Tridosha in Ayurveda

Tridosha in Ayurveda - Explanation by Dr Ayurveda

Doshas are bio-energies that are present throughout the body and mind. They regulate every physiological and psychological process in the living being. The principles of Ayurveda are based on the three doshas also known as tridoshas: vata, pitta and kapha. The tridoshas arise from the five elements and each dosha has 2 predominant elements:
● Vata → Akasa (space) + Vayu (air)
● Pitta → Tejas (fire) + Jala (water)
● Kapha → Pritvi (earth) + Jala (water)
In a healthy body, the doshas are in balance or in a state of equilibrium. When unbalanced, they cause various signs and symptoms. When left ignored this leads to complex diseases and problems. Therefore, the doshas are the causes of the disease process. Each of these are described in detail:

Vata:
Definition:
Arising from Sanskrit, vata means ‘that which moves things’ and sometimes translated as ‘wind’. It is defined by Susruta as ‘va gati gandhanayoh’. Gati means motion, moving and going, Gandhana means intimation, information and hint.

Characteristics/qualities:
As vata is composed of the elements akasha (space) and vayu (air), it is the moving force behind the other two doshas, pitta and kapha. The significant qualities of vata include:
● Invisibility (amurtatva) - one of the most important qualities. It is not in a visible form as pitta and kapha (also known as asanghatam), owing to its predominant elements, akasa and vayu.
● Instability (anavasthita) - this is also called chalatva mobility. Vata moves very swiftly and therefore has the ability to move pitta, kapha, dhattus (tissues) and malas (waste products), all of which are unable to move independently.
● Self existence (swayambhu) - the Sanskrit texts states that vata is self originated.
● Yogavahi - this means when associated with others, it is able to promote their qualities without losing its own identity/qualities e.g. Vata is still able to identify itself with both pitta (produces a feeling of heat) and kapha (produces a cold feeling) when inducing their activities.

● Other qualities:
- light (laghu) - due to the akasa and vayu elements of vata
- mobile (daruna), rough (khara) and clear (visada)
- cold (sita) - in terms of the action in the body rather than a sense of touch
- dry (ruksha)
- hard (kathinya) - as vata can make a substance hard by drying it up
- penetrative (sukshma) - due to akasa, the ability for vata to penetrate through the smallest areas in the body.

Location:
It is located throughout the body, but predominantly found in the:
● Head, oral cavity, throat, neck, chest
● Urinary bladder and the kidneys (vasthi moothrasaya)
● Large intestine and rectum (purishadhana)
● Small intestine or part of this where digestion is complete (pakvasaya)
● Pelvis or waist (kati or sroni)
● Thighs (sakthini), feet (padam)
● Bones (asthini)
● The sense organs: ears and the skin

Functions:
The two main functions of vata in a Nutshell is movement (cheshta) and knowledge (Jnana).
● It controls the mind and it is responsible for the actions of the mind, including the functions related to the one’s thoughts, emotions and memory.
● It is responsible for every actions in the body e.g. all vital functions such as respiration, heart rate and other functions for maintaining life, which are essential for human existence. Other examples include stimulating the digestive fire by stimulating the secretion of the digestive juices, circulation of nutrients from digestion and eliminating excretions (urine, faeces, sweat) from the body.

Vata functions occur in two types of states: physiological (prakrta kriya), conducted in the balanced state and abnormal (vaikrta kriya), due to an impaired state.

Pitta:
Characteristics/qualities:
It is made up of the elements, tejas (fire) and (jala) water. The physical properties:
● Colour is any excluding white and red - according to the susrutha, the colours are blue (nila) and yellow (peeta)
● Taste is pungent (katu) and acidic (amla)
● Smell, that of raw meat (visrata)
● Consistency is fluid (drava).
● Other qualities include:
- unctuous - greasy/oily (snigdha)
- hot (ushna)
- penetrative (tikshna)
- mobile (sara)
- light (laghu) and clear (visada) 

● Pitta may be in two states:
- raw, where it is bluish in colour and acid in taste or
- ripe, where it is yellow in colour and has a pungent taste

Location:
Pitta is found in various areas such as:
● stomach (aka amasaya in Sanskrit), intestines and the whole gut
● liver and spleen
● heart
● umbilical region (nabhi)
● brain
● nutrient body fluid (rasa or rasadhattu)
● lymphatic system (lasika)
● blood (rudhira)
● sweat (sweda)
● eyes (chakshu)
● skin (sparnanam)

Functions:
In summary pitta generates normal body heat, is involved with the hunger, thirst, appetite, digestion, power of vision and skin complexion. Other functions include the management of anger, courage and delusion. The functions can be classified as: physical and psychological / emotional as shown below:

Physiological functions:
● Stimulates normal appetite (kshut) and thirst (thrshna)
● Digestion and metabolism (pakti)
● Strength/power of vision or visual perception (darshanam)
● Producing normal heat (marausha)
● Responsible for normal skin complexion (prakrta varna), temperature, lustre (prabha) and softness of the body (dehamardava)
Psychological / emotional functions
● Responsible for all mental activities e.g. courage (sauryam), anger (krodham), delusion, infatuation (moham) and happiness (prasada)
● Aids in processing thoughts and emotions 

There are five types of Pitta:

• Pachakapitta
• Ranjakapitta
• Sadhakapitta
• Alochakapitta
• Bhrajakapitta

Kapha:
Definition
Kapha is defined as ‘kena jalena phalati iti kapha’. The synonym sleshma is derived from the root slish alingane - slish, which means to embrace, to cohere or to keep things together. Bala relates to overcoming opposition in a working situation and is a potential source of resistance to disease and decay. In an abnormal state, kapha may become a waste product (mala) that needs to be excreted from the body.
Characteristics/qualities:
The elements that form this dosha are jala (water) and prithvi (earth). The physical properties:
● It is white and transparent in colour.
● It’s taste is sweet (madhura) when well formed and salty (lavana) when not well formed.
● It is cool (sita), soft, yielding (mrdu and mrtsna), unctuous (snigdha), slimy (picchila), viscous (vijjala) and smooth (slakshna)
● The consistency is firm (sthira), dense and compact (sandra) and firm like coagulum (sara).
● Other qualities include: heavy (guru), inactive (manda), and stable (stimita).

Location:
Kapha is located in the:
● Small intestine
● Chest
● Head, root of the tongue and throat
● Joints of the body

Functions:
Kapha acts to restrict the forces of vata and pitta and prevent them from overworking, where their effects are active in the body. It provides support, strength and stability, both physically and psychologically. Functions include the following:
● Hold or to keep things together such as binding together various structures of the body e.g. the joints and (bandhana) the musculo-skeletal frame.
● To keep the body steady and sturdy (sthiratva), including firm and compact (dardhyata); and heaviness of the body (gaurava) / physical strength.
● Promotion of unctuousness / lubrication (snehana).
● Resistance to disease and decay (bala).
● Virility, sexual potency and capacity to reproduce (vrshta) and for growth (upachayam).
● It governs the human emotions (compassion, love, loyalty, forgiveness and patience), enthusiasm (utsaha), forbearance (kshama), fortitude, courage (dhrti), greedlessness (alobha) and intelligence (dhi, jnana).
● Responsible for knowledge, learning, wisdom (jnana); cognition, perception, comprehensiveness, understanding and talent (budhi). 

There are 5 types of Kapha:

• Tarpaka Kapha
• Bodhaka Kapha
• Sleshaka Kapha
• Avalambaka Kapha
• Kledaka Kapha