Vedic and Ayurvedic Roots of The Hatha Y

Vedic and âyurvedic Roots of the Hañha Yoga Theory of Pràõa
Graham Burns (245343)

MA Religions
September 2010
Vedic and âyurvedic Roots of

the Hañha Yoga Theory of Pràõa
Graham Burns
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of MA Religions of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of
London).
14 September 2010
Word count: 10,833.
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DECLARATION
I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for Students of the
School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all
material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me,
in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or
paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly
acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. I give permission for a
copy of my dissertation to be held for reference, at the School’s discretion.
............................................................
Graham Burns
14 September 2010
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CONTENTS
1. Introduction. 6
2. Pràõa in the Vedic Saühitàs and Bràhmaõas. 9
3. Pràõa in the Upaniùads. 16
4. Pràõa in the Indian Medical Texts. 26
5. Pràõa in Sàükhya, Advaita Vedànta and the Yoga Såtra. 31
6. The Hañha Yoga Synthesis. 35
7. Conclusion. 42
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ABSTRACT
The concept of pràõa, often translated as ‘vital force’ and clearly related to breath,
plays a central role in the theory and practice of hañha yoga. Yet its role in the
‘classical’ yoga expounded in the Yoga Såtra of Pata¤jali is more peripheral, even
though in Vedic India pràõa was well recognised and the subject of much
speculation. This dissertation will explore the concept of pràõa in the Vedic tradition;
look at its use as a diagnostic tool in Indian medicine; and discuss its return to
prominence in the texts of hañha yoga. I will argue that the so-called ‘internalisation’
of the Vedic sacrifice in the time of the Upaniùads led to a greater consideration of
the nature of pràõa; that the apparent rift between the more metaphysical speculations
of the Brahmanical tradition and the early Indian medical scientists led to pràõa being
analysed separately in the two traditions; and that the emphasis on the physical body
as a means of liberation which was developed, via tantra, in hañha yoga led to a
synthesis between those metaphysical and physical speculations as the àyurvedic
approach to the use of pràõa was harnessed for the more spiritual purposes of yoga.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The seeds of my interest in pràõa were sown many years ago by my earliest yoga
teachers. I first remember hearing the term from Simon Low; Richard Freeman was
largely responsible for my beginning to explore the way that pràõa is used in hañha
yoga practice; Rod Stryker for deepening my understanding, especially of the sub-
divisions of pràõa; and Doug Keller for highlighting the different approaches to pràõa
at different stages of the yoga tradition, an observation which directly led to this
dissertation. On a more academic level, Brian Black introduced me to the Vedic texts,
especially the Upaniùads, at Birkbeck in 2002, then greatly deepened my interest in
them at SOAS in academic year 2008/9. Ted Proferes continued to deepen that
interest and provoked a great deal more thought in 2009/10, as well as supervising
this dissertation, steering me towards a number of lines of enquiry and introducing
me to a number of sources I might not otherwise have explored. I am grateful to all
of them, to the library staffs at SOAS, The British Library and The Wellcome
Library, to Dominik Wujastyk and Kenneth Zysk for replying to my unsolicited
correspondence, and to my partner, friends and yoga students for putting up with
piles of books on the living room floor and what must seem like my interminable
preoccupation with such an intangible topic.
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1. Introduction
Yoga÷cittavçttinirodhaþ. ‘Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind’.
Thus Yoga Såtra 1.2 defines yoga. 1 Tadàdraùñuþsvaråpevasthànam. When that is
accomplished, according to såtra 1.3, the seer abides in its true nature.
However, as Freeman suggests 2 , a more apposite description of hañha yoga might be
yoga÷pràõavçttinirodhaþ, because, for hañha yogis, the primary emphasis is on the
stilling of the changing states of the energetic force known as pràõa, not with a
different end point in mind, but because the control of pràõa is seen as a direct way to
control citta. 3 In hañha yoga practice, pràõa plays a major role, especially through
the regulation of the two sub-pràõas pràõa and apàna, and their union and retention
within the body’s central subtle energy channel (nàóã) known as suùumnà. This union
and retention is said to come about through the practice of postures (àsana), ‘seals’
(mudrà), ‘locks’ (bandha) and breath control techniques (pràõàyàma), all of which
have as their primary purpose either the control or the movement of pràõa. That
pràõa is seen as fundamentally important in hañha yoga is apparent from its
prominence in the summations of the path put forward by many of the main texts - in
the final verse of the Gorakùa øataka we read that ‘by cleansing the nàóãs, the pràõa
(is) restrained as desired, ... (and) one becomes diseaseless’ 4 ; the final chapter of the
øiva Saühità, having re-emphasised the flow of pràõa in suùumnà, refers to the
1
Bryant 2009:10. Translations from the Yoga Såtra are from Bryant 2009. For an
approximate chronology of the main texts mentioned in this dissertation, please see the
Appendix.
2
Freeman 2004.
3
Hañha Yoga Pradãpikà (HYP) 2.2. Translations from the HYP are from Vishnu-devananda
1987.
4
Gorakùa øataka 101 (Briggs 1938:304).
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‘confluence’ of suùumnà with the two other key nàóãs, ióà and piïgalà, 5 teaching
that those who ‘bathe in it are sure to get liberation’ 6 ; Chapter 12 of the Yoga
Yàj¤avalkya, considered by some the oldest of hañha yoga texts 7 , summarises the
whole process of hañha yoga by reference to the movements of pràõa.
A key feature which distinguishes hañha yoga from the yoga presented in the Yoga
Såtra is the emphasis placed on the physical body, not only through the practice of
àsana, mudrà and bandha, but through diet and the practice of a variety of exotic
cleansing techniques aimed at purifying the nàóã, in order to stimulate the gastric fire
and to encourage pràõa into suùumnà. While pràõa and apàna are key, the other three
main sub-pràõas - samàna, udàna and vyàna - are all presented as playing a role in
this process. 8 Indeed, though harder to find in traditional hañha yoga texts, in many
schools of contemporary hañha yoga specific practices are presented to affect the
individual sub-pràõas. 9
Given that the practices of hañha yoga are presented in the Hañha Yoga Pradãpikà as
‘a stairway for those who wish to attain the most excellent Ràja Yoga’ 10 , in other
5
øiva Saühità 5.166.
6
øiva Saühità 5.168.
7
Mohan (undated:19) suggests that it is potentially as old as second century BCE; this may
be correct, but seems unlikely and may be an example of seeking to confer authority by
antiquity. See note 107 below.
8
See, e.g. øiva Saühità 3.6 to 3.9 which, after describing ten sub-pràõas (of which pràõa,
apàna, samàna, udàna and vyàna are said to be ‘chief’ and pràõa and apàna ‘the most
important agents’) teaches that ‘He who thus knows the body... is freed from all sins and
goes to the ultimate destination’ (Mallinson 2007: 41-42). After a similar description of the
sub-pràõas, the earlier Gorakùa øataka described knowledge of pràõa as ‘the great
knowledge. Who knows this is an adept.’ (Gorakùa øataka 46 - Briggs 1938:293).
9
See, for example, the series of articles by Sandra Anderson in the magazine Yoga + Joyful
Living in 2009/10.
10
HYP 1.1.
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words as a means to the end of yoga put forward by the Yoga Såtra 11 , it might be
expected that regulation of pràõa would have played a key role in the yogic path
presented in the Yoga Såtra. In fact, that is not the case. As will be seen in Chapter 5,
pràõa and/or one of its subdivisions features in only five of the 195 or 196 verses of
the Yoga Såtra. Yet, pràõa is not a new idea in hañha yoga. Rather, it is an ancient
concept in Indian thought. It is hymned in the Atharva Veda; homologised within the
sacrificial context of the Bràhmaõas; and speculated on in the Upaniùads. It plays a
significant role in the Indian medical tradition. Looking primarily at its textual
presentation, the purpose of this dissertation is to present an overview of how pràõa is
analysed from the Veda to the hañha yoga texts, and to consider how and why it
became the cornerstone of hañha yoga practice.
11
The end of yoga as presented in the Yoga Såtra is kaivalya, literally ‘aloneness’, couched
in Sàükhya terms as the realisation of the absolute isolation of puruùa from prakçti (såtra
4.34). As yoga developed through the centuries, the characterisation of the final goal shifted
according to the underlying philosophical and/or spiritual agenda of the text or teacher
concerned.
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2. Pràõa in the Vedic Saühitàs and Bràhmaõas
Pràõa is a notoriously difficult word to translate adequately. As Feuerstein says,
‘none of the classical Sanskrit works seem to contain even an approximately precise
and satisfactory definition’. 12 However, while pràõa soon came to denote something
more than mere physical breath - hence its common translation as ‘life-breath’ or
‘vital force’ - it is as breath that we first encounter pràõa in the Vedic Saühitàs. In
the puruùa såkta creation hymn of èg Veda 10.90, the wind (vàyu, an important
Vedic deity) is created from the ‘vital breath’ of the dismembered primordial man,
and the importance of breath as the primary motivational force of life - no doubt
through simple empirical observation of the function of breathing - is reflected in
several èg Veda death hymns, which note the departure of pràõa as [one of] the
indicia of death. 13
References to pràõa in the èg Veda appear largely in Book 10, widely accepted to be
one of the later parts of the text. 14 This foreshadows the most celebrated references
to pràõa in the Saühitàs, which occur in the latest of the four, in Atharva Veda 11.4.
Here, pràõa is offered reverence as that ‘to whom all this (universe) is subject, who
has become the lord of the all, on whom the all is supported’ 15 ; ‘the lord of all, of all
that breathes, and does not breathe’. 16 Pràõa is reverenced as the provider of wind,
12
Feuerstein 1974:96.
13
E.g. èg Veda 10.18.8, 10.14.12. Zysk describes breath, for Vedic Indians, as ‘life’s
universal witness’ (Zysk 1993:200).
14
èg Veda 1.66.1, another likely later part of the text, equates life with pràõa (àyur na
pràõo).
15
Atharva Veda 11.4.4. Translations from the Atharva Veda (AV) are from Bloomfield 1897
unless otherwise indicated.
16
AV 11.4.10.
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thunder, lightning and rain - reflecting Vedic pre-occupation with the propitiation of
natural forces - and as that which ‘clothes the creatures, as a father his dear son’. 17
The final verse contains an imprecation to pràõa to ‘bind to me, that I may live’ 18 ,
emphasising pràõa’s significance as a vital principle fundamental to maintaining life.
In his extensive study, Connolly describes pràõa, as presented here, as ‘the source
and foundation of all existence’. 19 As he points out, in their search for an underlying
