Also called: Conch and wheel · Indian fingerprint system · Ungliyon par chakra

Where on the hand: On the ridge patterns of the fingertip pads of all ten fingers, and on the first phalanges generally.

What it looks like: Two terms only. **Chakra** — ridges forming closed concentric circles or a spiral round a centre, like a fingerprint-target or a tree-ring cross-section, with two triradii. **Shankh** — ridges entering from one side, curving round and exiting the same side, like a wave curling back on itself or the spiral opening of a conch, with a single off-centre triradius.

Indian folk and traditional palmistry reduces all fingertip patterns to these two terms. "How many chakras do you have on your fingers?" — *"आपकी उंगलियों पर कितने चक्र हैं?"* — is one of the most widespread pieces of Indian hand-lore, asked casually among schoolchildren and at family gatherings. Both are auspicious, deriving their prestige from being the two hand-emblems of Vishnu, which is why finding them on the body is read as a divine imprint.

Read with care: The sources genuinely conflict on terminology. The most widespread modern Indian usage — and the standard teaching in Hindi palmistry videos and posts — is **shankh = loop, chakra = whorl**. But several Hindi articles describe *shankh* as "shell-like or spiral" (a whorl) and *chakra* as a "complete circle". When reading an Indian source, check which pattern is actually being described rather than trusting the word. RECONCILED. This reference contradicted itself on whether Indian palmistry reads skin ridges. It does: the shankh/chakra fingertip system is one of the most widespread pieces of Indian hand-lore and is explicitly dermatoglyphic. What CLASSICAL Sanskrit sāmudrika ignores is charma rekha. The flat statement that 'Indian palmistry does not use skin ridges at all' should be read as applying to the classical texts only.