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Searching For Triangle Posture

4/24/2020

Triangle Posture - Trikonasana - is a relatively new addition to the physical practices of yoga. Along with most other standing postures, Triangle is absent from the texts of Hathayoga. It makes an appearance in the 1920-30s as yoga in India is becoming more exercise oriented. This makes it strange to speak of something like a 'traditional' Triangle Posture, since its use in yoga has yet to hit the hundred-year mark.

Below we have traced the transmission and progression of Triangle Posture through the last century, especially in Kolkata and the Ghosh Lineage. Among the students of Ghosh, it was consistently practiced for decades since its earliest iteration in 1938 with Buddha Bose. In the 1960s the posture disappears before being reborn as a deep sideways lunge. This is seen in Bikram Choudhury and Jibananda Ghosh but nowhere in Kolkata itself. It seems that this is an influence from bodybuilding, though it is unclear exactly when, where and why the change occurred.

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The Triangle Posture is absent from Swami Kuvalayananda's Yoga Mimamsa in the 1920s, perhaps the most significant publication of early modern yoga. This makes some sense, since Kuvalayananda's magazine was largely interested in the scientific study of yogic breathing practices and less so in the newly emerging yogic 'exercise'. Triangle Posture is also absent from Yogendra's 1928 Yoga Asanas Simplified and Kuvalayananda's 1931 Popular Yoga Asanas.

The earliest version of the posture that we have found is in Swami Sivananda's 1931 Yoga Asanas. It is instructed with the legs straight and the arms going straight up and down, even though the accompanying picture (shown to the right) has an arm reaching near the ear. The pictures in this edition were clearly added later, and some variation was introduced. This is further evident in Vishnudevananda (below), who shows the posture with the arm by the ear.

The posture is also in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda from 1934, pictured right. It is instructed almost identically to Sivananda: Feet apart, arms straight, one hand on the foot.

From Sivananda, Triangle, 1931

Krishnamacharya, Triangle Posture, 1934

Buddha Bose, Triangle, 1938

The earliest instance of Triangle Posture in Kolkata sees a slight variation introduced---that of a bent knee. In 1938, Buddha Bose instructs Triangle Posture in his Yoga Asanas, pictured to the left.

Notably different from Krishnamacharya, Bose's knee is a little bent, though the intention for the posture seems similar. The torso comes down parallel to the ground. This method became the way of practice in the Ghosh lineage for several decades, as Palit and Mukerji demonstrate the posture similarly.

A contemporary of Ghosh in Kolkata was Nilmoni Das, the 'Ironman'. He was well-known as a bodybuilder, strongman and teacher of yoga-exercise.

In the 1950-60s, he published a handful of charts and books describing yoga postures as they were practiced in Kolkata. The similarities to Ghosh's method are quite striking, especially when compared to South Indian styles like Krishnamacharya's and his students'.

Das's version of Triangle Posture, pictured to the right from 1952's Illustrated Yoga-Exercise, differs slightly from Ghosh's in that the legs are both straight. In this way it more closely resembles Krishnamacharya's, above.

Nilmoni Das, Triangle, 1950s

Labanya Palit, Triangle, 1955

In 1955, Labanya Palit instructs the posture identically to Bose in her book The Path of the Body. Palit was a prominent student of Ghosh in Kolkata, who was unknown in the West until recently.

Like Bose, one knee is slightly bent and the body is parallel to the ground, with the one hand on the foot.

1960 brings the voluminous Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga by Vishnudevananda. As a student of Sivananda, his instruction is similar to his teacher's. Though the placing of the top arm near the ear is notable. This has become the method of Triangle Posture in Sivananda's lineage, apparently adapted sometime after his 1931 publication.

Gouri Shankar Mukerji, Triangle, 1963

In 1961, Bishnu Ghosh himself publishes Yoga Cure, a small manual of 32 yoga postures. Triangle is not among them. Perhaps it was not accepted as a core practice, perhaps it was thought of as too difficult, or perhaps there is another reason. It does seem that Triangle Posture stops being taught by Ghosh around this time.

