Malasana

The name Malasana is used for various squatting asanas in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise. Traditionally, and in B. K. S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga, Malasana, or Garland Pose, is used for a different squatting pose with the feet together and the back rounded with multiple hand placement variations. When the hands are bound around the back this pose is also called Kanchyasana (“golden belt pose”). In the West, the name Malasana is also used for the “regular squat pose”, also called upavesasana, in which the hand palms are folded together in the so-called namaskar mudra in front of the chest, and the feet are set wider apart. In the Sritattvanidhi, the name Malasana is given to bhujapidasana, the “shoulder press”, in which the palms are placed on the ground, the body balancing on the hands, and the legs resting on the shoulders.