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Sukhasana,Swastikasana,Svastikasana:All in a Name

 
 

jerry
User

Sep 28, 2001, 5:58 PM

Post #1 of 2 (122 views)
Sukhasana,Swastikasana,Svastikasana:All in a Name Can't Post
I have always called simple crossed leg pose Sukhasana (as in the book "Yoga the Iyengar Way" by Silva, Mira, and Shyam Mehta). In Mr. Iyengar's book "Yoga the Path to Holistic Health" he calls this pose Swastikasana and in Geeta's "Preliminary Course" book she calls (or spells) this pose Svastikasana. Does anyone have any insight into why these different names?

Just curious,
jerry

Bryan Alexander
Enthusiast

Sep 28, 2001, 8:22 PM

Post #2 of 2 (120 views)
Re: Sukhasana,Swastikasana,Svastikasana:All in a Name [In reply to] Can't Post
There are different sources for the names and descriptions of yoga postures, including very old texts, and the Iyengars go back to certain texts as their sources. Sometimes different names are given to the same posture, as is the case with Sukhasana.

The names are from the Sanskrit language. In Sanskrit, both Sukha and Svastika mean something similar: fortunate or happy or easy. According to Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga, the swastika symbol that was used by the Nazis was, in ancient India, a symbol of the sun that was associated with good fortune.

Svastika, with a 'v', is the proper transliteration of the Sanskrit word. Swastika, with a 'w', is simply a modification of the same word based on some linguistic theory about the comparable sounds of these languages.


 
 
 


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