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Kundalini - Hindu sources

In Hinduism, the concept of Kundalini is part of a complex of ideas related to esoteric anatomy. These ideas occur most often in the class of texts that are called Āgamas or Tantras. This is a large body of scripture, most of which is rejected by orthodox brahmins.

There are many variations on these concepts in the Sanskrit source texts. In earlier texts there are various systems of chakras and nadis, with varying connections between them. Over time one system of six or seven chakras along the body's axis became the dominant model, adopted by most schools of yoga. This particular system may have originated in about the 11th century AD, and rapidly became widely popular. It is in this model where Kundalini is said to "rise" upward, piercing the various centers until reaching the crown of the head, resulting in union with the Divine.

The most famous of the Yoga Upanishads, the Yogatattva, mentions four kinds of yoga, one of which being laya-yoga, the symbolic dissolution (laya) of the universe visualized within the body with a corresponding raising of a corporeal energy known as Kundalini.

Another source text for the concept of kundalini is the "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" written by Swami Svatmarama (English translation, 1992) somewhere between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.