Topic summary
Surya Namaskar
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Sun Salutation.
Etymology and origins
The origins of the Sun Salutation are vague; Indian tradition connects the 17th century saint Samarth Ramdas with Surya Namaskara exercises, without defining what movements were involved. In the 1920s, Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Rajah of Aundh, popularized and named the practice, describing it in his 1928 book The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars. It has been asserted that Pant Pratinidhi invented it, but Pant stated that it was already a commonplace Marathi tradition. Sunila Kale and Christian Novetzke argue that Pant Pratinidhi saw Surya Namaskar as a form not of haṭha yoga, but of the wider psychophysical yoga tradition.