principle of existence, ‘… the seers repeatedly identify one principle as the source of
all existence, though it is often referred to by different names, one of which is
pràõa’. 20 It is clear that, by the time of the AV, pràõa signified more than just the
simple physical breath. 21 Rather, it was a universal motivational force on which all
worldly existence depended. However, it is debatable whether, as Connolly suggests,
it is accurate to characterise it as the only ‘source and foundation’ of existence, not
least because of the importance throughout Vedic tradition of the creative power of
sound, vàc, which is often linked with pràõa.
A common theme throughout the history of pràõa is its subdivision into various sub-
pràõas, which signify different ways in which the generic pràõa operates. Although
there are different numbers of subdivisions presented in different texts, the most
common subdivision is into five - pràõa, apàna, samàna, udàna and vyàna. More will
be said about these below, but for now it is worth noting the antiquity of this division.
17
AV 11.4.10.
18
AV 11.4.26.
19
Connolly 1992:xiii.
20
Connolly 1992:10.
21
E.g., as ‘the lord of all, of all that breathes, and does not breathe’ in AV 11.4.10.
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While, according to Ewing’s detailed survey 22 , only pràõa, apàna and samàna appear
in the èg Veda (and then only rarely 23 and never together), by the time of the
Vàjasaneyi Saühità of the White Yajur Veda, all five have made an appearance,
though samàna appears only once, on the single occasion when all five appear
together. 24 Samàna also appears only once in the AV; where all five appear, though
never together. It is clear that, while a fivefold division is beginning to crystallise at
this stage, the precise characterisation of the five is unclear, and the principal division
is the twofold division into pràõa and apàna, which (contrary to their later
characterisation 25 ) come to be read as signifying exhalation and inhalation
respectively. 26 Vyàna perhaps represented an initial awareness of the pervasiveness
of the energy of breath in the body during pauses between inhalation and
exhalation 27 ; udàna (the ‘up breath’) etymologically seemed more representative of
inhalation than apàna, which it gradually supplanted, leaving apàna eventually to
signify the ‘down breath’ associated with evacuation and expulsion from the body;
samàna at this stage has appeared too rarely to be capable of meaningful analysis.
By the end of the Saühitàs, the position of pràõa can be summarised as follows:
22
Ewing 1901.
23
Once each for apàna and samàna (Ewing 1901:254).
24
Ewing 1901:257.
25
See p.29 below.
26
Dumont and Edgerton debated this reading in their exchanges in 1957 and 1958: see
Dumont 1957 and 1958; Edgerton 1958a and 1958b. Brown 1919 also questions whether it is
possible to give pràõa and apàna this interpretation in the Vedic Saühitàs, other than with the
benefit of hindsight. It does seem, however, to be widely accepted that, at least when the two
are used in juxtaposition, pràõa signified exhalation and apàna inhalation. See also Bodewitz
1986.
27
Ewing 1901:303.
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1. an undifferentiated pràõa, as ‘life-breath’, has come to be seen as an underlying
‘determinant of life’ 28 worthy of reverence; perhaps ultimately derived from the early
association of pràõa, as breath, with the deity Vàyu;
2. a differentiation of pràõa into two - pràõa and apàna - was recognised early on, but
probably only initially signified physical exhalation and inhalation;
3. other differentiated forms of pràõa - udàna, vyàna and samàna - gradually
appeared, but are not yet systematised;
4. despite speculative efforts to read references in the èg Veda’s ke÷in hymn 29 to the
long-haired one having ‘mounted the wind’ as early references to yogic practices of
pràõa control 30 , there are no unambiguous references to practices aimed at controlling
or manipulating pràõa.
In the øatapatha Bràhmaõa (SB), which, as all texts of its genre, explores the mystical
significances of Vedic ritual, pràõa takes on an increasingly significant role. As well
as continued identification with the deified Vàyu 31 , it is also identified with the other
important Vedic deity Agni 32 and with the creator deity Prajàpati. 33 It becomes not
only an underlying motivating force worthy of reverence, but, through identity with
Vàyu, assumes a clear creative role as that from which ‘all the gods and all the beings
28
Deussen 1899:101.
29
èg Veda 10.136 (translation from Doniger O’Flaherty 1981:138).
30
Werner 1997b:297-300 advances this theory; Miller 1974:197 also refers to it. Zysk
1993:203 suggests that the ‘beginnings of a codification of bodily winds occurred as
techniques of respiratory control became an important ascetic discipline’, but, other than by
reference to the vràtya of Atharva Veda 15 (where, although seven forms of each of pràõa,
apàna and vyàna are mentioned in 15.15 to 15.17, there is no direct mention of any practice
relating to them), provides no real evidence to support his argument that the yogic theory of
pràõa developed from early times largely in ascetic circles.
31
SB 9.1.2.38. Translations from the SB are from Eggeling 1882-1900.
32
SB 10.4.1.23. See also èg Veda 1.66.1.
33
SB 6.3.1.9 and 11.1.6.17.
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issue forth’. 34 Its differentiation into sub-pràõas also assumes increased importance,
though the full series of five still appears together only rarely, and, in places, pràõa is
differentiated into series of anywhere from six to eleven. As a development of the
idea of pràõa as an indicator of life, the SB also begins to develop the theme that
knowledge of the functioning of the sub-pràõas leads to immortality. 35 In Vedic
thinking ‘knowledge’ of something implies its control; knowledge of the workings of
pràõa therefore implies the possibility of controlling pràõa.
The five sub-pràõas also play a symbolic role in the building of the fire altar. The
details, contained primarily in SB 8.1, are too extensive to be repeated here, but, in
brief, involve the laying of bricks known as the pràõabhçt or ‘breath-holders’. SB
8.1.3.6 associates these bricks with the five sub-pràõas in the following way:
1. those placed at the front of the altar are the holders of pràõa;
2. those at the rear are the holders of apàna;
3. those on the right side are the holders of vyàna;
4. those on the left side are the holders of udàna;
5. those in the centre are the holders of samàna. 36
What is of particular interest here is that the five sub-pràõas are also associated with
bodily functions - pràõa with breath, apàna with the eye, vyàna with the mind, udàna
with the ear and samàna with speech - foreshadowing the increased speculation over
34
SB 14.2.2.2-11.
35
SB 9.1.2.32, which also equates the sub-pràõas (referred to by Eggeling as ‘vital airs’) with
the Sàman hymns, continuing the theme of association between pràõa and vàc, or lifebreath
and sound, which remains a theme into the Upaniùads.
36
SB 8.1.3.7 notes that there are competing theories over the laying of the breath-holders.
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their roles in the physical body which we see in the Upaniùads and the medical texts.
SB 8.1.3.8-10 explains the links between the sub-pràõas, concluding with the
interesting statement that the builder of the altar ‘makes these vital airs continuous
and connects them; whence these (channels of the) vital airs are continuous and
connected’. We see here perhaps the earliest reference to the nàóã, the subtle channels
through which pràõa is said to flow within the body.
The importance of the fire sacrifice in Vedic tradition is well known 37 , and it is
significant that the five sub-pràõas are employed symbolically in the construction of
the fire altar. As Bodewitz points out, in the Bràhmaõas the very production of fire is
homologised as the coming into existence of the yajamàna’s vital powers, and the
maintenance of the daily fire in the domestic ritual is presented as a way of
maintaining pràõa. 38 Eventually, complex fire ritual diminished in importance in
Vedic tradition, to be replaced by an ‘internalised’ ritual - the pràõàgnihotra - in
which the sub-pràõas played a significant part. While this internalisation of ritual
may have reflected non-Brahmanical influence, as early as SB 11.5.3.8-13 we see
Uddàlaka âruõi teaching øaukeya Pràkãnayogya that knowledge of the sub-pràõas,
and their ‘entry into each other’ is used as a propitiation in the event of the actual
ritual fires being extinguished.
The SB takes notions of pràõa from the Saühitàs and imbues them with even greater
significance. The underlying creative and motivational force that is revered as pràõa
in the AV becomes more specifically deified through association with Vàyu, Agni
37
See, e.g., Flood 1996:40-43.
38
Bodewitz 1973:221.
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and Prajàpati; the sub-divisions of pràõa become more clearly defined, and begin to
be associated with specific functions and/or areas of the physical body; the sub-
pràõas are given a significant role in the construction of the fire altar and, by
extension, in the sacrificial ritual itself; knowledge (and, accordingly, control) of the
functioning of pràõa and its sub-divisions is linked directly to the overarching goal of
early Vedic tradition, namely immortality. In addition, we arguably find the earliest
references to the nàóã as carriers of pràõa, and an internalisation of the sacrificial role
of the sub-pràõas, foreshadowing the speculation about pràõa which we will find in
the Upaniùads.
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3. Pràõa in the Upaniùads
‘Rarely do the Upaniùads present a consistent teaching on any one subject.’
Connolly’s pithy introduction to his study of pràõa in the Upaniùads 39 reminds us that
probably the single most important unifying characteristic of the Vedic Upaniùads is
their constant, but not necessarily consistent, speculation about the nature of
existence. 40 Despite this, in Connolly’s opinion, ‘An examination of all references to
pràõa in the Upaniùads reveals that the prominent view is quite similar to [that of pre-
Upaniùadic texts]; pràõa is the primeval source of all and the immortal inner essence
of individuals which manifests in the body as the various breaths and faculties’. 41 He
readily acknowledges, however, that this is not the only Upaniùadic view of pràõa.
What, then, do the Upaniùads have to contribute to the development of a yogic theory
of pràõa?
As Deussen points out, pràõa in the Upaniùads is ‘a word of very varied meaning’. 42
In places, particularly in the earlier Upaniùads, it retains its characterisation as a form
of ultimate principle 43 , though often in conjunction with others, such as speech 44 ,
39
Connolly 2002:45.
40
References to the ‘Upaniùads’ should, unless otherwise indicated, be taken as references to
the Vedic, or Principal, Upaniùads. Translations from the Upaniùads (other than the Maitrã)
are from Olivelle 1996; translations from the Maitrã Upaniùad, which is omitted from
Olivelle’s collection, are from Roebuck 2000.
41
Connolly 2002:57.
42
Deussen 1899:274.
43
E.g. Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 1.6.3: ‘Clearly, the immortal is breath’; Bçhadàraõyaka
Upaniùad 3.9.9: ‘Who is the one god? Breath. He is called Brahman (pràõa iti sa brahma)’;
Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 4.4.7 ‘.. this non-corporeal and immortal lifebreath (pràõa) is
nothing but brahman...’ ; Chàndogya Upaniùad 4.10.4: ‘Brahman is breath’; Chàndogya
Upaniùad 7.15.1 ‘...all this is fixed to lifebreath (pràõa) as spokes are fixed to the hub’;
