List of asanas

While many of the oldest mentioned asanas are indeed seated postures for meditation, asanas may be standing, seated, arm-balances, twists, inversions, forward bends, backbends, or reclining in prone or supine positions.

The asanas have been given a variety of English names by competing schools of yoga.

Thus for Sirsasana (Yoga headstand), only one pose is illustrated, although the pose can be varied by moving the legs apart sideways or front-and-back, by lowering one leg to the floor, by folding the legs into lotus posture, by turning the hips to one side, by placing the hands differently on the ground, and so on.

Iyengar's 1966 Light on Yoga lists 15 variations on the basic headstand, including for instance the combined variation Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana in which not only are the hips revolved but the legs are apart front-and-back.

[12] The table shows the approximate date and abbreviated title of the earliest document or authority to describe that asana (not only naming it), as follows:

Padmāsana , lotus pose, used for meditation . Gilt bronze statue of Bodhisattva Manjusri and Prajnaparamita , Nepal, c. 1575
Variation with arms down
Variant with one leg bent