General And Specific Kapha Disorders – Kapha Samanya – Nanatmaja Vyadhis

By Dr Raghuram Y.S. MD (Ay) & Dr Manasa, B.A.M.S

Kapha dosha increase and decrease can lead to diseases. These Kapha diseases can be categorised as
Kapha Samanya Vyadhi – General Kapha disorders, wherein Kapha is the dominant Dosha, but other 2 Doshas are also involved in pathology.

Kapha Nanatmaja Vyadhi – Pure Kapha disorders wherein this Dosha alone has aggravated.

Table of Contents

Kapha Samanya Vyadhi

General diseases with kapha predominance

These are sub types of general diseases like fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal disorders, cough, heart diseases, and urinary disorders etc having and caused by predominantly vitiated Kapha. So, obviously it is a sub-type of a main disease. These diseases are also caused by Vata and pitta. Some diseases also have sub-types caused by dual and triple vitiation of doshas. Some sub-types are named on basis of their unique presentation in spite of being caused by same doshas which cause main disease.
Read – Anemia: Ayurvedic Treatment, Medicines, Remedies

Example, pandu roga i.e. anaemia is of five types i.e.

Vataja pandu – caused by predominant vitiation of vata
Pittaja pandu – caused by predominant vitiation of pitta
Kaphaja pandu – caused by predominant vitiation of kapha
Sannipataja pandu – caused by simultaneous vitiation of all three doshas
Mrud bhakshana janya pandu – caused by eating of mud

Read – Role of Doshas In the Causation of Disease

Here anaemia is a general disease caused by involvement of more than one dosha and has five sub-types of presentation. When anaemia is caused by predominance of kapha dosha, it is called as samanya disease of kapha type. Here, anemia is a general disease and kaphaja anemia is a type of this general disease. Thus we can also find kaphaja types in many general diseases.
Read – Classification of Vyadhi (diseases) according to Ayurveda

All diseases are caused by aggravation of doshas. Each disease is classified on basis of predominant dosha(s) causing disease. When kapha is predominantly involved in formation of disease, they will be named as kaphaja or ‘caused due to vitiated kapha’.

It will generally be sub-type of a disease. Like in above said example, kaphaja pandu is anaemia caused predominantly by kapha. symptoms too will be predominantly of kapha. But anaemia is not caused by only kapha, since this disease has other sub-types too.
Read – Ayurvedic Principles Of Naming Disease: Vyadhi Namakarana Siddhanta

Sannipataja Pandu is caused by vitiation of all three doshas.

Mrud bhakshana janya pandu indicates ‘eating earth’ as causative factor of anaemia. Even in this case, doshas are involved. This type of anaemia is given a distinctive name because of involvement of ‘eating mud’ in causation of this type of anaemia.

Examples

Other examples of Samanya Vikaras caused by kapha predominance:

Kaphaja Jwara – Fever caused by vitiated kapha
Kaphaja Atisara – Diarrhea caused by vitiated kapha
Kaphaja kasa – Cough caused by vitiated kapha
Kaphaja Arshas – Piles caused by vitiated kapha etc

In this type we need to remember that fever, diarrhoea, cough, piles etc diseases are also caused by vitiation of other doshas i.e. vata and pitta and also dual and triple vitiation of doshas. When that disease is caused by predominant vitiation of kapha, it gets tagged with term ‘Kaphaja’. This differentiates Samanya Kaphaja Vyadhis from Nanatmaja Kaphaja Vyadhis.

Nanatmaja Kapha Vikara

Diseases caused by vitiation of ‘only kapha’

Nanatmaja Kapha Vikaras are those which are caused by vitiation of only Kapha. other doshas, i.e. Vata or Pitta will not be involved in causation of these diseases like in Samanyaja Kaphaja Diseases. They are 20 in number. They are as below mentioned.