[207] सप्त चक्राः In the best treatises of the Hindu philosophers, we find only six chakras, or “circles,” enumerated; these are as follow: 1. _Muládhára_, “the parts about the pubis;” 2. the _Swádishthánam_, or “umbilical region;” 3. the _Manipúram_, “pit of the stomach,” or “epigastrium;” 4. _Anáhatam_, “the root of the nose;” 5. _Visuddham_, “the hollow between the frontal sinuses;” 6. _Ajnyákhyam_, “the fontenelle, or union of the coronal and sagittal sutures.” To these circles, or divisions, are attributed various faculties and relations with divinities and physical elements.
[214] ब्रह्माण्ड signifies “Brahma’s egg,” to which the earth is compared, and probably, as above, the head.
[216] These words have, in the Persian dictionary, a signification different from that which is above attributed to them, and seem to be technical terms belonging to the doctrine of a sect.
[217] प्राण _prána_ is breath, expiration, and inspiration; अपान _apána_ is flatulence, _crepitus_. Besides these two winds, the Hindus name three other winds, namely: _Jamána_, eructation, supposed to be essential to digestion; _Udána_, passing from the throat into the head; it is the pulsation of the arteries in the head, the neck, and temples; _Vyána_, expanding through the whole body; it is the pulsation of the rest of the superficial arteries and occasional puffiness of external parts, indicating air in the skin (see _Vedanta Sara_, edit. Calc., p. 9; and _Sánkhyá Kárita_, work quoted, p. 105).
[218] अजप is a particular mantra, or mystical formula, employed by the Tantrikas, the essence of which is the letters _H_ and _S_, whence it is termed the _Hansa-mantra_.
[223] दणिडी a mendicant carrying a staff.
[226] भस्म _bhasma_, “ashes,” भस्मीभूत _bhasmíbuta_, “becoming ashes.”
[227] शास्त्र _sástra_, from शास _sása_, “to govern,” an order, command, institutes of religion, science, etc.
[229] The king of Persia above mentioned was probably Abbas, the son of Shah Muhammed Mirza. He began to reign in 1585, and died in 1628, in his 70th year. He was called “the Great,” although his character and life were stained by vices but too common to Oriental princes. To him succeeded his grandson Shah Súfí, in 1627, and died in 1641; then the son of the latter, Abbas II, not yet ten years old, was proclaimed king; at the date above mentioned, viz. 1643, he was about twelve years old, and could therefore not be the king characterised by Kalin Bharati, who could very easily, but fifteen years before the epoch above mentioned, have seen Abbas “the Great,” then, as he says, “full of years.”