Pranayama, Surya Namaskar, asana and dhyana - as the texts describe them, with chapter and verse.
What this page is not
This is not medical advice and it does not offer a treatment for any condition. What is recorded here is what the named texts say - how the body is arranged, how the breath is counted, and their own cautions. Where a text promises the destruction of a disease, that passage is withheld and its locus is given so you can read it yourself. Talk to a doctor before beginning any new practice, and particularly if you are pregnant, have a medical condition, or take medication.
In the last seven days: 0 minutes
A missed day does not zero this. A grace credit absorbs the first one; when credits run out the count halves rather than disappearing, and one credit returns for every 7 days of practice. This is a record of what happened, not a target to hit.
“Four things are necessary in practising Pranayama. First, a good place; second, a suitable time; third, moderate food; and, lastly, the purifications of the nadis, (vessels of the body, i.e., alimentary canal, &c.)”
“The practice of Yoga should not be attempted in a far off country (from home), nor in a forest, nor in a capital city, nor in the midst of a crowd. If one does so, he loses success.”
Gheranda rules out four of the six seasons for a beginner - winter, the cold season, the hot season and the rains - and has the practice begun in spring or autumn only.
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
Each text names eight and the eights are not the same. Sitkari and Plavini are Svatmarama's alone; Sahita and Kevali are Gheranda's alone. Both lists are shown as they stand rather than merged into a single canonical set.
“Kumbhakas are of eight kinds, viz., Surya Bhedan, Ujjayi, Sitkari, Sitali, Bhastrika, Bhramari, murchha, and Plavini.”
Gheranda's first kumbhaka, Sahita, is the counted cycle itself rather than a separate technique - sagarbha when a seed mantra carries the count, nirgarbha when nothing does. Its content is the matra arithmetic at V.49-55, which is what this page's breath timer runs on.
Sit steady. Breathe in through the left nostril with the right closed; hold as long as is comfortable; let the breath out slowly through the right. Then breathe in through the right, hold, and let it out through the left. That is one round: the breath always returns through the nostril it last left by, and it is let out slowly rather than pushed.
“Sitting in the Padmasana posture the Yogi should fill in the air through the left nostril (closing the right one); and, keeping it confined according to one's ability, it should be expelled slowly through the surya (right nostril). Then, drawing in the air through the surya (right nostril) slowly, the belly should be filled, and after performing Kumbhaka as before, it should be expelled slowly through the chandra (left nostril).”
“Inhaling thus through the one, through which it was expelled, and having restrained it there, till possible, it should be exhaled through the other, slowly and not forcibly.”
“Kumbhakas should be performed gradually 4 times during day and night, i.e., (morning, noon, evening and midnight), till the number of Kumbhakas for one time is 80 and for day and night together it is 320.”
Sinh's edition prints, between the Surya Bhedana verses and Ujjayi, a long unnumbered passage of practice instructions. It is there - and only there - that the alternate-nostril method is given the names Anuloma and Viloma, and that a beginner is told to start with ten breaths on the first day and add five a day.
Cautions
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
This app's own setting, and it is marked as such because no text states it. Every ratio Gheranda gives holds the breath four times as long as it takes it in. This one holds it not at all, so the alternate-nostril method at Hatha Yoga Pradipika II.7-10 can be followed without retention.
Press start when you are ready
0 cycles · 0 min
The texts' own cautions
The sun salutation as it is practised today is a twentieth-century sequence. Its earliest printed description is Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, Rajah of Aundh, in Surya Namaskars, published at Aundh in 1928 - and that book gives TEN positions, not the twelve taught now.
(It is usually cited under the title of its 1938 London edition, The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars, edited by Louise Morgan; the ten-point method is the same one, ten years earlier.) Pant Pratinidhi did not present it as his invention either: he described it as the method his father had practised for fifty-five years, adapted, in his words, in accordance with modern science.
What is genuinely old is the other half - the twelve names of Surya recited with it, which are Vedic and Puranic epithets with long histories of their own.
The check anyone can repeat: the four editions this module was written from contain no namaskara performed as a sequence of postures. The Gheranda Samhita's thirty-two asanas are seats and holds; nothing in either hatha text chains postures into a flow.
