PARYANKASANA (Couch posture)
paryanka = a bed, couch, sofa, litter, palanquin; a particular mode of sitting on the ground (a squatting position assumed by ascetics and Buddhists in meditation); a cloth wound round the back and loins and knees while so sitting (from the Monier Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 1899).
Three hundred years ago, give or take a few decades on either side, the posture we know as Urdhva Dhanurasana was called Paryankasana. Then, sometime between the mid-eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, the name Paryankasana was co-opted for a different posture. This isn’t unusual in the 600-year history of Hatha Yoga (technically it’s older, but that’s another story). The same was done to the names of traditional postures like Garudasana and Kurmasana. Both originally were upright sitting postures, now the former is a standing, pretzel-like position (unsalted), the latter a deep sitting forward bend.
But the name Paryankasana isn’t applied universally to the modern posture. Several instruction manuals name it Supta Vajrasana, the Reclining Thunderbolt Posture. I also found one book that used Paryankasana to name a posture that’s completely different from the one we’re breaking down. The Iyengars call this posture Bhairavasana, bhairava meaning “frightful, terrible, horrible, formidable,” one of the eight aspects of Shiva. If we look at a photo of the posture, it seems to embody each of those four words. This Couch consists of hooking one leg behind the neck, then lying supine on the floor, free leg extended along the floor, and hands in anjali mudra (see Light on Yoga, plate 375). This once again illustrates that there’s no ultimate standardization of names and asanas in Hatha Yoga. Over the centuries, the same asana might be re-named, its original name transferred to a different asana, or two different asanas at different times have the same name.
What does our Paryankasana look like? If you’ve ever done Matsyasana (Fish Posture) as a counter to shoulder stand (see Light on Yoga, plate 113), then you have a pretty good idea of the Couch. The difference between the two postures is in the position of the legs: the Fish legs are in Lotus (Padmasana), the Couch legs in Hero(ine) (Virasana) (see Light on Yoga, plate 97). Modern Couch, like the original posture with this name, is a backbend. But instead of being supported on hands and feet like Urdhva Dhanurasana, Couch is a sitting posture supported by the seated pelvis on one end and the crown of the head on the other. To complete the posture, the forearms are crossed and passed overhead.
PREPARATION
Let’s start with an easy variation to get a preliminary feel for the posture, and see where we can reasonably go from there. To do this, you’ll need two foam (or cork) blocks or something like them. We’ll start with the legs stretched out along the floor, the torso and head supported on the blocks.
Lay one block on your mat at its lowest height to support the lift of your chest. The second block is for the back of your head. Lie back on the first block, its long axis across your shoulder blades (scapulas). Start a little below where you want to end up, and with your feet on the floor, push yourself across the block. Ideally this will slide you a little more onto the block and, at the same time, draw the scapulas very slightly down the back. The second block should be positioned on one of its sides, its middle height, with its long axis parallel to the spine. Have about 3 to 4 inches of the block projecting sbove your head.
Now raise your arms perpendicular to the floor and imagine that, instead of being anchored in the scapulas, they’re rooted in the spine between those bones. Slowly rock from side to side, widening across the back by reaching upward, then cross your forearms over your chest and hold the outer arms. As you continue to widen across the back, hug your arms against your torso to “contain” the widening. The inner body always wants to expand (Shakti) and dissipate into the universe, the outer body wants to contract everything into dense minuscule point (Shiva), so between the two we can feel our body vibrating with life.
What would you like to do with your arms? Lay them passively to your sides is the easier option. But for a better sense of the full pose, cross your forearms, hold the elbows, and with an inhale, swing them overhead, resting them on the ledge of the block’s projection.
Next press your feet against the floor, inhale, lift your pelvis slightly off the floor and reach your tail bone away from the back of your pelvis. This helps to lengthen your lower back and prevent it from over- arching. Then exhale and lay your pelvis back down on the floor, maintaining the long lower lumbar.
You can, if you care to, keep your knees bent, feet on the floor. Just be sure to keep the thighs parallel (you can put a block between the thighs to help with that). You can also straighten your legs, do this in the following way. Inhale and stretch out through the right heel. Keep your heel maybe three or four inches off the floor. Imagine reaching along the back leg from the tail through the heel and rotate the hip so your toes point to the left. Keeping your heel off the floor at the start helps to lengthen and rotate leg. Then exhale and press your leg down firmly on the floor. Repeat with the left leg, except rotate your hip so your toes point right. When both legs are on the floor, keep them firm with that slight inner rotation. This, along with the lengthened tail, will protect your lower back.
