Surya Namaskar

Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi provided this double-page guide to Surya Namaskar at the back of his 1928 book The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars as well as in the body of the text, stating that it could be removed for use without damaging the text of the book.[4][5]

The name Surya Namaskar is from the Sanskrit सूर्य Sūrya, "Sun" and नमस्कार Namaskāra, "Greeting" or "Salute".[6] Surya is the Hindu god of the sun.[7] This identifies the Sun as the soul and source of all life.[8] Chandra Namaskar is similarly from Sanskrit चन्द्र Chandra, "Moon".[9]

The origins of Surya Namaskar are vague; Indian tradition connects the 17th century saint Samarth Ramdas with Surya Namaskar exercises, without defining what movements were involved.[10] In the 1920s, Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Rajah of Aundh, popularized and named the practice, describing it in his 1928 book The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars.[4][5][11][12] It has been asserted that Pant Pratinidhi invented it,[13] but Pant stated that it was already a commonplace Marathi tradition.[14]

Ancient but simpler Sun salutations such as Aditya Hridayam, described in the "Yuddha Kaanda" Canto 107 of the Ramayana,[15][16][17] are not related to the modern sequence.[18] The anthropologist Joseph Alter states that Surya Namaskar was not recorded in any Haṭha yoga text before the 19th century.[19] At that time, Surya Namaskar was not considered to be yoga, and its postures were not considered asanas; the pioneer of yoga as exercise, Yogendra, wrote criticising the "indiscriminate" mixing of sun salutation with yoga as the "ill-informed" were doing.[5]

Elliott Goldberg called Vishnudevananda's 1960 sequence (positions 5 to 8 shown) a "new utilitarian conception of Surya Namaskar", rejecting his guru Sivananda's view of it as a health cure.[20]

The yoga scholar-practitioner Norman Sjoman suggested that Krishnamacharya, "the father of modern yoga",[21][22] used the traditional and "very old"[23] Indian wrestlers' exercises called dands (Sanskrit: दण्ड daṇḍ, a staff), described in the 1896 Vyayama Dipika,[24] as the basis for the sequence and for his transitioning vinyasas.[23] Different dands closely resemble the Surya Namaskar asanas Tadasana, Padahastasana, Caturanga Dandasana, and Bhujangasana.[23] Krishnamacharya was aware of Surya Namaskar, since regular classes were held in the hall adjacent to his Yogasala in the Rajah of Mysore's palace.[25] His students, K. Pattabhi Jois,[26] who created modern day Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga,[27] and B. K. S. Iyengar, who created Iyengar Yoga, both learnt Surya Namaskar and flowing vinyasa movements between asanas from Krishnamacharya and used them in their styles of yoga.[25]

The historian of modern yoga Elliott Goldberg writes that Vishnudevananda's 1960 book The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga "proclaimed in print" a "new utilitarian conception of Surya Namaskar"[20][28] which his guru Sivananda had originally promoted as a health cure through sunlight. Goldberg notes that Vishnudevananda modelled the positions of Surya Namaskar for photographs in the book, and that he recognised the sequence "for what it mainly is: not treatment for a host of diseases but fitness exercise."[20]

Sun Salutation at a public yoga event in Katni, India

Surya Namaskar[29] is a sequence of around twelve yoga asanas connected by jumping or stretching movements, varying somewhat between schools. In Iyengar Yoga, the basic sequence of asanas is Tadasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Uttanasana, Uttanasana with head up, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Chaturanga Dandasana, and then reversing the sequence to return to Tadasana; other poses can be inserted into the sequence.[6]

In Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, there are two Surya Namaskar sequences, types A and B.[30] The type A sequence of asanas is Pranamasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Uttanasana, Phalakasana (high plank), Chaturanga Dandasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Uttanasana and back to Pranamasana.[30] The type B sequence of asanas (differences marked in italics) is Pranamasana, Utkatasana, Uttanasana, Ardha Uttanasana, Phalakasana, Chaturanga Dandasana, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Virabhadrasana I, repeat from Phalakasana onwards with Virabhadrasana I on the other side, then repeat Phalakasana through to Adho Mukha Svanasana (a third time), Ardha Uttanasana, Uttanasana, Utkatasana, and back to Pranamasana.[30]

A typical[lower-alpha 2] Surya Namaskar cycle is:

	1: Pranamasana	2: Hasta Uttanasana	3. Uttanasana
12: Back to 1				4. Anjaneyasana
11. Hasta Uttanasana				5. Adho Mukha Svanasana
10. Uttanasana				6. Ashtanga Namaskara
	9. Anjaneyasana, opposite foot	8. Adho Mukha Svanasana	7.Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana

In some yoga traditions, each step of the sequence is associated with a mantra. In traditions including Sivananda Yoga, the steps are linked with twelve names of the God Surya, the sun:[31]

Indian tradition associates the steps with Bījā ("seed" sound) mantras and with five chakras (focal points of the subtle body).[32][33]

A 2014 study indicated that the muscle groups activated by specific asanas varied with the skill of the practitioners, from beginner to instructor. The eleven asanas in the Surya Namaskar sequences A and B (of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga) were performed by beginners, advanced practitioners and instructors. The activation of 14 groups of muscles was measured with electrode on the skin over the muscles. Among the findings, beginners used pectoral muscles more than instructors, whereas instructors used deltoid muscles more than other practitioners, as well as the vastus medialis (which stabilises the knee). The yoga instructor Grace Bullock writes that such patterns of activation suggest that asana practice increases awareness of the body and the patterns in which muscles are engaged, making exercise more beneficial and safer.[41][42]

The founder of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, K. Pattabhi Jois, stated that "There is no Ashtanga yoga without Surya Namaskara, which is the ultimate salutation to the Sun god."[43]

In 2019, a team of mountaineering instructors from Darjeeling climbed to the summit of Mount Elbrus and completed Surya Namaskar there at 18,600 feet (5,700 m), claimed as a world record.[44]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Surya Namaskar.

• Dep't of Posts, Gov't of India releases stamps on Surya Namaskara on International Yoga Day 2016.
• Benefits of Surya Namaskar - Explained Posture by Posture - Sivananda Yoga Centre, Gurgaon