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Where Does It Come From? — Half Moon Backbend

11/22/2024

This is the third in a series of articles about where some modern postures come from. The first two are about Standing Deep Breathing (where-does-it-come-from-standing-deep-breathing.html) and Half Moon Sidebend (where-does-it-come-from-half-moon-sidebend.html).

This is the Half Moon Backbend, ardha chandrasana, often just called Half Moon Posture. Since the name "Half Moon" is used to refer to so many different postures and positions, we prefer to specify that this is a "backbend." It is a newer posture in yoga, which can be guessed from its standing position as well as its apparent emphasis on encouraging health and mobility in the body. Practices that move the body around to increase its health are relatively new, historically speaking, dating from the last one or two hundred years. The textual evidence supports this, as there are no examples of a standing backward bend in any premodern yogic instructions, including hathayoga.

As with so many other standing postures in yoga, the Half Moon Backbend seems to have its rough origin in European calisthenics. Early versions date from around the turn of the 20th century in the manuals of JP Muller, a name we see often when looking at the roots of modern yoga.

Muller had a couple different versions of a standing backbend that were fitted into little sequences of movement. Pictured at the top is Muller with his arms slightly out to the side. This backbend is part of a series that includes bending forward and touching the toes — a backward bend and a forward bend done together.

Second is pictured to the right. Muller stretches the arms overhead and interlaces the fingers, bending the whole torso in a circular fashion: back, left, forward, right. It seems that Muller conceived of a standing backward bend as one part of a larger set of movements. This approach continues in the early modern yoga texts of Yogendra and remains to this day, as Bikram Choudhury's class groups the standing backbend immediately with a forward bend.

JP Muller, rotating the torso

Yogendra, dynamic chakrasana

Yogendra, static chakrasana

Muller had a couple different versions of a standing backbend that were fitted into little sequences of movement.

In the 1920s, Yogendra follows Muller's lead, grouping a standing backbend with a forward bend. Although it is nearly identical to the European example — Yogendra is known to have drawn influence from Western exercise leaders — he gives it a Sanskrit name: chakrasana. This means "wheel posture," a posture with some pre-modern yogic history. The relationship between the Half Moon Backbend and "Wheel Posture" is hard to ignore and carries through the decades of the standing posture. Perhaps Yogendra saw the standing posture as a way to link a Sanskrit yoga pose with modern exercise. The standing version is a bit easier, as it demands less flexibility. And if done in movement, it is more comfortable.

Yogendra calls the standing version, which is done in movement, dynamic chakrasana. The other version is a deep backward bend with both the hands and feet touching the ground. He calls this static chakrasana.

Despite the similarities between the two versions, there are also significant differences. Dynamic chakrasana has a small backward bend and a large forward bend, when the head comes down toward the knees. On the other hand, static chakrasana has no forward bend and is only a deep backward bend.

After Yogendra, there aren't standing backbends in South India. Like the Half Moon Sidebend, this posture catches on in the North, especially in the Kolkata yoga style of Bishnu Charan Ghosh.

In Buddha Bose's (a student of Ghosh) 1938 instruction, the relationship between the Half Moon Backbend and Wheel Posture is continued. He says that Wheel Posture is "the third phase of ardha chandrasana," following the standing sidebend and backbend. Indeed, he seems to view this posture as a simpler, preparatory version for the deeper Wheel Posture. Looking at the photo of Bose in the posture, one can almost see his hands reaching for the ground behind him.

We will see this relationship continue below in BKS Iyengar's work.

Meanwhile, the Half Moon Backbend develops as its own posture with the students of Ghosh. In Ghosh's manual Yoga Cure, he teaches it as one of about twenty fundamental beginning postures that are good for health.

Buddha Bose, ardha chandrasana

Karuna Ghosh, Half Moon Backbend in Yoga Cure

The relationship between the Half Moon Backbend and "Wheel Posture" is hard to ignore.

As we would expect, the posture is also taught by GS Mukerji in the early 1960s.

In the South Indian yoga styles, the posture does not appear. The closest approximation is in BKS Iyengar's encyclopedic teaching, where the posture is briefly passed through on the way to Wheel Posture. Here again we see the relationship between the two — Half Moon Backbend and Wheel.

Iyengar clearly does not consider this a stand-alone posture to be cultivated. Rather it is an intermediate position as one drops backward from standing, puts their hands on the floor and assumes chakrasana, Wheel Posture.

CONCLUSION
Like so many standing positions, the Half Moon Backbend seems to have come from European calisthenics, where it was part of a little series that moved the body forward and backward, or around in a circle. After passing through Yogendra, the students of Ghosh adopted it as its own posture. Still, it is usually linked in some way with chakrasana, Wheel Posture. Yogendra, Bose and later Iyengar make this connection.

GS Mukerji, ardha chandrasana

BKS Iyengar, dropping back into Wheel Posture

The Half Moon Backbend develops as its own posture with the students of Ghosh.

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Where Does It Come From? — Half Moon Sidebend

11/2/2024

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This is the second in a series of articles about where postures come from. The first was about Standing Deep Breathing: where-does-it-come-from-standing-deep-breathing.html.

Half Moon Sidebend is done standing, which is a giveaway that this is a newer posture. It is often given a Sanskrit name, ardha chandrasana, which means "half moon posture." Already this can be confusing, since there are several modern postures with that name. This one bends the body to the side, so it is sometimes called parshva ardha chandrasana, or "side half moon posture." Another bends the body backward. We will cover that one next. Yet another is taught by BKS Iyengar, an entirely different position done on one leg and one hand. If that seems overwhelming, and you find yourself wondering, "which is the true Half Moon Posture?" the answer is that they are all equally new, appearing in yoga in the last 100 years or so.

