Vayu Mudra is a mudra, a symbolic hand-gesture of the Indian religious traditions, known in Sanskrit as Vayu Mudra and signifying the seal of air.
Form and meaning
In this seal the index finger is folded to the base of the thumb, which presses lightly over it. In the five-element scheme of yogic hand-seals it is linked to the air element and used to calm restless conditions.
Mudras appear across Hindu and Buddhist ritual, iconography, classical dance and yoga, where a fixed position of the hands carries a settled meaning or is held to direct attention and breath. The gesture is described here within those documented traditions.
Sources and caution
Vayu Mudra, the thumb pressing down the index finger while the remaining fingers extend, is presented within the same modern element-finger scheme as governing vayu, the air element, and is popularly described as easing conditions associated with excess air in traditional Ayurvedic terms, such as bloating or tremor. As with the other mudras in this set, the underlying idea that specific finger positions can balance the five elements draws on genuine tantric and Ayurvedic tattva theory, but the specific, named "Vayu Mudra" gesture as a discrete therapeutic technique is documented chiefly in twentieth-century and later popular mudra manuals rather than in classical scripture.