Parsvottanasana in Sanskrit

Namaste friends. Welcome again to the show. Thank you, Julia, for being with us. Today we are going to look at another asana which is commonly pronounced as parshvottanasana. In Sanskrit, with the correct pronunciation, we would pronounce it as parshvottanasana. Let's see what the asana looks like in transliteration and then I will show you the Devanagari representation of that asana. The parshvottanasana in English is commonly known as the pyramid pose. This word is composed of three sounds, three words. So parshvottanasana. Sometimes this letter v is normally pronounced as v with the teeth on the lip. So it would be parshvottanasana. But I think Sanskrit is a language of facility of pronunciation or the ease of pronunciation. If you say parshv, try and feel it. It might be easier to just say parshv. So like the w sound rather than the parshv which doesn't seem so natural to me but you hear both varieties and I guess both are right. So you have parshvottanasana.

Parshv meaning side, uttana stretched, asana pose. In Devanagari, this would look like this. You put the r on top so you read it as par. It's a half sha so I will show it to you in two ways. When it's a half sha you have to indicate it by putting that line across parshv. Now combining this all together you can actually write it as such. You have to put the whole letter v and then you put the little r on top there. So that little c comes on top of the v. So parshv. That together will combine with the uttana. When you don't have this line then it's the simple t. The soft dental t. Not the English t. Pay attention and you'll get it. So when you add that extra line it becomes a double t. So it's an uttana. There you go. Parshvottana asana. And then we'll put it all together into one word. We get the parshvottana. I would also recommend that you try writing it out. And as you write it out keep pronouncing the letters as they combine with each other. Say the sounds together. And the more you say it the more you will get a feel of that word in your mouth. We'll try writing it in Devanagari now. So par shva. So par shva. And I will still write it separately so that we see it. Uttana. Asana. Combined becomes par. We have the vowel o. The o together become the o. So here we have the a vowel that you have to see. Combined with the o becomes the o. So you have to just remember to hold the r sound. You don't represent it immediately. So it's parsh. So parshvottana. There it is. Parshvottanasana. Then you put the line right across to put that whole word together. And in English this pose is the pyramid pose. Pyramid pose. Julia can I please request you to demonstrate this for us? Keep saying it as she's doing the pose. Parshvottanasana. It's towards the side. So parshvottanasana. Play with the long vowels and the short vowels. Parshvottanasana. Good. Try it. And now we can say fast ones. Parshvottanasana. Brilliant. Thank you Julia. That was beautiful. Thank you.