Yoga Mythology: 64 Asanas and Their Stories

Yoga is everywhere today. Studios line the streets of towns both big and small, students perform poses in P.E. class, and everyone and their grandmother is wearing those pants. But our culture's latest love affair with this ancient practice doesn't always attend to the history of yoga and its origins in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religion and mythology. This book aims to correct that by educating the reader on the origins of the different asanas, or poses. Learn how everything from svana-asana (dog pose) to bhujanga-asana (cobra pose) got their names and how the practice of yoga is not merely a physical exercise, but a spiritual exercise as well. Complete with photos, illustrations, and more, you'll learn new poses even as you learn the history and context that informed and inspired them in the first place.