Editing Chakra (section)

==Ancient history==

{{see also|Yoga|Nadi (yoga)}}

[[File:Yajna1.jpg|thumb|Chakra iconography may derive from the five symbols of [[yajna]], the Vedic fire altar.<ref name="White 2001 p555"/>]]

The word ''chakra'' appears to first emerge within the [[Vedas]], though not in the sense of psychic energy centers, rather as ''chakravartin'' or the king who "turns the wheel of his empire" in all directions from a center, representing his influence and power.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |author-link=David Gordon White |title=Tantra in Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hayV4o50eUEC |year=2001 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-1778-4 |page=25}}</ref> The iconography popular in representing the ''Chakras'', states the scholar [[David Gordon White]], traces back to the five symbols of [[yajna]], the Vedic fire altar: "square, circle, triangle, half moon and dumpling".<ref name="White 2001 p555">{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |author-link=David Gordon White |title=Tantra in Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hayV4o50eUEC |year=2001 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-1778-4 |page=555}}</ref> 

The hymn 10.136 of the ''Rigveda'' mentions a renunciate [[yogi]] with a female named ''kunannamā''. Literally, it means "she who is bent, coiled", representing both a minor goddess and one of many embedded enigmas and esoteric riddles within the ''Rigveda''. Some scholars, such as D.G. White and [[Georg Feuerstein]], have suggested that she may be a reference to [[kundalini]] shakti and a precursor to the terminology associated with the chakras in later tantric traditions.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |author-link=David Gordon White |title=Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5RwARVMg2_4C |year=2006| publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|isbn=978-0-226-02783-8|pages=33, 130, 198}}</ref><ref name="Georg Feuerstein 1998 15–17">{{cite book |last=Feuerstein |first=Georg  |author-link=Georg Feuerstein |title=Tantra: Path of Ecstasy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4O6_AwAAQBAJ |year=1998 |publisher=Shambhala Publications|isbn=978-0-8348-2545-1 |pages=15–17}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Flood |first=Gavin D. |author-link=Gavin Flood |title=An Introduction to Hinduism |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo |url-access=registration  |year=1996 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-43878-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo/page/77 77]–78, 285}}</ref>

Breath channels ([[Nadi (yoga)|nāḍi]]) are mentioned in the classical [[Upanishads]] of Hinduism from the 1st millennium BCE,<ref name="YIP14" /><ref>Trish O'Sullivan (2010), ''Chakras''. In: D.A. Leeming, K. Madden, S. Marlan (eds.), ''Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion'', Springer Science + Business Media.</ref> but not psychic-energy chakra theories. Three classical Nadis are Ida, Pingala and Sushumna in which the central channel Sushumna is said to be foremost as per Kṣurikā-Upaniṣhad.<ref>[https://scimonk.com/index.php/2021/05/06/ida-pingala-sushumna-nadis/ "Ida Pingala Sushumna, Nadis" ], ''Scientific Monk'', Retrieved 28 August 2021</ref>  The latter, states [[David Gordon White]], were introduced about 8th-century CE in Buddhist texts as hierarchies of inner energy centers, such as in the ''[[Hevajra Tantra]]'' and ''Caryāgiti''.<ref name="YIP14">White, David Gordon. ''[https://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9565.pdf Yoga in Practice]''. Princeton University Press 2012, pages 14–15.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |author-link=David Gordon White |title=Kiss of the Yogini |year=2003 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=0-226-89483-5 |page=224}}</ref> These are called by various terms such as ''cakka'', ''padma'' (lotus) or ''pitha'' (mound).<ref name="YIP14"/> These medieval Buddhist texts mention only four chakras, while later Hindu texts such as the ''[[Kubjikāmatatantra|Kubjikāmata]]'' and ''Kaulajñānanirnaya'' expanded the list to many more.<ref name="YIP14"/>

In contrast to White, according to Feuerstein, early Upanishads of Hinduism do mention ''chakras'' in the sense of "psychospiritual vortices", along with other terms found in tantra: ''[[prana]]'' or ''vayu'' (life energy) along with ''nadi'' (energy carrying arteries).<ref name="Georg Feuerstein 1998 15–17"/> According to [[Gavin Flood]], the ancient texts do not present ''chakra'' and kundalini-style yoga theories although these words appear in the earliest Vedic literature in many contexts. The ''chakra'' in the sense of four or more vital energy centers appear in the medieval era Hindu and Buddhist texts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Flood |first=Gavin D. |author-link=Gavin D. Flood |title=An Introduction to Hinduism |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo |url-access=registration |year=1996 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-43878-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo/page/98 98]–100}}</ref><ref name="YIP14" />

The 10th century [[Kubjikāmatatantra]] <!--chapters 14 to 16--> describes a system of five chakras which serve as the seats of five sets of divine female beings, namely the [[Devi|Devī]]s, the Dūtīs, the Mātṛs, the [[Yogini|Yoginīs]] and the Khecarīs.<ref name="Heilijgers-Seelen 1992">{{Cite thesis |last=Heilijgers-Seelen |first=Dorothea Maria |title=The system of five cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra 14–16: a study and annotated translation |publisher=Egbert Forsten |location=Groningen |date=1992 |oclc=905777672 |isbn=978-9069800592 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_System_of_Five_Cakras_in_Kubjik%C4%81mat/EOD7EAAAQBAJ}}</ref>