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Hatha yoga (/ˈhʌtə, ˈhɑːtə/; IAST: Haṭha-yoga)[2] is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques.[3][4] Some hatha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon.[5] The oldest dated text so far found to describe hatha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu.[6] The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist.[4] Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onward.
Some of the early hatha yoga texts (11th-13th c.) describe methods to raise and conserve bindu (vital force, that is, semen, and in women rajas – menstrual fluid). This was seen as the physical essence of life that was constantly dripping down from the head and being lost.[3] Two early hatha yoga techniques sought to either physically reverse this process of dripping by using gravity to trap the bindhu in inverted postures like viparītakaraṇī, or force bindu upwards through the central channel by directing the breath flow into the centre channel using mudras (yogic seals, not to be confused with hand mudras, which are gestures).[3]
Almost all hathayogic texts belong to the Nath siddhas, and the important early ones (11th-13th c.) are credited to Matsyendranatha and his disciple, Gorakhnath or Gorakshanath (11th c.).[7] Early Nāth works teach a yoga based on raising kuṇḍalinī through energy channels and chakras, called Layayoga ("the yoga of dissolution"). However, other early Nāth texts like the Vivekamārtaṇḍa can be seen as co-opting the hatha yoga mudrās.[8] Later Nāth as well as Śākta texts adopt the practices of hatha yoga mudras into a Saiva system, melding them with Layayoga methods, without mentioning bindu.[8] These later texts promote a universalist yoga, available to all, "without the need for priestly intermediaries, ritual paraphernalia or sectarian initiations."[8]
In the 20th century, a development of hatha yoga focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures) became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise. This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga".
- ^ Mallinson & Singleton 2017, p. xx.
- ^ "Definition of HATHA YOGA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
- ^ a b c Mallinson 2011, p. 770.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Birch 2011was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Mallinson 2011, pp. 770–781.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Mallinson 2016 Amrtasiddhiwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ White 2012, p. 57.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
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