Lalana

Lalana, also named Talu after the Sanskrit word for the palate, occupies a position hatha yoga texts describe as intermediate rather than primary: seated at the soft palate between Vishuddha at the throat and Ajna at the brow, it is described as a resting point for the nectar released above at Bindu Visarga, gathering there before the tongue, in dedicated practice, can direct it further or before it is otherwise lost downward. That intermediate status is likely why Lalana, unlike the seven numbered chakras, does not appear consistently across every hatha yoga source and is treated by several manuals as a supplementary center rather than a required stop on the same footing as Muladhara through Sahasrara.

Its name's connection to the palate ties it directly to the physical structure the tongue must reach in the practices associated with it, making Lalana one of the more explicitly anatomical of the minor centers, defined by a body part's function rather than by a purely energetic description.

Khecari mudra, described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika among other hatha manuals, is the practice most directly tied to Lalana. The technique trains the tongue, sometimes after a gradual lengthening practice, to curl back and up behind the soft palate, reaching toward the nasal cavity, a position the texts describe as letting the practitioner taste and retain the nectar said to collect at Lalana rather than let it fall further and be lost. The Pradipika treats the mudra as an advanced technique bound up with claims of stopped aging and prolonged life, framing physical technique and subtle-body effect as inseparable.

Because khecari mudra as fully described in the classical texts involves gradual, guided preparation of the tongue's ligament, hatha yoga lineages generally treat it as a practice transmitted under a teacher's direct supervision rather than one to be attempted from a text description alone, and the atlas records the practice's existence and purpose here without offering it as instruction.