How is payasvini different from pusha?

Barely, in most descriptions. Both run on the right toward the ear, and the lists disagree about which reaches it. The overlap is evidence of sources merged rather than reconciled.

Does it have a practice of its own?

No. Like the other secondary channels it is worked through the three principal nadis.

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Secondary channel

Payasvini

Payasvinī · पयस्विनी

Payas means milk, and also water, and also nourishment. The channel runs on the right, close to pusha, and terminates at or behind the right ear.

right ear milk nourishment

Side: Right
Ends at: At or behind the right ear
Carries: Hearing, inner sound and equilibrium
Name means: Milk-bearing, or full of sap
Runs beside: Pusha
Group: One of the eleven secondary nadis
Sources: Shiva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, later commentaries

Where it runs

Payasvini is the closest of the fourteen to being a duplicate. It runs where pusha runs, on the right side toward the ear, and the sources split on which of the two reaches the ear proper and which stops behind it.

That kind of near-duplication is a sign of a list built from more than one source. Neither name was dropped when the lists were merged.

The name

Payas covers milk, water and sap in Sanskrit, all of them nourishing fluids. A payasvini is a cow with milk, or a river with water. As a channel name it says the same thing pusha does in a different register.

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Its near twin

Pusha

The other right-side channel of the ear.

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On the left

Yashasvini

The channel of the left ear.

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Central channel

Sushumna

The axis every other channel is described against.

Frequently asked questions

: Barely, in most descriptions. Both run on the right toward the ear, and the lists disagree about which reaches it. The overlap is evidence of sources merged rather than reconciled.
: No. Like the other secondary channels it is worked through the three principal nadis.