Kanda — Root Bulb of the Nāḍīs (कन्द)

Kanda — Root Bulb of the Nāḍīs (कन्द) is a Hindu / Yoga — Kanda root-bulb anatomy body system as transmitted through the lineage Yoga anatomy describes the kanda as a bulb-like root or gathering place from which the subtle nāḍīs emerge, in the lower abdominal or pelvic field. Haṭha sources connect this root to the nāḍī network and kuṇḍalinī practice; the map therefore keeps one central origin point and renders four schematic rays rather than inventing a complete nadi inventory.. This page lists every point in the system with sourced placements and links to cross-tradition correspondences curated for The Body Spiritual.

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Primary sources

Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā (transl. Pancham Sinh, 1914) — Chapter 1, nāḍī and kuṇḍalinī anatomy (verses 27–29 in the Sinh edition), and Chapter 3, nāḍī practice (verse 113), used for the root-bulb and subtle-channel context.
Chāndogya Upaniṣad (Patrick Olivelle, The Early Upaniṣads, Oxford 1998) — Chapter 8, section 6, imagery of channels departing from the heart; this early Upaniṣadic passage is a conceptual antecedent, not a direct kanda diagram.
Śāṇḍilya Upaniṣad (transl. K. Narayanasvami Aiyar, 1914) — Chapter 1, nāḍī and kuṇḍalinī yoga sections, used as a later Upaniṣadic witness for subtle-channel terminology.

Known lineage variants

The kanda is variously located above the anus, below the navel, at the navel, or in the pelvic root across yoga manuals; this map uses a lower-abdominal centre and a generous uncertainty radius rather than collapsing those readings.
Early Upaniṣadic channel imagery concerns channels departing from the heart, while later haṭha texts place the kanda lower in the body. The map records this historical layering and does not claim that the Chāndogya Upaniṣad supplies the later kanda location.
The four rays are a deliberately incomplete schematic of many nāḍīs. Their front-view projection is editorial and the rays should not be read as visible anatomy.

Related systems

No other systems share this tradition label.

Points

Kanda — nāḍī root bulb — Lower-abdominal origin
Schematic ray endpoint — suṣumṇā — Central-axis direction
Schematic ray endpoint — iḍā — Lunar-side direction
Schematic ray endpoint — piṅgalā — Solar-side direction
Schematic ray endpoint — nāḍī network — Distributed-field direction

Frequently asked

What is Kanda — nāḍī root bulb?

Kanda is the bulb-like origin or gathering place from which later yoga anatomy says nāḍīs proceed, shown here in the lower abdomen below the navel. Because texts disagree about the exact height of the bulb, the large uncertainty radius preserves a family of related readings rather than presenting one palpably precise point.

What is Schematic ray endpoint — suṣumṇā?

This endpoint is a rendering anchor for the suṣumṇā ray leaving the kanda origin. It is intentionally schematic and does not identify a canonical termination or physical spinal structure.

What is Schematic ray endpoint — iḍā?

This endpoint gives the iḍā stub a visible second anchor on the anatomical-right side of the front view. Its location is an editorial polarity marker, not a measured course of a nerve or vessel.

What is Schematic ray endpoint — piṅgalā?

This endpoint gives the piṅgalā stub a visible second anchor on the anatomical-left side of the front view. Its location is an editorial polarity marker, not a measured course of a nerve or vessel.

What is Schematic ray endpoint — nāḍī network?

This endpoint makes the abbreviated network ray visible without pretending to enumerate the nāḍīs. Its position is a front-view drawing convention and carries a broad uncertainty radius by design.