Gender wise consideration of Anguli Pramana in the present era

Abstract

Introduction: Anguli pramana is a unique concept in Ayurved. It was stated by acharyas at times when there was no any sort of standardised unit of measurements. Acharyas have mentioned Anguli pramana for various parts of the body. In respect of male and female gender, no separate anthropometric values found to be mentioned. Hence, the present study aimed at gender wise consideration of Anguli pramana. Method: After seeking ethical permission, 770 healthy participants of both gender between age group 18-50 years in Ahmednagar and Nashik region were selected for the study. Measurements were taken for selected body parts. The middle finger width of the right hand at proximal interphalangeal joint was used as a unit for Anguli pramana. Collected data treated with the Student’s t test for inference. Result: Measured values for selected parameters when compared with the standard values stated by acharya in both genders found statistically different except for a few i.e., Pad parinah and Pad vistar. Discussion: Variations in Anguli pramana may be due to evolutionary changes and lifestyle in the present era. The present study concluded that Anguli pramana is not valid in the present era. Its validity was checked according to gender separately. Though the findings are confined to the selected sample size and selected parameters, it could further be extended to arrive at generalization.