Yogacintamani

Ujjain manuscript of the Yogacintāmaṇi folio 62v, with a table of asanas. This particular manuscript describes 118 asanas, more than any other manuscript.^[1]

The Yogacintamani (योगचिन्तामणी, IAST:Yogacintāmaṇī) is an early 17th-century hatha yoga text, covering the eight auxiliaries of yoga. The asana section in all the manuscripts describes 34 asanas, while variations in some manuscripts add another 84, mentioning most of the non-standing asanas used in modern postural yoga.

Text

Eightfold yoga

The Yogacintamani (योगचिन्तामणी, IAST:Yogacintāmaṇī) is an early 17th-century hatha yoga text, its eight sections covering the eight auxiliaries of yoga.^[1] The text quotes the Hatha Yoga Pradipika extensively.^[2] The text is known from multiple manuscripts.^[3]

Asanas

The asana section in all the manuscripts of the Yogacintamani describes 34 asanas including kukkutasana, mayurasana, and siddhasana, while variations in the Ujjain and other manuscripts add another 84, mentioning most of the non-standing asanas used in modern postural yoga, including forward bends like paschimottanasana, backbends such as ustrasana, twists like matsyendrasana, and arm balances like kukkutasana. The asanas match those in the c. 1602 Persian textbook Bahr al-Hayat.^[1][4]

Kukkutasana is described in the same way as in the Vasishtha Samhita and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, but in the Ujjain manuscript someone in the second half of the 17th century has added a note that the pose "is effective for cleaning the channels"; this is a benefit ascribed to siddhasana in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.^[5] The yoga scholar Jason Birch comments that the manuscript shows that yogis at that time were "willing to combine yoga techniques from Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava traditions".^[6]

See also

• Dattatreyayogashastra, a less scholastic text which similarly tries to bring together hatha yoga and Patanjali's eightfold yoga

References

1. Birch, Jason. "118 Asanas of the mid-17th century". The Luminescent. Retrieved 5 March 2022., which cites Birch, Jason (2018). "The Proliferation of Āsana-s in Late Mediaeval Yoga Texts". In Karl Baier; Philipp A. Maas; Karin Preisendanz (eds.). Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress. ISBN 978-3847108627.
2. Birch, Jason (2018). "Premodern Yoga Traditions and Ayurveda: Preliminary Remarks on Shared Terminology, Theory, and Praxis". History of Science in South Asia (6): 1–83. doi:10.18732/hssa.v6i0.25.
3. Kadlag, Sri Gaurav (26 April 2021). "Yogacintāmaṇi: A Detailed Survey of Available Manuscripts by Sri Gaurav Kadlag". Indica Yoga. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
4. Birch, Jason (2024). "The Ujjain Yogacintāmaṇi". Āsanas of the Yogacintāmaṇi: The Largest Premodern Compilation on Postural Practice. Paris and Pondicherry: École française d'Extrême-Orient and Institut français de Pondichéry. Introduction
5. Birch, Jason (17 June 2018). "The Purpose of Kukkuṭāsana: Notes from a Workshop". SOAS University of London. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
6. Birch, Jason (2018). Karl Baier; Philipp A. Maas; Karin Preisendanz (eds.). Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Vienna: Vienna University Press. p. 121.