Vikriti in Ayurveda: Your Present State and How It Differs from Prakriti

Vikriti is the Ayurvedic word for the way the doshas stand today. Where prakriti is the constitution said to be set at conception, vikriti is the current condition, shaped by recent food, weather, sleep, work, emotions and age. The classical texts treat the gap between the two as the key to advice.

This page explains the idea, what is said to move the doshas away from your baseline, and how the tradition reads the difference. It reports a traditional framework and cannot diagnose anything. Only a doctor can tell you what is happening in your body.

Prakriti and vikriti side by side

A helpful comparison is between your usual weather and today’s weather. Prakriti is the climate of a place, which stays much the same, and vikriti is the day’s forecast, which varies. A person with a pitta-led constitution may still, after weeks of cold weather, irregular meals and little sleep, show the dry, cold and restless signs that the texts associate with vata. That present picture is vikriti.

In the Charaka Samhita, the tenfold examination of the patient lists both prakriti and vikriti as things to be judged. The practitioner is meant to ask which dosha is out of its normal measure, and by how much, and not simply which dosha is strongest. The Ashtanga Hridayam teaches that a dosha is called vitiated when it departs from its proper measure by increasing or decreasing, and that the aim of the tradition’s advice is to bring it back toward its normal. This means a dosha can be too low as well as too high, though teachers talk about excess much more often.

What is said to move the doshas

The tradition names a long list of influences. They are not described as causing illness by themselves. They are described as shifting the balance.

• Food. Foods with qualities like those of a dosha are said to raise it. Cold, dry food is linked with vata, hot and spicy food with pitta, and heavy, sweet and oily food with kapha.
• Season. Each dosha is said to gather, increase and settle at different times of the year, a pattern the ritucharya teachings in the seasons section set out.
• Time of day and age. The texts place each dosha in particular parts of the day and of life. Read the doshas through the day and through life.
• Habits. Irregular sleep, suppressed natural urges, excess exercise or idleness, and constant stimulation are each linked with particular doshas.
• Mind. Worry is linked with vata, anger with pitta and attachment or lethargy with kapha.

How vikriti is read

Practitioners look at how you feel now: appetite, digestion, bowel habits, sleep, energy, mood, skin, tongue and pulse. They compare this with what is normal for you. If you are usually warm and hungry but currently cold and hungerless, they take note. The questions are about change from your own usual, which is why the tradition places such weight on the person’s history.

Self-assessment is possible only in a limited way. You can notice a general pattern: restless and dry, hot and irritable, or heavy and sluggish. The pages on the signs of vata, pitta and kapha imbalance describe the patterns the texts list. These descriptions are not tests. The same signs can have many ordinary and medical causes, and a pattern that persists should be looked at by a doctor.

Balance: like increases like, opposites reduce

A basic rule of the texts is that qualities that match increase each other, and opposite qualities decrease each other. When a dosha has risen, a practitioner favours food and habits with the opposite qualities, and when it has fallen, those with similar qualities. In daily life this gives the general habits described for each dosha on the pages on vata, pitta and kapha.

The texts add that the aim is not to suppress a dosha or to remake a person. A person of a pitta constitution is not meant to become a vata type. The aim is to keep each dosha in its own proper measure for that person.

An everyday example

Imagine a person of a kapha-led constitution who moves to a cold, dry place, works long hours and skips meals for a season. The texts would expect to see vata rising in that person, with dry skin, light sleep and a restless mind, even though the person’s original nature is steady and moist. A practitioner reading that picture would not tell the person that they have turned into a vata type. They would say that the present state is vata-like and suggest general habits of warmth and regularity until the pattern settles. The example is illustrative and not a case history.

What modern research says

No test exists to measure vikriti, and the idea has not been validated in clinical studies as a diagnostic method. It can be seen as a way of encouraging attention to patterns such as sleep, digestion and mood and linking them to habits, which is a useful thing to do, but it is not a substitute for a medical examination.

Safety notes

Reflecting on how your habits affect you is safe. Acting on a perceived dosha excess by fasting, cleansing, taking herbs or changing medication is not. Anyone who is pregnant, breastfeeding, a child, an older adult, living with a chronic condition or taking medicines should speak to a doctor before changing diet or starting anything new. Do not wait for a pattern to settle if you have severe, sudden or worsening symptoms.

This is education, not medical advice. The medical disclaimer applies to everything on the site. A doctor is the right person for any health concern, and a registered Ayurvedic practitioner (BAMS in India) for Ayurvedic treatment.

Frequently asked questions