THE ANCIENT YOGA STRAP:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE YOGAPAṬṬA


SETH POWELL
PhD Candidate, Harvard University 

sethpowell@g.harvard.edu

TheLuminescent.blogspot.com
16 June 2018 (v2)
Fig. 1
Great Stupa at Sanchi. Madhya Pradesh (c. 50 BCE - 50 CE).


Image from Diamond (2013: 28).

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SETH POWELL

THE ANCIENT YOGA STRAP:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE YOGAPAṬṬA

For me, prop is not only for the asana. It should contribute to the position
of the body which in turn can let the mind be calm and state of “chitta
vritti nirodha” be experienced. Body is my first prop. The body is a prop to
the soul [sic]. — BKS Iyengar1

As critical scholarship on the historical foundations of yoga traditions in ancient and medieval
India continues to progress, we are constantly refining our understanding of both the
continuities and disruptions between precolonial yoga of India and the transnational postural
yoga practised by millions around the world today.

Many aspects of modern postural yoga are clearly just that: modern innovations. The concept
of a large group yoga class, the majority demographic of female teachers and practitioners,
and indeed, much of the vinyāsa “flow” style of sequenced postures set to the rhythm of
breath has been shown to be a much more recent development than many yogins have
previously assumed.

One aspect of modern yoga that finds surprising continuity with ancient forms of Indian yoga
and asceticism, however, is the use of material “props” to support one’s yogic and meditative
practice. In particular, the idea of using a cloth yoga strap or belt to fix one’s body in a posture
turns out to be at least two thousand years old!

In Sanskrit literature, this ancient prop was known as the yogapaṭṭa. Monier-Williams defines
yogapaṭṭa in his Sanskrit-English dictionary as, “the cloth thrown over the back and knees of a
devotee during meditation” (2005: 857).2 Similarly, in his Indian Epigraphical Glossary,
Dineschandra Sircar (1966: 386) defines the yogapaṭṭa as a “band used by the ascetics to keep
their limbs in a position of rigidity” and the related term yogapaṭṭaka as “a garment worn
during contemplation.”

This article will provide a small window onto the longue durée of the yogapaṭṭa, or “yoga strap,”
and introduce a brief selection of the textual, visual, and material sources available for
constructing its history.3 It will demonstrate that although the use of a yoga strap in postural
yoga is typically credited as an “invention” of BKS Iyengar in the 1960s, the notion of a cloth
strap used to support one’s physical yogic practice turns out to be just about as old as the
discipline of yoga itself.

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The Visual and Material Record
Since before the Common Era, the yogapaṭṭa has been depicted visually by Indian artisans as
an emblematic accoutrement of the ascetic—an icon depicting spiritual prowess and
transcendence over the limitations of the human body. Some of the earliest sculptural
depictions of the yogapaṭṭa can be found at the Great Stupa of Sanchi, an ancient Buddhist site
in Madhya Pradesh (c. 50 BCE–50 CE).

Here on the northern gate, we see we see two “headless” ascetic figures seated outside of their
respective forest huts (Fig. 1). The one on the far right is employing the yogapaṭṭa to sustain a
seated meditative position, in which the legs are crossed in front of the body with the knees-
lifted. The yogapaṭṭa wraps around the bearded ascetic’s legs and lower back. The right arm of
the ascetic is bent and raised, hand-lifted in the air, which may be a mudrā of some kind or the
raised-arm practice (ūrdhvabāhu) for the generation of ascetical heat (tapas).

Several centuries later, on the coast, south of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, at perhaps one of the
most famous sculpted reliefs in all of India, we find a similarly styled yogapaṭṭa at
Mamallapuram (c. 7th century)—again “headless” due to damage (Fig. 2).

Around that same time at Ellora in Maharashtra (c. 7th century), a cadre of Śaiva ascetic
devotees bound with yogapaṭṭas are depicted flanking a large seated Śiva (Fig. 3).

These early yogapaṭṭa images portray human figures in modes of yogic asceticism, with typical
features of the ancient Indian renunciate: long beard, matted hair (jaṭā), located in front of a

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Fig. 2
King Bhagīratha as ascetic with yogapaṭṭa.
Tamil Nadu, Mamallapuram (c. 7th century).
Photograph Seth Powell.
 forest hut, surrounded by animals, established in a seated posture (āsana), and fixed in that
posture by a strap. In this sense, the yogapaṭṭa as a prop for meditation is expressed visually as
one of many accoutrements of the early Indian ascetic, and by the early centuries CE, had
become a popular visual trope in Indian art, transcending geographical traditions across the
subcontinent.

