Right ear or right eye?

The right ear is the common reading. Several lists move it to the eye and give the ear to payasvini instead.

A Vedic deity of nourishment and safe travel, invoked for herds and journeys. The nadi takes its name and its sense of supply from him.

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Secondary channel

Pusha

Pūṣā · पूषा

The nourisher, named for the Vedic deity Pushan who guards roads and cattle. It runs behind pingala on the right and ends at the right ear in most lists, at the right eye in others.

right ear nourishment hearing

Side: Right
Ends at: The right ear
Carries: Hearing, inner sound and equilibrium
Runs beside: Pingala
Variant termination: The right eye
Group: One of the eleven secondary nadis
Sources: Shiva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, later commentaries

Where it runs

Pusha is placed behind pingala on the right side of the spine, ending at the right ear. It shares that destination with payasvini in several lists, and which of the two is the ear and which is something else varies between manuscripts.

The pairing with hearing is the useful part: the secondary channels distribute prana to the sense organs, and the head-facing ones are named by which organ they reach.

The name

Pushan is a Vedic god of nourishment, roads and safe arrival, invoked for herds and for travellers. Attaching that name to a channel gives it a job description: this is a nadi of supply rather than of transformation.

The Vedic layer under the hatha vocabulary shows up repeatedly. Varuni and Saraswati carry their deities' concerns the same way.

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Runs beside it

Pingala

The solar channel on the same side.

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Shares its ear

Payasvini

The other channel of the right ear.

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Central channel

Sushumna

The axis every other channel is described against.

Frequently asked questions

: The right ear is the common reading. Several lists move it to the eye and give the ear to payasvini instead.
: A Vedic deity of nourishment and safe travel, invoked for herds and journeys. The nadi takes its name and its sense of supply from him.