This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Restorative Asanas gathers three postures of the hatha yoga repertoire united by a single trait none of the atlas's other asana groups share: each exists for conscious rest rather than active exertion or the building of a seat.
Shavasana is the clearest case. Lying flat on the back like a corpse, it takes its very name from the dead body it resembles, and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika gives it exactly one function, the removal of fatigue and rest for the mind, the only posture in the classical manuals whose stated purpose is recovery rather than strength or flexibility. The Gheranda Samhita includes the same shape and the same idea under the name mritasana, the death posture. It closes most modern classes, a use continuous with what the classical texts themselves describe rather than a later departure from them.
Makarasana lies prone, chest to the ground, legs stretched out, the head held in the crossed arms; makara is the crocodile, or more precisely the composite water creature of Indian art that carries the Ganges and guards temple thresholds. The Gheranda Samhita claims the posture increases the body's heat, a claim the atlas reports as the text's own. It is absent from the Pradipika, and in modern practice it is generally used, like the corpse posture, simply to rest.
Balasana, Child's Pose, is a kneeling, forward folded rest between more demanding postures or a calming pose on its own, sitting back on the heels with the torso folded over the thighs, completing the group's shared purpose of settling rather than building.