Ayurvedic Prakriti has a Genetic Basis

Ashish Sahani
PhD Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital;
Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School; Cardiovascular Research Center

Ayurveda is considered as one of the upaveda. It is the oldest system of medicine which is a product of
integral view of life in Hindu Dharma where science, philosophy and religion are interwoven into each
other. In this age of reason, an intuitive system like Ayurveda, steeped in vedic symbolism is many times
viewed with a skeptic eye. Especially, its categorization of all humans into three types appears too
simplistic. But, often, profound truths are profoundly simple. Recently, a very important paper appeared
in the Scientific Reports journal published by the prestigious Nature group which showed that the triple
Prakriti classification is not arbitrary but, in fact, has a genetic basis. This work was done by a team of
scientists led by Prof. Kumarasamy Thangaraj from CSIR - Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,
Hyderabad in collaboration with multiple institutions throughout India. The paper can be accessed at the
following link:
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep15786
I was asked by Vande Mataram team to elucidate this work in lay terms so that people without any
ayurvedic or genetic background might make sense of this development.
Ayurveda is based on the premise that the body is manufactured out of five basic elements Air, Water,
Fire, Earth and Space. These elements form the three basic humors Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Vata is a
combination of air and space, Pitta is a combination of fire and water and Kapha is a combination of
water and earth. Vata governs movement, Pitta governs metabolism and Kapha governs the form. For
example, in the stomach, the form of the tissues of the stomach is governed by Kapha, the acids are
controlled by Pitta and the movement of food through the digestive system is governed by Vata. In a
healthy individual all three humors would be in balanced condition. An imbalance in one of these humors
might cause an associated disease. For example, in the stomach, a Vata imbalance can lead to
constipation, a Pitta imbalance to acidity and a Kapha imbalance might lead to damage of protective
lining in the stomach. Actually, Ayurveda rarely concerns itself with bacteria or viruses and almost
exclusively focusses on balance of humors.
The central idea is that if a field doesnt
provide nutrition to the weeds they simply
cannot grow there. A healthy body with
balanced humors doesnt provide the
breeding ground for disease causing agents.
Thats why Ayurveda is more preventive
than curative.
Almost every individual is born with one
dominant humor which is his individual
Prakriti. Thus one can be either Vata
Prakriti, Pitta Prakriti or Kapha Prakriti.
1|Ashish Sahani

Prof. Kumaraswamy Thanagaraj in his Lab

This is frozen at birth depending on ones parents and conditions during ones conception. It doesnt
change during once lifetime. An individual with Vata Prakriti would have Vata type tendencies like
working fast but tiring fast, memorizing fast but forgetting fast, quick anger and quick forgiveness.
He would also have Vata type body features like thin frame, long fingers and dry skin. And he would be
prone to Vata type diseases like constipation, joint pain and nervous weakness. Similarly Pitta and Kapha
Prakriti individuals would have Pitta and Kapha dominant characters respectively. Ayurvedic
practitioners observe the body type, mental disposition and preferences of a patient to intuitively judge the
prtakriti of a person. Nowadays there are many software available in the internet that can help you to
evaluate your ayurvedic Prakriti by answering a series of questions. The details of Prakriti are too many to
be covered in this short article. If the readers would like then, I can cover this in detail another time. For
now, we have sufficient understanding of Prakriti to understand the work of the Prof. Thanagrajs team.
Now, we would need to understand a little bit of genetics to understand this new correlation. DNA is
your full manufacturing datasheet. It contains all the information about your body like your height, the
color of your eyes, type of your hair, type of your skin basically all the information about you. The
information is coded in the DNA in form of nitrogen bases A (Adenine), T (Thymine), C (cytosine), G
(Guanine). Inside a DNA, these are arranged like a sequential assembly code; for example
AAGTCAGCAATTCCG. Each human has approximately three billion of these base pairs that
completely defines the body of a particular individual. A copy of your full DNA is contained in the
nucleus of each cell. Ribosomes are the protein producing factories in the cell. They read the genetic code
from the DNA and manufacture the encoded proteins. Actually, humans share 99.5% of their genome.
That means the difference between two human beings are just due to 0.5% of differences in the DNA.
These differences occur in form of single neucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Lets say the code for your
black hair protein is AAGGTCGTGC, your friend with brown hair might have a DNA code like
AAGGTTCGTGC. The difference is just at one base position and this is called a SNP. Scientists have
identified hundreds of SNPs which can explain particular body structures and vulnerability to particular
diseases. For example SNPs in ACT13 gene can aid fast twitch muscle fiber action and is a commonly
found in successful sprint athletes. Another SNP rs4665058 can increase the risk of sudden cardiac death
by 50%. Genome wide correlation studies are commonly done to find SNPs responsible for particular
diseases.
Common sense says that as Prakriti in Ayurveda defines body types and disease vulnerabilities and gene
SNPs also give us similar information so, there must be some link between both of them. In this study
Thangaraj and his team pooled 971 individuals from the Indian population where each person had one
clear dominant Prakriti. Out of them, they randomly selected 262 individuals and performed a genome
wide analysis on each of them. During this, they identified 52 SNPs that are clearly different in
individuals with different Prakriti. Using this they proposed a model to classify individuals into different
Prakritis purely on the basis of genetic analysis. In principal component analysis, this model could clearly
stratify the 262 controls onto three individual groups. Then they used this model to classify individuals
with unknown Prakriti. The classifications are strikingly clear and above all they have also found it to be
independent of ancestry.

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Principal component analysis (PCA) with 52 SNPs that showed p-value of <110-5 (A) PCA of 262 individuals
with known Prakriti showing three clusters (Vata, Pitta, Kapha), despite their linguistic, ethnic and geographical
diversity. (B) PCA projection of Indian population samples with the model.
Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep15786

Additionally, they also found a strong correlation between PGM1 gene and Pitta Prakriti. Earlier work
available in scientific literature suggests multiple pathways in which PGM1 is associated with digestion,
metabolism and energy production which is in fact the core function of Pitta as per Ayurveda.
If you ask me, I would say this is a ground breaking work on two counts. First, it proves that Ayurveda is
no humbug! Charaka stands vindicated. Secondly, this would now make it possible to evaluate your
Prakriti using lab based DNA tests which, I think, would be more accurate and objective compared to
current methods which are subjective and depend a lot on the experience of the doctor.
I am aware of many Indians, especially those with English education, looking at Ayurveda with
skepticism. It is expected. Minds of the current generation trained to look everything objectively would
find it hard to appreciate a subjective and intuitive medicine system like Ayurveda. Hopefully this work
would put all doubts to rest and restore the faith in our ancient system of medicine. At Harvard, we have
very active Chinese professors who have taken up numerous research projects on proving the efficacy of
Chinese medicine, Tai Chi and acupuncture. Comparatively, Indians are doing very little to promote or
preserve their much richer cultural inheritance. Many Ayurvedic products have been patented by foreign
companies. There have been attempts to patent aloe Vera, haldi, neem and brahmi. Yoga and meditation
have been taken up by western institutions, stripped off their spiritual and philosophical basis, converted
into a mere physical exercise routine which is now an industry worth billions of dollars. There are more
than 130 yoga related US patents. What are we doing about it? Nothing much! Work like this definitely
gives me great hope. We need to be proud of our spiritual heritage which has stood the test of time, and
now, even stands the test of science. As Sri Aurobindo would say, The spirit shall look out through
Matter's gaze. And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face.

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