An asana is a body posture, used in both medieval hatha yoga and

modern yoga Modern yoga is a wide range of yoga practices with differing purposes, encompassing in its various forms yoga philosophy derived from the Vedas, physical postures derived from Hatha yoga, devotional and tantra-based practices, and Hindu nation- ...

. The term is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word for 'seat'. While many of the oldest mentioned asanas are indeed seated postures for

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

, asanas may be

standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an ''erect'' ("orthostatic") position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the s ...

, seated, arm-balances, twists, inversions, forward bends, backbends, or reclining in prone or supine positions. The asanas have been given a variety of English names by competing schools of yoga. The traditional number of asanas is the symbolic 84, but different texts identify different selections, sometimes listing their names without describing them. Some names have been given to different asanas over the centuries, and some asanas have been known by a variety of names, making tracing and the assignment of dates difficult. For example, the name

Muktasana Siddhasana ( sa, सिद्धासन; ) or Accomplished Pose, is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana (Sanskrit: मुक्तासन, Liberated Pose) and Burmese ...

is now given to a variant of

Siddhasana Siddhasana ( sa, सिद्धासन; ) or Accomplished Pose, is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana (Sanskrit: मुक्तासन, Liberated Pose) and Burmese ...

with one foot in front of the other, but has also been used for Siddhasana and other cross-legged meditation poses. As another example, the headstand is now known by the 20th century name

Shirshasana Shirshasana (Sanskrit: शीर्षासन, IAST: śīrṣāsana) Salamba Shirshasana, or Yoga Headstand is an inverted asana in modern yoga as exercise; it was described as both an asana and a mudra in classical hatha yoga, under different ...

, but an older name for the pose is Kapalasana. Sometimes, the names have the same meaning, as with

Bidalasana Bidalasana ( sa, बिडालासन; ) or Marjariasana ( sa, मार्जरीआसन; ), both meaning Cat Pose in Sanskrit, is a kneeling asana in modern yoga as exercise. A variant with one leg held up is Vyaghrasana ( sa, व्य ...

and Marjariasana, both meaning Cat Pose.

Affixes

Variations on the basic asanas are indicated by Sanskrit

affixes In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...

including the following:

Asanas

A single asana is listed for each main pose, whether or not there are variations. Thus for Sirsasana (Yoga headstand), only one pose is illustrated, although the pose can be varied by moving the legs apart sideways or front-and-back, by lowering one leg to the floor, by folding the legs into lotus posture, by turning the hips to one side, by placing the hands differently on the ground, and so on. Iyengar's 1966 '' Light on Yoga'' lists 15 variations on the basic headstand, including for instance the combined variation Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana in which not only are the hips revolved but the legs are apart front-and-back. Since then, variations of many other poses have been created; their names are not listed here.

Yin Yoga Yin Yoga is slow-paced style of yoga as exercise, incorporating principles of traditional Chinese medicine, with asanas (postures) that are held for longer periods of time than in other styles. Advanced practitioners may stay in one asana for fi ...

names are for the equivalent Yin variants; these are usually somewhat different from the conventional (

Yang Yang may refer to: * Yang, in yin and yang, one half of the two symbolic polarities in Chinese philosophy * Korean yang, former unit of currency of Korea from 1892 to 1902 * YANG, a data modeling language for the NETCONF network configuration ...

) poses. Indian texts are "notoriously difficult to date". The table shows the approximate date and abbreviated title of the earliest document or authority to describe that asana (not only naming it), as follows: * AS = '' Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā'', c. 7th century * BaH = '' Bahr al-Hayāt'', 17th century * DU = ''

Darśana Upaniṣad The ''Darshana Upanishad'' (Sanskrit: दर्शन उपनिषत्, IAST: Darśana Upaniṣad) is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism written in Sanskrit. It is one of twenty Yoga Upanishads in the four Vedas, and it is attached to t ...

'', c. 4th century * GhS = '' Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā'', 17th century * GS = '' Gorakṣaśataka'', 10th century * HAP = '' Hațhābhyāsapaddhati'', 18th century * HR = '' Haṭha Ratnāvali'', 17th century * HY =

Hemacandra Hemachandra was a 12th century () Indian Jain saint, scholar, poet, mathematician, philosopher, yogi, grammarian, law theorist, historian, lexicographer, rhetorician, logician, and prosodist. Noted as a prodigy by his contemporaries, he g ...

's ''Yogaśāstra'', 11th century * HYP = ''

Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā The ''Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā'' ( or Light on Hatha Yoga) is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit Owners manual, manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching's lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas. It is amon ...

'', 15th century * JP = ''

Joga Pradīpikā The ''Joga Pradīpikā'' (जोगप्रदीपिका, "A Small Light on Yoga") is a hatha yoga text by Ramanandi Jayatarama written in 1737 in a mixture of Hindi, Braj Bhasa, Khari Boli and forms close to Sanskrit. It presents 6 cleansi ...

'', 18th century * LoY = '' Light on Yoga'', 1966 * PL = Post-'' Light on Yoga'' * PSV = '' Pātañjalayogaśāstravivaraṇa'', 8th century * ShS = '' Śiva Saṃhitā'', 14th century * ST = ''

Śrītattvanidhi The ''Sritattvanidhi'' (, "The Illustrious Treasure of Realities") is a treatise written in the 19th century in Karnataka on the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. One of its sections includes instructions for, and ill ...

'', 19th century * TB =

Theos Bernard Theos Casimir Hamati Bernard (1908–1947) was an explorer and author, known for his work on yoga and religious studies, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism. He was the nephew of Pierre Arnold Bernard, "Oom the Omnipotent", and like him became a yo ...

, 1950 * TK =

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989) was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga, and is often called "the father of modern yoga" for ...

, c. 1940 * V = ''

Vimānārcanākalpa The ''Vimānārcanākalpa'' is a 10th to 11th century text on Hatha yoga, attributed to the sage Marichi. Text The ''Vimanarcanakalpa'' is a 10th to 11th century prose text on Hatha yoga, attributed to the sage Marichi. revised from American Aca ...

'', 10th century * VM = ''

Vivekamārtaṇḍa The ''Vivekamārtaṇḍa'' is an early Hatha yoga text, the first to combine tantric and ascetic yoga. Attributed to Goraknath (also called Gorakshanath), it was probably written in the 13th century. It emphasises mudras as the most important pra ...

'', 13th century * VS = '' Vāsiṣṭha Saṁhitā'', 13th century

Notes

References

Sources

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External links