There is no single correct ordering. The twelve above are the ordering most widely taught; some lineages put Dandasana or Chaturanga at the fifth position instead of Parvatasana, and the 1928 book that first printed the sequence had ten positions. A full round is usually counted as this sequence twice, leading with the other leg the second time.
Total: 2m 24s
प्रणामासन
Prayer pose
Breathe out
ॐ मित्राय नमः
Om Mitraya Namah
प्रणामासन
Prayer pose
Stand upright, feet together, palms joined at the chest.
ॐ मित्राय नमः
Om Mitraya Namah
to the friend of all
हस्त उत्तानासन
Raised arms pose
Raise the arms overhead and lean gently back, arms beside the ears.
ॐ रवये नमः
Om Ravaye Namah
to the shining one
पादहस्तासन
Hand to foot pose
Fold forward from the hips, bringing the hands toward the feet. Knees may bend.
ॐ सूर्याय नमः
Om Suryaya Namah
to the disperser of darkness
अश्व संचालनासन
Equestrian pose
Step the right leg back, left knee between the hands, and look forward.
ॐ भानवे नमः
Om Bhanave Namah
to the one who illumines
पर्वतासन
Mountain pose
Step the other leg back, lift the hips, and let the head hang between the arms.
ॐ खगाय नमः
Om Khagaya Namah
to the one who moves through the sky
अष्टांग नमस्कार
Salute with eight limbs
Lower knees, chest and chin to the floor, keeping the hips raised.
ॐ पूष्णे नमः
Om Pushne Namah
to the nourisher
भुजंगासन
Cobra pose
Slide forward and lift the chest, elbows soft and shoulders down.
ॐ हिरण्यगर्भाय नमः
Om Hiranyagarbhaya Namah
to the golden womb
पर्वतासन
Mountain pose
Lift the hips back up into the inverted V of the fifth position.
ॐ मरीचये नमः
Om Marichaye Namah
to the ray of light
अश्व संचालनासन
Equestrian pose
Step the right foot forward between the hands and look up.
ॐ आदित्याय नमः
Om Adityaya Namah
to the son of Aditi
पादहस्तासन
Hand to foot pose
Bring the other foot forward and fold over both legs.
ॐ सवित्रे नमः
Om Savitre Namah
to the one who brings forth
हस्त उत्तानासन
Raised arms pose
Rise, sweeping the arms overhead, and lean gently back.
ॐ अर्काय नमः
Om Arkaya Namah
to the one worthy of praise
प्रणामासन
Prayer pose
Return to standing, palms joined at the chest. That is one half-round.
ॐ भास्कराय नमः
Om Bhaskaraya Namah
to the maker of light
“Right poise must be firm and without strain.”
This is the only instruction about posture in the whole of the Yoga Sutras. Patanjali names no asana at all - not one - and gives two conditions instead: steady, and without effort. Every posture below is to be read against that line.
“I am going to describe certain asanas which have been adopted by munis like Vasistha, etc., and Yogis like matsyendra, etc.”
“Among them eighty-four are the best; and among these eighty-four, thirty-two have been found useful for mankind in this world.”
“These four are: - The Siddha, Padma, Sinha and Bhadra. Even of these, the Siddhaasana, being very comfortable, one should always practise it.”
Only postures a cited text both names and describes appear here. There are no standing postures - there is not one in Hatha Yoga Pradipika ch. I or Gheranda Samhita ch. II.
Svatmarama's four: Siddhasana, Padmasana, Simhasana, Bhadrasana
A cross-legged seat with the feet tucked in and the spine upright.
“Having kept both the hands under both the thighs, with the body straight, when one sits calmly in this posture, it is called Swastika.”
“Drawing the legs and thighs together and placing the feet underneath them, keeping the body in its easy condition and sitting straight, constitute the posture called the Swastikasana.”
The ankles are crossed to opposite sides. The name is from the shape it makes.
“Placing the right ankle on the left side and the left ankle on the right side, makes Gomukhaasana, having the appearance of a cow.”
