Manasa Prakriti: The Mental Constitution

Manasa prakriti is the Ayurvedic constitution of the mind, the natural cast of a person’s temperament, and it stands alongside the more familiar constitution of the body. Where the bodily constitution, the Deha Prakriti, is described in the three doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha, the mental constitution is described in a different set of three: the gunas of the mind, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. These are the three qualities that the classical texts hold to compose every mind, and the balance among them from birth sets a person’s psychological nature. A complete Ayurvedic picture of a person, the tradition holds, considers both the doshic body and the guna-cast mind.

Two constitutions, two frames

It is important, first, to see that Ayurveda describes the human being on more than one level and uses a different frame for each. The physical body is understood through the Panchamahabhuta, the five great elements, and the three doshas built from them. The mind is understood through the three gunas of nature, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the same three qualities that the wider Indian philosophy of Samkhya uses to describe the whole of manifest existence. So a person has a Deha Prakriti, a bodily constitution of Vata, Pitta and Kapha, and a Manasa Prakriti, a mental constitution of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and the two are not the same and are not read in the same terms. The bodily constitution is treated in Deha Prakriti; this article treats the mind.

The two levels do interact, and the tradition draws connections between them, but they are distinct. A person of a given body type is not thereby fixed to a given mind type; the classical texts describe the mental constitution as its own thing, set by its own balance of the three gunas.

The three gunas of the mind

The whole of Manasa Prakriti rests on the three gunas, and each must be understood in its own right.

Sattva is the quality of clarity, balance, purity and harmony. A mind in which Sattva predominates is calm, clear, truthful, kind, disciplined and capable of steady attention and sound judgement. Sattva is the quality the tradition prizes above the other two, because it is held to be the ground of a clear mind and a good life, and much of Ayurvedic mental care aims at raising it.

Rajas is the quality of movement, activity, passion and restlessness. A mind in which Rajas predominates is energetic, ambitious, driven, changeable and prone to strong desire, anger and agitation. Rajas is not simply negative; it is the force of action and achievement, and without it the mind would be inert. But in excess it brings restlessness, craving and a lack of peace.

Tamas is the quality of heaviness, inertia, dullness and confusion. A mind in which Tamas predominates is slow, sleepy, resistant to change, and prone to dullness, confusion and lethargy. Like the others it has a place, since Tamas underlies rest and sleep, but in excess it clouds the mind and dims judgement and will.

Every mind holds all three, and the Manasa Prakriti is named by which predominates. The tradition treats Sattva as the quality most conducive to wellbeing, Rajas and Tamas as the two that, in excess, unsettle and cloud the mind. The classical texts even describe Rajas and Tamas as the two Manasa Doshas, the doshas of the mind, in the sense that their excess is what disturbs mental balance, much as the excess of a bodily dosha disturbs the body.

The sixteen classical types

The Charaka Samhita, in Sharirasthana, does not leave the mental constitution at three broad qualities. It sets out sixteen types of mind, grouping them under the three gunas and naming each after a model or archetype. This detailed scheme is one of the tradition’s most striking accounts of temperament.

Under Sattva the text names seven types, each characterised by a lofty model: among them the divine or Brahma type, marked by purity, truthfulness and self-control; the sage-like or Rishi type, marked by wisdom and restraint; and further types named after other high models, each describing a cast of mind rich in clarity, discipline, generosity or devotion.

Under Rajas the text names six types, characterised by passion, energy and its excesses: among them the heroic or Shakra type, bold and commanding; and further types marked by fierceness, sharp appetite, restlessness or a taste for display, each describing an active, driven and passionate temperament.

Under Tamas the text names three types, characterised by heaviness and dullness: types marked by inertia, indiscipline, fear or a sluggish, confused cast of mind.

These sixteen are best read as classical characterisations of temperament, vivid portraits of how the three gunas combine into recognisable kinds of mind, rather than as clinical categories to be assigned mechanically. Their value is in showing that the tradition observed and named the great variety of human temperament with care, and organised it under a coherent scheme.

Reading the mental constitution

The classical assessment of Manasa Prakriti is a matter of observing the enduring cast of a person’s mind: their habitual clarity or agitation or dullness, their courage or fear, their generosity or grasping, their steadiness or changeableness, their truthfulness, their patience, their appetite for activity or for rest. The Charaka Samhita, in Vimanasthana 8, includes the assessment of Sattva, the strength and steadiness of mind, among the things a practitioner examines in a person, alongside the bodily constitution, the digestive fire and the tissues. A strong Sattva is read as a settled, resilient mind; a weak Sattva as one easily unsettled.

As with the bodily constitution, this reading looks at the stable, lifelong pattern rather than the mood of the day. A person may be agitated on a particular afternoon without being of a Rajasic constitution; the constitution is the settled tendency that has held over time.

A key difference: the mind can be cultivated

Here the mental constitution parts company, in an important way, from the bodily one. The tradition holds the Deha Prakriti to be fixed at conception and unchangeable, as set out in Can Prakriti Change?. But it treats Sattva as something that can be cultivated. The classical texts actively encourage the raising of Sattva and the reducing of Rajas and Tamas, and they give the means: Sattvic food, that which is fresh, pure, wholesome and lightly prepared; a regular, disciplined routine; truthfulness, non-harming and good conduct; the company of the wise; the study of worthy things; and practices that quiet the mind, such as gentle Pranayama and meditation. This is why Sadvritta, the classical code of right conduct, and Achara Rasayana, the rejuvenation that comes from good behaviour, hold such a place in Ayurveda: they are, in effect, the cultivation of a Sattvic mind.

So while a person is born with a natural mental cast, the tradition does not regard the balance of gunas as a fixed sentence in the way the bodily doshas are. The mind, in the classical view, is workable. A person can, through diet, conduct and practice, strengthen the clear and balanced quality and lighten the restless and the dull, and much of the ethical and contemplative side of Ayurveda is directed to exactly this.

How body and mind relate

Although the two constitutions are described in different terms, the tradition does connect them. A predominance of a bodily dosha is often observed alongside a leaning in the mind: the quick, mobile quality of Vata with a lively, changeable and sometimes anxious mind; the sharp, hot quality of Pitta with a keen, driven and sometimes irritable mind; the heavy, steady quality of Kapha with a calm, patient and sometimes complacent mind. These are tendencies the tradition notes, not rigid rules, and the mental constitution is read in its own right through the three gunas. The point of holding both frames is that a person is body and mind together, and the classical care of a person attends to both.

In summary, and cautions

Manasa prakriti is the constitution of the mind, set by the balance of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and it runs parallel to but distinct from the doshic constitution of the body. The three gunas, clarity, activity and inertia, compose every mind, and their predominance names the mental type, with Sattva held to be the most conducive to wellbeing. The Charaka Samhita’s sixteen types illustrate how these qualities combine into recognisable casts of temperament. Unlike the fixed bodily constitution, Sattva is held to be something a person can cultivate through food, routine, conduct and practice. The descriptions here are classical characterisations of temperament, not clinical diagnoses, and any real concern about mental wellbeing should be discussed with a qualified professional. A registered Ayurvedic practitioner can help read both a person’s mental and bodily constitution.

This article describes the classical Ayurvedic understanding of manasa prakriti and is offered for education, not as medical advice.