How to do - Peacock Pose 🦚 (Mayūrāsana) & Origins of the Pose

Mayurasana: A Short History Lesson (before the How)

For a long time, the word asana simply meant "seat" or "throne"—a stable, steady seat. Before the term "yoga" became widely known, asana was also defined as "that in which continuous reflection on Brahman is easily possible," referring to meditation. It did not mean "pose" as it is commonly understood today.

Fast forward (I am skipping a ton of yoga history), a fascinating discovery brought us to a 10th-century text, the Vimanarcanakalpa. According to legend, this classical work was composed by the sage Marichi, and it’s here that we find something revolutionary—descriptions of nine yoga postures, including Mayurasana, the Peacock Pose. This text marks one of the first known references to dynamic yoga poses beyond seated meditation postures, suggesting the early development of what we now call asanas.

Below - A rare digital image of Vimanarcanakalpa - Published by Srī Venkatesvara Mudraṇalaya, Cennapurī (Madras) - 1926 In Sanskrit

Early Depictions and Symbolism

Visual records of these evolving postures didn’t appear until much later. One of the earliest depictions of non-seated yoga postures is found in a wall painting from the Maha Mandir in Jodhpur, India, dated around 1820 (below). It’s a glimpse into what we recognize today as Hatha Yoga—where movement, breath, and body come together.

In Eighty-Four Asanas: A Survey of Traditions (image below), there’s another important reference to Mayurasana from the text Joga Pradīpikā (1830). It’s here that the symbolism of the pose is explored in greater depth.

The Mayurasana pose - right

The peacock holds deep significance in Indian mythology. It’s a creature of beauty, grace, and resilience, said to consume poisonous snakes without harm. To yogis, this made the peacock a symbol of detoxification and purification—qualities that Mayurasana is said to embody. The posture itself mimics the poise of a peacock standing tall with its tail feathers extended, hence the name Mayura, Sanskrit for peacock.

BKS Iyengar - the man who brought physical yoga poses to the West. Here showing how he would enter the pose in his celebrated work, 'Light on Yoga'.

The Pose

Origins aside, Mayurasana is an amazing pose. As I’ve often said, the poses that make you second-guess yourself are the most yogic. Yoga aims to get you out of your head—and in Mayurasana, it’s our head that tells us the pose is impossible.

Whilst we don’t do this pose for its so-called digestive benefits (we would never be in the pose long enough to create the type of stimulus that promotes and aids digestion), the pose does build strength, poise, and grace. There is a fear of falling—of course there is. But getting beyond that fear and evolving is the essence of what we do in yoga.

The pose isn’t a tribute to the grace of the peacock. It’s more a symbol of what we are. We are stronger than we think, more amazing than we give ourselves credit for. And when we are in this pose, for a moment, we transcend what it is to be us. For a moment, we take off and become something more.

As Rumi says, “When God has given you wings, why do you crawl?”

Zahir Akram - Eternal Seeker

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