Indeed, once one begins looking for the yogapaṭṭa in Indian sculptural traditions, the yoga
strap can be found just about everywhere. Even the gods and goddesses are depicted with
yogapaṭṭas, to indicate their “yogic” forms and legends—or what David White has referred to
as “the ‘yogi-fication’ of Indic deities” (2009: 167).

A circa seventh-century sculpture (Fig. 4) from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh displays the goddess
Pārvatī seated cross-legged, aided by a yogapaṭṭa. Such sculptures invoke the well-known story
in the Purāṇas in which Pārvatī performs tapas in order to win Sí va’s hand in marriage.

Fig. 3 Fig. 4 (opposite)

Śaiva ascetic devotees. Ellora (c. 7th century). Tapasvinī Pārvatī. Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh (c. 7th century).
Photograph Seth Powell. Image in Joshi (1996: Fig. 4).

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Page 6 of 13
At Hampi, in northern Karnataka, a giant monolithic carving of Yoga Narasiṃha (Fig. 5) with a
yogapaṭṭa survives from the fifteenth-century Vijayanagara empire—though the strap has
been refurbished in more recent years. In this popular yogic form of Viṣṇu’s avatāra as the
man-lion, Yoga Narasiṃha is possibly evoking the famous episode from the Bhāgavatapurāṇa,
whereupon saving the young devotee Prahlāda from his demon-father, Narasiṃha instructs
the young Prahlāda in the path of Bhaktiyoga (see Diamond 2013: 146).

In the north, medieval Mughal paintings also feature numerous depictions of yogins and
ascetics—particularly Nāth Yogins—sporting the ubiquitous yogapaṭṭa (Fig. 6).

The Textual Record

Reading the images alongside the textual record, we can be confident that the yoga strap was
indeed used by lived ascetics and yogins, and not simply an artistic embellishment of idealized
gods and sages. There are numerous references to the yogapaṭṭa in Sanskrit literature. One of
it’s earliest occurrences may be found in the Kṣudrakavastu, a section of the enormous
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya (c. first few centuries CE), a treatise on Buddhist monastic code,4 where
we find a description of a Buddhist monk who fashions a make-shift “yoga strap” out of his
own monastic robes to fix himself in meditation (see Bass 2013: 68-69).

In the Pātañjalayoga tradition we begin to see more references to the yogapaṭṭa in an explicitly
yogic context. When Patañjali states that one’s posture (āsana) become steady (sthira) and
comfortable (sukham) in PYŚ 2.46, the commentary (bhāṣya) provides a list of about a dozen
recommended postures. One such āsana is termed sopāśraya (lit. “with support”), which,
although details are not provided in the bhāṣya, is interpreted by later commentators as an
āsana in which the yogin employs a yogapaṭṭa—attesting to the use of meditative props in
Pātañjalayoga.

For example, Vācaspatimiśra’s Tattvavaiśāradī (c. 10th century) states:

yogapaṭṭakayogāt sopāśrayam |

[This posture is] with support (sopāśrayam) because it uses a yoga strap.5

Likewise, Vijñānabhikṣu’s Yogavarttika (c. 16th century), states:

sopāśrayaṃ yogapaṭṭayogenopaveśanam |

Sopāśraya is the act of sitting by means of a yoga strap.

Examples like this can be found throughout Indian philosophical and religious literature—and
across sectarian traditions—whether in prescriptive yogic treatises, or in iconographic
descriptions of gods, goddesses, siddhas, or yoginīs.

One particularly rich description of the yogapaṭṭa is found in Dharmaśāstra traditions. Here a
novice Brāhmaṇical ascetic (saṃnyāsa) is given a yogapaṭṭa upon initiation by his guru—
providing some detailed insight into the ritualised nature of bestowing a yogapaṭṭa from
teacher to student. The following is a summary of the initiatory yogapaṭṭa ritual found in the

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Fig. 5
Yoga Narasiṃha.
Hampi, Karnataka (c. 14th century).
Photograph Seth Powell.

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Yatidharmasamuccaya (11th century), or “Collection of Ascetic Laws,” described by P.V. Kane in
his History of Dharmaśāstra Volume 2, Part 2 (1941: 962). 6

