# vimārgagamana (विमार्गगमन)

> Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/vimarga-gamana/

An Ayurvedic technical term, rendered into English in 5 different ways.
The renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken
to mean.

## Identification

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Transliteration | vimārgagamana |
| Devanagari | विमार्गगमन |
| Also written | vimārgagamanam, vimārga-gamana, vimarga gaman, vimargagamana, vimarga gamanam |
| Category, as gathered | srotas-concept |
| Grouped under | Body: tissues, wastes and channels |
| Classical citations | 2 |
| 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 displacement of contents

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · Entry ITA-4.8.7, section 4.8, p. 116; Sanskrit vimārgagamanam / विमार्गगमनम्; description "Diversion to the flow of the contents and movement in the wrong body channels." · standards-body

WHO's English term ('displacement of contents') and its description ('movement in the wrong body channels') pull in slightly different directions, displacement of a substance versus travel down a wrong route. The Sanskrit is unambiguous: vi-mārga = wrong road, gamana = going.

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.

### diviations (of the elements from their own into other channels)

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

'diviations' is an OCR artifact for 'deviations' in the archive.org scan. Kaviratna's parenthesis is an accurate unpacking: the dhatus leaving their own channels for others. This is the most faithful public-domain English available.

### Vimarga Gaman (Opposite Direction Flow)

Sharma S et al., Int. Res. J. Ayurveda & Yoga 6(12):98-102 (2023) · DOI 10.47223/IRJAY.2023.61218, section 3.11.4 · modern-journal-review

A common but narrower textbook rendering. 'Opposite direction' is only one case of 'wrong route'; the paper's own example (udakavaha and svedavaha channels in jwara samprapti) is not about reversal at all.

### misdirection of flow

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

The most accurate of the common conventions.

### not verified

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

Unretrieved.

## The classical passages

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

> विमार्गगमनं चापि स्रोतसां दुष्टिलक्षणम्||२४||

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

vimārgagamana as the fourth sign of srotodushti. The only verified classical occurrence of the term I located.

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

> or diviations (of the elements from their own into other channels), are regarded as indications of the vitiation of the ducts.

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

The lawfully quotable English. His parenthesis makes explicit what WHO's 'displacement of contents' leaves vague: it is the dhatus/contents leaving their proper channel for another channel.

## 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 Vimargagamana): Diversion of the channel's contents into a channel not its own (fourth mode)

## Not to be confused with

- **pratiloma gati.** Movement against the normal direction (retrograde), as in pratiloma vata. That is reversal along the SAME path. vimārgagamana is departure onto a DIFFERENT path. Textbook renderings that say 'opposite direction flow' conflate the two.
- **prasara (प्रसर).** The third stage of shatkriyakala, in which aggravated doshas overflow their own seats and spread through the body. That is a normal-for-pathology stage of dosha movement; vimārgagamana is a sign of the CHANNEL being vitiated. They are described at different levels of the model.
- **saṅga.** Frequently the cause of vimārgagamana rather than an alternative to it, WHO's own saṅga entry notes obstruction 'sometimes resulting in the formation of a collateral pathway'. The four signs are not independent.
- **ativyāpti / dhātu-sāṅkarya.** Terms occasionally used in secondary literature for mixing of tissue elements. Not the same as a content travelling a wrong channel.

## Renderings that do not hold

- opposite direction flow / retrograde flow. The commonest error. vi-mārga is 'wrong road', not 'reverse road'. Retrograde flow is pratiloma. Vomiting is often cited as the example, but vomiting is only one instance and not the paradigm case.
- extravasation. A vascular-specific biomedical term. vimārgagamana applies across all thirteen channels including annavaha and purishavaha, where extravasation is meaningless.
- shunting. Attractive because WHO's saṅga entry mentions collateral pathways, but shunt implies an anatomically defined abnormal connection, which the Sanskrit does not assert.

## Open questions

Recorded rather than resolved.

- Whether Chakrapani or any commentator gives worked examples of vimārgagamana, and whether they include reversal as a case.
- Whether the term occurs anywhere in Sushruta. I did not find it, but my Sushruta full-text search covered only the Nidana and Sharira sthanas of the Bhishagratna scan, so absence is not established.
- Whether NAMASTE or ICD-11 TM2 carries any code whose definition depends on this concept.

## Citation

Age Ayurveda Nighantu, "vimārgagamana", https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/vimarga-gamana/, 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.