page_title: Asana
section_title: Ancient times
hierarchical_section_title: Asana / History / Ancient times
caption_attribution_description: English: The Yogasutra is an ancient Hindu text on Yoga philosophy. As a sutra, it is terse and needs interpretation and commentary called bhasya in the Hindu tradition. The Yogasutra is a widely followed and translated text since at least about the late 1st millennium CE. The above photo is of a random, non-sequential sample page collection of a historic Yogabhasya manuscript. On the border in lower right corner is written "Ram", which sometimes marks the Hindu monastery tradition or Hindu temple the text was copied, studied or preserved in (in some cases, it represents the devotee's guru tradition). The manuscript may also highlight the colophon or some words with orange powder, corrections would normally be covered over with another color (in this manuscript, black) followed by notes on the margins. Personal commentary of a follower or another scholar are sometimes present in smaller script on the margins of a page. The above 19th-century manuscript is archived and preserved at the University of Pennsylvania, which holds the largest number of South Asian manuscripts in North America. Some of its collection has been digitized and released in an ongoing effort as of 2018. The photo above is of a 2D artwork of a text that is over 2,000 years old, from a manuscript that was produced before 1920. Therefore Wikimedia Commons PD-Art licensing guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer is herewith donated to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0 license.
context_page_description: An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of pose or position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English.
  The 10th or 11th century Goraksha Sataka and the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika identify 84 asanas; the 17th century Hatha Ratnavali provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response to colonialism. In that environment, pioneers such as Yogendra, Kuvalayananda, and Krishnamacharya taught a new system of asanas. Among Krishnamacharya's pupils were influential Indian yoga teachers including Pattabhi Jois, founder of Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, and B.K.S. Iyengar, founder of Iyengar yoga.
context_section_description: The central figure in the Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley Civilization of c. 2500 BC was identified by Sir John Marshall in 1931 as a prototype of the god Shiva, recognised by being three-faced; in a yoga position as the Mahayogin, the god of yoga; having four animals as Pashupati, the Lord of Beasts; with deer beneath the throne, as in medieval depictions of Shiva; having a three-part headdress recalling Shiva's trident; and possibly being ithyphallic, again like Shiva. If correct, this would be the oldest record of an asana. However, with no proof anywhere of an Indus Valley origin for Shiva, there is no evidence that a yoga pose is depicted in the seal.
  Asanas originated in India. In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali (c. 2nd to 4th century CE) describes asana practice as the third of the eight limbs (Sanskrit अष्टांग, ashtanga, from asht, eight, and anga, limb) of classical, or raja yoga. 
  The word asana, in use in English since the 19th century, is from Sanskrit: आसन āsana "sitting down" (from आस ās "to sit down"), a sitting posture, a meditation seat.
  The eight limbs are, in order, the yamas (codes of social conduct), niyamas (self-observances), asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), pratyahara (sense withdrawal or non-attachment), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (realization of the true Self or Atman, and unity with Brahman, ultimate reality).
  Asanas, along with the breathing exercises of pranayama, are the physical movements of hatha yoga and of modern yoga. Patanjali describes asanas as a "steady and comfortable posture", referring to the seated postures used for pranayama and for meditation, where meditation is the path to samadhi, transpersonal self-realization.
  The Yoga Sutras do not mention a single asana by name, merely specifying the characteristics of a good asana:
  स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥४६॥
  sthira sukham āsanam
  Asana means a steady and comfortable posture. Yoga Sutras 2:46
  The Sutras are embedded in the Bhasya commentary, which scholars suggest may also be by Patanjali; it names 12 seated meditation asanas including Padmasana, Virasana, Bhadrasana, and Svastikasana.
caption: A page from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and Bhasya commentary (c. 2nd to 4th century CE), which placed the practice of asanas as one of the eight limbs of classical yoga
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