Asanas: 608 Yoga Postures [Paperback]

Asanas: 708 Yoga Postures is the most comprehensive illustrated guide to classic hatha yoga ever published. There is absolutely nothing like it currently available. In 1974, legendary teacher of teachers yogi Dharma Mittra created the Ultimate Yoga Chart as an offering to his guru, Swami Kailashananda (Yogi Gupta). Setting up a camera in his New York City studio, Dharma Mittra photographed himself in 908 yoga postures, sometimes snapping the picture by holding the trigger between his teeth. He then printed each of the photos as an 8 x 10, and then pasted them together and finally produced a poster of all the postures. The effect is like an Escher drawing: you can’t tell what is shown until you get very close, but the picture seems to move and evolve as you watch. Asanas is a stylish, design-driven book that -- for the first time ever -- collects these black and white photogrpahs and provides brief commentary.

In 1974, the legendary “teacher of teachers” yogi Dharma Mittra photographed himself in 908 yoga postures. He printed each photo as an 8 x 10 and pasted them together to form a poster, creating the Ultimate Yoga Chart as a gift for his teacher, Swami Kailashananda (Yogi Gupta). Asanas collects 708 of those black-and-white photographs, each accompanied by the English name of the pose and the Sanskrit characters, brief commentary, and specific combinations for vinyasa, ashtanga, and Iyengar practice. Because it builds on basic postures, Asanas will appeal to students of any of the 100 yoga styles. In addition, specific sequences for each of the major styles of yoga; for beginning, intermediate, and advanced yoga students; as well as for particular health problems are also featured.