Where Does It Come From? — Half Moon Backbend

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.