Kauùãtaki Upaniùad 2.1: ‘Brahman is breath’ and 3.2: ‘Breath is life. And life is breath.’
44
Chàndogya Upaniùad 1.1.5.
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light 45 , or speech, sight and hearing (the ‘four legs’ of brahman). 46 In Bçhadàraõyaka
1.5.12 it is equated with Indra. Its importance is reflected in the fact that the ä÷à and
Màõóåkya are the only Upaniùads not to mention pràõa. It performs a key role in
creation 47 and at death 48 , and knowledge of pràõa remains at least one route to
immortality.
Among the older Upaniùads, pràõa plays a particularly significant role in the
Kauùãtaki, where it is again equated with Indra 49 , with Amitaujas (the couch of
brahman) 50 and with intelligence. 51 From the future perspective of hañha yoga, the
idea in Kauùãtaki 2.13 that it is not only knowledge of the pre-eminence of pràõa but
‘uniting with it’ that leads to immortality via the realm of the gods is particularly
interesting, as is the idea in 2.5 that, while speaking, a person ‘offers his breath in his
speech’ and while breathing ‘offers his speech in his breath’ as ‘two endless and
deathless offerings’ forming an internally offered sacrifice (pràtardana). 52
A common theme of Upaniùadic speculation on the nature of existence is the
importance of the àtman (or individual self) and its relationship to, and in some
45
Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 4.4.7.
46
Chàndogya Upaniùad 3.18.3-6.
47
E.g. Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 1.2.3, Aitareya Upaniùad 1.2.4.
48
E.g. Kauùãtaki Upaniùad 2.14, Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 1.3.19.
49
Kauùãtaki Upaniùad 3.2.
50
51
52
See also Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 1.5.23: ‘.... a man should undertake a single observance
- he should breathe in and breathe out.... By doing that he will win union with and the same
world as this deity’. Could this be an early reference to pràõàyàma? Blezer, perhaps a little
tendentiously, argues that it ‘strongly suggests a practice of tranquilization and concentration
by following the natural flow of breath’ (Blezer 1992:34).
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places identity with, brahman (the universal). While, as we have seen, in places in the
Upaniùads pràõa retains the quality of an ultimate principle, sometimes equated
directly with brahman 53 , in others it becomes subordinated to, and often derivative of,
àtman. For example, in the Taittirãya, ‘the self consisting of lifebreath’ is the second
outermost of the five layers or coverings of àtman 54 ; in the Kena the ultimate
principle, brahman, is that ‘by which breathing itself is drawn forth’ 55 ; in Chàndogya
6.5.4, pràõa is a derivative of water which itself is a derivative of the heat emitted by
‘the existent’ (sat) at creation. 56 Despite this, Connolly argues that, in general, pràõa
remains a ‘supreme principle’ in the Upaniùads 57 and that ‘... in some Upaniùadic
circles at least, the concepts of àtman and brahman were developed on the basis of
already existing conceptions of pràõa’. 58 For him, it was the later commentators of
the Sàükhya and Advaita Vedànta schools who emphasised pràõa’s subordination to
àtman and brahman. However he accepts, as he must from an analysis of the texts,
that, in several places, pràõa is not presented on any ultimate level. As with so many
ideas, the analysis of the fundamental - or otherwise - nature of pràõa in the early
Upaniùads presents no consistent picture.
53
See note 43 above.
54
Taittirãya Upaniùad 2.2.1.
55
Kena Upaniùad 1.8.
56
Chàndogya Upaniùad 6.2.3
57
Connolly 1992:50.
58
Connolly 1992:80. Connolly also argues convincingly that Chàndogya 7.16-26 might be a
later interpolation, and that the great hierarchy of principles taught by Sanatkumàra to Nàrada
in Chàndogya 7 might well have originally culminated in pràõa (Chàndogya 7.15.1), with the
subordination to àtman in 7.26 coming subsequently.
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A second role played by pràõa in the Upaniùads is, as breath, as one of the sense
faculties. In Bçhadaraõyaka 1.5.21, Prajàpati created the ‘vital functions’ (pràõa),
which began an immediate competition for superiority, resolved when death captured
all bar the ‘central breath’ (madhyamaþ pràõa). The motif of the sense faculties
competing with each other for superiority, with pràõa emerging victorious, appears in
a number of places in the early Upaniùads. 59 However, in this role, while pràõa is
consistently presented as the most important of the faculties, it is clearly being
considered on a phenomenal level, as that without which life cannot exist, rather than
as an ultimate principle. Nevertheless, it is significant that it is pràõa which wins the
contest, rather than the perhaps more obviously creative functions of mind or (in the
Bçhadàraõyaka version) semen.
The division into sub-pràõas also develops in the Upaniùads. As in the earlier texts,
they do not always appear as a group of five, but they do so with increasing
frequency, perhaps reflecting the statement in Bçhadàraõyaka 1.4.17 that ‘this whole
world, whatever there is, is fivefold’. We have seen in the øatapatha Bràhmaõa the
association of the five with bodily functions 60 : in the early Upaniùads, this association
tends to be replaced with more metaphysical speculations. 61 In Bçhadàraõyaka 3.4,
Yàj¤avalkya equates each of the five with ‘the self of yours that is within all’, in his
59
E.g. Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 6.1.7-14, Chàndogya Upaniùad 5.1.6-15, Kauùãtaki Upaniùad
2.13.
60
See above, p.13.
61
Though the Taittirãya continues a more physical theme, associating pràõa with sight, skin
and the head; apàna with mind, sinew and the left side of the body, vyàna with hearing, flesh
and the right side of the body, samàna with touch and marrow and udàna with speech and
bones - Taittirãya Upaniùad 1.7 and 2.2.
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dialogue with Uùasta Càkràyaõa; in Bçhadàraõyaka 3.9.26, the five are presented,
again by Yàj¤avalkya, as a hierarchical foundation of the àtman, which is said to be
‘founded on’ pràõa, which in turn is founded on apàna, which is founded on vyàna
and so on through udàna to samàna. Chàndogya 3.13 places the five at the five
openings of the heart ‘for the deities’, before going on to equate each of them, other
than udàna, with both a sense faculty and an external homology - pràõa in the east
with sight and the sun, vyàna in the south with hearing and the moon, apàna in the
west with speech and fire, samàna in the north with the mind and rain. Udàna is
equated with the ‘upper opening’ of the heart, with wind and space. The five together
are described as ‘the five courtiers of brahman, the doorkeepers of heaven’ and
knowledge of them in this way is said to lead ultimately to heaven. 62
I mentioned in Chapter 2 the so-called ‘internalisation’ of the Vedic sacrifice: the
replacement of external fire based ritual with more inward looking, perhaps
meditative, practices. Chàndogya 5.19-24 employs the five sub-pràõas as recipients
of the inward looking sacrifice, again following the order pràõa, vyàna, apàna,
samàna, udàna. 63 The person offering his sacrifice without knowledge of the sub-
pràõas is likened to someone offering the sacrifice on the ashes of the fire. 64
In the verse Upaniùads of the ‘middle period’ - Kena, Kañha, øvetà÷vatara, ä÷à and
Muõóaka - pràõa plays a less significant role, though all, apart from the ä÷à, mention
62
Chàndogya Upaniùad 3.13.6
63
Translated by Olivelle as ‘out-breath’, ‘inter-breath’, ‘in-breath’, ‘link-breath’ and ‘up-
breath’ respectively (Olivelle 1996:146-7).
64
Chàndogya Upaniùad 5.24.1. See also Kauùãtaki Upaniùad 2.5 (p.17 above).
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it in some context, and both øvetà÷vatara and Muõóaka mention the five sub-pràõas
as a group, though not by individual names, suggesting that the fivefold division had
by now become well established. 65 By the time of the øvetà÷vatara, the term yoga
had appeared, clearly referring to some form of practice, and øvetà÷vatara 2.9
presents us with a clear reference to the yogic practice of pràõàyàma, the control of
pràõa via the manipulation of the physical breath: ‘Compressing his breath in here
and curbing his movements, a man should exhale through one nostril when his breath
is exhausted’. It is, however, in the late prose Upaniùads, the Pra÷na and Maitrã, that
pràõa again makes a prominent appearance.
The Pra÷na, containing the answers to six questions put to Pippalàda by six Brahmins
‘in search of the highest brahman’, invokes pràõa in its answers to five of them. In the
first, creation is attributed to Prajàpati’s production of substance (rayi) and lifebreath
(pràõa). Pràõa is equated with the sun, the bright fortnight of the month and the day
(in contradistinction to the moon, the dark fortnight and the night). The second deifies
a fivefold pràõa as the most important of the bodily functions, repeating the
Chàndogya’s analogy of everything being fixed to pràõa, as spokes to the hub of a
wheel, and, in a manner reminiscent of the Atharva Veda, ending with a hymn to
pràõa, venerated as Indra and Rudra and containing the whole world in its power. 66
Although this prompts recollection of pràõa as a form of ultimate principle, the answer
65
Muõóaka 3.1.9 talks of the subtle self into which the breath had ‘entered in five ways’;
øvetà÷vatara 1.5, among many descriptions of brahman, talks of brahman as a river ‘whose
waves are the five breaths’.
66
Pra÷na Upaniùad 2.5-13.
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to question 3 makes clear that pràõa ‘arises from’ àtman. 67 In a well known analogy,
the cosmic pràõa assigns the five sub-pràõas to ‘their respective places’ as a king
appoints administrators to the regions of his kingdom. Here, only three are assigned to
the physical body - apàna to the anus and sexual organ, pràõa to the mouth and
nostrils, as well as sight and hearing, and samàna to the mid-region, responsible for
digestion. Although we have seen in earlier Upaniùads the association of the sub-
pràõas with sense faculties and body parts, this is the earliest Upaniùadic association
with internal bodily functions such as digestion and (in the case of apàna) evacuation.
These associations play an important role in the medical texts, and it may be that, in
the Pra÷na, we see an example of the cross-fertilisation of medical and metaphysical
thought which I will argue come together again in hañha yoga.
The answer to the third question provides another early reference to the nàóã. Udàna
is said to rise through one of these nàóã (not identified, but possibly suùumnà ) to
conduct the person at death to the appropriate rebirth, determined by his actions in
this life. Knowledge (and, therefore, control) of the sub-pràõas is again stated to lead
to immortality. 68 The answer to the fourth question hearkens back to the øatapatha
Bràhmaõa associations of the five sub-pràõas with the fire altar. Here, the breaths
which keep a sleeping person functioning are equated with the sacrificial fires.
Finally, the answer to question six refers to pràõa as the source of faith, the five
elements, the senses, mind and food.
67
Pra÷na Upaniùad 3.3.
68
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Although we have noted the early references to the practice of yoga in the
øvetà÷vatara (and, though pràõa is not mentioned in that context, in the Kañha), the
Maitrã is the first Upaniùad to present a systematised yoga practice. It is important to
note that the majority of references to yoga (and pràõa) in the Maitrã come in Book 6,
