This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Modern hatha practice groups several seated postures under the label of spinal twist, and three of them, Bharadvajasana, Marichyasana and Matsyendrasana, each carry the name of a sage rather than a description of the shape itself, which is itself a small tradition of its own. Matsyendrasana is the elder of the three by any textual measure, appearing in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika among its fifteen postures and credited there with the power to kindle the digestive fire and destroy terrible diseases. Marichyasana, named for Marichi, one of the mind born sons of Brahma, binds a folded leg and a twisting arm together and is not counted among the Gheranda Samhita's thirty two either, though its lineage in later hatha practice is old enough that its exact origin is not cleanly dated. Bharadvajasana sits at the newest end of the three, entering the written record only in 1966. What the three share is the basic mechanism a seated twist performs regardless of its age: the pelvis is grounded and stabilized while the spine rotates around it, vertebra by vertebra, which is the reason all three are taught together as a technical family even though they differ by centuries in their attestation. Bharadvajasana is usually taught as the gentlest of the three, with the legs folded to one side rather than crossed or bound, making it a common entry point before a student is asked for the fuller bind of Marichyasana or the deep external rotation of Matsyendrasana. The shared name pattern, a twist honoring a sage, is a naming convention the tradition kept using long after its classical texts had closed, which is exactly what a modern pose taking an ancient sage's name demonstrates.