata' description include effort and strength but omit complexion (varṇa) and memory (smṛti), both of which are in Charaka Ci.28.7 / AH Su.12.6?
- Does NAMASTE assign udāna vāta a code, and does its English term match WHO's 'Ascending vata'?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, udāna vāta
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/udana-vata/, 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.