Śivasaṃhitā 5.131

The convergence of iḍā, piṅgalā, and suṣumṇā at the brahmarandhra is here identified as the inner Triveni — the sacred triple confluence that in physical geography is located at Prayāga (modern Allahabad), where the Ganges, Yamunā, and the mythical subterranean Sarasvatī meet. The text performs a radical transposition: external pilgrimage is entirely interiorized within the practitioner’s own body.

Triveni literally means «triple braid» or «triple confluence» (tri, three; veṇī, braid or stream). The choice of this term is deliberate: in the tīrtha-yātrā tradition of sacred pilgrimage, Prayāga is considered the most powerful of all confluences. By identifying its internal equivalent, the text asserts that the yogin’s body is itself the most sacred of all sanctuaries, requiring no external journey.

This passage belongs to a well-documented hermeneutical current within Tantrism that systematically «interiorizes» great pilgrimage sites. Texts such as the Kaulajñānanirṇaya and the Kulārṇavatantra develop this theme extensively. For the advanced practitioner, true snāna — the purificatory bath — occurs not in any external river but in sustained meditation upon this inner point of convergence.