The ''Khechari Vidya'' (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: खेचरीविद्या, , knowledge of Khechari), an early tantric text on Hatha yoga written around the 14th century, teaches only khecarīmudrā, one of several yogic seals or mudras, and is a major source for that method. This was meant to give the

yogin A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297-299, 331 Th ...

access to stores of

amrita ''Amrita'' ( sa, अमृत, IAST: ''amṛta''), ''Amrit'' or ''Amata'' in Pali, (also called ''Sudha'', ''Amiy'', ''Ami'') is a Sanskrit word that means "immortality". It is a central concept within Indian religions and is often referred t ...

in the body, and to raise Kundalinī via the six chakras.

Text

The ''Khecarīvidyā'' is written as a dialogue between the god

Śiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

and his partner, Devī. The text was originally a single chapter about the deity Khecarī's

mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

(the "vidyā") in the Kaula tradition of tantric Shaivism. It was then reorganised into three sections and extended with an account of khecarīmudrā, complete with praise of the use of alcohol, ''madirā''. A fourth section, on magical herbs, was then added, by which time most of the Kaula aspects had been edited out to suit a hatha yoga readership.

Khecarī mudrā

''Khecarī Mudrā'' (

, खेचरी मुद्रा) is a hatha yoga practice carried out by curling the tip of the tongue back into the mouth until it reaches above the

soft palate The soft palate (also known as the velum, palatal velum, or muscular palate) is, in mammals, the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is part of the palate of the mouth; the other part is the hard palate. ...

and into the

nasal cavity The nasal cavity is a large, air-filled space above and behind the human nose, nose in the middle of the face. The nasal septum divides the cavity into two cavities, also known as fossae. Each cavity is the continuation of one of the two nostrils. ...

. In the full practice, the tongue is made long enough to do this with many months of daily tongue stretching, and by gradually severing the

lingual frenulum The frenulum of tongue or tongue web (also lingual frenulum or frenulum linguæ; also fraenulum) is a small fold of mucous membrane extending from the floor of the mouth to the midline of the underside of the tongue. Development The tongue start ...

with a sharp implement, again little by little over a period of months.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{Hatha yoga Hindu texts Works of unknown authorship Hatha yoga texts Sanskrit texts