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Secondary channel

Shankhini

Śaṅkhinī · शङ्खिनी

Named for the conch, shankha. It runs down the left of sushumna, between gandhari and saraswati, and ends at the anus in the common list.

conch elimination left side
Side
Left
Ends at
The anus
Carries
Hearing, inner sound and equilibrium
Name means
Conch-shelled, spiral
Variant termination
The left ear, in the sense-organ tables
Associated wind
Apana
Group
One of the eleven secondary nadis
Sources
Shiva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, later commentaries

Where it runs

Shankhini runs downward on the left of the central channel and terminates in the region governed by apana. In the sources that read it that way it belongs with kuhu and varuni as a channel of elimination rather than of sense.

The minority reading sends it to the left ear, which puts it in the sense group instead. That is the widest kind of variation in the list, and it is worth noticing that nobody in the tradition seems to have found it troubling.

The tables that group the fourteen by sense organ give shankhini the left ear and pair it with pusha or payasvini on the right. That grouping is tidier than the mixed list and is probably later for exactly that reason.

The name

A conch is spiral, and the word carries a ritual charge in Indian religion, being blown to open ceremonies. As a channel name it describes the coil rather than the sound.

Frequently asked questions

פוסטים אחרונים

גלה את החוכמה העתיקה של קלפי הטארוט ופתח את סודות המסע הרוחני שלך. הבלוג שלנו הוא שערך להבנת הסימבוליזם העשיר, המשמעויות והיישומים המעשיים של קריאת טארוט.