vikriti

Vikriti is a term from Sanskrit that translates roughly as "deformity, alteration, or deviation." The word is used in several Indian scholarly and medical traditions, most prominently in Ayurveda, where it denotes a state of imbalance or deviation from an individual’s natural constitution.

In Ayurveda, a person’s inherent constitution is called prakriti, determined at conception by the predominance of the three doshas—Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Vikriti refers to any disturbance from that baseline, caused by factors such as diet, sleep patterns, climate, stress, or illness. When doshas become imbalanced, the body may exhibit vikriti symptoms such as irregular digestion, energy fluctuations, improper temperature regulation, and changes in skin, hair, or tissue tone. Treatments in Ayurveda seek to restore balance by dietary adjustments, lifestyle changes, detoxification practices (such as panchakarma), and herbs that help rebalance the doshas, guiding the patient back toward their prakriti.

Beyond Ayurveda, vikriti also appears in broader Sanskrit usage to denote modification, alteration, or deviation from a given form. In philosophical and scholarly contexts, it can signify transformation of structure or function and is often contrasted with prakriti, the notion of original nature or inherent form. In modern discourse, the term is sometimes used to describe pathological variations or abnormalities in a general sense, extending the concept of deviation to biology or medicine.

Overall, vikriti centers on the idea of deviation from an original or balanced state, with its most developed and specific application in Ayurveda as the expression of doshic imbalance.