The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — The Old Seats

Dhanurasana — the bow

Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.25

पादाङ्गुष्ठौ तु पाणिभ्यां गृहीत्वा श्रवणावधि। धनुराकर्षणं कुर्याद्धनुरासनं उच्यते ॥

Meaning · English

Holding the big toes with the two hands, draw them back as far as the ears, as a bow is drawn. This is called the bow seat.

The name comes apart simply. Dhanus is a bow. Asana is a seat or posture, a way of being placed. The verse also gives the action in a word of its own, akarshana, meaning drawing or pulling, as an archer draws the string. The name and the action describe one picture: a body lying on its belly, drawn back into an arc. The plain sense is short. The hands take hold of the feet, here the big toes, and pull them back until they come level with the ears. Hands and feet stretch toward each other, and the trunk curves between them like the wood of a bow. The verse gives no reason of its own and promises no fruit. It is a description, set among the other seats of the first chapter, and it relies on the shape to teach itself. The commentary supplied for this reading speaks of digestive fire, the rousing of kundalini and the steadiness of the moon. Those are the claims printed for the Matsyendra seat in verse 1.27, so they cannot safely be pinned on the bow. What the verse asks of a practitioner is a particular reach: toes in hand, pulled back toward the ears, with the effort of a drawn bow. The text's form takes the toes and goes as far as the ears. The lesson shows the ankles and a lift of chest and thighs, which is how the pose is generally taught now.

1. Lie on your front with your legs together and your arms by your sides. Rest your forehead or chin on the mat and breathe normally. 2. Bend both knees and bring your heels toward your seat. 3. Reach back with both hands and hold the ankles, one in each hand. The text says the toes. The lesson holds the ankles, and so do you. 4. Breathe in. Press your feet back and up into your hands, and lift your chest and thighs off the mat together. Your body becomes a bow. 5. Stay here with your arms straight like the bowstring. Look ahead or slightly up, without throwing your head back. Breathe slowly. Your belly takes the weight, so the breath will be short and shallow. Stay for a few breaths only, as long as the breathing stays smooth. The lesson gives no count, so this is modern teaching. 6. Keep your knees no wider than your hips. Do not go into the pose if you have back or abdominal problems. 7. Breathe out. Lower slowly, release the ankles, and straighten your legs. 8. Turn your head to one side and rest, arms loose, until the breath settles. Fine points: the lift comes from pressing the feet back into the hands, not from yanking with the arms. Keep your neck long and let it follow the line of the spine. Never force the reach or add height by jerking.

Lying on the belly, the front of the body is pressed to the floor, and the pose asks the back of the body to work. The muscles along the spine and the back of the thighs and hips hold the lift. The front of the thighs, the hips, the chest and the shoulders lengthen as the feet draw back. The spine bends gently backward along its whole length, and the shoulders open as the arms pull the chest forward and up. The breath is constrained. The belly rests on the mat, so the breath moves mostly in the upper chest and stays short, and slow breathing here is a small exercise in staying calm under pressure. Breathing in as you lift and out as you lower matches the effort to the breath. The mind has a clear job. Hands, feet and chest all need attention at once, and there is little room for anything else. The tradition's own account is that such seats steady the body so the practitioner can sit and breathe in the later work. That is the tradition's reasoning, not a physiological claim.

The Pradipika attaches no promise to this verse. It names the pose, describes the action and stops there. The commentary supplied for this reading says that such a seat gives people strong digestive fire, wakens the kundalini (the tradition's coiled energy at the base of the body), and steadies the moon, which the tradition places in the upper palate and imagines as continually dripping. Those same three promises are printed for the Matsyendra seat in verse 1.27, so they are better read as that seat's claim than as the bow's. Teachers of the pose today say it builds back strength and opens the chest and the front of the thighs. That is modern teaching and not the text.

A bus driver steps down at the end of a long shift with his hips stiff and his shoulders curled forward from the wheel. Lying on a mat and drawing his feet back into a bow is the opposite of the shape he has held all day. Mainstream physiology agrees with the broad idea. Reaching the spine, hips and shoulders in the opposite direction from a long, fixed posture feels good for most people and can build strength in the back muscles. The effort of lifting against gravity trains the muscles that hold the body upright. It also temporarily compresses the belly and limits the breath, so it is not a pose to hold long. The tradition's own claims are another matter. The digestive fire has a loose match in digestion and appetite, but there is no good evidence that this pose changes either. The coiled kundalini and the dripping moon have no counterpart in anatomy and are the tradition's own account. Today's teachers hold the ankles and lift the chest and thighs, and many call the pose a good back-strengthening exercise, a modern framing and not the text's.

This is not medical advice, and a page cannot see your body. A teacher can correct what you cannot feel. The pose is learnt with a teacher, not from a page. Stop at any pain, especially in the lower back, and come down slowly. The lesson says to avoid it with back or abdominal problems. In plain terms, that includes a disc problem, recent abdominal surgery, a hernia, and an ulcer or other belly pain. Leave it out in pregnancy, because it presses on the belly. People with high blood pressure should ask their doctor first. Take care with the neck, the knees and the shoulders, and never force the reach or the lift. Do not push the feet higher than the body allows. The old text's reach to the ears is not a target to be met at any cost.

Gentler: if you cannot reach your ankles, loop a strap around each ankle and hold the strap. Pad the hips or ribs with a folded blanket if the mat is hard on them. Lift only a little, with the chest barely off the floor. Fuller: as the spine and shoulders loosen, the feet go higher and the chest lifts further. The text's form, holding the toes and drawing them to the ears, is the most demanding version and asks for a very supple body. Work toward it slowly. There is no other side, as the pose is symmetrical. A common, gentler relative is the half bow, one leg at a time, though the lesson does not show it.

Letting the knees splay wide → keep them no wider than the hips, and press the feet back evenly. Pulling with the arms and bending the elbows → keep the arms straight like the bowstring and lift by pressing the feet into the hands. Throwing the head back → keep the neck long and look ahead. Holding the breath → breathe slowly in the short, shallow way the belly allows. Staying too long → a few easy breaths, then lower on an out-breath. Jerking into the lift → move steadily and come down slowly.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Uttana Kurmasana — the upturned tortoise · Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.24
• Next: Matsyendrasana — the seat of Matsyendra · Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.26
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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