Each foot rests on the opposite thigh.
“One foot is to be placed on the thigh of the opposite side; and so also the other foot on the opposite thigh. This is called Virasana.”
A seat with the heels crossed beneath. Named for the tortoise.
“Placing the right ankle on the left side of anus, and the left ankle on the right side of it, makes what the Yogis call Kurmaasana.”
An arm balance from the lotus seat: the hands pass between calf and thigh and the whole body lifts off the floor.
“Taking the posture of Padmaasana and carrying the hands under the thighs, when the Yogi raises himself above the ground, with his palms resting on the ground, it becomes Kukkutaasana.”
Cautions
From Kukkutasana, roll onto the back with the arms wrapped behind the head.
“Having assumed Kukkutaasana, when one grasps his neck by crossing his hands behind his head, and lies in this posture with his back touching the ground, it becomes Uttana Kurmaasana, from its appearance like that of a tortoise.”
The toes are held and drawn toward the ears so the body bends like a bow.
“Having caught the toes of the feet with both the hands and carried them to the ears by drawing the body like a bow, it becomes Dhanura asana.”
A seated spinal twist, attributed in the verse itself to Matsyendranatha.
“Having placed the right foot at the root of the left thigh, let the toe be grasped with the right hand passing over the back, and having placed the left foot on the right thigh at its root, let it be grasped with the left hand passing behind the back. This is the asana, as explained by Sri Matsyanatha.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
Legs out straight, hands to the toes, forehead toward the thighs.
“Having stretched the feet on the ground, like a stick, and having grasped the toes of both the feet with both the hands, when one sits with his forehead resting on the thighs, it is called Paschima Tana.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
The body is held horizontal on the hands, the elbows pressed into the abdomen.
“Place the palms of both the hands on the ground, and place the navel on both the elbows and balancing thus, the body should be stretched backward like a stick. This is called mayuraasana.”
Cautions
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
Lying flat and still. It is the one posture in this list whose whole content is stopping, and Svatmarama's procedural passage in ch. II has it taken when the practice of asanas has produced fatigue - and skipped when it has not.
“Lying down on the ground, like a corpse, is called Savaasana. It removes fatigue and gives rest to the mind.”
A cross-legged seat with one heel at the perineum and the other above it, the chin drawn to the chest and the gaze between the eyebrows. Svatmarama singles it out at I.36 as the one to practise always.
“Press firmly the heel of the left foot against the perineum, and the right heel above the male organ. With the chin pressing on the chest, one should sit calmly, having restrained the senses, and gaze steadily the space between the eyebrows.”
“Some call this Siddhasana, some Vajrasana. Others call it mukta Asana or Gupta Asana.”
Gheranda gives the same arrangement of the heels, the same chin-lock and the same gaze between the eyebrows, and adds one condition Svatmarama does not: it is for the practitioner who has subdued the passions.
The full lotus, in two versions: I.44's bound form with the hands crossed behind the back, and I.46's plainer one with the hands resting palms-up on the thighs.
Each foot is placed on the opposite thigh, the toes grasped with the hands crossed behind the back, the chin pressed to the chest and the gaze on the tip of the nose. The same verse ends with a therapeutic claim, which is why the instruction here is in our words.
“Place the feet on the thighs, with the soles upwards, and place the hands on the thighs, with the palms upwards.”
“Gaze on the tip of the nose, keeping the tongue pressed against the root of the teeth of the upper jaw, and the chin against the chest, and raise the air up slowly, i.e., pull the apanavayu gently upwards.”
Cautions
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
Heels crossed beneath, hands spread on the thighs, mouth open, gaze at the nose-tip. Svatmarama's reason for it is structural: it is the seat in which all three bandhas come together.
“Press the heels on both sides of the seam of Perineum, in such a way that the left heel touches the right side and the right heel touches the left side of it.”
“Place the hands on the thighs, with stretched fingers, and keeping the mouth open and the mind collected, gaze on the tip of the nose.”
“This is Simhasana, held sacred by the best of Yogis. This excellent Asana effects the completion of the three Bandhas.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
A low seat with the heels drawn in under the body and the feet held together.
