mānasaprakṛti: what the term means and how it is translated
mānasaprakṛti मानसप्रकृति is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 5 different ways, which is the reason this page exists: the renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean.
| Transliteration | mānasaprakṛti |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | मानसप्रकृति |
| Also written | kāya, sattva, manas prakriti |
| Category, as gathered | prakriti |
| Grouped here under | Regimen and constitution |
| Classical citations | 5 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-08 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
Specific mental and physical personality type
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.8.10 (kāyaḥ, mānasaprakṛti) · standard
Notably not purely mental. WHO grounds the types in sattva/rajas/tamas and adds that the type 'may be influenced and refined by education and the inculcation of spiritual values', i.e. mutable, where doṣaprakṛti is immutable.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Person with tranquil, harmonious temperament
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-2.8.11 (sattvakāyaḥ) · standard
The type entries all read 'Person with … temperament', e.g. ITA-2.8.12 brahmakāyaḥ.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
mental temperaments
Sushruta Samhita, tr. Bhishagratna (1907-1916) · Sharirasthana IV v.72 · translation
Bhishagratna mixes -kaya and -sattva endings in English as the Sanskrit does.
varieties of mind called Pure
Charaka Samhita, tr. Kaviratna (1896-1913) · Sharirasthana IV · translation
Kaviratna renders the types as kinds of 'mind', never as a constitution, consistent with Charaka's word being sattva.
psychological constitution
Indian Ayurvedic college usage · textbook · our paraphrase of the source, not its words
Standard in classroom English; not a WHO rendering.
The classical passages
Each citation gives its address so a reader can check it in a printed edition, our account of what the passage establishes, and the result of reading it against its source.
Charaka SamhitaSharirasthana 4:37 · checked against the source
इत्येवं शुद्धस्य सत्त्वस्य सप्तविधं भेदांशं विद्यात् कल्याणांशत्वात्; तत्संयोगात्तु ब्राह्ममत्यन्तशुद्धं व्यवस्येत्||३७||
Closes the seven pure sattva types at verse 37 and names brāhma the purest.
Charaka SamhitaSharirasthana 4:40 · checked against the source
शुद्धस्य सत्त्वस्य सप्तविधो ब्रह्मर्षिशक्रयमवरुणकुबेरगन्धर्वसत्त्वानुकारेण, राजसस्य षड्विधो दैत्यपिशाचराक्षससर्पप्रेतशकुनिसत्त्वानुकारेण, तामसस्यत्रिविधः पशुमत्स्यवनस्पतिसत्त्वानुकारेण||४०||
The full sixteen-type scheme and its address: seven śuddha, six rājasa, three tāmasa. The classical locus for what moderns call mānasaprakṛti, and the text calls it sattva throughout.
Charaka SamhitaSharirasthana 4:37 · checked against the source
Thus should be known the seven varieties of mind called Pure. Amongst these that which has been called the ' Brahmya ' mind is regarded as the Purest in consequence of its perfect (or complete) union with what is good and auspicious.
Public-domain English for Sha 4/37; Kaviratna renders sattva-bheda as varieties of mind, not as a constitution.
Charaka SamhitaSharirasthana 4:36 · checked against the source
शरीरं ह्यपि सत्त्वमनुविधीयते, सत्त्वं च शरीरम्||३६||
Body follows mind and mind body, the warrant for WHO calling the type mental AND physical, and the reason a clean deha/mānasa split is not classical.
Sushruta SamhitaSharirasthana 4:73 · checked against the source
These seven types of men should be considered as belonging to the Sattvika group (of Sattvika mental temperament). Now hear me describe the features of men of Rajasika stamp (of mind).
Sushruta's parallel sixteen-type scheme with the same 7/6/3 division at Sharirasthana 4/73-76; his rājasa list is not in the same order as Charaka's.
Where this term does work in the theory
One concept record names this term as one of its components, and glosses it there as follows.
- Manas and the triguna: mind, sattva, rajas and tamas in health as Sattva
- The mind's clear, unvitiated quality: lightness, clarity, discernment. Not a dosha. Also used as a synonym for manas itself, and as a term for mental strength or endurance, which is the sense carried by sattva sara in Vimana 8.
Not to be confused with
- sattva
- The decisive one. Charaka never calls the sixteen types mānasaprakṛti; he calls them sattva-bheda (Sha 4/36-40), and at Vi 8/119 defines sattva as manas graded only pravara/madhya/avara.
- triguṇa
- The three universal guṇas (WHO ITA-1.9.4.2). The sixteen types derive from them but are not identical; a person is not 'a rajas'.
- doṣaprakṛti
- Fixed at conception and per Sushruta Sha 4/70-71 unalterable; WHO says mental type can be refined. Different mutability, different kind of thing.
- unmāda and other manasika rogas
- Mental type is a baseline description, not a diagnosis. ICD-11 TM2 codes mental disorders but no constitution.
Renderings that do not hold
- mental dosha type. Conflates guṇas with doṣas. Vi 6/5 calls rajas and tamas the mental doṣas but pointedly excludes sattva, so there is no 'sattva dosha'.
- personality type. WHO uses it, but it drops the explicitly moral and ritual content of the classical descriptions, which no personality inventory measures.
- mental constitution. Only wrong when paired with the immutability claim borrowed from doṣaprakṛti.
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Is mānasaprakṛti attested as a compound in any classical samhita, or entirely a modern coinage? Not found in the chapters retrieved.
- Do Charaka's and Sushruta's sixteen-type lists agree item for item, or only in shape?
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, mānasaprakṛti
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/manasa-prakriti/, CC BY 4.0.
The whole lexicon is downloadable from the index.
Machine-readable source: Markdown.
Data exported 2026-10-08.
Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been translated. Nothing here is advice, and nothing here describes how any condition should be treated.