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shatkarma

षट्कर्म ṣaṭkarma

The six cleansings of Hatha Yoga (such as neti, dhauti, nauli) that purify the body's passages before deeper practice. The same word also names a completely separate set of six: the six acts of tantric magic (shanti, vashya, stambhana, vidveshana, uchchatana, marana), treated in the article The Shatkarma.

Explained in depth in The Shatkarma: The Six Acts of Tantric Magic

Where this term appears

  • What is Hatha Yoga? Yoga

    First come the shatkarmas , the six cleansings, frankly physical purifications of the body's passages, with names like neti , dhauti and nauli .

  • Duhāī: eight books, counted Treatise

    Across eight independently compiled printed Śābara books, from six publishing houses in Delhi, Vārāṇasī and Prayāg, the most frequent recurrent marker is दुहाई,…

  • The bazaar press Treatise

    The Śābara corpus became a mass phenomenon in modern India through the vernacular steam press, and one document shows it happening. The trade catalogue of the…

  • The harm ledger Treatise

    No documented harm attaches to the Śābara corpus by name. What the record documents attaches to a role and to an accusation: the *ojhā*, the named village ritual…

  • The six acts Treatise

    The *ṣaṭkarma*, the six acts, is the grid the Sanskrit mantric compendia use to sort magical ritual, and it does not organise the Śābara corpus. In the few pages…

  • The word, reclaimed or not Treatise

    The word was never taken up by the people whose name it is. From the earliest lexical record to the marketing of 2026, *śābara* was repurposed by parties standing…

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