The Wheel of the Navel and Lotus of the Heart

Metaphor, Medical Knowledge, and the Body of Early Yoga

Abstract

This essay examines the formative history of the cakras of tantric yoga through a genealogy of the “wheel of the navel” (nābhicakra) and “lotus of the heart” (hṛdayapuṇḍarīka, etc.). Both expressions appear in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra and have precursors in early religious and medical literatures. It is shown that Patañjali’s wheel metaphor likely derives from a classical Āyurvedic conception of the navel as a wheel-like hub of bodily ducts, while the image of the heart as a lotus can be traced back to early Upaniṣads (Chāndogya 8, 1.1). Further examination reveals that multiple wheel and lotus metaphors feature in early religious and medical representations of the body, which are closely connected. This study highlights important continuities between medical views of the body, Pātañjala yoga, and the body of the early Śaiva tantra corpus.