Ayurveda, the classical Indian science of life, sorts constitution into three doshas, vata, pitta and kapha, each built from the five great elements. This report item works from those doshas and their elemental makeup, describing a likely balance and the qualities, seasons and remedies the tradition pairs with it. This page is descriptive of the tradition and is not medical advice.

History

Ayurveda's foundational surviving texts are the Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, both compiled over an extended period with layered, multi-author textual histories, generally dated by scholars across roughly the last centuries BCE into the early centuries CE, making Ayurveda one of the oldest continuously documented medical systems anywhere. Its constitutional theory rests on the panchamahabhuta, the five great elements Ayurveda shares with wider Hindu and Vedic cosmology, from which the three doshas, the constitutional principles that together make up a person's makeup, are themselves built.

The Three Doshas

Vata, built from air and ether, governs movement; Pitta, built from fire and water, governs transformation and metabolism; Kapha, built from earth and water, governs structure and stability. Every person is held to carry all three in a particular balance unique to them.

How A Reading Is Constructed

A reading works from a chart to describe a likely dosha balance and the qualities, seasons and remedies the Ayurvedic tradition pairs with that balance. As with other body based report items here, this page is descriptive of the tradition on its own terms and is not medical advice.

Where To Read More

• VataVata: air and ether, movement.
• PittaPitta: fire and water, transformation and metabolism.
• KaphaKapha: earth and water, structure and stability.