Hello fellow nauli-wallahs,

Congratulations to Jason on a great and unusual site. I've noticed some more textual references to nauli that you might want to mention: Siddhasiddhantapaddhati 6.89 (it's only referred to in passing, together with some other hathayogic practices), Yuktabhavadeva 7.162-163 (one of the five manuscripts collated gives the variant reading lauli.h for nauli.h – interesting in the context of our earlier discussion with Christopher) and Jogpradipaka 455-458 (in which it is called nyolii).

One small correction: the Gherandasamhita is not early. It  is very unlikely to be older than the 18th century.

Also, other than referring to some Yogamimamsa articles on the subject you don't mention one of nauli's most important functions, that of creating the vacuum in the stomach that enables the yogi to perform basti (the auto-enema, and vajroli-mudra, urethral suction. I can vouch for its efficacy in the former, but have not (and will not!) try the latter. My guru has mastered both. Among his recommendations concerning nauli, he says that it should not be practised for too long at a time or the abdominal muscles can get strained and he also prefers to do it in siddhasana rather than while standing.

All the best,

Jim