---
type: Concept
bundle: ayurveda-consciousness
bundle_version: 0.11.0
id: kapha
title: Kapha
iast: Kapha
devanagari: कफ
description: 'The cohesive-structural doṣa, the principle of stability, binding, lubrication, and endurance, the substrate of tissue strength and resilience; NOT phlegm, NOT water retention, NOT a lazy personality type.'
darshana:
- Āyurveda
text_source: Charaka Sūtrasthāna 18.51
tags:
- kapha
- dosha
- cohesion
- ayurveda
not:
- term: 'phlegm'
  why: 'The humoral mapping reduced kapha to mucus. Secretions are at most gross expressions of it; the doṣa is the principle of cohesion and stabilization, what holds structure together, lubricates joints, and gives tissues their mass and endurance.'
  instead: 'Render kapha as the cohesive-structural principle and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'water retention'
  why: 'Kapha is associated with the water and earth elements by quality (heavy, stable, smooth), but equating it with fluid accumulation turns a structural principle into a symptom.'
- term: 'a lazy personality type'
  why: 'Pop-Āyurveda sells kapha as the slow homebody. The classical referent is physiological: kapha grounds strength (bala), immunity-substrate, joint lubrication, gastric protection, and the calm steadiness of mind.'
related:
- /concepts/dosha.md
- /concepts/ojas.md
- /concepts/dhatu.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Kapha -- कफ

**Not:** phlegm, water retention, a lazy personality type

## What It Actually Means

Kapha is the doṣa of cohesion: it binds, cushions, lubricates, and stabilizes. Where vāta moves and pitta transforms, kapha holds, giving the body its mass, its joints their glide, its stomach its protective lining, and the mind its capacity for patience, affection, and steadiness. Classical texts link kapha to bala, the strength-resilience of the organism, and its most refined expression connects to ojas, the culminating vital essence. Its subdivisions map the holding sites: avalambaka supporting the chest, kledaka moistening digestion, bodhaka enabling taste, tarpaṇa nourishing the senses, śleṣaka lubricating the joints. Deranged, the same holding power becomes heaviness, congestion, and attachment. Kapha is structure and steadfastness, not slime.

## Audience Metaphor

A great library is not its catalog activity or its reading-room debates; it is first of all shelves, mortar, and a roof that does not leak. Kapha is the body as architecture: the shelving, binding, and weatherproofing that let all the moving and transforming happen somewhere safe.

## Citations

1. Charaka Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 18.51 on the functions of kapha (śleṣman) -- see [references/charaka-samhita.md](../references/charaka-samhita.md)
2. Suśruta Saṃhitā Sūtrasthāna 21 on kapha subdivisions and seats -- see [references/sushruta-samhita.md](../references/sushruta-samhita.md)