which is widely considered a late addition to what is already a late Upaniùad 69 , with
the result that these references may be broadly contemporaneous with - or even later
than - the exposition of yoga in the Yoga Såtra. Nevertheless, as we shall see, pràõa
plays a much more prominent role in the Maitrã compared to that which it is given in
theYoga Såtra.
The opening of the Maitrã is an interesting reference to Vedic sacrifice, explaining
that, after building the fire altar, the yajamàna should meditate on àtman, in the form
of pràõa. 70 We see here a reference not just to an internalisation of the sacrifice, but a
suggestion of an equivalence of pràõa with àtman as an ultimate principle. Maitrã 2.6
repeats the story of Prajàpati, at creation, animating creatures by making himself into
pràõa and entering into them as an animating force, where he divided himself into the
usual five sub-pràõas. Here, however, samàna is directly associated with digestion,
apàna with evàcuation, and udàna with bringing up or swallowing down what is eaten
or drunk.
The long Book 6 of the Maitrã, somewhat in contradiction to Book 1, presents àtman
as twofold - pràõa and the sun - with pràõa representing the ‘inner self’. The sacrifice
69
Roebuck 2000:xxvi.
70
Maitrã Upaniùad 1.1.
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to the breaths of the Chàndogya, and other places, is recalled in 6.9; in 6.18 we find a
six limbed yoga, in which the first limb is pràõàyàma. For the first time, in 6.21, we
find a specific reference to suùumnà nàóã, which plays such a pivotal role in hañha
yoga. Here, it is said, suùumnà ‘goes upward together with the breath’; ‘when it is
joined with the OM and the mind, the breath can go out by it’ with the ultimate result
of kevalatva, translated by Roebuck as ‘absoluteness’ but having the same
etymological derivation as the kaivalya which is the end point of yoga in the Yoga
Såtra.
We have seen, therefore, that pràõa features prominently in the Upaniùads, but in a
number of guises. As in pre-Upaniùadic texts, it is in places presented, sometimes
alone and at other times in conjunction with another or others, as a ‘fundamental
principle with phenomenal manifestations’ 71 , knowledge of which leads to
immortality. However, over time, it becomes subordinated in importance in this
respect to àtman, which shares the same vital nature, and of which pràõa comes to be
seen not as an equivalent but as ‘the embodiment and the manifestation’. 72 Even in its
renaissance in the Pra÷na Upaniùad, it is explicitly said to ‘arise from’ àtman. At a
second level, pràõa is analysed, as breath, as the most important of the bodily
functions. In its division into five sub-pràõas, it is both the subject of metaphysical
speculation, as well as, particularly in the later Upaniùads, associated with bodily
parts and functions. Of particular relevance to hañha yoga, we see in the øvetà÷vatara
a clear reference to pràõàyàma, and, in the Pra÷na and Maitrã, references to the flow
71
Connolly 1992:96.
72
Mitchiner 1982:283.
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of pràõa through subtle channels within the body. What we have yet to see evidenced
- though we should not rule out the possibility that we simply have no surviving
sources - is the use of àsana, mudrà or bandha in the nascent practices of yoga, or the
actual manipulation of pràõa through yoga practice in any form other than through
retention of the breath. 73
73
In focussing on the Vedic and âyurvedic roots of the hañha yoga theory of pràõa, I have not
paid particular attention to the group of texts known as the Yoga Upaniùads, which are later
texts, not considered ÷ruti, and generally more sectarian. However, it is worth noting that these
do include descriptions of pràõàyàma practice, of the major nàóã and, as Eliade puts it, of ‘a
process of transferring the human body into a cosmic body’ in which ‘subtle physiology’ takes
the place of ‘fossilized ritualism and metaphysical speculation’ (Eliade 1958:135), all of which
foreshadow hañha yoga. See also Zysk 1993:209. It is also worth noting that pràõa does not
escape the notice of the compilers of the Mahàbhàrata, where the Anugãtà section of the
A÷vamedhaparvan contains a variant on the Upaniùadic story of the contest between the vital
functions, presenting a contest between the five sub-pràõas which is resolved by Brahma
determining that none is superior, but that ‘all are foremost in their own spheres, and all
possess special attributes’ (Mahàbhàrata 14.23.10, translation Ganguly 1883-96). In the
Bhagavad Gãtà, Kçùõa refers to the offering of ‘the in-breath in the out-breath’ and ‘the out-
breath in the in-breath’ in 4.29, reminiscent of Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 1.5.23 (note 52
above) and perhaps foreshadowing the hañha yoga uniting of pràõa and apàna; putting of the
breath in the head as part of the path to ‘travel the highest way’ in Bhagavad Gãtà 8.12 may
also be a precursor to the hañha yoga idea of pràõa rising up suùumnà. (Translations from the
Bhagavad Gãtà are from Patton 2008.) In the Dharmasåtras, control of the breath is presented
frequently as a form of penance or as a form of purification before studentship, ritual or taking
food - see, e.g., âpastamba Dharmasåtra 2.12.15, Gautama Dharmasåtra 1.49, 24.10,
Baudhàyana Dharmasåtra 1.11.41, 2.7.6, 3.4.5. Although presented as a penance, Vàsiùñha
Dharmasåtra 25 expressly refers to the control of the breath as part of yoga practice.
Baudhàyana Dharmasåtra 2.12 describes the householder’s offering to the five sub-pràõas
before and after eating.
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4. Pràõa in the Indian Medical Texts
At around the time that the earlier Upaniùads were speculating on more metaphysical
aspects of pràõa, an Indian medical tradition, which came to be known as àyurveda,
was developing. As early as the èg Veda, there was evidence of medical practice in
India 74 , and the Atharva Veda contains numerous invocations (or, as Bloomfield calls
them, ‘charms’) designed to ward off or cure a variety of diseases. Many proponents
of àyurveda 75 use these references, and the tradition that the Vedic A÷vin twin deities
were early ‘divine doctors’ 76 , to support their claim for a continuity of medical
tradition from the Veda into the classical texts of àyurveda, notably the Caraka
Saühità and the Su÷ruta Saühità. Others dismiss this as, in Chattopadhyaya’s
memorable phrase, ‘but a cobweb of pedantry fabricated with tissues of oblique
hints’ 77 , or, in Wujastyk’s more measured terms, ‘for the most part [the medical ideas
and practices preserved in the early Vedic religious literature] do not form an obvious
precursor to the system of classical àyurveda’. 78 Even Filliozat acknowledges the
existence of a medical tradition in early Buddhism 79 , and there is certainly
persuasiveness in the argument that àyurveda, while having points of contact with
Vedic tradition, emerged substantially from ÷ramana sources. 80 The same is often
said of yoga: the three Upaniùads which explicitly refer to yoga practice - Kañha,
øvetà÷vatara and Maitrã - almost certainly post-date the life of the Buddha and the
74
E.g. the hymn to healing plants at èg Veda 10.97.
75
E.g. Jean Filliozat.
76
Wujastyk 1998:46.
77
Chattopadhyaya 1977:253.
78
Wujastyk 1998:xxix.
79
Filliozat 1949:7.
80
Zysk 1998 presents a detailed study of this.
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rise of other heterodox traditions, and the evidence for Buddhist influence in the
Yoga Såtra is strong. 81 The possibility that, in the case of both àyurveda and yoga,
the Brahmanical tradition adopted heterodox practices and ideas and sought to give
them Vedic legitimacy can certainly not be ruled out.
It is important to remember that the medical tradition was a tradition of physical
healing, with no overt metaphysical or religious dimension. 82 Its concern was
physical well-being, not any form of spiritual liberation. 83 Irrespective of its origins,
it was perhaps inevitable that, at a time of early scientific exploration, there would be
tensions between the ‘worldly’ doctors and the ‘other-worldly’ priestly castes, as
direct, empirical knowledge was seen as a threat to more ‘mystical’ knowledge.
Chattopadhyaya points out that the practice of medicine is frowned on in the dharma
texts 84 and that, in the Upaniùads, ‘a blanket of total silence is drawn... on medical
science’. 85
81
La Vallée Poussin 1936/7 analyses possible Buddhist references in the Yoga Såtra in detail.
82
Subbarayappa 2001:135 contrasts this with ancient Egyptian medicine, which he considers
‘essentially a belief system’.
83
While, in early Vedic times, the prolongation of earthly life (along with the maximisation of
post-mortem time in heavenly realms) was an important concern, by the time of the Upaniùads
and the medical texts, there was a decisive shift towards the goal of ‘liberation’ in the form of
escape from the cycle of death and rebirth (saüsàra).
84
In the Baudhàyana Dharmasåtra, ‘practising medicine’ is included in a list of ‘secondary
sins causing loss of caste’ (2.2.13) along with ‘teaching dance’ and ‘violating virgins’, the
punishment for which was to live as an outcaste for two years (Olivelle 1999: 169). In the
Mànavadharma÷àstra ‘medicine’ is an occupation ‘despised by the twice-born’ (10.46-47)
(Olivelle 2004:183).
85
Chattopadhyaya 1977:277. In Sanatkumàra’s teaching to Nàrada in Chàndogya Upaniùad 7,
all Nàrada’s scientific learning is dismissed as ‘nothing but name’, and true knowledge of the
self presented in a hierarchy culminating in pràõa.
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For all the tension between science and religion, and questions about the origins of
the medical tradition, the fact that, through the internalisation of sacrifice, the body
itself had become the seat of sacrifice, and the breath(s) the offering, meant that
interest in the ‘internal workings’ of the body grew in both traditions. 86 Although
there was some overlap, the Upaniùads broadly took on the role of metaphysical
speculation; the medical tradition the role of physical enquiry. Both shared a common
interest in pràõa. 87
As with the Vedic texts, the medical texts do not always present an internally
consistent analysis. In Caraka Saühità 1.7.12, for example, the ‘vital breaths’ are
located in the head; in 1.30.11, they are located in the heart. What they do present,
however, is a categorisation of physical disorders based around the principle that
each of the five sub-pràõas has a ‘seat’ in the human body and a particular function to
perform. When each of them is located in its seat and functioning properly, the body
is sustained in good health. 88 If any of them is ‘deranged’, the body will be affected
with a disorder related to the seat and/or function of the respective sub-pràõa which
‘may quickly take life away’. 89
The Caraka and Su÷ruta Saühitàs differ only slightly in their presentation of the sub-
pràõas, Caraka 6.28 going into more detail than Su÷ruta 2.1, which, interestingly for a
86
White 1996:184; Zysk 1993:206.
87
As Sharma and Keswani put it ‘if the Vedic Saühitàs do not offer a systematic explanation
[of pràõa], they at least give the technical vocabulary, which, later on has been fully developed
in the classical texts of Charaka and Sushruta’ (Sharma and Keswani 1974:55).
88
See, e.g., Caraka Saühità 6.28.5-11.
89
Meulenbeld 1999-2002 Vol. 1A: 76.
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medical text, presents the ‘holy wind’ as ‘God’. 90 The following table gives a brief
summary of their respective locations and the principal types of ailment caused by
their ‘derangement’. 91
Pràõa Head, chest, tongue, mouth Hiccups, wheezing

