I found the following discussion of this verse in 

Meaning of haṭha in Early Haṭhayoga

by Jason Birch

https://www.academia.edu/1539699/Meaning_of_ha%E1%B9%ADha_in_Early_Ha%E1%B9%ADhayoga

In the Vivekamartanda there are only two instances where the adverb hathat is used and both imply that Hathayogic techniques have a forceful effect, rather than requiring forceful effort. In the first instance the Yogin applies what appears to be khecarimudra and, while meditating on kundalini, he drinks the liquid (jala) that trickles from a sixteen-petalled lotus in the head and is obtained forcibly (ha!hat). 86 Here, the combination of three techniques (i.e., khecarimudra, meditation, and possibly some kind of pranayama 87) enables the Yogin to forcibly retain his nectar, which would otherwise trickle away. The second instance occurs in a verse that was appropriated by at least five later Hatha texts. 88 It reads “as one might forcibly (hathat) open a door with a key, so a Yogin breaks open the door to liberation with kundalini ” (udghatayet kapatam tu yatha kuñcikaya hathat | kundalinya tatha yogi moksadvaram prabhedayet). As Brahmananda notes, 89 the most important word in this verse
is hathat because it serves as the proverbial “lamp on a threshold” to illuminate both the simile and the statement. He understands hathat as both balat and hathabhyasat, and the implication of this is that the practice of Hathayoga causes kundalini to rise, which, like a key, forces the door of liberation to open. When coupled with other images that are used to convey the effect of Hathayoga on kundalini, such as that of a stick (danda) beating a snake (e.g., Hathapradipika 3.10, 3.67), the implication is that the force of Hathayoga is the forceful effect of its practice on kundalini.

Here he mentions one Brahmananda and the footnote 89 takes us to Jyotsnaa 3.105 of that author.  

On Sun, May 16, 2021 at 10:30 PM James Mallinson <jm63@soas.ac.uk> wrote:
Many thanks indeed to Jonathan Silk from whom I have received the needful.

All the best,

Jim

On 16 May 2021, at 16:40, James Mallinson <jm63@soas.ac.uk> wrote:

Dear colleagues,

Many thanks to all those who replied to me, on and off the list, with their valuable suggestions. Having been altogether unable to make sense of the simile I now find myself with a surfeit of possible solutions.

In particular I thank Andrea Acri for reminding me that I myself have written about kuñcikās. Chasing up that lead led me to a half-verse in the Khecarīvidyā (2.105ab) in which udghāṭya refers to removing an argala or “bolt”:

udghāṭyārgalam ākāśe jihvām ūrdhvaṃ prasārayet |

I find a similar usage in the Haṭhasaṃketacandrikā. Because of these usages, and the suggestions from colleagues that udghāṭayet and vibhedayet might have subtly different meanings in the Vivekamārtaṇḍa verse, I now suspect that udghāṭayet is being used in the sense of “unlock”. And that haṭhāt, as some colleagues suggested, gives a sense of certainty or inevitability. (By the way, I should have noted that the Vivekamārtaṇḍa does not call its yoga haṭha, so it is unlikely that there is any connotation of a particular type of yoga in haṭhāt.)

My latest translation of the verse is: “In the same way that by means of a key one may be sure to unlock a door, by means of Kuṇḍalinī the yogi may [be sure to] break open the doorway to liberation ”

But I feel a long footnote coming on. To help with that, would any colleagues be able to point me towards a pdf of the book by von Hinüber that Sven Sellmer kindly mentioned (or provide just the relevant pages)? Here are the details again:

Oskar v. Hinüber: Sprachentwicklung und Kulturgeschichte. Ein Beitrag zur materiellen Kultur des buddhistischen Klosterwesens. Stuttgart: Steiner (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Geistes- und Sozialwiss. Klasse. Jg. 1992, Nr. 6)., esp. pp. 14–⁠24, 30–⁠34.

All the best,

Jim

On 15 May 2021, at 14:37, Ananya Vajpeyi <vajpeyi@csds.in> wrote:

Jim, picking up from Prof. Kapstein and Andrea Acri, I am reminded that in Hindi, the "key" or "Cliff Notes" that people use to study for exams here in India is called a kuñjī. Basically, with the right kuñjī, you can "crack" an entrance exam. I realize that the door-key-opening-breaking through metaphor is continuing here, from kuṇḍalinī yoga to the IIT qualifying test, which yields its own version of mokṣa for the successful candidates. And certainly getting through such ordeals to breach the portals of these vaunted institutions -- engineering / medical / architecture / management / law colleges -- requires a certain haṭha, determination, force, effort, discipline, rigour, zor-zabardastī! 

I see you don't really need our help, except as a form of "time-pass" in this unending lockdown...

Yours,

AV.  


On Sat, May 15, 2021 at 10:38 AM alakendu das via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dr.Mallimson,
I find "Kunchika" may be loosely translated as "Ripper" i.e a tool to rip open something.

Alakendu Das.

Sent from RediffmailNG on Android




From: James Mallinson <jm63@soas.ac.uk>
Sent: Sat, 15 May 2021 02:14:28 GMT+0530
To: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Help with a simile

Dear colleagues,

I wonder if anybody can help me understand a simile in a haṭhayoga text I’m editing, the Vivekamārtaṇḍa. Verse 34 reads:

udghāṭayet kapāṭaṃ tu yathā kuñcikayā haṭhāt |
kuṇḍalinyā tathā yogī mokṣadvāraṃ vibhedayet ||

My incomplete translation is as follows: “The yogi should use Kuṇḍalinī to break open the doorway to liberation in the same way that one might use a kuñcikā to force open a kapāṭa.” I had been translating kuñcikā as “key” and kapāṭa as “door”, but this isn’t altogether satisfactory. A key does not force a door to open. But I am unable to think of what this kuñcikā and kapāṭa might be. I am aware that a kapāṭa is usually a double door (I think of saloon doors in cowboy films) but what then is the kuñcikā? Of course it is quite possible that it is just a rather sloppy simile.

All the best,

Jim
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Director, Indic Academy
BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
BoS Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Ramtek, Maharashtra
BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.
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