The heels go either side of the perineum, left on the left and right on the right, and the feet are held firmly together with both hands. Svatmarama adds that the expert yogis call this Goraksasana. The verse also carries a therapeutic claim, so the instruction here is in our words.
Gheranda's Bhadrasana is different: the heels go crosswise beneath, the hands cross behind the back to take the toes, the gaze is at the nose-tip, and the chin-lock is applied first.
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
One of the seats Gheranda names that Svatmarama does not - though HYP I.39 records that some call Siddhasana by this name, which is a naming disagreement rather than a second posture.
“Place the left heel at the root of the organ of generation and the right heel above that, keep the head and the neck straight with the body. This posture is called the Muktasana. It gives Siddhi (perfection).”
Named by both texts and described by neither in the same way - Svatmarama uses the word only to record that others apply it to Siddhasana.
Gheranda has the thighs made firm as adamant with the legs placed either side. The scan of this verse is damaged, so the instruction is paraphrased rather than quoted.
“Some call this Siddhasana, some Vajrasana. Others call it mukta Asana or Gupta Asana.”
“The eight means of Yoga are: the Commandments, the Rules, right Poise, right Control of the life-force, Withdrawal, Attention, Meditation, Contemplation.”
Johnston's last three words line up with the last three Sanskrit terms in order: Attention is dharana, Meditation is dhyana, Contemplation is samadhi - and he uses them the same way again at III.1-3 below. Only the eighth is unusual by today's conventions, where samadhi is normally rendered "absorption" and "contemplation" would suggest a lesser state than the one he describes. His words are kept as his rather than modernised.
Johnston's 1912 English renders dharana as “attention”, dhyana as “meditation” and samadhi as “contemplation”. The first two are what modern English expects; only the third is unusual, since samadhi is now normally given as “absorption”. His words are shown as his, with the Sanskrit beside them.
“The binding of the perceiving consciousness to a certain region is attention (dharana).”
Putting attention somewhere and keeping it there. A region, not yet a duration.
“A prolonged holding of the perceiving consciousness in that region is meditation (dhyana).”
The same attention, held. This is the rung ordinary English calls meditation, and Johnston calls it that too - the timer on this tab paces this one and no other.
“When the perceiving consciousness in this meditative is wholly given to illuminating the essential meaning of the object contemplated, and is freed from the sense of separateness and personality, this is contemplation (samadhi).”
A state, not an exercise. Patanjali describes it; he does not give steps to it.
Patanjali's most permissive instruction, and the shortest sentence in this module. After a list of possible objects he adds this one, which lets the sitter choose. Nothing further is specified - no posture, no length, no sequence.
“Or meditative brooding on what is dearest to the heart.”
Attention rests on the breath going out and coming in, evenly. II.50 is the whole of Patanjali's technical apparatus for the breath: three directions, three measures, and the instruction that it be prolonged and subtle. It is markedly less specific than the hatha texts, which is worth noticing rather than filling in.
“Or peace may be reached by the even sending forth and control of the life-breath.”
“The life-current is either outward, or inward, or balanced; it is regulated according to place, time, number; it is prolonged and subtle.”
A visualisation held steady. Gheranda gives a second version at VI.9-14 in which the object is the teacher rather than a deity, seated on a lotus in the crown. Note that both versions require something this app cannot supply: the figure is the one the practitioner's own teacher gave them.
Gheranda opens the chapter by dividing contemplation into three - gross, luminous and subtle - and defines the first as contemplation of a particular figure, such as one's teacher or chosen deity.
The detail is remarkable and it is all specified: a sea of nectar in the heart; in it an island of gems whose sand is powdered diamond and ruby; kadamba trees all round it and a rampart of flowering malati, mallika, jati, kesara, champaka, parijata and lotus; in the middle a kalpa tree with four branches for the four Vedas; beneath it a jewelled platform and a throne, and on the throne the deity the practitioner's teacher has given them, with its own ornaments and vehicle.
A flame, in one of two places - the base of the spine or between the eyebrows. Gheranda ranks this above contemplation of a form at VI.21.