In 1963, Ghosh's student Gouri Shankar Mukerji demonstrates the posture as we've come to expect in the lineage. He is pictured to the left. One knee slightly bent, torso coming parallel to the floor, one hand touching the foot.

At this point, the posture seems to disappear from instruction at Ghosh's College. It is not in photos from the 70s, it is not included in Dr PS Das's 2004 book, and it is not taught there today.

1969's Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha is another encyclopedic text from one of Sivananda's students. It goes some way toward reconciling the different methods by including two variations. One is with the arms straight up and down, and the second has an arm reaching by the ear. In these we see both Sivananda's earliest instruction, which coincides with Krishnamacharya, and Vishnudevananda's version of the posture.

Triangle 1, 1969

Triangle 2, 1969

Bikram Choudhury, Triangle, 1978

As mentioned above, it seems as if the original version of Triangle Posture as taught by Bose, Palit and Mukerji stopped being taught in Kolkata at some point in the 60s or early 70s. This made room for the innovation of an entirely new type of Triangle Posture, modeled after bodybuilding.

In 1978, Bikram Choudhury, a student of Ghosh who came to the West, instructs a wholly new Triangle. The bent knee is much deeper and the torso is no longer parallel to the ground. The position is more like a lunge than any iterations we have seen thus far, different in its purpose and execution.

It seems that this variation of the posture may be influenced by a pose from bodybuilding. Before becoming a proponent of yoga, Choudhury was a weight lifter and bodybuilder.

The sideways lunge is a popular pose for bodybuilders, as it shows off the muscles of the legs and upper body. See the picture to the right and also notice the background. The logo for the competition is actually this lunging posture.

Bodybuilding, deep sideways lunge

It would appear that the evolution of Triangle Posture into a deep sideways lunge shows influence from bodybuilding. It is unclear if this is an innovation of Choudhury himself, or if it occurred more generally around the time when he was learning. Evidence of bodybuilding's influence on Choudhury's instruction is visible in other places as well, including the instruction to 'lock the knee'.

Jibananda Ghosh, Triangle

Since the 1970s, other teachers in the Ghosh lineage have demonstrated the Triangle Posture as a sideways lunge. To the left is Jibananda Ghosh, husband of Karuna Ghosh. Jibananda and Karuna established a yoga school in Tokyo in 1970 and have been teaching there since. You can see that Jibananda's version of Triangle Posture is the deep lunge. It seems that this shows Choudhury's influence, though it is unclear.

Notably, Triangle Posture is entirely absent from Dr PS Das's 2004 Yoga Panacea. To the best of our knowledge, the deep sideways lunge as taught by Choudhury and J Ghosh has never been practiced or instructed in Kolkata at Ghosh's College. The older method, as displayed by Bose, Palit and Mukerji seems to have been left behind altogether.

Triangle Posture itself is a relatively new addition to 'yoga' practice, probably being adopted in the 1920-30s along with other standing, exercise-based positions and movements. After its adoption as a yogic asana, it was relatively stable in its practice for decades. In the Ghosh lineage, it was done with one knee slightly bent, the torso parallel to the ground, and one hand touching the foot. In the 1970s, the posture underwent a significant change, perhaps being reinvented entirely, turning into a deep sideways lunge that resembles a bodybuilder's pose. This version is taught by Choudhury and his students.

For another posture that underwent significant development and change in the 1960-70s, see the Standing Bow Posture.

(Thanks to Jerome Armstrong for the insight about bodybuilders.)

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Mula Bandha: The History of the Root Lock

4/3/2020

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Mula bandha is a somewhat common technique in modern yoga. It is generally accepted that this technique, which means 'root lock', is a contraction of the muscles of the pelvic floor. Some interpret this to be the perineum, the anus, or a combination of the muscles in the pelvis. The anatomical specifics of how and when to do mula bandha are not the goal of this article. Today we are looking at where the practice comes from, and perhaps why it was developed.

The instruction of mula bandha dates back to the early days of Hathayoga, around the 12-13th centuries CE. At this time, Hathayoga was gradually forming out of the tantric beliefs of Buddhism and Shaivism. Alchemy, the attempt to forge new substances, was widely accepted, and the spiritual seekers began practicing an 'inner alchemy' where the magic happens inside the body of the yogi.

