yoga poses

Introduction

A yoga practitioner whether a beginner or a master would like to know the complete list of Important yoga poses.

Yoga Poses normally mean Hatha Yogic postures. It constitutes all the postures that are in the practice of different styles of yoga like Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar yoga, Power Yoga, etc. All the styles adopt the traditional practice of yoga poses to form a different style of their own with the ulterior motive of commercialization. Despite their commercial intent, today yoga reached every corner of the world.

How many yoga poses are there?

Classic Hatha Yogic Texts claim that there are as many yoga poses as the number of species.

According to Hindu Mythology, there are 84 lakhs (8.4 million) species on earth. The six kinds of species and their numbers are given below.

CategoryNumber of Species
Animals3 Million
Trees2 Million
Birds1 Million
Insects1.1 Million
Aquatics0.9 Million
Humans0.4 Million

Hence there are 84 lakh yogic positions. Of these, 84 yogic positions are more familiar. Classic Yoga Texts enumerates 84 postures. Advanced yogis knew and mastered more than this number.

How do Hatha-Yoga-Poses differ from Raja-Yoga-Poses?

Raja Yogic Positions are for Pranayama and Meditation purposes only. However, Hatha Yoga Positions are for the overall health of Individual aspirants for the attainment of higher levels of yoga. But people presently use these Yogasana for the purpose of health only.

Raja Yoga poses are seated postures only; whereas hatha yoga asanas are not.

In Modern Yoga, unlike Raja Yoga Postures, Hatha Yoga Postures play an important role.

Can Beginners do Hatha Yoga?

The short answer is yes. The postures are for beginners friendly and beginners can start with simple basic-level yoga poses. The assumption here is the approach is for health benefits.

The long answer is it depends. To understand this, we should first understand the very goal of Hatha Yoga. The goal of Hatha yoga is Raja Yoga or Samadhi. For he should adhere to the path of yoga prescribed in yoga texts. The aspirant with fat and phlegm in his body should start yoga with Shatkarma. Hence, it is not beginner-friendly. For others, beginners can start with basic-level poses. So the long answer is, it depends.

List of Yoga Poses with Images

Note: For Mobile view, this table looks better in LANDSCAPE mode.

Yoga Pose Sanskrit NameYoga Pose English NameImage
Padmasana
Lotus PosePadmasana
Vajrasana
Thunderbolt Posevajrasana
SiddhasanaAccomplished Pose
Adept Pose
Siddhasana
Sukhasana
Easy poseSukhasana
Ardha PadmasanaHalf Lotus PoseArdha Padmasana
Janusirsasana
Head to Knee Posejanusirsasana Head to Knee Pose
GomukhasanaCow Face PoseGomukhasana aka Cow Face Pose
Baddha KonasanaBound Angle PoseBaddha Konasana
Ardha MatsyendrasanaHalf Lord Of Fishes PoseArdha Matsyendrasana 3
List of Yoga poses