Śivasaṃhitā 3.8

Where the previous verse mapped the five principal vāyus, this one introduces the five upavāyus — subsidiary winds headed by nāga. Their functions are deliberately mundane: belching, opening the eyes, hunger, yawning, and hiccup. This seemingly prosaic catalogue reveals the system’s totalising ambition: no bodily function, however trivial, falls outside the prāṇic map.

Nāga (serpent) governs eructation and vomiting; kūrma (tortoise) controls blinking and the opening of the eyes; kṛkara produces hunger and sneezing; devadatta causes yawning; and dhanañjaya remains in the body even after death, responsible for the swelling of the corpse. The term vigraha — «body», literally «that which has separate form» — underscores the embodied nature of these processes.

Knowing the upavāyus has tangible diagnostic value. A disturbed nāga may signal digestive imbalance; an agitated kūrma, eye fatigue or difficulty in concentration (dhāraṇā). Āyurvedic tradition draws on the same framework to inform treatment of specific ailments, demonstrating the deep interpenetration of classical yoga and Indian medicine that the Śivasaṃhitā takes for granted.