Blog · · 2 min read
Hanumānāsana: The Story Behind the Splits Pose
In English it's usually called the front split, or Monkey Pose. Its Sanskrit name, Hanumānāsana, points to one of the best-known stories of Indian tradition. The pose is a leap, frozen in time.
Who is Hanumān
Hanumān is the monkey hero of the Rāmāyaṇa, the epic attributed to the poet Vālmīki. He is the son of Vāyu, the god of wind, and the devoted friend and servant of Prince Rāma. In Indian tradition he stands for strength, courage and devotion.
The leap
Rāma's wife Sītā is abducted by Rāvaṇa, the king of Laṅkā. Rāma's allies search the whole land for her and finally reach the southern shore, where the ocean stops them. Laṅkā lies on the other side, and none of them believes they can get across.
Hanumān is the strongest of them, but he doesn't know it. Only when Jāmbavān, the old king of the bears, reminds him of his strength does he climb Mount Mahendra on the shore, gather himself and leap across the ocean to Laṅkā, where he finds Sītā.
Hanumānāsana is that leap in a single shape: one leg reaching forward towards Laṅkā, the other stretching back towards the shore it has just left.
What the name means
The name has two parts.
Āsana comes from the root ās, "to sit". Its first meaning is a seat, and from there a posture.
Hanumān is most often explained through the word hanu, "jaw": the one with the marked jaw. The story behind it is another leap. As a child, Hanumān saw the rising sun, took it for a ripe fruit and jumped up to catch it. Indra, the king of the gods, struck him with his thunderbolt, and the blow hit him on the jaw. So even his name comes from a jump.
How to say it
In IAST, the line over a vowel marks it as long. Hanumānāsana has two long ā sounds, one in Hanumān and one where it meets āsana: ha-nu-maa-naa-sa-na. Hold the long vowels about twice as long as the short ones, and the name starts to sound the way it is written.
What the story can teach you about your splits
Hanumān didn't lack strength. He had forgotten he had it. In my coaching I often see the same: the real obstacles are rarely the body alone, but limiting beliefs and inconsistency, and both can be trained.
He also didn't leap from where he stood. He climbed the mountain first. A split needs the same: preparation of the hamstrings of the front leg and the hip flexors and quadriceps of the back leg, in the right order. My free front split progression takes you there in nine steps, from a lunge to the full pose.
The next time you slide into Hanumānāsana, you'll know what you're doing: crossing an ocean, one breath at a time.