Nadis

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Nadis." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/nadis.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Nadis. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/nadis

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-nadis,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Nadis},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/nadis},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Nadis are the channels of the subtle body in yogic physiology, through which prana is said to move. Three are central, ida, pingala and sushumna, running along the spine and meeting at the chakras; the classical texts give the total as 72,000, a conventional figure rather than a count. They are described in the Upanishads and at length in the hatha yoga literature.

Facts

Overview

What Defines This Grouping

Channels of the subtle body through which prana is described as moving. Three are principal - ida, pingala and susumna - and the texts give the total as a conventional 72,000 rather than as an enumeration. 1

Attestation

Era of Attestation

Described in the early Upanisads and elaborated at length in the hatha yoga corpus. 1

Learn More

The Channels of the Subtle Body

Nadis are the channels of the subtle body in yogic physiology, through which prana, the vital energy, is said to move. Three are central, ida, pingala and sushumna, running along the spine and meeting at the chakras; ida and pingala spiral around the central sushumna, associated with the lunar and solar, cooling and heating currents.

The classical texts give the total number of nadis as seventy-two thousand, a conventional figure for a vast network, of which a handful are named and important. The nadis are the pathways that yogic and tantric practice works to open and balance.

Breath, energy and practice

Much of hatha and tantric yoga is concerned with the nadis: pranayama, the regulation of breath, is understood as acting on ida and pingala, and the goal of raising energy through the central sushumna to the crown is the aim of kundalini practice. The system belongs to the same subtle-body map as the chakras.

The atlas describes the principal nadis, their courses and associations, and their role in practice, treating the subtle body as a traditional framework. The chakras they connect, and the wider body-map, are treated under The Body & Its Centres.

Cross-Tradition Connections