The yogapaṭṭa (lit. the cloth of yoga, union with Spirit) is given in the following
way: After the ascetic has undergone paryaṅkaśauca [a detailed bathing ritual
described in the previous section], he should cleanse his waist, wear a string
round his waist and his loin cloth and cover his waist with a piece of cloth. He
should then sit with his guru’s permission on a high seat and should propound
some Vedānta topic in the presence of
the persons assembled. The ascetic
guru should sprinkle on the head of
his ascetic disciple water from a
conch to the accompaniment of the
Puruṣa hymn (Ṛg [Veda] X. 90), should
honour him by offering clothes,
sandalwood paste, flowers, incense,
lamp and naivedya [food offerings]. He
(the guru) should hold a piece of cloth
over the head of the disciple, recite
along with the other yatis the chapter
called Viśvarūpa (11th chapter of the
Bhagavadgītā) and from the 15th
verse to the 33rd verse. He should
then give the name already
determined upon to the disciple and
say to him ‘Hencefoward you may
admit to saṃnyāsa one who is eligible
for it, initiate him and give him the
yogapaṭṭa.’ Then the disciple bows to
the yatis older than himself. Then the
guru gives to the disciple a waist-
thread and a staff marked with five
mudrās and should offer his own
salutation to the disciple according to
the tradition of his order. Other
ascetics and house-holders also
should bow to the disciple, who
s h o u l d o n l y re p e a t t h e wo rd
‘Nārāyaṇa,’ should leave the high seat
and seat his guru thereon, should bow
to the guru according to the rules of
the order and to the other ascetics.

Fig. 6
Close-up of encampment of Nāth yogīs.Page 9 ofvisit
Bābur’s 13 to Gorkhatri in 1519.
By Kesu Khurd. India, Mughal dynasty, 1590–93.
© British Library Board (Or. 3714 fol.320v).
 This highly elaborate initiatory rite for Vaiṣṇava saṃnyāsas thus requires serious prerequisite
training—including memorised knowledge of Vedānta, Vedic hymns, and sections of the
Bhagavadgītā—and grants the initiated ascetic both with a yogapaṭṭa and the power to bestow
it, through the ritual, to other future ascetics. Its inclusion in orthodox Brāhmaṇical texts like
the Dharmaśāstras suggest that the yogapaṭṭa was harnessed widely in premodern India.

By the early modern period, there was even a yogic āsana named after the strap, namely
yogapaṭṭāsana, or the “Posture With a Yoga Strap.” The seventeenth-century Yogacintāmaṇi,
quoting the Āgneyapurāṇa, describes it as follows:7

pādau dvau dviguṇīkṛtya tiryag ūrdhvaṃ yathākramam | nyaset pāṇī yathā

paṭṭasthitaśliṣṭāṅgalinakhau || yogapaṭṭāsanaṃ hy etat sarveṣām api pūjitam iti ||

Having folded over both legs, horizontally and upwards in that order, the yogin
should fix the hands so that the nails and fingers are situated on the belt and
joined together. This is Yogapaṭṭāsana, which is worshipped by all. (Edition and
trans: Birch and Singleton, forthcoming, the Haṭha Yoga Project).

An illustrated manuscript of the nineteenth-century Śrītattvanidhi, which features numerous

dynamic āsanas including the use of hanging ropes, includes an āsana named the “Posture
With a Yoga Strap” (yogapaṭṭāsana) (ŚTN 121, Fig. 7).

Fig. 7
Illustrated yogapaṭṭāsana
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in the Śrītattvanidhi
(c. 19th century).
Image in Sjoman (1996).
In the early twentieth century, Swāmī Hariharānanda Ā raṇya (1869-1947), head of the Kapila
Maṭha in Madhupur, Bihar, in commenting on the sopāśraya of PYŚ 2.46, writes:

Sopāśraya is squatting tying the back and the two legs with a piece of cloth
called ‘Yoga-paṭṭaka’ (a strong piece of cloth by which the back and the two
legs are tied while squatting) (1983: 228).

Despite this quite ancient record of continued usage, contemporary ascetic orders in India
today do not appear to include the yogapaṭṭa in their bag of props.8 However, in Nepal and
Tibet, the tradition seems to have been maintained to this day by the yogins of the Vajrayāna
orders, who are often seen wearing a cloth sash over their shoulders, which can be fashioned
into a strap for meditation.

The Modern Yoga Strap: An Ancient Technology Reinvented?

Having traced a two-thousand year history of the yogapaṭṭa, it may come as a surprise to learn
that the yoga strap does not appear to have featured in the earliest expressions of modern
postural yoga. BKS Iyengar, who is often credited for having “invented” the yoga strap, tells
the story of this apparent yogic innovation in his own words:

In the 1960s, when I was in France, I saw people were using belts to carry or tie
their luggage. They were holding their bags together with them. My bag was
also tied with it and I returned home. Then I thought, this luggage belt is good
for yoga also. If the bags are tied so firmly, I can use it for my legs too. I
immediately tried it. With that grip, it held my legs and I could hit them out in
a confined space. That is action with resistance.

Next year, when I went back to France to buy those belts, I learnt that those
particular belts were ‘out of fashion’ and taken off the market. Thankfully, since
I had that one belt, after I returned home, I got belts with those buckles
manufactured here in Pune.

