The 107 Marma Points Explained

The 107 marma points are the vital junctions of the body as Ayurveda and its sister science of surgery map them, and they are among the oldest and most precise pieces of anatomy in the classical literature. The word marma means a hidden, tender or vital place, and Sushruta, the great surgical authority, defines a marma as a point where several kinds of living tissue come together and where life itself is said to gather. His count of one hundred and seven has been carried, almost unchanged, through the whole tradition since.

What a marma is

Sushruta gives a working definition in the sixth chapter of the Sharirasthana. A marma, he says, is a seat where mamsa (muscle), sira (vessels), snayu (ligaments and connective bands), asthi (bone) and sandhi (joints) meet. These meeting places are held to be charged with prana, the vital force, so that they are more sensitive and more consequential than the tissue around them. An injury to a marma is therefore not like an injury elsewhere; the tradition treats these points as seats where the doshas concentrate and where harm carries further.

This is why the marma were first mapped at all. Sushruta was a surgeon, and his interest was practical: a surgeon must know exactly where the vital points lie so as to avoid cutting or cauterising them. The marma chapter is, in its origin, a map of the places on the body a knife must respect. Only later did the same map become the ground of marma chikitsa, the therapeutic attention to these points.

How the 107 are counted

Sushruta does not scatter the marma at random; he surveys the whole body region by region and counts them systematically. The classical tally is arranged like this: the four limbs carry eleven marma each, giving forty-four; the trunk, the madhya sharira of chest, abdomen, back and sides, carries twenty-six; and the region above the collarbone, the head and neck, the jatrurdhva, carries thirty-seven. Forty-four, twenty-six and thirty-seven together make one hundred and seven. Later authorities, including Vagbhata in the Ashtanga Hridayam, follow this count closely.

Each marma is also given a measure, described in anguli, finger-breadths, so that its extent can be judged on the living body. Some are small, no wider than a finger; others spread across several finger-breadths. In this way the tradition treats a marma not as a mathematical point but as a defined vital area of the body.

The classical classifications

Sushruta sorts the 107 in several overlapping ways, and understanding the marma means understanding these groupings.

By predominant tissue

Each marma is named for the tissue that predominates in it. There are mamsa marma, where muscle leads; sira marma, where vessels lead; snayu marma, where ligaments and bands lead; asthi marma, where bone leads; and sandhi marma, where a joint leads. The classification tells the surgeon, and the therapist after him, what kind of structure is chiefly at stake at each point.

By the gravity of injury

The best known classification is by the consequence of harm, and it is here that the tradition’s caution is plainest. Sushruta gives five grades. Sadyah pranahara marma are those where a grave injury is most serious of all. Kalantara pranahara are those where the harm of an injury declares itself only over time. Vishalyaghna are points where the danger turns on whether a lodged object is removed or left. Vaikalyakara marma are those whose injury leads to lasting impairment or deformity rather than to the gravest outcome. Rujakara marma are those whose injury chiefly brings pain. This graded scheme is the heart of why the marma were mapped: to know, point by point, how much a wound there matters.

By region

Finally the marma are grouped by where they lie, the limbs, the trunk, and the head and neck, which is the division that yields the count of one hundred and seven.

Their role in therapy

Although the marma began as a surgeon’s map of places to avoid, the same knowledge underlies marma chikitsa, the therapeutic use of the vital points. Because the marma are held to be seats where prana gathers and where the doshas concentrate, some traditions work with them through touch, warm oil, gentle pressure and specific strokes, with the aim of settling the doshas, easing the movement of prana, and relieving stiffness and pain at and around the point. Everyday Abhyanga, the daily self-massage with warm oil, already passes gently over many marma, which is one reason the tradition values it so highly.

It should be said plainly that deliberate work on the vital points is skilled treatment. Sushruta’s whole scheme rests on the fact that some marma are places where injury is grave, and firm, targeted pressure on such points is not a casual matter. Marma therapy in the fuller sense belongs in trained hands.

Marma and the doshas

Ayurveda reads the marma through its physiology as well as its anatomy. The vital points are understood to be places where the doshas, and the subtle currents of prana, are especially present, so that a disturbance at a marma can be read in terms of aggravated Vata, Pitta or Kapha, and attention to a marma is described in terms of settling the disturbed dosha there. In this way the map of the 107 points is woven into the wider Ayurvedic view of the body as a field of doshas and channels, rather than standing apart as mere anatomy.

A note of caution

The tradition surrounds the marma with care for a reason. These are, by definition, the tender and vital places of the body, and the classical texts dwell at length on the danger of injuring them. Gentle self-massage with warm oil is a safe daily practice that touches many marma harmlessly, but deliberate, firm work on specific vital points is a therapy to be learned from and carried out by a qualified practitioner, not experimented with alone.

This article explains the classical Ayurvedic understanding of the 107 marma points and is for education, not medical advice. For any therapeutic marma work, consult a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner, and keep your doctor informed of any health concern.