Sanskrit 101

Ten Sanskrit Words to Help You Learn the Poses

by ZACH BEACH

Do you find yourself looking around the yoga room when your teacher tells the students to come to utthita hasta padangusthasana? Curious about the difference between chaturanga and ashtanga? Then look no further than the list below, which has ten Sanskrit words to help you learn many poses that are often found in yoga classes. While not a comprehensive list, let these words be a stepping stone to learning all the wonderful asana names in this sacred and special language.

1. Baddha - Bound

A lot of pose names will start with the word baddha, which means bound and can take us into a deeper version of the pose. There are bound versions of extended side angle, triangle and revolved lunge, or utthita parsvakonasana, trikonasana, and parivrtta ashtachandrasana, respectively.

Note, the term baddha shouldn’t be confused with the term bandha, meaning lock.

2. Parratt - Revolved

Speaking of revolved lunge, there are quite a few poses with “revolved” or parivrtta variations, like revolved triangle, or parivrtta trikonasana, and revolved head to knee pose, or parivrtta janu sirsasana.

A lot of twists will use the term parivrtta as well, like chair twist, which would be parivrtta utkatasana. Interestingly, utkata doesn’t mean chair at all, but actually translates to fierce. So if sitting in chair pose feels intense, you have good reason to think that!

3. Ardha - Half

Another modifier you might hear before the full name of a pose is ardha, or half. One of the most common poses you will hear with ardha is ardha chandrasana, also known as half-moon pose.

Also, if you have ever been instructed to do a sun salutation in Sanskrit, you know that straightening the spine in a forward fold is often referred to as a “half-lift,” or ardha uttanasana.

4. Eka - One

If you’re looking to count to a thousand in Sanskrit, we won’t stop you. But if you want to know what words to look out for in a yoga class, there’s only a few numbers that you need to learn. Two is dwi, for example, and used in a lot of advanced poses. Chat is four, which you can see in chaturanga dandasana, or four-limbed staff pose.

But eka, or one, is the word you will hear the most often, as it can refer to any time you are doing the one legged or one handed variation of the pose. Some examples include eka pada rajakapotasana, or one-legged king pigeon pose, or eka pada sirsasana, which is often referred to as foot-behind-the-head pose.

5. Anga - Limb

Speaking of chaturanga, it is best to know the second word in that pose, anga. Depending on what studio you are in, Ashtanga can mean different things. For some, ashtangasana, or eight limbed pose, is when you lower from plank by coming to your knees, chest, and chin. For the philosophers, ashtanga refers to the eight-limbed system of yoga originally compiled by the great sage Patanjali.

And still Ashtanga might refer to the specific asana practice developed by K. Pattabhi Jois, a series of postures that provides the foundation for almost all physical yoga you see today. There are entire ashtanga communities all focused on progressing through the ashtanga primary series. Matt Champoux teaches an Ashtanga program here at Metta Yoga.

6. Uttana - Intense Stretch

When I mentioned earlier that ardha uttanasana meant half lift, you might have assumed uttana meant forward fold or something similar. But in truth, uttana most often means “intense stretch” and most often refers to anytime we are folding forward and experience a deep stretch in our hamstrings.

Uttana is often hidden in the middle of many Sanskrit words and is hard to spot if you don’t know a common quirk in the Sanskrit language. When a word that ends in a vowel combines with a word that begins with a different vowel, then no matter what either vowel is, it turns into an “o.”

So for example, take the words parsva, or side, and uttana, or intense stretch, together and you find the parsvottanasana, which most people simply call pyramid pose.

7. Utthita - Extended

Another important qualifier you will find is utthita, meaning extended. It most often refers to anytime the arms are overhead, like when your teacher says “inhale your arms up” and brings you into utthita tadasana, or extended mountain.

We saw this word earlier with extended side angle pose, or utthita parsvakonasana. We also see it in the popular standing balance that is quite a mouthful: utthita hasta padangusthasana, which literally translates to extended-hand-foot-big-toe pose, but most teachers will just say padangusthasana short.

8. Mukha - Face

So far we have already discussed many of the poses found in the common sun sulatation, but we mustn’t forget the most important ones: upward facing dog and downward facing dog, also known as urdhva mukha svanasana and adho mukha svanasana.

And for any pet owner that has seen their dog or cat do a yawn and a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiggg stretch, you’ll see them go through very similar positions.

9. Go - Cow

Speaking of faces, there is another fun pose that has the word face in it: cow-face pose, or gomukhasana. Which, I suppose, if you look at someone in cow-face pose and kind of squint and turn your head to the side, does look like the front of a cow’s head.

If the word Go looks familiar, you might know it from the popular chant govinda gopāla, which are all names for the Hindu God Krishna, who is said to have appeared 5,000 years ago as a cowherd.

Govinda is the name for youthful Krishna and literally means the lord of the cows, or sometimes “one who brings satisfaction to the cows”. Gopala is the name for the divine baby Krishna, and literally means the shepherd of the cow, or sometimes “the child who protects the cows.”

10. Koundinya - Koundinya

Now, not every word you hear for a yoga poses translates to an adjective or noun. Some of them are names of great sages or deities. Hanumanasaa, or splits pose, refers to the monkey god Hanuman. Natarajasana, or dancer’s pose, refers to dancing Shiva.

And there are two very common arm balances you will find on many Instagram photo, all named after the royal court scholar who predicted the newborn prince, Siddhartha Gautamaa, would become the enlightened one we know today as the Buddha. Those are eka pada koundinyasana one and two, which we know by now means one footed Koundyina’s pose.

So there you have it, hopefully this helps clear up some confusion around pose names, and hopefully this inspires you to continue to learn not only the direct translation of many pose names, but also the rich history and cultural context behind these poses we all know and love.

Just for fun, here is some information on the etymology of Metta: the heart-warming intention of loving-kindness. One of the the Four Brahma Viharas, or noble qualities, maitrī is the Sanskrit word for loving kindness. Metta, the more common connotation for loving-kindness, is actually comes from Pali, another language found in Indi and the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism. Pali and Sanskrit are like sister languages and often share many words. The other brahma viharas include karuna, or compassion, mudita, or sympathetic joy, which is the same word in both Sanskrit and Pali.

Zach Beach, MA teaches yoga at Metta Yoga Studio, as well as nationally and internationally. He is a best-selling author, poet, love coach, founder of The Heart Center love school, and host of The Learn to Love Podcast. His latest poetry collection, 108 Savasana Poems: Blissful Words From the Heart of Yoga, guides readers to discover their true nature, and is available now on Amazon. Follow him on social media @zachbeachlove and learn more at www.zachbeach.com

Amy GreywittNovember 30, 2021limbs5-8