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Practising with care
If you have an injury or a medical condition, take medication, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have another circumstance that may affect your practice, consult a qualified healthcare professional about suitable activities and necessary adaptations.
Learn new and demanding poses with a qualified yoga teacher. Adapt the range to your body and stop if you feel pain or dizziness. A short video illustrates movement; its length does not prescribe how long to hold a pose.
Headstands, shoulder stands and lotus are not starting poses for beginners. Injuries, balance problems or glaucoma are examples of reasons to assess suitability individually. Do not force a bind or use the body as leverage against the knee.
The pose in context
Haṭhayogapradīpikā 1.30 describes hands on the ground, elbows at the navel region and a raised staff-like body. This is an older record of Mayurasana’s basic balance shape. Gheranda Samhita 2.30–31 instead describes legs crossed in lotus. That variant differs from the straight-legged form shown here. Neither passage establishes today’s Ashtanga sequence.
Sources for this page
- Svātmārāma: Haṭhayogapradīpikā, with the Jyotsnā and Manobhilāṣiṇī commentaries (1895)1.30, p. 20 · Wellcome Collection
- Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā — translation by Sris Chandra Vasu (1895)2.30–31, p. 15 · Wellcome Collection
Yoga forms and variations
These links compare teaching contexts and related shapes. Read the named form, supports and limits on this page before using a position.