and nose. and similar
ailments.
Udàna Umbilical region, chest and Ailments ‘located
throat. above the
collarbone’.
Samàna ‘Near the internal fire’ (i.e. Abdominal
stomach). swelling, diarrhoea
and poor digestion.
Vyàna The whole body. Ailments of the
whole body.
Apàna Pelvis, intestines, Ailments of the
reproductive organs, thighs, bladder and anal-
groins, rectal region. rectal region.
It is also worth noting that, unlike in Vedic tradition, pràõa in àyurveda became
associated with inhalation and apàna with exhalation 92 , though the medical texts
contain no references to specific breathing techniques. 93
As Smith points out, although Vedic and àyurvedic thought may have had different
origins and took different paths with different emphases, the commonality of some of
their underlying principles provides us with parallel systems, which, for all the
90
Wujastyk 1998:116.
91
Summarised from Meulenbeld 1999-2002 and Wujastyk 1998. Both Caraka and Su÷ruta
present long lists of ailments caused by disruption of the sub-pràõas, depending in part on the
cause of disruption. See also Zysk 2007:S109-100 and 2007:S111 which sets out a similar
summary based on the more detailed analyses of the Aùñàïgahçdaya Saühità and
Aùñàïgasaügraha of the 7th - 8th centuries CE.
92
Subbarayappa 2001:139.
93
Zysk 1993:211.
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underlying science/religion tension, seem more complementary than competitive. 94
We have seen as far back as the øatapatha Bràhmaõa a division of pràõa into five,
and, in the construction of the fire altar, the association of the sub-pràõas with body
parts and sense faculties. In the later Upaniùads - particularly the Pra÷na, which is
itself late enough to have benefitted both from ÷ramana influence and the influence of
early àyurveda 95 - we have seen an association with internal bodily functions riding
alongside pràõa as a more ontological principle, deriving directly from àtman. In the
medical texts, we see, as we would expect, a detailed analysis of their association
with the physical body and its ailments. The next question to consider is how the
classical yoga tradition of Pata¤jali accommodated this developing theory of pràõa.
94
Smith 2007:100.
95
Wujastyk argues that the system of àyurveda was probably in recognisable form by about
450BCE (1998:xvi), two or three centuries earlier than the likely date of the Pra÷na Upaniùad.
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5. Pràõa in Sàükhya, Advaita Vedànta and the Yoga Såtra
Before considering the Yoga Såtra, it is worth taking a detour into two of the most
influential orthodox dar÷anas, Sàükhya and Advaita Vedànta, for Sàükhya
philosophy underpins the Yoga Såtra to a significant extent, and Advaita philosophy
was reflected in several yoga texts and teachings after the Yoga Såtra 96 , as well as
purporting to be primarily a school of Upaniùadic exegesis.
The principal extant text of classical Sàükhya, the Sàükhya Kàrikà of ä÷varakçùõa 97 ,
despite its detailed analysis of the material world (prakçti) into 24 tattvas, mentions
pràõa only once, in verse 29, where the ‘common function’ of the three layers of
mind (mahat or buddhi, ahaükàra and manas) is said to be ‘to support or maintain the
[five] vital airs’. 98 It is perhaps surprising that, given its prominence in the Vedic
texts, pràõa is not itself one of the tattvas of Sàükhya, though Sàükhya’s radical
dualism may not have had a comfortable place for Connolly’s ‘fundamental principle
with phenomenal manifestations’. 99 Instead, the ontological status of the ‘vital airs’
is left unstated, though their place in verse 29 suggests greater importance than as
simple sub-divisions of the gross element vàyu, or air. Penner argues that Sàükhya’s
mahat could be equated with pràõa as ‘the support of all’, but he acknowledges that
96
E.g. the Yoga Vàsiùñha, attributed to Vàlmãki, but more probably dating from around the
sixth century CE - see the detailed analysis in Atreya 1936:6-11.
97
Although probably originating slightly later than the Yoga Såtra, it s generally accepted that
the Sàükhya presented by ä÷varakçùõa is older than the yoga presented by Pata¤jali (Hiriyanna
1993:268). It is also accepted that the Sàükhya presented in the Sàükhya Kàrikà may well
differ from those originally expounded in earlier texts, including the now lost root text of
Sàükhya, the Såtra attributed to Kapila.
98
Sàükhya Kàrikà 29, translation Niranjanananda Saraswati 2008.
99
Connolly 1992:96.
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there is no textual evidence to support that link. 100 Connolly also refers to, but
dismisses, this argument, concluding, while acknowledging Kàrikà 29, that pràõa ‘in
reality has no place in Sàükhya’. 101
For Advaitins, pràõa also presented a conceptual difficulty, for its dynamic nature
and its foot in both phenomenal and spiritual camps made it just as unpalatable for a
strict non-dualist as for a strict dualist. We have seen that, in the Upaniùads, pràõa in
places retained the quality of a quasi-ultimate principle, while in others it was clearly
subordinated to àtman. Through àyurveda, it played an important role in the analysis
of the physical body. Conceptually, for the non-dualist, in that capacity it must
operate as an illusory manifestation of brahman and cannot share the fundamental
role ascribed to àtman, as brahman, the ultimate reality. Connolly argues that, largely
for these reasons, pràõa’s role in Advaita thought was ‘deemed problematic’ and
consistently marginalised 102 , though in Advaita yoga texts, such as the Yoga
Vàsiùñha, to which Connolly does not refer, pràõa retains a role as a dynamic life
giving bodily principle which can be harnessed as a tool to assist on the path to
mokùa.
Turning to the Yoga Såtra (YS) themselves, we find pràõa mentioned directly in only
five of the 195 (or 196) verses. The såtra format presents an immediate difficulty, in
that the terseness of the text may mask a great deal which its compilers chose to ‘take
100
Penner 1966:289. Freeman, who is one of the most highly respected contemporary western
yoga teachers, also considers them to be ‘very close’ (Freeman 2004).
101
Connolly 1992:163.
102
He questions whether it is significant in this context that øaõkara did not compose a
commentary on the Kauùãtaki Upaniùad, which, as we have seen, equates brahman and pràõa
in verse 2.1.
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as read’ or to leave to oral transmission: just as the few references to àsana may mask
a sophisticated range of postures of which we have no textual evidence until centuries
later, so the few references to pràõa may be based on an assumption of knowledge of
the various presentations of pràõa in the Vedic and àyurvedic texts. Conversely, the
paucity of references to pràõa might just as easily be a reflection of the downplaying
of pràõa in Sàükhya philosophy.
In YS1.34, the process of exhaling and retaining pràõa is given as one means of
gaining mental stability. There can be little question that pràõa here means anything
other than physical breath, though the link of pràõa to mind goes back to the
Chàndogya Upaniùad. 103 YS2.29 lists the famous ‘eight limbs’: an eight step path
towards kaivalya, the liberation from the samsàric cycle which arises through
realisation of the ultimate separation of puruùa (spirit) and prakçti (matter). Of these
limbs, the fourth is pràõàyàma, almost universally translated as ‘breath control’.
Beyond pràõàyàma lie the four internal limbs: pratyàhàra (sense withdrawal),
dhàraõa (concentration), dhyàna (meditation) and samàdhi (absorption). In 2.49-50,
pràõàyàma is presented as the ‘regulation of the incoming and outgoing breaths’
according to ‘place, time and number’. 104
It is clear that pràõàyàma in the YS is a preparatory practice helping to prepare the
mind for the ever more internal limbs which lie ahead. 105 The final two references to
pràõa are to two only of the five sub-pràõas - udàna and samàna - in 3.39 and 3.40
103
Chàndogya Upaniùad 6.8.2: ‘... the mind... is tied to the breath’.
104
Bryant 2009:289.
See, e.g., YS 2.52: [through pràõàyàma] ‘the mind becomes fit for concentration’ (Bryant
105
2009:296).
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respectively. Book 3 of the YS is largely devoted to ‘mystic powers’ (siddhi)
allegedly available to the practitioner who masters the later, internal, limbs. In 3.39,
mastery of udàna is said to give, amongst other things, the power to levitate, and, in
3.40, mastery of samàna to lead to radiance (jvalanam). None of apàna, vyàna or
pràõa (as a sub-pràõa) features in the YS.
The fact that udàna and samàna are mentioned without elaboration suggests that the
compiler of Book 3 felt comfortable assuming an understanding of the sub-pràõas, at
least in broad terms. Nevertheless, neither is mentioned in the context of the yogic
path presented in the YS: rather, their mastery is presented peripherally as leading to
the sort of powers which YS3.37 makes clear can be obstacles to samàdhi, the final
limb of the path. In the earlier verses referring to pràõa, it is hard to read the term as
meaning anything more than physical breath, control of which is seen either (in 1.34)
as a way of stabilising the mind or (in 2.29) as just one of the steps on the way to
kaivalya. Pràõàyàma is couched very much in terms of breath retention, whether of
inhalation or exhalation. While we must not rule out the terseness of the såtra format
masking an implicit understanding of a sophisticated theory of pràõa 106 , on the face
of it neither Upaniùadic knowledge of the functioning of pràõa nor detailed practices
aimed at manipulating pràõa appear to play any meaningful part in Pata¤jali’s path to
liberation.
And, of course, the relationship between breath and pràõa is such that control of one will
106
necessarily affect the other.
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6. The hañha yoga synthesis
Several centuries passed between the Yoga Såtra and the principal hañha yoga texts to
which we can attribute dates with any degree of confidence - beginning perhaps with
the Gorakùa øataka. 107 During that period, a hugely significant development in
Indian philosophical thought was the rise of tantra. A discussion of tantra is beyond
the scope of this dissertation, but its principal significance for present purposes is a
switch of worldview from both the fundamental dualism of Sàükhya, where the
manifest world of prakçti was seen as ultimately distinct from the spiritual realm of
puruùa, and from the Advaita view of the manifest world - including the body - as an
illusory manifestation of brahman. Although it is difficult to generalise about tantric
philosophy, a common feature of tantric thought was that ‘the body is divine and
contains... within it...the cosmic polarity of the male deity and his consort... Their
union within the body is the symbolic expression of liberation’. 108 The physical
body, accordingly, shifted from being perceived as belonging to the realm of prakçti
or màyà, and, through both its inherent divinity and specific practices of
‘divinisation’ 109 , became an important tool on the path to liberation. 110 As a corollary,
107
The dating of the Yoga Yàj¤avalkya is controversial. Mohan (undated:19) places its origin,
though perhaps not the text itself, to ‘the period between the second century B.C.E. and fourth
century C.E.’; Feuerstein (1998:422) believes that it cannot pre-date 400CE, putting it at the
very end of the likely date range of the Yoga Såtra, and may be as late as 1300 CE (1998:450).
108
Flood 1996:160.
109
For example, the fixing of mantras on, and visualisation of deities in, different parts of the
body. Flood 2006 discusses this passim, but particularly at 113-119.
110
The term ‘liberation’ is used generically to refer to the notion of escape from the cycle of
saüsàra, though its nature and means is presented differently in different philosophical
traditions. Liberman stresses that hañha yoga is commonly thought to have originated through
the experimentation with body and breath carried out by the Nàths, whose ‘research involved
extensive exploration of the inner environments of the body and their effects on
consciousness’ (Liberman 2008:104). Gupta (1979:165) on the other hand points out that
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the Sàükhya and Advaita objections to pràõa as a manifest expression of a quasi-
ultimate principle fell away.
There is little doubt that this shift underlay the practices of hañha yoga. 111 While ‘the
corpus of hañha-yogic texts is not a doctrinally coherent whole’ 112 and ‘does not
‘belong’ to any one single school of Indian thought’ 113 , the ‘transmutation of the
human body into a vessel immune from mortal decay’ 114 through specified practices -
particularly of àsana and cleansing practices - is a universal within hañha yoga .
Similarly, meditation on, and manipulation of, pràõa was a well known tool within
tantric practice. 115
Although not the earliest hañha yoga text, the Hañha Yoga Pradãpikà (HYP) is
generally considered to present the most comprehensive and systematic analysis. The
HYP makes clear from the outset that the path which it presents is ‘solely for the
attainment of ràja yoga’ 116 , in other words that its goal is that of the Yoga Såtra, but
its approach to that goal is very different. For the hañha yogin, the key to stilling the
turnings of the mind and attaining samàdhi is the control of pràõa, most specifically
the focussing of pràõa into suùumnà nàóã. 117 As Varenne says, pràõa becomes ‘the
heart of the yoga doctrine’, ‘the motive force of spiritual progress’ and ‘the catalyst
that triggers the alchemical process by which the profane aspirant is transmuted into a
hañha yogins are not considered ‘true’ tantrics, as they are considered too focussed on the
physical body.
111
See, e.g., Singleton 2010:27, Mallinson 2005:113.
112
Mallinson 2005:113.
113
Singleton 2010:27.
114
Singleton 2010:28.
115
See, e.g., Flood 1993:262-3.
116
HYP 1.2.
117
Cf. Maitrã Upaniùad 6.21 - see p. 24 above.
