Śivasaṃhitā 4.64

The heading mūlabandhakathanam introduces the root lock technique in a specific pedagogical context: after the long section on bindu and Vajrolī practices, the Śivasaṃhitā returns to Mūlabandha as an autonomous technique with its own application details. This structural order is not accidental: first the value of bindu is established, then the primary tool for preserving it is presented.

Mūla — ‘root, foundation’ — is the term designating both the base of a tree and the source of a river, the principle of anything. In subtle anatomy, mūlādhāra — the support of the root — is the first chakra located at the perineum. Bandha (lock, bond) applied to this region creates the seal (mudrā) that activates the latent energy at its point of greatest concentration. The etymology of mūla also evokes kāraṇa (first cause): Mūlabandha is the root cause of energetic activation.

In the Nātha tradition, Mūlabandha is one of the three bandhas that Goraksanātha systematized as pillars of hatha yoga. The Gorakṣaśataka (vv.52-54) describes its effect on the reunion of prāṇa and apāna in language almost identical to that of the Śivasaṃhitā, indicating a common source or direct transmission between these two medieval yoga traditions. The practice also appears in the Gheraṇḍasaṃhitā (III.14-17) with emphasis on its effect on the kanda, the energetic bulb from which all nāḍīs emerge.