01 / Hand gesture
Chin and Jnana
A shared finger shape, with names and palm directions compared.
Gesture · text · attention
Mudras
Hand gestures and the wider world of traditional seals and locks.
A meeting of fingertips, hands at rest, a word in an old yoga text: mudra can lead you into quite different kinds of reading. Begin with the hand forms, or open a traditional reference to understand the larger practice around a name.
Explore the mudras
20 topics: seven hand-gesture pages and thirteen traditional mudra and bandha references. Chin and Jnana share a comparison page.
02 / Hand gesture
Chinmaya
Keep the thumb-index contact; notice what the other fingers do.
03 / Hand gesture
Adi
A thumb enclosed by the fingers, without a tight grip.
04 / Hand gesture
Brahma
Two enclosed-thumb hands meet in front of the navel.
05 / Hand gesture
Vishnu and Nasagra
A practical hand for alternating the nostrils, with naming differences visible.
06 / Hand gesture
Anjali
Joined palms as a gesture of regard and devotion.
07 / Hand gesture
Dhyana
Hands resting in the lap, and a gesture read in Buddhist art.
08 / Traditional reference
Mahamudra
A whole-body seal at the meeting of posture, breath, and attention.
09 / Traditional reference
Mahabandha
A great lock whose description depends on the text being read.
10 / Traditional reference
Mahavedha
A related seal with a consequential difference between texts.
11 / Traditional reference
Khechari
Tongue, gaze, and the traditional language of nectar.
12 / Traditional reference
Uddiyana Bandha
The abdominal lock and the image of upward flight.
13 / Traditional reference
Mula Bandha
The root lock within the traditional account of prana and apana.
14 / Traditional reference
Jalandhara Bandha
The throat lock in its breath-retention setting.
15 / Traditional reference
Viparitakarani
The reversed arrangement and the traditional sun-and-moon image.
16 / Traditional reference
Vajroli
A name with sharply different descriptions in two hatha texts.
17 / Traditional reference
Shakti Chalana
The awakening of Shakti in the texts’ own conceptual language.
18 / Traditional reference
Nabho
A tongue-related seal, with a useful distinction from Khechari.
19 / Traditional reference
Shambhavi
The relationship between outward gaze and inward attention.
20 / Traditional reference
Ashvini
Repeated contraction and release, distinguished from the root lock.
How this collection is arranged
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika’s ten-mudra list includes bodily seals and locks. The Gheranda Samhita lists twenty-five. The twenty topics selected here are a library selection across named teaching sources, not a claim that all traditions have exactly twenty mudras. Each page identifies its witnesses and consequential differences.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.6–7 · Gheranda Samhita 3.1–3 · Pranayama