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true yogi’. 118 Or, as Feuerstein puts it, ‘through the process of pràõa regulation, a
state of inner balance is achieved which creates the continuum necessary for
meditative absorption’. 119 In order for pràõa to be brought into suùumnà, the nàóã
must be cleansed, or purified, and the starting point for that purification is the
purification of the physical body through the practice of àsana and the observance of
certain dietary requirements. Once àsana has been mastered, the practitioner proceeds
to pràõàyàma (which here connotes not just the breath retention of the Yoga Såtra,
but specific practices which manipulate the flow of the breath), bandha (practices
which ‘lock the pràõa in a certain area’ 120 ) and mudrà, energetic ‘seals’.
Among the bandha practices prescribed by the HYP, two are particularly important.
Uóóãyàna bandha is described as ‘the drawing up of the intestines above and below
the navel’ 121 which causes pràõa to ‘fly through suùumnà’ 122 , leading to longevity and
the conquering of death. When mastered, ‘emancipation flows naturally’. 123
Although not expressly presented as such in the HYP, it seems obvious that this is a
practice designed to stimulate samàna, and it is certainly treated as such in
contemporary yoga. ‘Pressing the perineum with the heel, contract[ing] the anus and
draw[ing] the apàna upwards’ is måla bandha 124 , by which the downward moving
apàna is ‘made to go upwards’ (i.e. into suùumnà) leading to ‘a union of the pràõa
and the apàna’, and thereby to a form of psychic heat which awakens the body’s
118
Varenne 1976:158.
119
Feuerstein 1974:98.
120
Vishnu-devananda 1987:101.
121
HYP 3.57.
122
HYP 3.55.
123
HYP 3.60.
124
HYP 3.61.
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dormant energy (kuõóalinã) and directs it into suùumnà . 125 A third bandha,
jàlaüdhara, practised by constriction of the throat, is said to prevent pràõa flowing
‘the wrong way’ (i.e. downwards) 126 and is generally treated as stimulating udàna.
Once pràõa is concentrated in suùumnà, so too, it is said, is the mind focussed and
samàdhi may ensue.
Although uóóãyàna and jàlaüdhara bandhas are generally presented as stimulating
samàna and udàna respectively, the HYP makes no direct mention of samàna, udàna
or vyàna. Its focus is on the uniting of pràõa and apàna, reflecting the tantric union of
male and female principles as ‘the symbolic expression of liberation’. 127 Other hañha
yoga texts, however, make more of the sub-pràõas. The Gorakùa øataka describes the
nàóã system in much more detail than the HYP, before describing ten vital breaths -
the traditional five together with five more. 128 The physical locations of the
traditional five correspond exactly, though in abbreviated form, to their locations
according to the medical texts: pràõa in the chest, apàna in the region of the rectum,
samàna in the region of the navel, udàna in the throat and vyàna pervading the whole
body. 129 The øiva Saühità refers to the same ten, with the main five having the same
physical locations and only slight variations in the minor five. Nevertheless, both
125
HYP 3.62-68.
126
HYP 3.72.
127
Flood 1996:160 - see page 35 above.
128
Nàga, kårma, kçkara, devadatta and dhana¤jaya , responsible respectively for eructation,
winking, sneezing, yawning and pervading the body after death - Gorakùa øataka 36-37. Note
that these additional sub-pràõas are not found in the medical tradition (Zysk 1993:210).
129
Gorakùa øataka 34-35.
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texts agree with the HYP that the key to yogic liberation is the ‘union’ of pràõa and
apàna. 130
The fundamental principles of hañha yoga, therefore, are (a) that the human body is
an inherently divine vehicle which can be used as a tool towards liberation; (b) that
the starting point is the ‘purification’ of the physical body, both to enable the
practitioner to cope with the rigours of some of the later practices and to cleanse the
nàóã 131 ; and (c) that, in order to bring about the stillness of the mind required for
samàdhi, pràõa (and the various sub-pràõas) can be manipulated in order to
concentrate pràõa in suùumnà. For the hañha yogin, unless pràõa is controlled, there
can be no control of the mind and, therefore, no liberation through yoga. 132 As
HYP4.6 says, ‘When the pràõa is without movement... the state of harmony... arising
is called samàdhi.’
I have noted already that the locations of the five main sub-pràõas in both Gorakùa
øataka and øiva Saühità correspond exactly, albeit in abbreviated form, to those of
the Caraka and Su÷ruta Saühitàs. 133 I would argue that the prominence given to the
physical body in hañha yoga, as a result of the shift in philosophical conception
promoted by tantra, necessarily brought with it an awareness of the results of the
enquiry into the body which had begun in the early medical texts. There is no
130
See, e.g., Gorakùa øataka 41, øiva Saühità 2.63, 3.42, 3.65.
131
Werner points out too that ‘in the process of bodily training, the mind is trained as well, for
the Yogi develops through it a high degree of self-control and determination’ (1977a:148).
132
Cf. the Yoga Såtra, which, aside from the eight limbs, presents other paths to samàdhi and
kaivalya which do not refer to pràõa (e.g. YS2.1).
133
Interestingly, the possibly earlier Yoga Yàj¤avalkya presents their locations quite
differently. Yoga Yàj¤avalkya 4.50-57 places vyàna in the ears, eyes, neck, ankles, nose and
throat, udàna in all the joints and has samàna pervading the whole body. With some variations
of detail, pràõa and apàna are broadly in their usual places.
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suggestion that, by this stage, Indian medical practitioners were outcastes, as they
were at the time of the dharma texts. 134 This inevitably included the àyurvedic view
of pràõa and the sub-pràõas which, as we have seen, are, when located and
functioning properly, key to the proper functioning of the body. For the hañha yogin,
only when the body is healthy can the process of yoga begin. It seems logical,
therefore, that the proper functioning of pràõa according to the medical tradition
formed an integral part of the understanding of the purification of the body in hañha
yoga.
That the hañha yogins were conscious of medical influences can be seen in the texts,
not just in the frequent, often hyperbolic, references to specific practices leading to a
generic freedom from disease, but in references to specific diseases being cured by
hañha yoga practices. 135 The HYP’s detailed dietary strictures 136 may also reflect the
medical tradition, in which great attention is given to diet. Perhaps even more
significantly, the detailed cleansing practices (kriyà) prescribed by the HYP 137 are
expressly stated to be unnecessary for those whose three humours (doùa) are
balanced 138 , a direct reference to what is probably àyurveda’s most fundamental
diagnostic principle.
For the hañha yogin, therefore, an understanding of the medical approach to pràõa
was a necessary prerequisite to embarkation on the hañha yoga path. Given that the
134
See note 84 above.
135
E.g. in Gorakùa øataka 62 which describes the practice of mahàmudrà as curing
‘consumption, leprosy, constipation, enlargement of the spleen’.
136
HYP 1.58-60.
137
Dhauti, basti, neti, tràñaka, nauli and kapàlabhàti - HYP 2.22 et seq.
138
HYP 2.21.
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philosophical objections to pràõa as both a manifest force and a quasi-ultimate
principle had, in the tantric context of hañha yoga, dropped away, and that the control
of pràõa was part - even if a relatively minor one - of the path of the Yoga Såtra, it
must be arguable that the hañha yogins, having recognised the importance of pràõa at
the physical level, reawakened its exploration at the metaphysical, acknowledging its
Upaniùadic roles as, if not an absolute principle, a ‘support’ of àtman, and as the
focus of internalised ritual 139 , and understanding that its knowledge and control could
be harnessed towards the realisation of àtman via the yogic goal of samàdhi. 140 In
other words, hañha yoga saw a reversal of the bifurcation of the speculation about
pràõa seen at the time of the Upaniùads and early medical texts, and brought about a
synthesised approach to pràõa capable of assisting in both physical transformation
and spiritual liberation, in the process returning pràõa to its place of importance as
that on which everything is fixed ‘as spokes on the hub’. 141
139
Yoga practice being, particularly under tantric influence, a form of internalised ritual.
140
Zysk (1993:212) argues that yoga and àyurveda developed separate, though parallel,
theories of pràõa and that the ‘blending of Yoga and âyurveda in a single treatise occurs quite
late’, referring here to the 16th century âyurvedasåtra. While that may be the earliest explicit
‘blending’, with respect to him, I feel that he underplays the likelihood of earlier cross-
fertilisation.
141
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7. Conclusion
According to the teachings of yoga, ‘in the state in which the mind is active, the true
nature of consciousness and existence cannot be perceived’. 142 For Pata¤jali, the
answer was to focus directly on stilling the turnings of the mind. The hañha yogins,
however, acknowledged the difficulty of stilling the mind and added ‘the dimension
of pràõa to the scenario’ 143 , understanding that pràõa control led to mental control.
However, I hope to have shown in this dissertation that the idea that controlling pràõa
led to some form of desirable spiritual goal was not a new one. Rather, knowledge
(and, therefore, control) of pràõa (including the sub-pràõas) had since early Vedic
times been lauded as leading to immortality. Indeed, in early Vedic times, pràõa was
reverenced as a quasi-ultimate principle, so it was natural that knowledge of it was
seen as promoting the ultimate spiritual end. As ritual practices became
‘internalised’, it was pràõa that formed the focus of that internalised practice. Even
though its role as a quasi-ultimate principle began to be subordinated to àtman and
brahman, it retained an important role through the late Upaniùads, and the notion that
controlling pràõa was a significant part of spiritual practice was never lost, though it
took a more minor role in the yoga of the Yoga Såtra.
As the Indian medical tradition developed, pràõa, which had long been an indicator
of life, was harnessed in the forms of the sub-pràõas as an indicator of physical
health. The extent to which the two traditions - medical and spiritual - overlapped or
communicated in the early days is a subject of debate, but it is clear that they shared
142
Connolly 2007:197.
143
Ibid.
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certain common ideas. By the time of hañha yoga, the physical body had become an
acceptable tool for liberation, as a result of which the medical analysis of pràõa as an
indicator of health clearly came into the yogic realm, and there was a re-awakening
of enquiry into pràõa as the focus of the ‘ritual’ of yoga practice, an important
spiritual tool which, perhaps for philosophical reasons, had been marginalised in
orthodox Sàükhya and Advaita circles.
‘The ways in which yoga practitioners... have approached issues... have been
significantly shaped by changing needs, circumstances and conditions’. 144 Clearly the
way in which Indian - especially yogic - thought has approached pràõa has been
shaped by such matters as developing notions of the fundamental grounds of
existence, tensions between religious and scientific speculation and investigation, and
different theories of the nature of manifest existence. In this dissertation I hope to
have shown that the hañha yoga harnessing of pràõa as a means to liberation has
roots partly in medical tradition, but also in the importance of vitalistic concepts in
the Vedic view of creation, the symbology of the sacrificial altar and the
internalisation of sacrifice in the Upaniùadic speculations. Hañha yoga presents a
‘coming together’ of many of these fields of enquiry for, as Stern says, ‘Good health
and the attainment of self-knowledge are often interconnected, and are..., according
to yoga, inseparable’. 145
Graham Burns
September 2010
144
De Michelis 2008:25.
145
Stern 2005:106.
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APPENDIX
Approximate Chronology of Principal Texts Mentioned
The table below provides an approximate chronology for the main texts referred to in
this dissertation. As Olivelle says in relation to the Upaniùads ‘…any dating of these
documents that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house
of cards’ 146 , and the same can be said for just about all of the texts listed, though
greater precision inevitably becomes possible with more recent texts. Dating the
ancient ÷ruti texts of the Veda presents particular difficulties. First, we are not
looking to date written texts, for the Vedic texts were transmitted orally long before
they were committed to writing. Secondly, as ÷ruti, or revelation, for many ‘the
question is irrelevant, since, in essence, at least, the whole of ÷ruti literature is
considered to be apauruùeya, not of human origin, and of primordial antiquity’. 147 We
also need to bear in mind the temptation to which some commentators succumb of
seeking to accord a text greater authority by ascribing to it greater antiquity, and the
fact that many of the texts, as we have them today, are ‘composite’, in other words
reflect a number of different sources. Nevertheless, and subject to the above caveats,
the dates below represent a reasonable scholarly consensus for the likely dates when
the texts assumed the forms in which we have them today.
Text Approximate Date
èg Veda 1500 - 1200 BCE 148
146
Olivelle 1996:xxxvi.
147
Roebuck 2000:xxiv
148
See, e.g. Flood 1996:37, noting that some commentators place the text centuries earlier.
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White Yajur Veda (Vàjasaneyi 1200 - 1000 BCE 149

