Introduction
It’s a good idea to learn, as much as possible, the Sanskrit names of the postures in the Aśṭāṅga Yoga system. In the Yoga world, Sanskrit functions rather like Latin did in Europe until recently: as a way for savvy yogis to communicate across language barriers and even across regional differences in the same language. At your shala in California when they lift the right leg, grab the big toe with thumb and first two fingers of the right hand, they might say they are going into “Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose”, and in our little practice group in Kentucky we might say “Standing Hand-to-Big-Toe-of-the-Foot Posture”, but if we also know it as utthitahastapādāṅguṣṭhāsana, then should we meet in a workshop in, say, the woods of Oklahoma, right away we lift up and proceed.
In this article we introduce a small selection of Sanskrit words that figure in many posture-names, though the focus is on postures of the Primary Series. If you invest the time to learn just these few words, you will find it much easier to parse and understand the names of all the Primary Series postures, as covered in the follow-up article.
Pronunciation
We write Sanskrit in the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), which closely resembles the English alphabet, albeit with the addition of diacritic marks—dots, dashes and such—above or below some letters. For example, you’ll see not only the letter “s” (pronounced like the “s” in “sea”), but also “ś” and “ṣ”, which represent slightly different “sh”-sounds.
Should you desire to go all-in on the principles of Sanskrit pronuniciation, you may consult other resources (like this one which gives you the option to use IAST), but you’ll get along well enough just by listening to the audio files below and bearing in mind the following basics:
- “a” is pronounced like the “u” in “cup”;
- “ā” is pronounced like the “a” in “father”;
- “u” is pronounced like the “u” in “put”;
- “ū” is pronounced like “oo” in “moon”;
- “i” in pronounced like the “i” in “in”;
- “ī” is pronounced like “ee” in “green”;
- “e” is pronounced like the “e” in “grey”;
- “g” is pronounced like the “g"s in “gangrene”;
- “c” is pronounced like the “ch” in “chip-monk”;
- “ś” and “ṣ” are slightly different “sh”-sounds;
- consonant-letters with “h” right after—such as “bh”, “ph”, “dh”, and “th”—are aspirates: they are pronounced like the leading letter, but with an accompanying puff of air. (Thus “ph” is not like “ph” in “phantom”!)
Action-Related Words
Note: In the table below and in all following tables, clicking inside a column-header toggles between showing and hiding the contents of the cells underneath it, allowing you to practice going from Sanskrit to English and vice-versa.
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| uttāna | stretching out |
| bandha | binding |
| namaḥ | salutation, a bow |
| kāra | making, doing |
| āsana | “sitting”, a posture |
| sthitiḥ | standing |
Pronunciation
Body Parts
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| pāda | foot, leg |
| hasta | hand |
| aṅguśṭha | big toe, thumb |
| parśva | side, flank |
| aṅga | limb |
| mukha | face |
| jānu | knee |
| śīrṣa | head |
| bhuja | shoulder |
Pronunciation
Adjectives
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| supta | lain down as if to sleep |
| baddha | bound |
| utthita | “stood up”, standing |
| parivṛtta | “turned around”, revolved |
| sama | same, equal |
Pronunciation
Directions
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| paścima | western, back |
| pūrva | eastern, front |
| ūrdhva | upward |
| adhaḥ | downward |
Pronunciation
Things
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| sūrya | the sun |
| padma | a lotus |
| nāva | a boat |
| śāva | a corpse |
| śvāna | a dog |
| bāla | a child |
| matsya | a fish |
| kūrma | a tortoise |
| daṇḍa | a stick |
| kukkuṭa | a rooster |
| hāla | a plow |
| koṇa | an angle |
| dhanuḥ | a bow |
Pronunciation
Number-Related Words
| Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|
| eka | one |
| tri | three |
| catuḥ | four |
| aśṭa | eight |
| ardha | half |
| ubhaya | both |
| sarva | all, every |
Pronunciation
Joining Words
Most Sanskrit posture-names are compounds: i.e., they consist of two or more basic words joined together.
When we speak, we often modify adjacent words to make then easier to say. For example, when someone asks: “Do you want play ball?”, the question usually comes out sounding like: “D’ya wanna play ball?”
It’s the same in Sanskrit, except that in the written language every effort is made to represent the spoken language exactly. One consequence of this is that the words in Sanskrit compounds often undergo changes at the end when followed by another word, and at the beginning when preceeded by a word.
For example, if you want to say “face to one foot” in Sanskrit, you will make a compound out of mukha (“face”), eka (“one”), and pāda, (“foot”). When you do so, there is a sound-change:
mukha + eka + pāda → mukhaikapāda
The “a” of mukha combines with the “e” of pada to make the “ai” sound. (No changes were required when joining eka and pāda.)
Here are a few more examples:
- paścima + uttāna + āsana → paścimottānāsana
- tri + aṅga → tryaṅga
- dhanuḥ + āsana → dhanurāsana
- sūrya + namaḥ + kāra → sūryanamaskāra
There is no need to learn the sound-change rules formally: if you know the simple words well enough, then you can usually recognize them in compounds.