TheHaṭhābhyāsapaddhati ("Manual on the practice of Haṭha yoga") is a manual ofHaṭha yoga written inSanskrit in the 18th century, attributed to Kapāla Kuraṇṭaka; it is the only known work beforemodern yoga to describe elaboratesequences of asanas and survives in a single manuscript. It includes unusual elements such as rope poses.[1][2]
TheHaṭhābhyāsapaddhati is an 18th-century manuscript, written by Kapāla Kurantaka, that describes elaboratesequences of asanas inHaṭha yoga, including many that are not practised today. Its name means "Manual on the practice of Haṭha yoga". It was written before theBritish Raj and well before the advent ofmodern yoga, but it appears to have been influenced by the physical culture of the period in India, including the practice ofmartial arts. It is arranged in six groups and includesasanas such as Gajāsana, elephant pose, which demand repeated movements, in the case of Gajāsana repetitions ofAdho Mukha Svanasana, downward dog pose. It also contains postures that require great agility and strength, such as to cross the legs inPadmasana and then to climb a rope using only the hands.[3] It states that the aim of the practice of asanas is to attain bodily strength (śārīradārḍhya) and to prepare the yogin for the practice of the purifications (satkarmas).[4]
The manuscript describes the dynamic asanas with instructions to the yogi, for instance:
Lie face down. Put the toes pointing downwards on the ground, plant the palms of the hands at the crown of the head, raise the bottom and look at the navel. Bring the nose to the ground and take it up to the hands. Do this over and over again. This is the elephant pose (Gajāsana).[5]
The manuscript gives instructions for ten different rope poses.[6] It is one of the few surviving texts which contain rope poses (theSritattvanidhi is another); Birch notes thatKrishnamacharya also used rope poses (in the 20th century), attributing them to a "lost"[7] document, theYoga Kurunta. Birch asks whether the name of that "document” was based on the name of the author of theHaṭhābhyāsapaddhati, Kapāla Kurantaka.[3][8] Birch andJacqueline Hargreaves endorseNorman Sjoman's proposal that theHaṭhābhyāsapaddhati's rope poses could either have been frommallakhamba or from military training "of scaling walls with ropes and ladders". They state that Krishnamacharya knew the text, and used its asanas.[9]
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