Asanas

Bakasana

Also Known As Crow Pose

Arm Balance Asanas

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Bakasana." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/asanas/bakasana.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Bakasana. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/asanas/bakasana

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-bakasana,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Bakasana},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/asanas/bakasana},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Bakasana, Crow Pose, is a classical arm-balancing asana in which the practitioner crouches forward, plants the hands on the ground and balances the shins against the upper arms while lifting the feet off the floor. Named for the crow (baka), it stands alongside Kukkutasana (Rooster Pose) and Mayurasana (Peacock Pose) as one of the standard bird-named arm balances of the hatha yoga tradition, each requiring a comparable combination of arm strength, core engagement and balance.

Facts

Attestation

Meaning in the Attesting Source

The Sanskrit baka denotes a crane or stork; the popular English rendering "Crow Pose" is common in modern practice but is technically closer to the related Kakasana, formed from kaka, crow. 1

Position Profile

Key Text

B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (1966). The pose does not appear under this name in the Gheranda Samhita's thirty two asanas or the Hatha Yoga Pradipika's fifteen, and is a later addition to the named asana vocabulary. 2

Cross-Tradition Connections