하타 요가(Haṭha Yoga)의 중･후기 문헌들에 나타난 차크라(cakra) 관념의 유사성과 차이성에 대한 일고찰

Abstract

Cakra, widely used in various fields in modern times, is rooted in traditional Indian theories of practice, especially Tantra and Haṭha Yoga. In Haṭha Yoga, cakra generally means a center composed of prāṇa, which is located in a subtle body. The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences in the ideas of cakra that appeared in the middle and late periods (14th-19th century) of Hatḥa Yoga. The texts selected for this purpose are Śārṅgadharapaddhati, Śivasaṃhitā, Yogaviṣaya, Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa, Yuktabhavadeva. Based on these five texts, we analyzed the descriptions of the attributes and characteristics of the seven (or 6+1) cakras, from mūlādhāra situated at the base of the spine to sahasrāra at the top, and examined their similarities and differences through mutual comparison among the texts. The attributes of cakra shown in the above texts can be organized into location, number and color of petals, alphabet (mantra) written on petals, dominant element and seed sound, geometric shape (figure) and its color, mythical animal, god (deva) and goddess (devī or śakti) existed in seed, etc. Among them, the color of element, seed sound, geometric shape and its color appear only in Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa and Yuktabhavadeva, and mythical animal appears only in Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa. Although the attributes differ slightly from text to text in detail, they are similar in general. Some of the characteristic aspects shown in each cakra are as follows. Kuṇḍalinī is asleep in mūlādhāra. Liṅga appears in three places, and they are svayambhū liṅga in mūlādhāra, bāṇa liṅga in anāhata, and itara liṅga (having different names by texts) in ājñā. They seem to have a certain association with the knots (granthis). And three gods, commonly referred to as trimurti, manifest sequentially. They are child Brahma in mūlādhāra, youth Viṣṇu in svādhiṣṭhāna, and old Rudra in maṇipura. Among the five texts, Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa contains the most numerous explanations for cakra. This is understandable because the entire subject of this text itself is cakra, as clearly revealed in the meaning of the title, Descriptions of Six Cakras. The next two texts, Śivasaṃhitā and Yuktabhavadeva contain a large amount of explanations for cakra, whereas Śārṅgadharapaddhati and Yogaviṣaya have only brief explanations. In terms of the characteristics of the texts, Śivasaṃhitā follows the tradition of Śri Vidyā in South India, and Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa belongs to the tradition of Kaula Śaivism, so it can be inferred that these two texts have relatively large amount of descriptions and continuity of contents of cakra. And Yuktabhavadeva is an encyclopedic text that compiles and organizes the contents of the previous traditions, so it can be seen that this text also reflects the contents of previous traditions related to cakra. Therefore, it can be said that Yuktabhavadeva also has a connection with previous texts regarding the contents of cakra. In case of Śārṅgadharapaddhati and Yogaviṣaya, although the contents of cakra in these texts are somewhat small, these two texts also have the similar context with the previous three texts to some extent. In conclusion, we can confirm that in the middle and late Haṭha Yoga texts, at least based on these five texts, the ideas of cakra have stronger similarity than differences between texts, regardless of the large or small amount of descriptions.