Chakras are the centres of the subtle body in tantric Hindu and Buddhist physiology, described as wheels or lotuses strung along a central channel. The seven-centre scheme familiar in the West (root to crown, each with an element, a seed syllable and a set number of petals), derives from the sixteenth-century Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, transmitted through Arthur Avalon's 1919 translation The Serpent Power. The rainbow colour scheme so often shown with it, red at the root through to violet at the crown, is a twentieth-century Western addition, not part of that text. Older and parallel systems count the centres differently, listing four, five, six or many more. Each centre here carries its traditional attributes and its links to gemstones, colours, glands and body parts.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 9
- What Defines This Grouping
- Centres of the subtle body in tantric Hindu and Buddhist physiology, visualised as wheels or lotuses on a central channel. The texts do not agree on how many there are: schemes of four, five, six, seven, nine and more are attested. 1
Contested Use
- Contested or Appropriated Modern Use
- The rainbow colour sequence attached to the seven centres is a twentieth-century Western addition, assembled by Theosophical and later New Age writers. It is not found in the tantric sources. 2
Origins
- Whose Classification This Is
- The six centres plus the sahasrara that became standard in the West are those of Purnananda's Satcakranirupana of 1577, transmitted through Woodroffe's 1919 translation The Serpent Power. 1
Attestation
- Era of Attestation
- Cakra systems appear in Saiva and Buddhist tantric literature from about the eighth century CE. 3
Status
- Standing as a Comparative Category
- "The seven chakras" is a modern harmonisation of a varied body of tantric material rather than a single traditional system. 3
Sources
- Roots of Yoga James Mallinson and Mark Singleton (trans. and eds.), 2017
- Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan Kurt Leland, 2016
- The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century Geoffrey Samuel, 2008
Learn More
The Centres of the Subtle Body
Chakras are the centres of the subtle body in tantric Hindu and Buddhist physiology, described as wheels or lotuses strung along a central channel, the sushumna, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. The familiar Western scheme has seven (root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown), each with a colour, an element, a seed syllable, a number of petals and a presiding deity.
The chakras are worked with in tantric and yogic practice through visualisation, breath and the raising of energy, and are understood as centres where the physical and subtle bodies meet.
Tradition and modern synthesis
The chakra systems of the Indian tantric texts are various, different texts give different numbers, names and attributes, and the tidy seven-centre, rainbow-coloured scheme so familiar in the West owes a great deal to twentieth-century synthesis, especially the work of writers who mapped the chakras onto a spectrum of colours and onto Western psychology. The atlas distinguishes the tantric sources from this modern harmonisation.
The entries give each chakra its location, element, colour, seed syllable and associations. The nadis that connect the chakras, and the koshas and gunas of the same tradition, are treated in their own categories.
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