Simhasana

File:Jogapradipika 66 Narasimhasana.jpg, 1830]]

The name comes from the Sanskrit words {{lang|sa-Latn|simha}} ({{lang|sa|सिंह}}), meaning "lion", and {{lang|sa-Latn|āsana}} ({{lang|sa|आसन}}), meaning "posture" or "seat".{{cite book |last=Sinha |first=S. C. |title=Dictionary of Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zzRvh1fRzEC&pg=PA18 |date=1996 |publisher=Anmol Publications |isbn=978-81-7041-293-9 |page=18}} The pose has also been named Narasimhasana, as in the 19th century Joga Pradipika,{{cite book |last1=Bühnemann |first=Gudrun |author-link=Gudrun Bühnemann |title=84 Asanas in Yoga |page=59 (plate 68) |publisher=D.K.Printworld |date=2018 |url=https://archive.org/details/EightyFourAsanasInYogaGudrunBuhnemann_201801}} from Sanskrit {{lang|sa|नरसिंह}} Narasimha, a lion-man avatar of the god Vishnu.{{cite book |last=Williams |first=George M. |title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC&pg=PA223 |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533261-2 |page=223}} The posture is described in the tenth century Vimānārcanākalpa.{{cite book | last1=Mallinson | first1=James |author1-link=James Mallinson (author) | last2=Singleton |first2=Mark |author2-link=Mark Singleton (yoga teacher) | title=Roots of Yoga | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-241-25304-5 | oclc=928480104 |pages=100–101}}

The practitioner kneels with the buttocks on the inner arches of the feet, stretches the arms forwards with the hands outspread just off the ground, and makes a facial expression with the mouth open wide and the tongue out to resemble a lion. The yoga guru B. K. S. Iyengar notes in his 1966 Light on Yoga that this is the traditional pose; he calls it Simhasana I.{{cite book |last=Iyengar |first=B. K. S. |author-link=B. K. S. Iyengar |title=Light on Yoga |date=1991 |orig-year=1966 |publisher=Thorsons |isbn=978-0-00-714516-4 |pages=135–138}}

Iyengar's Simhasana II begins from lotus position (Padmasana). The practitioner then stands on the knees and moves the body forwards until the front of the body faces the floor and the shoulders are directly above the hands, the arms straight. The facial expression is the same as before.

Yoga Journal has described a variant "Lion Pose" with the legs as in Muktasana with the facial and hand positions as in Simhasana, suggesting it as a suitable seat for pranayama.{{cite journal |author1=YJ Authors |title=Lion Pose |journal=Yoga Journal |date=28 August 2007 |url=https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/types/pranayama/lion-pose/ |access-date=27 August 2021}}

• List of asanas
• Virasana, another ancient kneeling pose, without the facial gesture

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.indovacations.net/Yoga/simhasana.htm Illustrated page]
• [https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/energetics/pranayama/lion-pose/ Step by step instruction]

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{{Hatha yoga}}

Category:Sitting asanas

Category:Meditation asanas

Category:Kneeling asanas

Category:Medieval Hatha Yoga asanas