Siddha Medicine — Mukkutram and Ādhāra Map
Siddha Medicine — Mukkutram and Ādhāra Map is a Hindu / Siddha — Tamil body typology body system as transmitted through the lineage Tamil Siddha medicine describes the person through the three humoral principles (mukkutram: vāta/vatham, pitta/pitham, and kapha/kapham) and through subtle centres called ādhāra in its yoga-oriented texts. This map keeps those diagnostic principles separate from a six-centre contemplative projection; the three broad zones are an editorial visual aid, while the named ādhāra sequence follows the Siddha textual vocabulary.. This page lists every point in the system with sourced placements and links to cross-tradition correspondences curated for The Body Spiritual.
Open in interactive explorerPrimary sources
- Tirumantiram (Thirumandiram), by Tirumūlar (Tamil text; trans. B. Natarajan, Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1991) — Tamil Siddha scripture; Tantra 3 and the yoga sections describe nāḍī, breath, bodily transformation, and the ādhāra-centre vocabulary. The text is a religious and yogic source, not a modern anatomical atlas.
- Tirumantiram, Siddha yoga and medicine sections (Tamil textual tradition; trans. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, 3 vols., 1969–1972) — English translation and contextual presentation of the Siddha scripture, including the relationship between yoga practice, humoral balance, and bodily refinement.
- Central Council for Research in Siddha, Standard Siddha Medical Terminology (Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, 2019) — Modern institutional terminology for the three humors and Siddha diagnostic vocabulary; used to keep transliteration and category labels consistent.
Known lineage variants
- The three humors are spelled vatham/vāta, pitham/pitta, and kapham/kapha across Tamil and Sanskritising sources; the labels are retained together rather than treating them as three anatomical compartments.
- Siddha ādhāra enumerations and placements vary by text and lineage. The six-centre sequence here is a conservative yoga-adjacent editorial projection, not a claim that every Siddha medical manual uses the same six centres.
- The three SVG zones are broad front-view bands added for legibility. Humoral principles are functional and diagnostic categories, so their projection is editorial and carries wider uncertainty than the named centre points.
- Anatomical-right is x below 0.5 in this front-view illustration; the six ādhāra are midline and do not assert gross-organ anatomy.
Cross-tradition overlaps
- Svādhiṣṭhāna ādhāra ↔ Svādhiṣṭhāna (coincident)
- Mūlādhāra ādhāra ↔ Mūlādhāra (distance 0.005)
- Maṇipūra ādhāra ↔ Maṇipūra (distance 0.010)
- Anāhata ādhāra ↔ Anāhata nāda — unstruck sound (distance 0.010)
Related systems
No other systems share this tradition label.
Points
- Mūlādhāra ādhāra — Root support / pelvic floor centre
- Svādhiṣṭhāna ādhāra — Genital / lower-abdominal centre
- Maṇipūra ādhāra — Navel / digestive-fire centre
- Anāhata ādhāra — Heart / chest centre
- Viśuddhi ādhāra — Throat / voice centre
- Ājñā ādhāra — Brow / command centre
Frequently asked
What is Mūlādhāra ādhāra?
Mūlādhāra is the root-support locus in the Siddha yoga vocabulary and is placed here at the pelvic floor as the lowest member of the six-ādhāra sequence. The point is a subtle-practice anchor rather than a claim about a discrete organ or a universal Siddha medical chart.
What is Svādhiṣṭhāna ādhāra?
Svādhiṣṭhāna is shown in the lower abdomen as the second point in the adopted six-centre sequence. Its placement is an editorial front-view projection of a subtle centre and should not be read as a statement that Siddha humors reside in a single pelvic structure.
What is Maṇipūra ādhāra?
Maṇipūra is represented at the navel as the transformative centre associated in yoga descriptions with heat and digestion. The navel anchor is useful for visual orientation, but the Siddha medical notion of pitham is a distributed functional principle and is not reduced to this point.
What is Anāhata ādhāra?
Anāhata is placed in the central chest as the heart-region member of the adopted ādhāra sequence. The point marks a contemplative seat and a visual relationship to breath and affect; it is not intended to locate the Siddha humour vātham in the physical heart.
What is Viśuddhi ādhāra?
Viśuddhi is shown at the throat as a subtle centre associated with voice, breath, and spaciousness in the adopted yoga vocabulary. The throat coordinate is a front-view convention for attention and does not imply that Siddha diagnosis assigns the kapham humor to a single throat organ.
What is Ājñā ādhāra?
Ājñā is placed at the brow as the upper point of the six-centre Siddha yoga projection, where attention and discriminating awareness are conventionally gathered. This coordinate reflects a cross-textual yoga image rather than a claim that all Tamil Siddha medical lineages use a single brow-centre diagram.