In the muladhara is the kundalini in the form of a serpent, and the individual self is there like the flame of a lamp. That flame is contemplated as the luminous Brahma.
A second method: between the eyebrows, above the mind, is a light consisting of Om, and that flame is what is contemplated.
Included for completeness and marked as what it is: a state Gheranda describes as arriving rather than as being practised. There is no procedure here for a reader to follow, and inventing one would be the exact failure this module exists to avoid.
The third and, in Gheranda's ranking, the highest - and he says plainly that it is not reached by trying. It follows the awakening of the kundali, which he attributes to great good fortune, and it is attained by holding the shambhavi mudra, gazing into space without blinking. He calls it difficult even for the gods.
Gheranda's own ranking, in his own arithmetic: contemplation of light is a hundred times contemplation of form, and contemplation of the subtle is a hundred thousand times contemplation of light.
Length (minutes)
Interval bell (minutes)
These lengths are the app's own convenience. Neither the Gheranda Samhita nor the Yoga Sutras states a sitting length in minutes anywhere - Gheranda counts in repetitions and quarters of the night, and Patanjali does not count at all.
What follows is description, not diagnosis. Siva Samhita ch. V places each centre, counts its petals, names its seed letters and its presiding adept and goddess, and gives its colour. All of that is rendered.
The text also promises each one a result - the end of sickness, mastery, escape from death - and none of that is rendered, for the same reason no modern claim about balancing or unblocking them is: this app does not tell anyone that attending to a part of the body will change their health.
Two reds, two golds, and three the text gives no colour for at all. Making a rainbow of these would mean inventing five of them.
“All this is called the adhar-padma (the support lotus), and the four petals of it are designated by the letters (v), (s), (s), (s).”
“The lotus which is situated in the Muladhar has four petals. In the space between them, dwells the sun.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“The second chakra is situated at the base of the penis. It has six petals designated by the letters b, bh, m, y, r, l. Its stalk is called Swadhisthan, the colour of the lotus is blood-red, its presiding adept is called Bala, and its goddess, Rakini.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“The third chakra, called Manipur, is situated near the navel; it is of golden colour, having ten petals designated by the letters d, dh, n, t, th, d, dh, n, p, ph.”
“Its presiding adept is called Rudra - the giver of all auspicious things, and the presiding goddess of this place is called the most sacred Lakini.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“In the heart, is the fourth chakra, the Anahat. It has twelve petals designated by the letters k, kh, g, gh, n, ch, chh, j, jh, n, t, th. Its colour is deep blood-red; it has the seed of vayu, yam, and is a very pleasant spot.”
Its presiding adept is Pinaki and its goddess Kakini.
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“This chakra situated in the throat, is the fifth, and is called the Vishuddha lotus. Its colour is like brilliant gold, and it is adorned with sixteen petals and is the seat of the vowel sounds. Its presiding adept is called Chhagalanda, and its presiding goddess is called Sakini.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“The two-petalled Chakra, called the Ajha, is situated between the two eye-brows, and has the letters h and ksh; its presiding adept is called Shukla Mahakala (the White Great Time); its presiding goddess is called Hakini.”
“The two vessels called the ida and the pingala are the real Varana and Asi. The space between them is called Varanasi (Benares, the holy city of Siva). There it is said that the Vishwanatha (the Lord of the universe) dwells.”
Not shown here
At these loci the text also states therapeutic results. They are not reproduced - this app does not advertise a practice as a treatment for an illness. The references are given so you can go and read them yourself.
“The lotus which is situated in the Brahmarandhra is called Sahasrara (the thousand-petalled). In the space in its centre, dwells the moon. From the triangular place, elixir is continually exuding.”
“The sushumna goes along the spinal cord up to where the Brahmarandhra (the hole of Brahma) is situated.”
What is missing from this page is as deliberate as what is on it. Each row below says what was searched and what was not found - or what was found and why it was rejected anyway. If a real source ever turns up, the fix is to delete the row and build the thing, never to soften the wording.
Refused on both grounds at once, which is unusual.
