46 chapter
practice that have emerged, mostly but not exclusively, in institutional settings
in South India. Th e contemporary practices are informed by classic texts inter-
preted in contemporary contexts and confi gured partially in relation to allo-
pathic discourses and practices.
One of the fi rst characteristics that is usually highlighted in descriptions of
ayurveda is its knowledge^5 of three dosas—vata (often translated as “wind”),
pitta (“bile”) and kapha (“phlegm”)—which underlie the functioning of the
body and mind. Dosa is often translated as “humor,” which, while no transla-
tion can be completely adequate, has the problem of invoking an image of
substances fl owing around the body. For many, the term “humor” calls to mind
a quaint, outdated medical concept, a belief people had about substances that
circulated in the body until anatomy revealed the truth of human physiology.
Dosas are probably best seen as principles of relationship, or as Zimmermann
(1995) suggests, mnemonic devices, ways of thinking about the body. Yet dosas
should not be viewed as abstract. Although they cannot directly be seen in
the way blood or other bodily substances can, they underlie and aff ect tan-
gible characteristics of the body, as well as other substances of nature.^6 “Wind,”
“bile” and “phlegm” are common, but limited, translations for the dosas: vata,
pitta and kapha. “Wind” is probably the best of these translations, but the
meaning of vata is more precise if one can imagine, in addition to the notion
of wind, the principle that is inherent in wind, in dryness and in motion. “Bile”
is improved if one also adds the notion of fi re or heat, and kapha features char-
acteristics such as “coolness” and “slowness” in addition to “phlegm.”
Ayurvedic texts also describe seven dhātus, or substances of the body: rasa
(lymph, plasma), rakta (blood, or more specifi cally the colored agent of blood,
something like hemoglobin), māmsa (muscle), medas (fat), asthi (bone and car-
tilage), majja (marrow), śukra (seed, reproductive substance).^7 In addition to
dosas and dhātus, ayurvedic medical knowledge includes numerous other cat-
egories related to functions and processes of the body, mind and intellect, such
as gunas (mental dispositions), malas (bodily waste products), agnis (transfor-
mative agents), and srotas (channels of circulation).
Disease can arise from vitiation of dosas—excessive or insuffi cient activity
of one or more dosas—which can result from diet, behavior, environmental
factors and other infl uences. Healing is eff ected by prescribing medications,
diet and lifestyle changes designed to improve the activity of the dosas. Several
books on ayurveda, especially those written for a popular audience interested
in alternative health regimens in the United States, Europe and India, often
describe ayurvedic therapy as restoring balance to the dosas. Alter’s 1999 cri-
tique of the remedial bias in medical anthropology through his analysis of
ayurvedic views of health, as well as my own observations on the limitations