Hindu Medicine c8.126

c8.126

The tradition of Haṭha-yoga furnishes exact measurements of the various lengths of the protruding air-column of prāṇa during the various activities of the organism. Its normal extent is twelve fingers’ breadth (aṅgula: the twelfth part of a span or vitasti) ; in sleep, the outgoing breath extends sixteen fingers’ breadth; while eating, twenty; and while walking, twenty-four. In deep sleep its length increases to thirty, and during sexual intercourse, to thirty-six fingers’ breadth.