Like the vast majority of standing postures in modern yoga, Half Moon Sidebend has no clear ancestor in classical or hathayoga. It seems to have come into the yoga world around the turn of the twentieth century, like many other practices, from European calisthenics.

The earliest example of this position that we know of comes from none other than JP Muller, an influential leader of physical culture in the early 1900s. We saw his influence last time, too, in Standing Deep Breathing.

This posture comes into yoga slowly and unevenly in the 1920s and 30s. The first Indian yogi to teach it is Yogendra, who includes it in his 1928 book Yoga Asanas Simplified. Yogendra's system has many innovations, including postures that move with the breath, which he calls dynamic asanas. He also adds several standing positions which had not previously been part of yoga. One of these is a standing side bend that he calls konasana, "Angle Posture."

JP Muller, sidebend

Yogendra, konasana (Angle Posture) 1928

Half Moon Sidebend has no clear ancestor in classical or hathayoga.

Other early modern yogis didn't adopt the sidebend right away. Important teachers in the 1920s like Kuvalayananda and Sivananda, who embraced new postures and techniques to varying degrees, neglected this one. Interestingly, several decades later, Kuvalayananda's students included this posture and claimed that he invented it. We will discuss that below.

Krishnamacharya, another influential teacher of early modern yoga in the 1930s, did not instruct this posture as far as we know. Nothing like it is included in his publications, nor is it in the traditions of some of his prominent students, like Iyengar and Jois.

The next appearance of Half Moon Sidebend comes in 1938 from Buddha Bose. Bose was the first prominent yoga student of Bishnu Charan Ghosh, from Kolkata. It seems that this posture caught on in Kolkata before drifting back to the West and South in later decades. It is practiced by all of Ghosh's students, including Mukerji and Choudhury.

Bose adds a distinct element to the posture. In addition to its recognizable standing position and side-bending torso, he raises his arms overhead. This is different from the way that Muller and Yogendra teach it. Perhaps it is intended to make the position more beautiful or difficult, to make it more photogenic, or to change its intended effect.

It is unclear how difficult or important Ghosh and Bose considered this posture. In 1961, Ghosh published his own little pamphlet of beginning yoga postures, called Yoga Cure. Half Moon Sidebend is conspicuously absent from it, although it includes the standing backward bend called ardha chandrasana.

Buddha Bose, ardha chandrasana (Half Moon Posture) 1938

GS Mukerji, ardha chandrasana (Half Moon Posture) 1963

This posture caught on in Kolkata before drifting back to the West and South in later decades.

Although Ghosh does not include the posture in his little manual, his next prominent student from the era does. This is Gouri Shankar Mukerji, who went to Germany and became a medical doctor before moving back to Kolkata in his later years. At the end of his life, he tended to his aging teacher, wrote yoga prescriptions and lived a quiet life.

His book, Yoga und unsere Medizin, was written in German. The title means "Yoga and Our Medicine." The Half Moon Sidebend that he includes there is nearly identical to Bose's. Standing with the legs together, torso bent sideways, both arms stretched overhead.

In 1970, we see the first sidebend from someone outside of Kolkata in several decades. It is worth noting again that BKS Iyengar, who wrote the incredibly influential Light On Yoga in 1966, included hundreds of postures. But none is a standing sidebend. He does have a posture called ardha chandrasana which is entirely different, done on one leg and one hand.

BKS Iyengar, ardha chandrasana 1966

The non-Kolkata posture comes from the school of Kuvalayananda, who had died in 1966. After his death, Kuvalayananda's students seem to have added the posture. They photographed it and included it in a publication of Yoga Mimamsa in 1970.

chakrasana (Wheel Posture) from Yoga Mimamsa 1970

Bikram Choudhury, ardha chandrasana (Half Moon Posture) c. 1970

Choudhury instructs the posture exactly as one would expect from a student of Ghosh in Kolkata.

They called the posture chakrasana, Wheel Posture. The posture is instantly recognizable as a descendent of Muller, Yogendra and Bose. Standing and bending the body to the side. A small difference can be seen in the arms, with one overhead while the other is held down by the side.

Also around 1970, Bikram Choudhury goes to the US and refines his system of 26 postures that he calls "Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class." Right at the beginning of this class, which gains popularity through the 80s, 90s and 00s, is the Half Moon Sidebend.

Choudhury instructs the posture exactly as one would expect from a student of Ghosh in Kolkata. Standing, torso bending to the side, with both arms overhead.

Finally, in a more recent publication from Kaivalyadhama, Kuvalayananda's shool, a familiar posture appears. It is called "Side Bending Chakrasana," and is recognizable as the school's previous chakrasana. The single arm overhead is identical to the 1970 instruction from Yoga Mimamsa, shown above. Interestingly, in this 2009 publication, it is claimed that Kuvalayananda actually invented this posture. This seems unlikely, as there are many examples of other teachers instructing this posture even while Kuvalayananda himself avoided it.

Side Bending Chakrasana, from Kaivalyadhama publication 2009

CONCLUSION
Ardha chandrasana, the Half Moon Posture, here explained in its side bending form, appears for the first time around 1900 in the Danish physical culture of JP Muller. From there it goes to Yogendra and to the school of BC Ghosh in Kolkata. All of Ghosh's students teach this posture. Over the past century, there are variations with the arms, but the posture remains at its core a standing sidebend of the torso. In addition to Ghosh's students, Kuvalayananda's school began teaching the posture after his death.

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Where Does It Come From? — Half Moon Backbend

Where Does It Come From? — Half Moon Sidebend

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