Anjali Mudra (Sanskrit añjali mudrā, the “salutation seal”) is the joined-palm gesture at the chest used as a greeting, as a prayerful posture, and as a hand position in asana practice. The Sanskrit word añjali means “an offering with cupped hands”. The standard placement is palms pressed flat against each other, thumbs lightly touching the sternum, fingers pointing upward, shoulders relaxed. The gesture appears across South and Southeast Asia under different names (namaste, namaskar, Thai wai, Japanese gasshō) and is the most widely diffused Hindu ritual gesture worldwide. Its classical attestation is in stone, in temple iconography dating to the 1st century BCE Bharhut and Sanchi reliefs, well before any of the medieval yoga texts.
The word and its meaning
The Sanskrit root añj carries the sense of “to honour, to anoint, to make an offering”. Añjali is the action-noun: the offering itself, or the cupped hands that hold it. In Vedic ritual, the priest’s añjali is literally a measure of grain, ghee or water cupped in joined palms and poured into the fire. The salutation gesture is read as the offering of one’s own self, gathered between the palms, presented to the deity or to the person being greeted. The double-palm placement at heart level corresponds to the hridaya or heart space; some Tantric texts read it as joining the lunar and solar channels (ida and pingala) at the central sushumna.
Three placements
- Hridayanjali (at the heart): the default position, palms at the sternum. Used in greeting, in prayer, in opening and closing yoga classes, and in the standard pranamasana step of Surya Namaskar.
- Mastakanjali (at the forehead): palms raised so the thumbs touch the brow. Used when greeting a guru, a deity image, or a parent. Signals deeper reverence.
- Urdhvanjali (above the head): palms raised overhead with arms straight. Used in some Surya Namaskar variants and in temple prostrations to the cosmic deity. The full body extends upward as part of the offering.
The traditional rule is that the placement scales with the rank of the recipient: heart for an equal, forehead for a guru, overhead for the divine. In a temple, devotees move through all three in sequence: hands at heart on entering the precinct, at forehead before the sanctum, overhead at the moment of darshan.
In iconography and in classical dance
Anjali Mudra is one of the samyuta hasta (combined hand) gestures catalogued in the Abhinaya Darpana, the 13th-century treatise on Indian classical dance attributed to Nandikeshvara. In Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathakali it appears as the opening salutation and as a prayer gesture within mythological scenes. In temple sculpture, deities like Hanuman, Garuda and Nandi are often shown with hands in Anjali Mudra before the principal deity, modelling the devotional posture for the worshipper.
In asana practice
The salutation gesture is a structural element of several asanas. In Tadasana with hands at heart, the gesture sets the alignment of the upper body. In Vrikshasana (tree pose) with palms overhead, it works as a balance counterweight. In the seated Sukhasana with hands at the heart, it opens and closes a meditation session. The hands also press into each other in the standard pranamasana opening and closing of Surya Namaskar. The Krishnamacharya-lineage teachers (Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Desikachar) all treat Anjali Mudra as the gesture that establishes the meditative tone at the start of a class.
An opinion on its everyday use
For what it’s worth, treating Anjali Mudra as a daily-greeting habit (rather than only a temple gesture) is one of the simpler ways to keep its meaning live. The handshake is a relatively recent global default; before the COVID-era preference for contactless greetings, the joined-palms gesture had already been seeing a quiet revival in international diplomatic settings. The gesture asks nothing of the recipient and contains no transmission risk, which is part of its longevity. Using it consistently with elders and with temple priests is the form that the tradition most strongly endorses.
Common questions
Is Anjali Mudra the same as Namaste?
Namaste is the spoken greeting; Anjali Mudra is the hand gesture that accompanies it. The two are paired but can be performed independently. A silent Anjali Mudra (no words) is perfectly proper in temple contexts where speech is restrained. The verbal greeting can be Namaste, Namaskar, Namaskaram, Pranam or a regional form (Vanakkam in Tamil, Namaskara in Kannada).
Why are the palms pressed and not just close?
The pressing engages the small muscles of the hands, fingers and forearms in a mild isometric hold. Yogic anatomy reads the contact between the palms as the symbolic union of the dualities (left/right, lunar/solar, receiver/giver). Practically, the flat contact also keeps the gesture clean: gaps between the palms or a cupped shape are read as a less complete offering. In dance terminology this distinction matters; in casual greetings the rule is looser.
Can non-Hindus use Anjali Mudra?
Yes. The gesture is shared across Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Christian (in some Indian traditions) settings, and is a generally accepted polite greeting across India and much of Southeast Asia. It does not carry a sectarian claim and is not restricted to insiders. Using it in conversation with Indian elders, temple staff, or hosts is read as respectful rather than as appropriation.
One limitation worth noting
Anjali Mudra is not described as a “healing mudra” in any of the medieval yoga texts. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita catalogue mudras as whole-body practices like Khechari, Vajroli and Maha Mudra. The hand-gesture (hasta mudra) tradition that assigns specific physiological effects to finger positions is largely a 20th-century Ayurvedic and devotional development, popularised by Acharya Keshav Dev’s Mudra Vigyan in the 1990s. Anjali Mudra’s primary documented function is ritual and devotional, not therapeutic, and that is the ground it stands on most securely.
For background see Anjali Mudra on Wikipedia and the broader article on Mudra.
