Asana Names

I got an email from a yogi who has been using my first book, The Yoga Practice Guide. His question is a good one and I hope to address it in what follows. Thank you Jason!

“Quite a beautiful book. It's obvious that you took some care in its preparation. One thing I'm curious about -- you show gomukhasana with the person sitting between the lower legs instead of sitting on them (as illustrated in Iyengar's "Light on Yoga" and practiced in Pattabhi Jois' ashtanga second series).Why is that? It seems to me that there is a very profound difference between those two postures.  I was always taught that sitting between the legs is samkatasana, not gomukhasana”.  - Jason

  

Very good observation and good question. We are talking about the two asana pictured above. Yes, in both Iyengar and Ashtanga yoga (the Krishnamacharya lineage) they predominantly use the second variation pictured here and call it Gomukhasana. Yet, in verse 20 of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the sutra detailing gomukhasana seems very much to be describing the first pose above:

 “Place the right ankle next to the left buttock and the left [ankle] next to the right [buttock]. This is Gomukhasana and it resembles the face of a cow”.

It is in reference to the “Cow’s Mouth” 

which is the glacial source of the 

Ganges River 

in the Himalayas

(*Mukha translates as  both face and mouth).

 Samkata means “dangerous” in Sanskrit and you will find it described in verse 28 of the Gheranda Samhita (second pose shown above). You may even find it referred to (erroneously) in some systems as vajrasana, with the hands placed on the top knee or ground. In the Anusara system we use both variations of the pose pictured above. Most major yoga systems commonly referred to both poses as gomukhasana. They do have differences. In my experience though, the first version, shown above, gets deeper into the outer hip rotators (piriformis, obturator internus and gemelli) as well as the tensor fasciae latae to some degree. For this reason, we tend to use this version more than the second. The version with the foot underneath may be intended primarily to stimulate muladhara.

I have done an exhaustive book on a huge variety of asana from all styles titled, The Yoga Asana Index. In it I tried to use a common standard wherever possible, and to include as many variations on the same pose as seemed practical and helpful. Many poses have significant variations to the point of verging on becoming a different pose. It’s fascinating. Yet even in the book, I held back from including every possible variation. In some cases they just weren’t significant enough and in others the variations I found were, well, not always very healthy alignment. In other cases my choices may have been based on my personal bias. In my research on the many poses, various schools often have different names for the same pose. It can get a bit maddening. There is even variance between different classic texts on yoga such as the two mentioned earlier.  At some point you just usethe name you like best as well as the variation you prefer.

“Cat” and “Cow” may be another example (included neither in Iyengar’s or Jois’ repertoire). We often find the pose separated into two distinct poses ; one being called bidalasana the other marjarasana. Both these words actually translate as “cat” in Sanskrit. The pose is in fact a movement through both forms, a dynamic movement up and down of the spine as one pose, correctly named marjarasana (more accurate Sanskrit for cat).

Even within the one lineage that both Iyengar and Jois came out of, there are several cases where they each name the same pose differently.  For example, “mandalasana” and “parivrittasana”  are their names respectively for walking the feet in a circle around the head in sirsasana 1. One means“revolved” while the other means “circle”. Both describe the movement well. “Adho Dandasana” is another example. They are completely different poses with the same name in each system. To make things even more confusing, even within the same system, a very few poses have accumulated more than one name or have changed names over time. My point is that it starts getting subjective, with at times more grey than black and white. There are names given to poses in some schools that are just plain using the Sanskrit erroneously. An example would be Parsva Urdhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana. The grammatically correct usage is, Parsvordhva Padmasana in Sarvangasana (I can’t display the diacritical marks here). I debated long and hard about changing what has now been established by some prominent sources. But after working with several world renowned Sanskrit Scholars as well as the American Sanskrit Institute, we decided that the corrected Sanskrit was necessary and beneficial to those interested.  

Never mind funky grammar, sometimes poses got misnamed along the way, different styles developed their own names, and some poses never got named at all. Having said this, most styles share a standard name for the asana. And new poses or variations get made up all the time. So voila'...we all have interesting new poses to work with. That is kind of how this whole thing has been going for some time now. Limitless expansion.

The main thing is to practice the variation of the pose that makes most sense in your own body. Try both variations of gomukhasana and then do the one you prefer.

I hope this helps.