Prana Vata

Prana vata is the first and the most vital of the five subdoshas of Vata, the five divisions into which the classical texts separate the mobile principle of the body. Its name joins prana, the breath of life, with vata, the moving principle, and it is understood as the inward-moving breath that governs the reception of everything the body and mind take in: the breath drawn through the nose, the impressions gathered by the senses, the thoughts stirred in the mind, and the food swallowed at the throat. To understand Vata at all, the tradition holds, one must begin with prana vata.

The five divisions of Vata

Ayurveda holds that Vata, the principle of movement, is one, but that it does the work of the body through five Vayus, five winds or divisions, each seated in its own region and given its own tasks. These are Prana, Udana, Samana, Vyana and Apana. The Charaka Samhita and the Ashtanga Hridayam name them and set out their seats and their functions, and between them they account for every movement in the body, from the beat of the breath to the passage of a thought.

Prana is named first because it is the leader. The Ashtanga Hridayam describes it as seated in the head and moving in the region of the chest and the throat, and the tradition treats it as the Vayu most closely tied to life itself, the one whose disturbance is the gravest.

The seat of prana vata

The classical texts seat prana vata in the head, in the shiras, and especially in the brain, and describe its sphere of movement as the region from the diaphragm upward: the chest, the throat, the tongue, the mouth and the nose. This is why prana governs the functions of the upper body and of the head and mind, rather than the lower functions of digestion and elimination, which belong to the other Vayus.

The seat in the head is the key to understanding prana. Because it dwells where the senses and the mind reside, prana is the Vayu of perception and of thought as much as of the physical breath. The old writers connect it closely with the Indriyas, the senses, and with the Manas, the mind.

The functions of prana vata

The classical texts assign to prana vata a set of functions all sharing the character of inward and downward reception:

The intake of breath. Prana governs shwasa in its inward aspect, the drawing in of breath. The very rhythm of breathing in is its work.

The reception of the senses. Prana carries the impressions of the five senses inward to the mind. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are received through its movement, which is why the tradition ties the clarity of the senses to the steadiness of prana.

The activity of the mind. Prana governs the Manas, the mind, and the Buddhi, the intellect. Attention, thought and the holding of the mind on its object are attributed to it, and this is why disturbances of prana show as much in the mind as in the breath.

Swallowing. The downward movement of food and drink at the throat, the act of swallowing, is prana’s work, carrying what is taken in downward toward the stomach.

Spitting, sneezing and belching. The sudden reflex movements of the upper passages, sneezing and the like, are also placed under prana.

Because all of these govern what enters the body and the mind, the tradition holds prana to be the foundation of the other four Vayus. The Charaka Samhita treats it as the sustainer of the body, the Vayu on which the rest depend.

It is worth marking a distinction the tradition itself draws. Prana is used in two senses. In its widest sense, Prana means the whole life force, the vitality that animates the living being, spoken of alongside Ojas and Tejas as one of the three subtle essences. In its narrower sense, the one meant here, Prana vata or Prana Vayu is the first of the five divisions of Vata, the specific wind seated in the head and governing the breath, the senses and the mind. The two senses are related, for the division of Vata called prana is the bodily bearer of the wider life force, but they are not the same, and the classical texts move between the two meanings knowing the difference.

When prana vata is disturbed

Like all of Vata, prana is aggravated by the cold, the dry, the light and the irregular, and by fear, grief, overwork and the strain of the senses and the mind. When it is disturbed, the classical texts describe the trouble showing in its own sphere: in the breath, in the head, in the senses and in the mind. Because prana is the most vital of the Vayus, the tradition treats its disturbance with particular seriousness and does not regard it lightly.

The remedy, in the classical view, follows the general principle of settling Vata but with attention to the head and the mind. The tradition reaches for warmth, oiliness, nourishment and regularity against the cold, dry, mobile quality, and for the practices that settle the head and the breath in particular.

How prana vata is supported

The general Vata measures. Warmth, oiliness, regular hours, nourishing food and an unhurried pace settle Vata as a whole, and prana with it. The tradition holds a settled Dinacharya, a regular daily routine, to be the ground of a steady prana.

Nasya. Because prana is seated in the head and enters by the nose, Nasya, the practice of nasal medication with a suitable oil, is the therapy the tradition most directly connects with prana. It is held to reach and settle the Vayu in its own seat.

Pranayama. The regulation of the breath, Pranayama, works directly on prana, and the tradition connects a slow, even, settled breath with a settled prana and a quiet mind. It is practised gently and under guidance.

A quiet mind and steady sleep. Because prana governs the senses and the mind, the tradition holds that quiet, unhurried living, moderation of the senses and steady, sufficient sleep support it especially. Overstimulation of the senses and a restless, sleepless mind are held to disturb it.

Suitable food and the Medhya herbs. The general Vata-settling diet, warm, moist, nourishing and taken at regular hours, supports prana as it supports all of Vata, and the tradition connects the Medhya herbs, those linked with a steady mind such as Brahmi and Shankhapushpi, with the mental aspect of prana in particular. Warm milk, ghee and the nourishing, grounding foods are held to steady the light, mobile quality that unsettles this Vayu.

Prana among the other Vayus

Prana is best understood alongside its opposite, Apana vata. Where prana moves inward and downward from the head, governing the breath drawn in, the senses and the mind, apana moves downward and outward in the pelvis, governing elimination, urination, menstruation and birth. The tradition holds the balance and the co-operation of these two, the inward breath above and the downward breath below, to be central to health, and much of the classical care of Vata attends to keeping them in their proper movement.

The other three, Udana in the chest and throat governing speech and the outward breath, Samana at the navel governing digestion, and Vyana pervading the whole body governing circulation and movement, complete the picture. Prana, seated in the head, is the first among them and the one the tradition treats as nearest to life itself.

Prana and udana are often spoken of together, for both work in the chest and the breath, and they may be thought of as the two halves of breathing: prana governs the breath drawn in and downward, udana the breath sent out and upward, which carries speech and effort. Prana and samana meet at the work of taking in nourishment: prana carries the food downward in swallowing, samana receives and digests it at the navel. And prana and vyana, the one gathered in the head and the other spread through the whole body, are the still centre and the moving whole of the vital wind. In every case the tradition treats prana as the leader and the ground, the wind on which the others depend, which is why its steadiness is held to be the steadiness of the whole.

Prana and the modern reader

For a reader today, the idea of prana vata is best met not as a claim about anatomy but as the tradition’s way of gathering together a set of functions that do in truth belong together: the breath drawn in, the senses that receive the world, the mind that attends, and the act of swallowing. Ayurveda binds these under one principle because they share a character, the inward reception of what the body and mind take in, and because it observed that they rise and fall together, that a scattered, anxious mind and a shallow, catching breath and a dulled sense of taste often come as one. Whether or not one holds to the classical physiology, the grouping is a shrewd observation of how the body and mind move as a whole, and the tradition’s remedy, to steady the breath, quiet the senses, keep regular hours and nourish the body, follows from it.

This entry describes the classical Ayurvedic understanding of prana vata and is offered for education, not as medical advice.