Close your eyes, and in your imagination, find the back of your sternum (inside the thorax) and direct your inhales into that spot, each one opening your chest a bit more. On the exhales, imagine sinking onto the block as if it were deepening your scapulas into your back. Inhales create space, exhales create release. Here we have the third essential component of the work of the scapulas (and the sacrum as well): physically down and across the back, imaginatively deepening into the back.
Now as you press out through your heels, find your inner ankles, and in your imagination, draw energetically up along the inner legs to the base of the pelvis. At that point, the two imaginary lines along the inner legs combine into one line which passes through the core of your torso, along the imaginary front spine, between the hemispheres of your brain and out through the crown. In Western anatomy this is the area called the fontanelle, the “little fountain,” but in yoga it’s called the brahma randhra, the “aperture of brahma.” This line of imaginary energy terminates about a foot above your head at the dvadashanta, the “end of 12,” (i.e., 12 finger widths above). As your press from your tail through the backs of your heels, watch the opposing “energetic” lift through the body and out. Stay for at least a minute, two to five would be ideal, and when you’re ready to exit, roll to one side with an exhale and a slight groan.
STAGE 2
If you want to continue, there are two choices. If you want to try the full pose, you should be able to sit easily in Hero(ine). By “easily” I mean with your bottom on the floor between your feet, and not on a bock. If this isn’t possible, then sit on the floor with legs extended forward as in Stage 1. If you have a heavy (i.e., sand) bag, in whichever way you’ve placed your legs, you might lay it across the topmost part of yout thighs, right where the thighs join the pelvis.
Now inhale and lean back on your forearms, then slide your hands under your buttocks, palms down. To bring your head back, be sure to NOT simply scrunch the base of your skull on the back of your neck, which could lead to many unforeseen and largely unpleasant issues. Rather, press your forearms/hands against the floor, lift the top of your sternum toward the ceiling by pressing your shoulder blades against your torso (as if still lying on the block). Carefully bring your head back from the root of the neck, which is deep inside your upper back between the scapulas. The spine ideally should create a smooth, even arch from the pelvis to the crown. At first, just touch your crown lightly on the floor, don’t put a lot of weight on your neck. If your head doesn’t rest easily on the floor, support it with a block or thickly folded blanket. Don’t let it hang in space.
It might be best to keep the forearms and palms on the floor, bringing them overhead at this point may bring too much pressure on your neck, never a good idea. Stay for 30 seconds when beginning, increase the time if you like as you become more comfortable in the posture. To come out, press your hands firmly to the floor and with an exhale, lift the sternum, allowing your head to follow the torso.
If you practiced stage 2 with legs straight forward, experiment every now and then while sitting in Hero(ine). If you did this stage in Hero(ine), I’m reluctant to suggest you bring the arms overhead. If you want to do that, think it’s best if you first consult with your regular teacher to ascertain if your neck is ready, and how to get it ready if it’s not. Please be careful with your neck.
Like the Fish Posture, Couch is a reverse stretch for your neck after shoulder stand. It’s obviously a chest opener and a back strengthener. It also stretches/strengthens the neck.
CAUTIONS ON EXITING VIRASANA
When you’re ready to exit Virasana, take hold of the ankle and pick the leg up, keeping the knee completely flexed. Stand the foot on the floor, then release the knee off to the side onto the floor. The thigh will now be angled away from the pelvis. Without changing that angle, slowly straighten the leg, and once straight, swing it in front of the torso. This assures that there’s minimal rotation in the knee, which is a hinge joint, and centers it all in the hip, a rotary joint.
A SIDE NOTE
If you read the definition of paryanka at the head of this breakdown, you might have wondered about the squatting ascetics and why they wound a cloth “round the back and loins and knees while so sitting.” We might assume that yoga props are a modern invention, and that’s true for many but not all props. Yogis were hanging from ropes tied to tree limbs in the eighteenth century (see the Hatha Abhyasa Paddhati, 94- 102). The cloth referred to here was like a modern strap long enough to, in a squatting position, wrap around the torso and shins. If you want to understand what this was like, get a long yoga strap, I’d say at least eight to 10 feet. Buckle the strap into the largest loop you can make, then sit with your thighs tucked up to your belly, shins crossed, and feet on the floor (if your tail bone sinks toward the floor, be sure to sit on a height high enough to bring the pelvis to neutral. Loop the strap around your torso and shins, and snug it. The purpose of the strap is to create support for the back torso to make a long sitting session easier. The drawing I have of a sitting figure wrapped in the long cloth belt shows their arms also inside the loop. How they managed to tie the loop with their arms in the loop is anybody’s guess.