Mystical systems
Bandha
Direct answer
Bandha: A bandha is a lock in hatha yoga: a deliberate drawing in of muscles at the pelvic floor, the belly or the throat, held to contain the breath and direct its force.
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At a glance
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Sushumna, Mudra
A bandha is a lock in hatha yoga: a deliberate drawing in of muscles at the pelvic floor, the belly or the throat, held to contain the breath and direct its force.
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What are the three bandhas?
The Sanskrit word means a binding or a fastening. Hatha yoga names three chief locks. Mula bandha, the root lock, draws the pelvic floor upward. Uddiyana bandha, the flying-up lock, pulls the abdomen in and up under the ribs after an exhalation. Jalandhara bandha, the net-holding lock, lowers the chin to the chest with the back of the neck long. Held together they are called maha bandha, the great lock.
The texts explain them through the subtle body: the locks close the ends of the trunk so that the vital breath cannot disperse and is turned into the central channel. Modern posture teaching uses lighter versions as a way of steadying the core of the body in movement.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Yoga, qigong, tai chi.
What sets Bandha apart
A bandha works by closing something. The chin lock closes the throat above, the root lock closes the pelvic floor below, and the abdominal lock presses the space between, so that in the texts' own picture the trunk becomes a sealed pot. That is why the locks belong with breath retention and not with ordinary breathing. The hatha manuals class them with the mudras, the seals, and promise large results from them; the modern use as core support is a much smaller claim.
- Sanskrit: bandha, a binding, bond or fastening
- Mula bandha: root lock: the pelvic floor drawn upward
- Uddiyana bandha: flying-up lock: the abdomen drawn in and up after exhaling
- Jalandhara bandha: chin lock: the chin lowered to the notch of the chest
- Maha bandha: the great lock: all three applied together
- Chief source: Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 3, about the 15th century
Often mistaken for something else: A mudra in today's usage is mostly a gesture of the hands; a bandha is a contraction inside the trunk, though the old manuals counted the locks among their ten mudras.
The story behind Bandha
The three locks are set out in the hatha yoga manuals, most fully in the third chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, composed by Svatmarama around the fifteenth century, where they stand among ten practices called mudras. Earlier works of the same tradition, such as the Dattatreya Yoga Shastra of about the thirteenth century, already teach them. In the twentieth century the Mysore teachers made a light root lock and abdominal lock a constant part of posture practice.
Why Bandha matters
The locks are where posture, breath control and the map of the subtle body meet, so the old texts treat them as the working parts of hatha yoga.
How to read Bandha
They are applied during breath retention in pranayama and, more lightly, through sequences of postures to steady the trunk.
Bandha in practice: an example
A student holding the breath in after a slow inhalation might lower the chin and lift the pelvic floor, then release both before breathing out.
Where readings of Bandha go wrong
The full abdominal lock is done on an empty stomach and is customarily left out in pregnancy and by people with high blood pressure or abdominal complaints.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- bandha meaning, bandhas in yoga, mula bandha, uddiyana bandha, jalandhara bandha
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What are the three bandhas?
Mula bandha at the pelvic floor, uddiyana bandha at the abdomen and jalandhara bandha at the throat. Applying all three at once is called maha bandha.
What is a bandha for?
In the hatha texts it holds the vital breath inside the trunk during retention and presses it towards the central channel. In present-day classes it is taught mainly as a means of supporting the spine and lightening movement.
Is a bandha the same as a mudra?
The old manuals list the locks among the mudras, which they call seals. In modern use a mudra more often means a hand gesture, and a bandha means one of the three muscular locks.
