One of characteristic features of Traditional Medical Systems is that they treat the individual rather than only the disease. Treatment is fine tuned to the requirement of the person taking into consideration the individual constitution, susceptibility to diseases, mental make up, lifestyle etc. This has been developed to a very high degree of refinement in Ayurveda with its powerful concept of "Prakruthi", meaning - constitution at a physical and mental level. The purpose of this monograph is to provide a general introduction outlining the concept of Prakruthi in Ayurveda. The monograph enables the reader to make a preliminary assessment of his or her Prakruti and provides guidelines for the adaptation of one’s food and seasonal regimen to suit one’s Prakruthi, Prakruthi has been dealt with, both at the physical and mental levels.

We are grateful to Vaidya Vilas Nanal from Pune for granting permission to use his material regarding diagnosis of Mental Prakruthi which appears in Chapter-VII and to Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Madras for permission to reproduce the Kalamkari illustrations that appear in Chapter-VII of this monograph. We are grateful to Dr. Latha Sathish for reading the manuscript and providing various useful suggestions and to Ms. Lalitha Rao for copy editing the text. Finally our grateful thanks to M.M. Muthian Research Foundation for sponsoring the preparation and publication of this monograph.

Chennai
July 1997