There is no classical locus: the four editions read for this module - Sinh's Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Vasu's Gheranda Samhita, Vasu's Siva Samhita, Johnston's Yoga Sutras - contain nothing of the kind, and the nearest thing in any of them is Gheranda's Bhramari at V.79-82, which is a sequence of sounds heard INTERNALLY in silence with the ears closed, not a sound played to a listener.
And the claims made for it are health claims: a page saying these tones reduce anxiety or alter brain states is making a therapeutic assertion that would need clinical substantiation, which this app does not have and does not propose to imply.
Instead: Bhramari is built, at its own locus, with what both texts say about it and without any claim about what it does to a nervous system.
Sound is everywhere in this literature and healing by it is absent from all of it. Gheranda's Bhramari ends in the anahata nada, the unstruck sound, and what he says it leads to is samadhi - a contemplative state, not a treatment. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika's fourth chapter is largely about nada and likewise describes absorption, not therapy.
Neither text has an instrument played TO a practitioner at all: the sounds in both are heard internally, and Gheranda at V.78 requires a place where no sound can be heard. So the modern practice inverts the classical one, and the clinical outcome it attaches is the part with no located source and the part that would need substantiating. Refused on both counts.
The chakras ARE described, and this module describes them - Siva Samhita ch. V gives all seven with their locations, petals, seed letters and deities, and that material ships. Three specific things do not.
(1) The seven-colour rainbow is not in the text: Siva Samhita's own colours are blood-red at V.75, golden at V.79, deep blood-red at V.83 and brilliant gold at V.90 - two reds and two golds, which cannot be made into a spectrum without inventing five of them.
(2) There is no notion of a centre being blocked or needing to be cleared; the verbs in the text are contemplate and know. (3) The claim that attending to a centre changes a physical condition is a health claim, and it is refused whether it comes from a wellness site or from V.81, whose promises this module withholds for exactly the same reason.
Instead: The seven centres are described at their loci on the Chakras tab, without verdicts.
This one would be refused even with a citation, which is what separates it from the rows above. It is a claim about what happens to a body, and a page that makes it is advertising a health outcome - the FTC's 2022 Health Products Compliance Guidance would expect controlled evidence, and this app has none and is not in a position to gather any.
Nor is the citation hypothetical: Hatha Yoga Pradipika I.31 and I.33 do attach exactly these results to Paschimatana and Mayurasana. Those verses exist, they are named in this module's withheld register, and their claims are still not reproduced. A category page built on them would be the same claim with a chapter number stapled to it.
Instead: Both postures are built, at their loci, with what the text says about the arrangement of the body and nothing about what it does to one.
Refused as a CATEGORY, not case by case, because case by case is how it gets built by accident. India's Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954 makes advertising a remedy for any of 54 scheduled conditions a cognizable offence, and s.2(c) names mantras explicitly, so the exposure here is criminal rather than merely regulatory. Several of the conditions people search for are on that schedule.
The classical texts do make such claims - Gheranda's Sitali at V.74, Svatmarama's Sitali at II.58 - and every one of them is in this module's withheld register with its locus named, so a reader can go and read what this app will not repeat.
Not a feature refused but a FRAMING refused, and it is the commonest untruth told about this practice. A full-text search of the four editions read for this module returns no namaskara performed as a sequence of postures - not a variant reading, absent. The earliest printed description of the modern form is the Rajah of Aundh's 1928 book, which gives ten positions rather than twelve.
The twelve NAMES of Surya recited with it are genuinely old; the pairing of one name to one position has no located source and is marked unsourced on screen wherever it appears.
Instead: The sequence is built, with its real history in the header rather than in a footnote.
Every quotation here was read from the scans below. Where a scan was damaged the passage is paraphrased in our own words rather than quoted - no quotation has been “repaired”.
One exception is recorded: NOT READ. Cited as a historical witness only - for its 1928 date and its ten positions - on the strength of bibliographic records. No copy was consulted and nothing is quoted from it.
Every quotation comes from a public-domain translation: Pancham Sinh (1914), Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu (1914-15), and Charles Johnston (1912). The translator and the year are shown with each passage, because editions differ. Where the texts disagree, both readings are shown rather than one being declared correct.