The examination of Prakruthi is an important subject by itself and is an expert’s work. There are broadly two methods an Ayurvedic expert adopts to determine the Prakruthi of an individual. They are the interrogatory method and the physical examination method.

The interrogatory method involves specific questions put to the individual. The physical examination method involves looking for specific physical and behavioural aspects of the individual. Given below is a questionnarie and the tentative answer for each type of Prakruthi which may help the reader in diagnosing his or her individuals Prakruthi. However, this should be regarded only as preliminary assessment and each individual should consult an expert Ayurvedic vaidya for confirmation of the Prakruthi and thereby take guidelines for diet, daily and seasonal regimen.

This is a general and simple way of diagnosing one’s Prakruthi. The reader answers the questions below and marks the positive answers. Each of these marks should be considered as one point obtained. In the physical examination method, for each positive sign which the individual feels or reckons to be appropriate, one point should be given and should be totalled tocalculate the score. The highest score of any particular type is the predominant dosha in the Prakruthi. Do not try and put marks in each and every column because it is possible for some of the columns to be blank.

Interrogatory Method

Question	Vata Type	Pitta Type	Kapha Type
Performance of activities	Quickly with a lot of initiative	Moderately medium	Very slowly initiation
Excitability	Quickly	Very quickly	Slowly
Power to grasp	Very fast	Quick	Slow
Memory	Very short	Medium	Long
Digestive power	Irregular	Very powerful	Weak
Ability to bear hunger	Sometimes good Sometimes poor	Poor	Very good
Quantity of food	Sometimes large Sometimes poor	Always large	Normal
Groups of taste desired	Sweet salt Sour	Sweet Bitter Astringent	Pungent Astringent Bitter
Thirst	Irregular	Very often	Seldom
Foods desired	Warm foods	Cold foods	Warm and dry stools
Bowel movements	Irregular	Loose stools	Regular well formed stools
Perspiration	Seldom	Very easily with foul body odour	Normal
Sexual desire	Meagre	Moderate	Abundant
Sleep	Interrupted & less	Normal	Excessive & deep sleep
Dreams	Flying, jumping,climbing hills etc.	Violence,fight struggle	Water bodies,clouds,romance
Attitude to problems or difficulties	Lot of worrying, instability	Angry,over-awed,easily Provoked & highly irritable	Peacefull, slow,steady
Your talk words	Very fast,missing	Sharp,provocative and clear cut	Slow,resonant,clear
Your talk	Very quick with movements	Normal	Slow and steady gait
Associated movements of body while working	Move legs, shoulder etc.	Normal	No associated movements
Physical Examination
Face	Small fore-head,darkish tinge, rough skin	Copper coloured with plenty of pimples	Attractive good looking,bright
Body weight	Light	Medium	Heavy
Body structure	Lean,tall	Medium size	Heavy, short
Skin	Dry, rough	Soft and warm	Soft, glossy,cold,clear
Body strength	Weak	Moderately strong	Strong
Blood vessels	Prominent,reticulated	Less prominent with greenish yellow colour	Not at all visible,deep
Body temperature	Slightly less than normal	Slightly above normal	Normal
Eyes	Protuberant,small, eyelashes scanty	Sharp, eyelashes are brown or copper/reddish coloured	Large and attractive, thick eyebrows
Teeth	Cracked irregular dull white	Moderate sized,yellowish	Large,white,strong
Nails	Rough,dry,less growth	Slightly glossy copper coloured	Long,white strong and thick
Lips	Dry,thin blackish	Reddish,soft,moist	Thick, glossy
Hands	Short	Medium	Long
Body hair	Scanty	Few and brownish	Thick,dark and plenty
Hair on the scalp	Brownish rough,dry	Scanty,tendency for early baldness	Plenty,thick,dark long and glossy
Joints	Prominent	Flabby	Strong, well formed compact
Abdomen	Thin	Normal	Large
Chest	Thin, narrow	Medium	Wide,strong well covered with muscle and fat
Body smell	None	Foul smell	Oily smell
Foot prints	III defined	Normal	Well defined
Tongue	Darkish spots	Copper coloured,thin	Clean and reddish
Pulse	Irregular, quick	Fast pace,volume is less	Slow, full in volume