Lalana, the Palate Waystation

Lalana, also named Talu after the Sanskrit word for the palate, occupies a position hatha yoga texts describe as intermediate rather than primary: seated at the soft palate between Vishuddha at the throat and Ajna at the brow, it is described as a resting point for the nectar released above at Bindu Visarga, gathering there before the tongue, in dedicated practice, can direct it further or before it is otherwise lost downward. That intermediate status is likely why Lalana, unlike the seven numbered chakras, does not appear consistently across every hatha yoga source and is treated by several manuals as a supplementary center rather than a required stop on the same footing as Muladhara through Sahasrara.

Its name's connection to the palate ties it directly to the physical structure the tongue must reach in the practices associated with it, making Lalana one of the more explicitly anatomical of the minor centers, defined by a body part's function rather than by a purely energetic description.