Energy or the five vital breaths (udana, prana, samana, apana, and
vyana), variously referred to in hathayoga as prana, sakti, and kundalinT, circulates in the yogic body through an intricate system of seventy-two thousand nadls (channels).
Each bodily function or locus of bodily functions had a wind or breath that acted as its motivator, giving rise to innumerable vital breaths, which eventually became codified into five basic bodily winds: prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana.
vyana, the "diffused breath," circulates in the limbs and motivates their movement.(25)
The sequence of their pairings are as follows: prana and vyana;(27) prana, apana, vyana;(28) prana, apana, vyana, samana, as bodily parts;(29) and prana, apana, vyana, udana, as bodily parts.(30) It is likely that these words were originally conceived of in terms of manifestations and variations of respiration with some intuitions about their functions inside the body.
For the vratya, each of the three winds, prana, apana and vyana, consists of seven types delineated by correspondences typical of the ritual process.
In addition to being the principal indicators of life, prana and apana, as in the earlier treatises, are equated with various divinities including the Sun,(46) the Asvins,(47) Agni,(48) Sarasvati (Goddess of Speech),(49) Indra,(50) and Mitra and Varuna.(51) More importantly, the bodily winds are enumerated in mantras accompanying different parts of the sacrificial ritual, for the sacrifice is said to succeed by prana.(52) Formulaic utterances involving two (prana, apana), three (prana, udana/ apana, vyana), four (prana, apana, vyana, udana), and five (prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana) winds are commonly employed.