Saühità)
Atharva Veda 1200 - 900 BCE
øatapatha Bràhmaõa 800 - 600 BCE 150
Bçhadàraõyaka Upaniùad 700 - 600 BCE 151
Chàndogya Upaniùad 700 - 600 BCE
Kauùãtaki Upaniùad 600 - 500 BCE
Taittirãya Upaniùad 600 - 500 BCE
Caraka Saühità 300 - 200 BCE 152
Baudhàyana, âpastamba and 300 - 150 BCE 153

Gautama Dharmasåtras
Muõóaka Upaniùad 300 - 100 BCE
øvetà÷vatara Upaniùad 300 - 100 BCE
Pra÷na Upaniùad 100 BCE - 0
Vàsiùñha Dharmasåtra 150 BCE - 100 CE 154
Mànavadharma÷àstra 100 BCE - 200 CE 155
Maitrã Upaniùad 0 - 300 CE 156
Yoga Såtra 200 BCE - 300 CE 157
149
Very approximate date, from Flood 1996:39.
150
Keith 1909:38.
151
Dates for the Upaniùads, other than the Maitrã, are taken from Olivelle 1996.
152
Wujastyk 1998:4.
153
Olivelle 1999:xxxiii-xxxiv.
154
Olivelle 1999:xxxiii-xxxiv.
155
Olivelle 2004:xxiii.
156
The Maitrã is widely thought to have come into its present form at a relatively late stage in
the development of the Vedic canon, and chapter 6 is widely thought to be a late addition to
the core text. Roebuck considers that it ‘could have been put into its present form as late as the
second or third century CE’ (2000:xxvi), though M‚ller and van Buitenen have argued
otherwise.
157
The weight of modern western scholarship favours the later part of this range, but there are
contrary views. See, e.g., Flood 1996:96 (‘between 100 BCE and 500 CE’; Whicher 1998:39
(‘second to third century CE’). Cf. Iyengar (one of the most widely respected figures in
contemporary yoga) at 1966:1 (‘between 500 and 200 BC’).
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Mahàbhàrata 400 BCE - 400 CE 158
Sàükhya Kàrikà 350 -450 CE 159
Su÷ruta Saühità 200 BCE - 500 CE 160
Gorakùa øataka 1100 - 1200 CE 161
Yoga Upaniùads 900 - 1250 CE 162
Yoga Yàj¤avalkya 300 - 1300 CE 163
øiva Saühità 1300 - 1500 CE 164
Hañha Yoga Pradãpikà 1350 - 1500 CE 165
158
Smith 2009:lxvii, acknowledging both the differing views over the length of time taken to
compose such a huge text and its composite nature.
159
King 1999:170.
160
Wujastyk 1998: 64.
161
Briggs 1938:257 (though he too acknowledges the impossibility of accurate dating).
162
Feuerstein 1998:450.
163
See note 107 above.
164
Mallinson 2007:x.
165
Connolly 2007: 196; King 1999:71.
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Vedic and Ayurvedic Roots of The Hatha Y

