Dhanurāsana, the bow pose

Sanskrit

धनुरासनDhanurāsana

Meaning of the name

Bow pose: dhanus, bow, and āsana, posture

Level

Intermediate

Family

Backbend

In the texts

Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.27 (Pancham Sinh, 1914); Gheranda Samhita 2.18 (Vasu)

The bow, dhanus, is the weapon of Indian epic: Arjuna's Gāṇḍīva, the great bow of Śiva that Rāma breaks to win Sītā. Two very different postures carry its name. The one taught in every class today turns the whole body into a bow, lying on the belly. The older one, in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, is an archer's gesture: seated, you draw the toes up to the ear as one draws a bowstring.

Steps

1. Lie on the belly, forehead on the mat, arms alongside the body, legs hip-width apart.
2. Bend the knees and bring the heels towards the buttocks.
3. Reach back and take hold of the outside of the ankles, one hand after the other.
4. Inhaling, press the feet back and up into the hands. This lifts the thighs off the floor and draws the chest forward and up.
5. Keep the knees no wider than the hips. Look forward, neck long.
6. Hold two to three breaths, breathing into the back of the ribs.
7. Exhaling, lower the thighs and chest, release the ankles and rest with the head turned to one side. Repeat once or twice.

Alignment

• The lift comes from the legs pressing back, not from the arms pulling; the arms are like the bowstring, straight and passive.
• The curve is shared between the upper back and the hips.
• The neck continues the line of the spine.

Variations

• Half bow (gentle version): lying on the belly, bend one knee and hold that ankle with the same hand, the other forearm on the floor in front of you. Lift the thigh gently. Change sides.
• With a strap: loop a strap around the ankles if the hands do not reach.
• Archer's bow (ākarṇa dhanurāsana, intermediate), close to the classical form: seated with legs stretched, hold both big toes, then draw one foot up towards the ear as an archer draws the string, the other leg staying straight (schools differ on which hand holds which foot).
• Rocking bow (intermediate): only for healthy backs, with a teacher.

Contraindications

• Pregnancy: lying on the belly is not appropriate.
• Spondylolisthesis, disc herniation, acute low-back pain: avoid.
• High blood pressure, heart disease, recent abdominal surgery or hernia: avoid.
• Knee injury: prefer the half bow with a strap, or skip.
• Neck pain: keep the head low.

In the texts

The bow is classical, and the two great hatha manuals describe two different shapes. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika:

पादाङ्गुष्ठौ तु पाणिभ्यां गृहीत्वा श्रवणावधि । धनुराकर्षणं कुर्याद्धनुरासनमुच्यते ॥

pādāṅguṣṭhau tu pāṇibhyāṃ gṛhītvā śravaṇāvadhi | dhanur ākarṣaṇaṃ kuryād dhanur-āsanam ucyate ||

Holding the big toes with the hands, draw them up as far as the ears, as one draws a bow: this is called dhanurāsana.

This is the archer's form, today called ākarṇa dhanurāsana, "the bow drawn to the ear". The Gheranda Samhita, written a few centuries later, describes something closer to the modern prone bow:

प्रसार्य पादौ भुवि दण्डरूपौ करौ च पृष्ठं धृतपादयुग्मम् । कृत्वा धनुस्तुल्यविवर्तिताङ्गं निगद्यते वै धनुरासनं तत् ॥

prasārya pādau bhuvi daṇḍa-rūpau karau ca pṛṣṭhaṃ dhṛta-pāda-yugmam | kṛtvā dhanus-tulya-vivartitāṅgaṃ nigadyate vai dhanur-āsanaṃ tat ||

Stretching the legs on the ground like staffs, the hands reaching back to hold both feet, the body bent like a bow: that is called dhanurāsana.

The verse does not say explicitly that one lies on the belly; Vasu's 1914-1915 translation reads "catching hold of (the toes of) the feet with the hands, and making the body bent like a bow", and the prone reading is the one later teaching adopted. Same name, two postures: a reminder that the old names do not always mean what they mean in class today.

Related postures

Prepare the bow with the cobra and the locust; follow it with child's pose and a gentle twist such as Ardha Matsyendrāsana, or a forward bend such as the seated forward bend. The wheel is another "bow", upward this time: ūrdhva dhanurāsana. All the cards: the asanas chapter.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh (Allahabad, Panini Office, 1914), Internet Archive checked October 16, 2026
2. Svātmārāma, Haṭhayogapradīpikā, Sanskrit text (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 16, 2026
3. The Gheranda Samhita, translated by Srisa Chandra Vasu (Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. XV, Panini Office, 1914-1915), Internet Archive checked October 16, 2026
4. Gheraṇḍasaṃhitā, Sanskrit text, chapter 2 (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 16, 2026

Read next