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What are the chakras, and where do they come from?
The chakras are a body-centred system of wheels or energy centres. Within Indian tantric traditions, the concept developed from the first millennium CE, with the seven-chakra scheme taking shape in later texts. The seven-colour Western map is a modern development.
Facts checked on against 17 sources, 7 of them museum, university, archive, library, government or primary texts.
Key facts
Every line comes from a source listed at the bottom of the page. The small numbers point to it.
| c. 600–1300 CE | Tantrik Yoga flourished in this period, and the theory of the subtle body and its energy centres (cakras, padmas, adharas, lakshyas) came from it.1 |
|---|---|
| 10th–11th centuries CE | Tantric texts such as the Kubjika Tantra and the Malinivijayottara Tantra gave the first, unsystematised form of the cakra conception.2 |
| 13th century CE | The Sharada Tilaka presents a simpler seven-chakra system, and the Siva Samhita later gives a more elaborate version.1 |
| 1577 | Purnananda Yati wrote the Shat-cakra-nirupana, chapter six of the Sri-Tattva-Cintamani, which describes six centres from Muladhara to Ajna plus Sahasrara.13 |
| 1918 | John Woodroffe's translation of the Shat-cakra-nirupana appeared, and it was widely used by Western readers to popularise the seven-chakra scheme.4516 |
| 1927 | C. W. Leadbeater's The Chakras was first published and became highly influential in the West.78 |
What the term means and where the system is found
Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or disk. In Tantric and yogic practice the chakras are described as focal points for meditation in the body, pictured as disc- or lotus-like structures where the nadis meet.619
In the Sanskrit sources, the chakras are described as lotuses with a set number of petals, linked to sounds, deities and colours. The Shakta scheme counts six wheels between the base of the spine and the eyebrows.210
Chakra systems varied widely. Tantric yoga articulated five-, six-, seven-, nine-, ten-, twelve- and twenty-one-chakra systems, and Gorakhnath listed nine cakras in some places and seven in others.111
Tantric use: nyasa, kundalini and the six centres
The main purpose of a chakra system in the original Sanskrit sources was to serve as a template for nyasa, the installation of mantras and deities at points in the subtle body. Kundalini, the serpent power coiled at the base of the spine, is raised through the centres toward the Sahasrara.1712
In the Shat-cakra-nirupana tradition, the process is named Shat-chakra-bheda, the piercing of six centres by Kundalini Shakti. Avalon's commentary names Muladhara, Svadhishthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Ajna as the six centres through which Kundali ascends.1314
The seven-chakra scheme was not the only version. In Buddhism there are four primary chakras, and in the Kalachakra system six chakras branch off the central channel and link to the six elements.915
The Western seven-colour map is modern
The association of chakras with the colours of the rainbow appears to come from Western thinkers of the twentieth century. Traditional Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Tantric texts show mantras, symbols and deities, but not specific colours for each chakra.97
Leadbeater's book and the 1918 Woodroffe translation shaped the Western seven-chakra map, and later writers added colours, metals, astrological signs and gemstones. Those correspondences are described as having no basis in ancient yoga philosophy.59
What the tradition holds
How practitioners describe it, in their terms. Described, not endorsed.
Sian Pascale states that Classical Tantric practitioners were the first yogis to perceive the chakras and the subtle energy body, and that in Classical Tantra the chakras were described as energetic centres, padmas, loci or lotuses.16
In Buddhist Tantra, the Kalachakra cosmology correlates the chakras with the elements and with the twelve signs of the zodiac, as an account of the cosmos within the Buddhist system.15
What the evidence shows
What historians, scientists and controlled tests have found.
Hareesh states that the chakra associations with psychological states, as in Carl Jung-era Western writing, are a modern Western development and not found in the Sanskrit sources.1
A 2017 cadaver study by Sweta and colleagues identified that the root chakra (Muladhara) might be related to the inferior hypogastric plexus. The article also notes that no scientific evidence supports the existence of chakras in the spiritual sense.9
Rele, in his study of the Yogic chakras, proposes they correspond to nerve plexuses of the autonomic nervous system, while John Woodroffe, in his foreword, does not accept that Kundalini can be identified with the Vagus nerve.17
Worked out from the evidence
Not stated outright by any one source. It is worked out from the sources cited.
- The seven-chakra map most readers meet today is a later construction. Its roots lie in Tantric and yogic texts of the first and second millennia CE, while the colour scheme, the planetary and gem associations and the psychological framing were added in the twentieth century.19547
- Scholars disagree about how far the Western seven-chakra scheme depends on a single translation. Some accounts say the 1918 Woodroffe translation of the Shat-cakra-nirupana carried most of the weight, while Christopher Wallis notes that the sixteenth-century text was not the earliest seven-chakra description.547
Not yet confirmed
- Which early texts first described a fixed chakra count, and how did the number seven spread across Hindu and Tantric schools?
- How did the link between chakras and colours, metals and gemstones move from Indian sources into Western writing?
Sources
Museums, universities, archives and primary texts first. Every fact is paraphrased and nothing is copied; Wikipedia is never cited.
- hareesh.org: The real story on the Chakras — Hareesh.org. Read on · Reference
- oxfordreference.com: Cakra - Oxford Reference. Read on · Reference
- samyakyoga.org: Are Chakras Ancient? The Real History of Chakras in Yoga and Sanskrit Texts. Read on · Reference
- tantricacademy.com: History Of The Chakras Origin: 9 Unbelievable Myths Busted. Read on · Reference
- courses.onlineyoga.school: The Science and History of the Chakras in Eastern Philosophy. Read on · Reference
- Internet Archive: The chakras; a monograph. Read on · Primary text
- laquilaactive.com: Origins of Chakras: Separating History From Mystery | L'Aquila Active. Read on · Reference
- cooperhewitt.org: The Chakras | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Read on · Museum
- medicalnewstoday.com: What are chakras? Concept, origins, and effect on health. Read on · Reference
- wisdomlib.org: Cakra, Cakrā, Cākra: 70 definitions. Read on · Reference
- Internet Archive: Philodophy Of Gorakhnath,With Goraksha Vacana Sangraha. Read on · Primary text
- britannica.com: Chakra | Energy Centers, Kundalini & Meditation | Britannica. Read on · Reference
- Internet Archive: The Serpent Power By Arthur Avalon. Read on · Primary text
- Internet Archive: Yoga_Nidra. Read on · Primary text
- rubinmuseum.org: Kalachakra Cosmology Illustration | Rubin Museum of Himalayan ArtRubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Read on · Museum
- thelightcollective.yoga: The Chakras Revealed: Shattering 7 Common Misconceptions — The Light Collective | Yoga Studio & Training - by Sian Pascale. Read on · Reference
- Internet Archive: The Mysterious Kundalini. Read on · Primary text