---
type: Concept
bundle: ayurveda-consciousness
bundle_version: 0.11.0
id: srotas
title: Srotas
iast: Srotas
devanagari: स्रोतस्
description: 'The channel system of the body, gross and subtle, through which dhātus, doṣas, wastes, nutrients, and even mental content move, whose obstruction or misdirection is a formal stage of pathogenesis; NOT meridians, NOT blood vessels only, NOT metaphorical plumbing.'
darshana:
- Āyurveda
text_source: Charaka Vimānasthāna 5.3
tags:
- srotas
- channels
- pathology
- ayurveda
not:
- term: 'meridians'
  why: 'The acupuncture meridian is a different theoretical object from a different medical system. Srotas are transport channels defined by what they carry (thirteen classical families in Charaka, from prāṇavaha to manovaha), with their own diagnostics of blockage, overflow, and wrong-direction flow.'
  instead: 'Render srotas as the channel system, specified by what each channel carries, and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'blood vessels only'
  why: 'Vessels are members of the system, not the system. Srotas include channels for breath, food, water, each tissue, each waste, and the mind channel (manovaha srotas), which is how psychiatric presentation enters the same pathology grammar.'
- term: 'metaphorical plumbing'
  why: 'The channel model does real diagnostic work: srotoduṣṭi (channel vitiation) has defined signs and treatment implications; it is a clinical category, not a figure of speech.'
related:
- /concepts/ama.md
- /concepts/dhatu.md
- /concepts/agni.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Srotas -- स्रोतस्

**Not:** meridians, blood vessels only, metaphorical plumbing

## What It Actually Means

Srotas are the transport infrastructure of the organism. Charaka defines them by cargo: channels carrying prāṇa, food, water, each of the seven dhātus, the three wastes, and the mind, thirteen families in the classical count, each with origin points and signs of derangement. The channel is where physiology becomes pathology: doṣas vitiate, āma lodges, and the resulting srotoduṣṭi takes four canonical forms, excess flow, blockage, growths, and flow diverted from its proper path. Much of treatment is channel logic, clearing what is blocked, redirecting what has strayed, before rebuilding what is depleted. The inclusion of a mind channel matters: it lets one grammar of obstruction and flow describe both a congested liver and an obsessive thought pattern, which is the systemic mind-body integration this bundle keeps meeting.

## Audience Metaphor

A city is its road, rail, water, power, and data networks before it is any building. Traffic engineers classify failures the same four ways: overload, blockage, illegal construction on the right-of-way, and traffic rerouted where it should never go. Srotas theory is that engineering manual for the body.

## Citations

1. Charaka Saṃhitā Vimānasthāna 5.3 on the channel families and their vitiation -- see [references/charaka-samhita.md](../references/charaka-samhita.md)
2. Suśruta Saṃhitā Śārīrasthāna 9 on srotas and their injuries -- see [references/sushruta-samhita.md](../references/sushruta-samhita.md)
