History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.80

v7.c92.80

Before proceeding further some explanation of the six *cakras* which form an important constituent subject of several tantras is needed. There are said to be six cakras (centres) in the human body viz. Ādhāra or Mūlādhāra (at the base of the spine), Svādhiṣṭhāna (near the generative organ), Maṇipūra (near the navel), Anāhata (near the heart), Viśuddha (near throat), and Ājñā (between the brows). Besides these, there is Brahmarandhra figured as the pericarp of the thousand-petalled lotus within the crown of the head. The cakras are often indentified with the nerve plexuses of modern physiology, but the descriptions in Sanskrit works of the Kundalinī and the cakras are meant to refer not to the gross body but rather to what is situated in the subtle body that vanishes when a man dies. The idea of the relevant Sanskrit texts is that the Kundalinī Śakti ('Kundalin' means a serpent) is asleep in the Mūlādhāra-cakra coiled like a serpent and has to be roused by the practices of Yoga and deep meditation¹⁷¹⁶ The Śāradātilaka asks in an eloquent stanza the sādhaka to meditate upon the Kundalinī which when roused passes from the Mūlādhāra-cakra by means of the Susumnā-nādī (which is in the centre of the spinal column) through all the six cakras, unites with Śiva in the Sahasrāra (thousand-petalled) cakra and then returns to Mūlādhāra. Each of the six cakras is said to have a certain number of petals viz. 4, 6, 10, 12, 16, 2 (50 in all) in order from Mūlādhāra to Ājñā (vide Rudrayāmala, 17th Patala, verses 55-56). The letters of the alphabet also are 50 (from 'a' to 'kṣa') and they are assigned in groups to the six cakras as follows: ha and kṣa to Ājñā, 16 vowels to Viśuddha in the throat, letters ka to tha (12 in all) to Anāhata, letters Ḍa to Pha (10) to Manipūra, ba to la (6 in all) to Svādhisthāna, letters va to sa (4) to Mūlādhāra. Some tantras state the colour of each of the six cakras and identify them with the five elements and the mind. These speculations of the Yoga and Tantras are developments of the ancient Upanisad theories briefly noticed below.¹⁷¹⁷