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99 free Yoga trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
73 free yoga trivia questions with answers. Ready to test your yoga knowledge? Our comprehensive yoga trivia quiz covers everything from ancient philosophies to modern practice techniques. Whether you're a seasoned yogi or just beginning your wellness journey, discover how much you really know about this transformative discipline.
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Q 01When did systematic yoga concepts emerge from ancient ascetic and Śramaṇa movements?
Fifth and sixth centuries BCE
Systematic yoga concepts emerged in the fifth and sixth centuries BCE, within India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, Jainism and Buddhism included; older yoga-like practices appear in the Rigveda.
Q 02Roughly how many sutras make up the Yoga Sutras?
196
Even the count is disputed: 195 by one lineage of commentators, 196 by another.
Q 03In yoga, what does the Sanskrit term 'asana' primarily refer to?
Physical postures
Asana means physical postures. The word originally named a seated meditation pose; later hatha texts extended it to standing, reclining and twisting positions.
Q 04Kundalini is described as a coiled serpent resting where?
At the base of the spine
Kundalini rests at the base of the spine, coiled in the muladhara, the root centre; practice is said to rouse it and send it upward through six centres to the seventh.
Q 05Whom did K. Pattabhi Jois claim to have learnt his system from?
T. Krishnamacharya
T. Krishnamacharya took Jois on as a pupil in 1927, when Jois was 12; Jois said the energetic system he later taught in Mysore, pairing breath with a set progression of postures, came from Krishnamacharya.
Q 06Which martial arts and Taoist yoga teacher founded the slow style later named by Sarah Powers?
Paulie Zink
Paulie Zink founded Yin yoga in the late 1970s; Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers spread it, Powers giving it the name. Zink's wider Taoist practice also took in animal movements and yin-yang balance.
Q 07What is the literal translation of the Sanskrit greeting 'Namaste,' commonly used in yoga classes?
I bow to you
Namaste means 'I bow to you': namas (bow, obeisance) plus te (to you). The sense is that the same self is present in greeter and greeted.
Q 08What does the Sanskrit word 'mudra' literally mean?
Seal
Mudra literally means 'seal' (also 'mark' or 'gesture'); the same word covers ritual hand gestures in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, and in Indian classical dance.
Q 09Modern postural yoga in the West is largely a blend of medieval technique and what?
Western physical culture
Modern postural yoga blends medieval hatha technique with Western physical culture, the gymnastics and bodybuilding drills absorbed in early 20th-century India. The older form aimed at meditation and release, not fitness.
Q 10In which ancient civilization did the practice of yoga originate?
India
Yoga is a spiritual discipline with a history stretching back thousands of years, first attested in ancient India.
Q 11What is the Sanskrit name for the "Mountain Pose," a foundational standing posture in yoga?
Tadasana
Tadasana, or Mountain Pose, is a basic standing posture in yoga that helps establish grounding and proper alignment. It is often the starting point for other poses.
Q 12Which of the five yamas, the ethical restraints of classical yoga, means non-violence?
Ahimsa
Ahimsa, non-violence, is the first of the five yamas, alongside satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha; commentators treat it as the root restraint the other four exist to perfect.
Q 13Which yoga style is practiced in a room heated to around 105°F (40°C)?
Bikram
Bikram yoga, devised by Bikram Choudhury, is practised in a room heated to about 105°F (40°C) with 40% humidity; he fixed the posture sequence and franchised the result worldwide.
Q 21In yogic philosophy, what are the energy centres said to lie along the spine called, the best-known scheme counting seven?
Chakras
The seven chakras are not ancient orthodoxy: medieval Buddhist texts count only four or five, and the familiar seven reached the West through a 1919 English book, The Serpent Power.
Q 22In the Yoga Sutras, which term for steady practice is paired with vairagya, non-attachment?
Abhyasa
Abhyasa, sustained practice, and vairagya, non-attachment, are paired in Yoga Sutra 1.12 as the two means of stilling the fluctuations of the mind.
Q 23Ustrasana, a kneeling backbend, takes its name from which animal?
Camel
Ustrasana is Camel Pose: ustra is Sanskrit for camel. From kneeling, the practitioner arches back to reach the heels, opening the front of the body.
Q 14What is the Sanskrit term for yogic breathing exercises and techniques?
Pranayama
Pranayama is the fourth limb of Patanjali's path: the conscious control of breath, said to enhance vitality and calm the mind.
Q 15Which breathing technique, nicknamed 'ocean breath', narrows the throat to make a soft hiss?
Ujjayi
Ujjayi breath slightly narrows the glottis so each inhale and exhale makes a soft ocean-like hiss; it is the breath used throughout Ashtanga Vinyasa practice.
Q 16Which sacred syllable, chanted in yoga and meditation, stands for universal consciousness?
Om
Om is the sacred syllable chanted at the start and end of yoga sessions; it stands for universal consciousness, Brahman, and its written form is Hinduism's most important symbol.
Q 17In the name of one branch of yoga, what does the Sanskrit word 'haṭha' literally mean?
Force
Haṭha literally means 'force'; the popular sun (ha) and moon (ṭha) reading is a later gloss, and the medieval texts point at forceful physical technique.
Q 18Roughly how many linked asanas make up the Salute to the Sun?
Twelve
Twelve linked positions make up the standard Sun Salutation; the Raja of Aundh popularised the sequence in the 1920s, and it was first recorded as yoga only in the early 20th century.
Q 19How many 'limbs' make up the classical yoga path set out in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, running from restraint to absorption?
Eight
Eight limbs, ashtanga in Sanskrit: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi, from restraint and observance to absorption.
Q 20Who pioneered the rubber 'sticky mat' in 1982?
Angela Farmer
Angela Farmer, teaching in Germany in 1982, used non-slip carpet underlay as a yoga mat; her father then sold it as the first 'sticky mat', later a symbol of the practice's commercialisation.
Q 24On what date is the International Day of Yoga observed each year?
21 June
International Day of Yoga falls on 21 June, the northern hemisphere's longest day; the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution on 11 December 2014 and the first observance came in 2015.
Q 25Which limb of classical yoga is the withdrawal of the senses?
Pratyahara
Pratyahara, withdrawal of the senses, is the fifth limb; it sits between pranayama and dharana, turning attention inward before meditation proper.
Q 26Which style did K. Pattabhi Jois popularise in the twentieth century?
Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga, which Jois taught from the Mysore institute he founded in 1948, works through one of six fixed series, each ending with the same closing sequence.
Q 27The sacred syllable chanted in yoga classes is archaically analysed as which three phonemes?
a-u-m
Om is archaically analysed as the three phonemes a-u-m, read by commentators as waking, dreaming and deep sleep; it opens and closes chapters in many Hindu texts.
Q 28Which yoga pose, often performed at the end of a session, is known as 'Corpse Pose'?
Savasana
Savasana, Corpse Pose, is the standard closing pose: lying flat on the back with the limbs relaxed. The same pose also goes by the name Mritasana, 'dead pose'.
Q 29What does the Sanskrit word 'prana' primarily refer to in yoga philosophy?
Life force
Prana is the life force or vital energy; tied to the breath, it is said to permeate reality at every level, inanimate objects included.
Q 30Where does the kanda, the bulb from which the nadis are said to spring, sit?
Just below the navel
The kanda sits just below the navel, an egg-shaped bulb from which the nadis spring; some texts give the heart as the other origin point, with channels meeting at points of intensity along the way.