Asana
An asana is a body posture, originally sitting for meditation, and later in hatha yoga and modern yoga, including reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, or balancing as well as seated poses. The 5th century BC Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "to be seated in a position that is steady but relaxed". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system.The 10th or 11th century Goraksha Sataka and the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika assert that there are 84 asanas; the 17th century Hatha Ratnavali provides a list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya taught a new system of asanas, incorporating systems of exercises as well as traditional hatha yoga, to influential Indian yoga teachers including Pattabhi Jois, founder of Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, and B.K.S. Iyengar, founder of Iyengar yoga. Together they described hundreds more asanas, revived the popularity of yoga, and brought it to the Western world. Many more asanas have been devised since Iyengar's 1966 Light on Yoga which described some 200 asanas; hundreds more were illustrated by Dharma Mittra.
Asanas were claimed to provide both spiritual and physical benefits in medieval hatha yoga texts. More recently, they have been claimed to improve flexibility, strength, and balance; to reduce stress and conditions related to it; and specifically to alleviate some diseases such as asthma and diabetes.
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