Dosha
Also known as: Vata, Pitta, Kapha
Sanskrit: दोष (dosha), meaning 'fault' or 'that which can go out of balance.'
Doshas are the three fundamental energies of Ayurvedic physiology, Vata (air and space), Pitta (fire and water), and Kapha (earth and water), said to govern all physiological and psychological processes. Every person is understood to have a unique combination of the three, with imbalance believed to underlie illness.
Ayurvedic diagnosis traditionally begins with identifying a person's baseline constitution (prakriti) and their current state of imbalance (vikriti), often through pulse reading and observation. Dietary and lifestyle recommendations are then tailored to bring the dominant or aggravated dosha back toward balance.
The three doshas, Vata (air and space, movement), Pitta (fire and water, transformation) and Kapha (earth and water, structure), are present in everyone in a unique proportion set at conception, called one's prakriti, or constitutional baseline. A dosha quiz result describing someone as simply 'a Pitta' oversimplifies the system considerably; classical Ayurveda also tracks a person's current state (vikriti), which shifts with season, age, diet and stress, and treatment aims to correct imbalance in vikriti rather than change someone's fundamental constitution.
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