According to this alchemical belief, the inner elements of a person could be forged to create immortality, divinity or great power. As Shaivism (the worship of Shiva) became more prominent in Hathayogic teaching, the concept was related specifically to the awakening of kundalini, a latent power of pure consciousness. The way that kundalini is awakened is by manipulating the 'winds' of the body, some of which naturally go up while others go down.

In Hathayoga, mula bandha is specifically intended to take the downward-moving 'wind', called apana, and push it upward. Once the apana wind is turned upward, it is fanned with the abdomen to heat it. Then it combines with the upward wind, called prana. The combination creates an inferno that awakens and raises kundalini. Below is an excerpt from the Hathapradipika, perhaps the best known text on Hathayoga:

One makes the apana, which goes downward, go upward by contracting forcefully. Yogis call that Mulabandha. (HP 3.62)
Then the gastric fire and the apana join the prana, which is naturally hot, and the body’s fire is stoked. (HP 3.67)
Due to this heat the sleeping kundalini is awakened, hissing and straightening like a snake struck by a stick. (HP 3.68)

As you can see, mula bandha is specifically intended to turn apana upward, where a whole series of events follows. This description of mula bandha is present in almost all the texts of Hathayoga. Here is one other, from the Goraksasataka, translated by James Mallinson. I include it because it is pretty elaborate and well-explained:

[The yogi] forces the downward-moving apāna breath to move upwards by means of contraction. Yogis call this mūla bandha, ‘the root lock.’ When apāna has turned upwards and reached the orb of fire, then the flame, fanned by the wind, rises high. As a result, fire and apāna reach prāṇa, which is hot by nature. The overheated prāṇa creates a blaze in the body, which heats the sleeping Kuṇḍalini and wakes her up. Like a snake struck by a stick, she hisses and straightens herself. As if entering a snake-hole, she enters the Brahmā nāḍī. (Gorakṣaśataka in Yoga In Practice 2012: 269)

This explanation continues to the modern day, though it is rarely incorporated in common yoga posture classes that remove esoteric or spiritual overtones. For obvious reasons, a simple muscular contraction is far easier to teach and understand than a detailed metaphysical system of bodily winds and latent spiritual energy. Nonetheless, Swami Sivananda and his students like Vishnudevananda explain mula bandha similar to the older Hathayogic way.

Iyengar, in Light On Yoga, foregoes the apana-kundalini approach and explains mula bandha a little differently. He initially explains the bandhas as closing off "safety valves", which is reminiscent of the old way. But he goes on to interpret the term mula bandha as follows: mula means 'source', and bandha is 'restraint'. So mula bandha is the restraint of the mind, intellect and ego. This recalls Patanjali's famous definition of yoga at the beginning of the Yoga Sutras. Here is what Iyengar writes in Light On Yoga:

The bandhas are like safety valves which should be kept shut during the practice of breath retention. (p.435)

While practising Mula Bandha, the yogi attempts to reach the true source or mula of all creation. His goal is the complete restraint or bandha of the chitta which includes the mind (manas), the intellect (buddhi) and the ego (ahamkara). (p. 438)

We don't think it's a stretch to say that this is a reinterpretation of the meaning of mula bandha. Separately, in modern practice and teaching mula bandha is sometimes taught as a physically stabilizing technique, again quite different from its original iteration.

What does it all mean?

Like so many things in yoga, the purpose of the practices can change so that they become unrecognizable. Does that make them less effective, useful or valuable? Perhaps. We think it is worth asking ourselves why we do what we do. What are the underlying reasons?

Personally speaking, we do not hold the belief that our bodies are populated by 'winds', as was apparently the belief for some time during the development of Hathayoga. We attribute our 'digestive fire' not to actual fire but to hydrochloric acid in the stomach. And we attribute urination and excretion not to downward-moving apana wind but to peristaltic movement of the intestines and contraction of the sphincters. Do these beliefs make something like mula bandha anachronistic? We think that they do.

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Searching For Triangle Posture

Mula Bandha: The History of the Root Lock

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