# Marma-Cikitsā (Marma-Point Therapy)

> Marma-Cikitsā is hands-on stimulation of marma points, the 107 vital sites enumerated by Suśruta. The record describes acupressure-style pressure applied to these points, either combined with abhyaṅga oil massage or on its own. It is given by a trained practitioner, and the record supplies no oils, timings or frequency.

## Key facts

- **Sanskrit name:** मर्म-चिकित्सा / Marma-Cikitsā

## What it is

The record classes Marma-Cikitsā as *kriyā-bāhya*, an external procedure, and glosses it in English as marma-point therapy. Its two recorded steps are acupressure-style stimulation of the 107 marma points, applied either alongside *abhyaṅga* oil massage or as a standalone treatment.

## Where the 107 comes from, and what the source actually says

The record cites **Suśruta Saṃhitā, Śārīra Sthāna 6**, and the number checks out. That chapter, properly titled *Pratyeka-marma-nirdeśa Śārīram*, enumerates exactly 107 marmas in five classes: 11 *māṃsa-marma*, 41 *sirā-marma*, 27 *snāyu-marma*, 8 *asthi-marma* and 20 *sandhi-marma*.

But the chapter's purpose is worth being precise about, because it is not what a reader might assume from the therapy's name. Suśruta defines marmas as places where veins, arteries, ligaments, joints and muscles unite, and where injury generally proves fatal. The chapter is surgical anatomy written to tell a surgeon where *not* to cut, with instructions such as making an incision a finger's breadth away from the Ūrvī, Kūrca-śiras, Viṭapa, Kakṣā and Pārśva marmas. It is a map of what to avoid injuring.

So the citation is correct for the enumeration of the 107 points and for the concept of marma. It is not a source for a manual therapy applied to those points, and I found no such protocol in it. Anyone presenting Śārīra 6 as the classical basis for marma massage is stretching what that chapter contains. The record's own subtitle for it, "Marma-vibhāga", is also not the chapter's title.

## What it involves

The record gives two steps and no more: acupressure-style stimulation of the 107 marma points, and the note that it is combined with *abhyaṅga* or done standalone. There is no preparation, no aftercare, no session length, no course length, no frequency and no seasonal guidance in the record.

## What is used

Nothing is named. The record's oil, dravya and material fields are all empty, even though it mentions *abhyaṅga*, which is an oil procedure. If a practitioner uses an oil, that choice is theirs and is not documented here.

## What to ask before booking

- what the practitioner's training in marma work specifically is
- how much pressure is applied and how they judge it, given the classical framing of these sites as points of vulnerability
- whether any oil is used, and which
- what they say the treatment is for, and whether that claim matches what the classical source actually says

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Canonical version of this page: https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/practice/marma-cikitsa/

Published by Age Ayurveda in the Nighantu. Educational reference only, not medical advice.
Incorporates material from the Amidha Ayurveda Herb Database under CC BY 4.0.