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Vedic and âyurvedic Roots of the Hañha Yoga Theory of Pràõa

Graham Burns (245343)

Vedic and âyurvedic Roots of

Word count: 10,833.

2. Pràõa in the Vedic Saühitàs and Bràhmaõas. 9

3. Pràõa in the Upaniùads. 16

4. Pràõa in the Indian Medical Texts. 26

5. Pràõa in Sàükhya, Advaita Vedànta and the Yoga Såtra. 31

6. The Hañha Yoga Synthesis. 35

synthesis between those metaphysical and physical speculations as the àyurvedic

especially the Upaniùads, at Birkbeck in 2002, then greatly deepened my interest in

this dissertation, steering me towards a number of lines of enquiry and introducing

me to a number of sources I might not otherwise have explored. I am grateful to all

Library, to Dominik Wujastyk and Kenneth Zysk for replying to my unsolicited

preoccupation with such an intangible topic.

Yoga÷cittavçttinirodhaþ. ‘Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind’.

Thus Yoga Såtra 1.2 defines yoga. 1 Tadàdraùñuþsvaråpevasthànam. When that is

However, as Freeman suggests 2 , a more apposite description of hañha yoga might be

yoga÷pràõavçttinirodhaþ, because, for hañha yogis, the primary emphasis is on the

pràõa is seen as fundamentally important in hañha yoga is apparent from its

whole process of hañha yoga by reference to the movements of pràõa.

sacrificial context of the Bràhmaõas; and speculated on in the Upaniùads. It plays a

presentation, the purpose of this dissertation is to present an overview of how pràõa is

became the cornerstone of hañha yoga practice.

2. Pràõa in the Vedic Saühitàs and Bràhmaõas

Pràõa is a notoriously difficult word to translate adequately. As Feuerstein says,

through simple empirical observation of the function of breathing - is reflected in

emphasising pràõa’s significance as a vital principle fundamental to maintaining life.

all existence, though it is often referred to by different names, one of which is

worldly existence depended. However, it is debatable whether, as Connolly suggests,

it is accurate to characterise it as the only ‘source and foundation’ of existence, not

sound, vàc, which is often linked with pràõa.

never together. It is clear that, while a fivefold division is beginning to crystallise at

characterisation 25 ) come to be read as signifying exhalation and inhalation

respectively. 26 Vyàna perhaps represented an initial awareness of the pervasiveness

exhalation 27 ; udàna (the ‘up breath’) etymologically seemed more representative of

inhalation than apàna, which it gradually supplanted, leaving apàna eventually to

1. an undifferentiated pràõa, as ‘life-breath’, has come to be seen as an underlying

association of pràõa, as breath, with the deity Vàyu;

probably only initially signified physical exhalation and inhalation;

3. other differentiated forms of pràõa - udàna, vyàna and samàna - gradually

appeared, but are not yet systematised;

pràõa control 30 , there are no unambiguous references to practices aimed at controlling

significances of Vedic ritual, pràõa takes on an increasingly significant role. As well

differentiated into series of anywhere from six to eleven. As a development of the

knowledge of the functioning of the sub-pràõas leads to immortality. 35 In Vedic

thinking ‘knowledge’ of something implies its control; knowledge of the workings of

pràõa therefore implies the possibility of controlling pràõa.

brief, involve the laying of bricks known as the pràõabhçt or ‘breath-holders’. SB

2. those at the rear are the holders of apàna;

3. those on the right side are the holders of vyàna;

4. those on the left side are the holders of udàna;

5. those in the centre are the holders of samàna. 36

through which pràõa is said to flow within the body.

maintenance of the daily fire in the domestic ritual is presented as a way of

maintaining pràõa. 38 Eventually, complex fire ritual diminished in importance in

Vedic tradition, to be replaced by an ‘internalised’ ritual - the pràõàgnihotra - in

may have reflected non-Brahmanical influence, as early as SB 11.5.3.8-13 we see

Uddàlaka âruõi teaching øaukeya Pràkãnayogya that knowledge of the sub-pràõas,

ritual fires being extinguished.

3. Pràõa in the Upaniùads

‘Rarely do the Upaniùads present a consistent teaching on any one subject.’

existence. 40 Despite this, in Connolly’s opinion, ‘An examination of all references to