Prakriti is a commonly used term in Ayurveda. Prakriti means one’s psychosomatic constitution or mind-body type. In Sanskrit, the word prakriti means nature. Vikriti is synonymous with a disorder, disease, or pathological manifestation.
The concepts of prakriti or psychosomatic constitution and vikriti or disorder are significant in Ayurveda. They are used extensively for examining patients, prescribing Ayurvedic treatments, and helping people maintain overall health and well being.
This article will explain the Ayurvedic terms prakriti and vikriti.
Ayurveda says that there are pancha mahabhutas or five elements that are the basic building blocks of the body. These five elements are prithvi or earth, vayu or air, jala or water, agni or fire and akasha or ether (space).
Ayurveda believes that both our bodies and the entire universe are made up of these five elements. These five elements when combined form the three doshas of the body which are Vata dosha, Pitta dosha, and Kapha dosha.
Everyone possesses a unique combination of these five elements in varying degrees.
Vata dosha is mainly responsible for movements of the body, whereas the Pitta dosha is responsible for maintaining digestion, metabolism, and body temperature.
The Kapha dosha is mainly responsible for lubrication, cohesiveness, and body structure. Besides these primary functions, the three doshas are also responsible for many other important bodily functions.
These three doshas represent a body’s basic constitution or Prakriti.
According to Ayurveda, your prakriti is what determines your physical and mental characteristics.
A state of complete physical well being is said to be achieved when these three doshas are in equilibrium. Any imbalance in these doshas is considered to be the root cause of diseases and disorders.
An individual’s prakriti is determined based on their pancha mahabhutas and three doshas. This allows Ayurvedic practitioners to prescribe very specific treatment plans according to the individual’s unique constitution.
Identifying an individual’s physical constitution is an important step in devising a lifestyle and diet plan that is tailor-made for their particular constitution.
While a person’s basic prakriti remains the same throughout their life, sometimes, due to drastic changes in physical, emotional, mental, or lifestyle conditions, one’s psychosomatic constitution can change.
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A person’s basic prakriti is established even before birth. The factors that determine a garbha or fetus’ prakriti are the following.
The predominance of any of these factors determines the prakriti of the fetus and is the reason why someone’s prakriti might have a predominance of one dosha while another might have a combination of two or even three doshas.1
Seven types of Doshik Prakriti
Ayurveda describes seven types of doshik prakritis. These seven types of prakriti are Vata prakriti, Pitta prakriti, Kapha prakriti, Vata Pitta prakriti, Vata Kapha prakriti, Pitta Kapha prakriti and Sama Dhatu prakriti. Sama dhatu prakriti is a manifestation of all three dosha.
The qualities of Vata dosha are ruksha or rough, laghu or light, chala or mobile, bahu or abundant, shighra or swift, sheeta or cold, parusha or coarse and vishada or non-slimy.
The following qualities impart certain characteristics to Vata dominant individuals.
Roughness
Lightness
Mobility
Bahu Guna or abundance
Shighra Guna or swiftness
Coldness
Coarseness
Non-Sliminess
According to Ayurveda, Vata-dominant individuals may have lesser strength, stamina, life expectancy, children, and wealth due to the aforementioned qualities.2
Read More: Vata Diet – Everything You Need To Know
The qualities of a Pitta prakriti are ushna or hot, tikshna or sharp, drava or liquid, vistram or rotten smell, amla rasa or sour taste and katu rasa or pungent.
The following qualities impart certain characteristics to Pitta dominant individuals.
Hotness
Sharpness
Liquid
Vistram Guna (rotten smell)
Pungent and Sour Taste
According to Ayurveda, Pitta-dominant individuals may have moderate strength, lifespan, knowledge, understanding, wealth and means.3
Read More: Pitta Diet – Everything You Need To Know
The qualities of Kapha dosha are snigdha or oily, shlakshna or smooth, mridu or soft, madhura or sweet, sara or essence, sandra or dense, manda or slow acting, stimita or stable, guru or heavy, sheeta or cold, vijjala or slimy and acchah or clear.
The following qualities impart certain characteristics to Kapha dominant individuals.
Oily
Smooth
Softness
Sweetness
Nature Essence
Dense
Slowness
Stability
Heaviness
Coldness
Sliminess
Clarity
According to Ayurveda, Kapha-dominant individuals may be strong, wealthy, knowledgable, brave, calm and live long.4
Read More: Kapha Diet – Everything You Need To Know
When any two doshas are combined together, the prakriti becomes a dwandaja or dual prakriti. This can be a Vata-Pitta, Vata-Kapha, and Pitta-Kapha prakriti.5
In dwandaja prakriti, characteristics and features of both dosha are present.
Dual prakriti has also been termed as dwi doshaja prakriti by Ayurvedic scholars.
When the characteristics of all three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) are found together, it is called sama dhatu prakriti.6
While this is considered the perfect state, it rarely occurs in the majority of individuals.
Sama dhatu prakriti has also been termed as tri-doshaja prakriti or sanni paatik prakriti by Ayurvedic scholars.
Ayurveda mention manas prakriti or mental constitution on the basis of mental characteristics.
There are three types of manas prakriti namely Sattva, Rajo, and Tamo.7 These three manas prakritis are also known as mano gunas.
In the classic Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita, a total of 16 kinds of manas prakriti have been mentioned. Sattvik prakriti is subdivided into seven types, rajsik prakriti is subdivided into six types, and tamsik prakriti is subdivided into three types.
In Ayurveda, some practitioners treat patients on the basis of their pancha bhautik prakriti. This is often confused with doshik prakriti because the two concepts are quite similar.
The three doshas are made up of the pancha mahabuta or five elements in different proportions. The only difference, however, is how the two concepts are represented in Ayurveda.
The text Sushruta Samhita describes five basic prakritis on the basis of pancha mahabhautik: pavan or air (vayu), dahan or agni (Pitta), toya or water (Kapha), prithvi or earth, and nabhas or ether.8
Read More: Panchabhautik Chikitsa: A Unique Branch Of Ayurvedic Medicine
What Vikriti really means is a disorder or pathological manifestation. A patient’s vikriti is also analyzed alongside their prakriti in Ayurveda.
A patient’s vikriti is examined in terms of the hetu or cause of the disorder, dosha (vitiating factors), dushya (vitiated factors), prakriti or constitution, desha or place, kala or time, bala or strength, and lakshana or symptoms.
These factors help in determining what the Vikriti is.
A disease or disorder is considered severe when it has a common dosha, dushya, constitution, place, and time along with a strong cause and severe symptoms.
A disease or disorder is mild when dosha, dushya, constitution, place, and time are not common and when the cause and severity of the symptoms are mild.
A disease or disorder is moderate when the dosha, dushya, constitution, place, and time have some commonalities and the cause and severity of symptoms is moderate.9
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