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Ardha Chandrasana ( sa, अर्धचन्द्रासन;
The pose is entered from Trikonasana (triangle pose), where one foot is kept forward. The arm opposite to the foot that is forward would come onto the hip. While stretching up with the rear leg and out with the front hand so that only the fingertips remain on the ground, the hand on the hip can gradually reach up towards the ceiling. The gaze is directed at the upper hand. However, Iyengar describes the pose with the upper hand resting on the hip.
The pose helps to strengthen the ankles and improve balance.
Ardha Chandrasana ( sa, अर्धचन्द्रासन; IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
: ''ardha candrāsana'') or Half Moon Pose is a standing asana
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...
in modern yoga as exercise.
Etymology and origins
The name comes from the Sanskrit words अर्ध ''ardha'' meaning "half", चन्द्र ''candra'' meaning "moon", and आसन ''āsana'' meaning "posture" or "seat". The 19th century '' Sritattvanidhi'' uses the name Ardha Chandrasana for a different pose, Vrikshasana. Swami Yogesvarananda used the name in his 1970 ''First Steps to Higher Yoga'' for a pose similar to Kapotasana, Pigeon. The modern usage of the name is found inB. K. S. Iyengar
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. He is founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as " Iyengar Yoga", and was considered one of the foremost yoga guru ...
's 1966 ''Light on Yoga
''Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika'' (Sanskrit: योग दीपिका, "Yoga Dīpikā") is a 1966 book on the Iyengar Yoga style of modern yoga as exercise by B. K. S. Iyengar, first published in English. It describes more than 200 yoga postur ...
''.
Practice and benefits
The pose is entered from Trikonasana (triangle pose), where one foot is kept forward. The arm opposite to the foot that is forward would come onto the hip. While stretching up with the rear leg and out with the front hand so that only the fingertips remain on the ground, the hand on the hip can gradually reach up towards the ceiling. The gaze is directed at the upper hand. However, Iyengar describes the pose with the upper hand resting on the hip.
The pose helps to strengthen the ankles and improve balance.
Variations
* Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon Pose) has the body revolved towards the standing leg. * Baddha Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Bound Revolved Half Moon Pose) has the body revolved towards the standing leg with arms bound around the standing leg.Other 'half moon' poses
In Sivananda Yoga and its derivative styles such as theBihar School of Yoga
The Bihar School of Yoga is a modern school of yoga founded by Satyananda Saraswati in Munger, Bihar, India, in 1963. An Institute of Yogic Studies was created in 1994.
History
The Bihar School of Yoga was established in 1963 at Munger, in the ...
, half moon pose is Anjaneyasana, an asana used in the moon salutation series (Chandra Namaskar
Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th centu ...
).
In Bikram Yoga, the name "half moon pose" is given to a two-legged standing side bend, elsewhere called Indudalasana
Tadasana ( sa , ताड़ासन, translit=Tāḍāsana), Mountain pose or Samasthiti ( sa, समस्थिति; IAST: ''samasthitiḥ'') is a standing asana in modern yoga as exercise; it is not described in medieval hatha yoga text ...
.
References
Further reading
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardha Candrasana Standing asanas Asymmetric asanas