Later, I began using the belt to give my muscles a sense of direction.

Everything can contribute to yoga is my ardent conviction. It is not the size of

the object or the complexity of its arrangement or the content which is
important, but the intention and attitude which convert a simple gadget into a
prop (Iyengar, 2012).

In this way, it seems, Iyengar refashioned an ancient yogic technology, unbeknownst to

himself, to fit the modern and evolving needs of his own yoga practice and teaching. The
buckle was new, and so too the array of possibilities for employing the strap in modern yoga
practice. While premodern sources traditionally depict the yogapaṭṭa for supporting seated
postures, Iyengar refashioned the yoga strap as a prop to be used to support an endless variety
of āsanas for creating “action with resistance” (see Fig 8). And while a yogapaṭṭa may have

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 originally been granted to a disciple by a guru in a highly elaborate rite of initiation, today one
can purchase a cloth yoga strap on Amazon or any retail store.

References
Ā raṇya, Swami Hariharānanda. 1983. Yoga Philosophy of Patañjali: Containing His Yoga Aphorisms
with Vyāsa’s Commentary in Sanskrit and a Translation with Annotations Including Many Suggestions
for the Practice of Yoga. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Bass, Jeffrey. 2013. Meditation in an Indian Buddhist Monastic Code. PhD diss., University of
California, Los Angeles.

Diamond, Debra, ed. 2013. Yoga: The Art of Transformation. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institute.

Joshi, N.P. 1996. Tapasvinī Pārvatī: Iconographic Study of Pārvatī in Penance. New Delhi: New Age
International Limited.

Kane, P.V. 1941. History of Dharmaśāstra  : (Ancient and Mediæval Religious and Civil Law in India),
Volume 2, Part 2. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

Iyengar, BKS. 2012. “Body is My First Prop.” Pune: Ramāmaṇi Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute.

Monier-Williams, Monier. 2005. Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically

Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Fig. 8 From BKS Iyengar’s “Body is My First Prop” (2012).

Page 12 of 13
Sircar, Dineschandra. 1966. Indian Epigraphical Glossary. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Sjoman, Norman. 1996. The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. Mysore: Abhinav Publications.

White, David Gordon. 2009. Sinister Yogis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

Woods, James Haughton. 1977 [1914]. “Yoga-System of Patañjali: Or, The Ancient Hindu
Doctrine of Concentration of Mind, Embracing the Mnemonic Rules, Called Yoga- Bhāshya, of
Patañjali and the Comment, Called Yoga-Bhāshya, Attributed to Veda- Vyāsa and Explantion,
Called Tattva-Vāicāradī, of Vāchaspati-Micra”. Harvard Oriental Series 17. New Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass.

Notes

1From BKS Iyengar’s “Body is My First Prop” (2012), published posthumously by the Ramāmaṇi Iyengar
Memorial Yoga Institute. I wish to thank Daniel Simpson for kindly directing my attention to this article
and providing a PDF scan.

2Monier-Williams’s dictionary entry references the word “yogapaṭṭa” or “–paṭṭaka” in the Padmapurāṇa
(c. 5th/6th century CE), Harṣacarita (ca. 625), and Hemādri's (1260-1309) Caturvargacintāmaṇi.

3 This brief article is part of a larger study on the yogapaṭṭa that I aim to publish in the near future.

4Today the Kṣudrakavastu, the largest section of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya only survives in its later
Tibetan translation. See Bass’ 2013 dissertation.

5 There is some disagreement amongst interpreters over how to take Vācaspatimiśra’s yogapaṭṭaka in
this sentence. James Woods translates as follows: “Because there is a use of the yogic table (yoga-
paṭṭaka), this is [the posture] with the rest.” Woods remarks in a corresponding footnote that the
nineteenth-century editor, Swāmi “Bālarāma says that this yogic table is a special kind of support for
the arms of a yogin who is about to practice concentration. It is made of wood and is well known among
udāsin by the name of ‘changan’” (Woods 1977 [1914], 191, n.3). Though I think the early evidence points
to yogapaṭṭaka referring to a cloth strap, the possibility of a wooden “yogic table” only further adds to
the discourse on premodern yogic props.

6 I wish to thank James Mallinson for this reference.

7Earlier Śaiva Tantras such as the Mataṅgapārameśvara and the Kiraṇa describe this as Paryaṅkāsana,
wherein the yogin applies a yoga strap while seated upon a cushion (paryaṅka). I am grateful to Jason
Birch for this reference, and for kindly sharing his forthcoming translation of the Yogacintāmaṇi.

8 I am grateful to James Mallinson for confirming this.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

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