The ''Vasishtha Samhita'' (Sanskrit: वासिष्ठसंहिता, ''Vāsiṣṭha Saṁhitā'', Vasishtha's Collection) is a 13th century medieval

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

text, one of the first to describe non-seated

hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

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 ...

s including the arm-balancing

Kukkutasana Kukkutasana ( sa, कुक्कुटासन; IAST: ''Kukkuṭāsana''), Cockerel Pose, or Rooster Posture is an arm-balancing asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, derived from the seated Padmasana, lotus position. It is one ...

, Cockerel Pose. It makes use of the 10th century '' Vimanarcanakalpa'', whose verse it paraphrases in prose to describe what may be the first non-seated asana, the arm-balancing

Mayurasana Mayūrāsana ( sa, मयूरासन) or Peacock pose is a hand-balancing asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise with the body held horizontal over the hands. It is one of the oldest non-seated asanas. Etymology and origins The ...

, Peacock Pose. These descriptions in turn were exploited by the 15th century ''

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

''. The Vasishtha Samhita shares many verses with the Yoga Yajnavalkya, some of which originate in the earlier Padma Samhita. The text, ascribed to the earlier sage

Vasishtha Vasishtha ( sa, वसिष्ठ, IAST: ') is one of the oldest and most revered Vedic rishis or sages, and one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis). Vashistha is credited as the chief author of Mandala 7 of the ''Rigveda''. Vashishtha an ...

, was compiled by an unknown author of the Vaishnavite Shakta sect. Its 45 chapters cover peace, name-chanting, offerings, sacrifices,

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

, and donation.

References

Sources

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External links

Sanskrit text of ''Vasishtha Samhita''

English prose translation by Manmatha Nath Dutt
Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1907 {{Yoga Hatha yoga texts