This article asks How Many Yoga Asanas Are There?
So let’s jump right in and the answer very much depends on whom you ask.
We can look at the ancient yoga texts for some historical guidance.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2500 years old and regarded as the key yoga text, don’t list any specific asanas and only 3 of the 196 sutras refer to asanas at all – just instructing you to sit still.
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 15th century, lists 15 basic asanas some of which are more dynamic than those in the YS but still nothing like the range of dynamic standing poses and sequences we are familiar with today.
If you practice Ashtanga Vinyasa, there are 49 poses and 35 vinyasas in the Primary Series alone.
Postural yoga
The development of postural yoga is relatively recent. It was only with the teacher Krishnamacharya in the middle of the last century that many of the well-known postures or sequences such as Sun Salutations came to be practised at all. Before then yoga postures as we now know them were virtually non-existent. Any asana from that era tended to be seated and designed to prepare the body for meditation [Asana only being 1/8 th of a yoga practice. The others being :
Yamas -external behaviours, Niyamas – internal obervances, Pranayama – breathwork, Pratyahara- withdrawal of the senses, Dharana – concentration, Dhyana- meditation and Samadhi- liberation].
Nowadays, yoga in the west has become much more of a physical practice and has borrowed or adapted postures and movements from Pilates, dance, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and so on. Teachers vary classic postures to suit their class, students, and teaching style. None of this is inherently wrong and can be seen as natural evolution of the science of yoga.
Yet, despite all this there is just one asana and that is the one that you are in. Be entirely present in the moment and in that asana. Don’t dwell on the one before or the one which may or may not come next. Treat each asana as if it was your first time and last time there. Savour every moment. And if you can manage that, then that is truly yoga.