Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

Krishnamacharya
At 100 years (1988)
Born(1888-11-18)18 November 1888
Chitradurga district, Mysore Kingdom
Died28 February 1989(1989-02-28) (aged 100)
Madras, India
NationalityIndian
OccupationYoga teacher
Known for"Father of modern yoga"

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989)[1][2] was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga,[3] and is often called "Father of Modern Yoga" for his wide influence on the development of postural yoga.[4][5] Like earlier pioneers influenced by physical culture such as Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, he contributed to the revival of hatha yoga.[6][7]

Krishnamacharya held degrees in all the six Vedic darśanas, or Indian philosophies. While under the patronage of the King of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, Krishnamacharya traveled around India giving lectures and demonstrations to promote yoga, including such feats as apparently stopping his heartbeat.[8] He is widely considered as the architect of vinyāsa,[6] in the sense of combining breathing with movement; the style of yoga he created has come to be called Viniyoga or Vinyasa Krama Yoga. Underlying all of Krishnamacharya's teachings was the principle "Teach what is appropriate for an individual."[9] While he is revered in other parts of the world as a yogi, in India Krishnamacharya is mainly known as a healer who drew from both ayurvedic and yogic traditions to restore health and well-being to those he treated.[6] He wrote four books on yoga—Yoga Makaranda (1934), Yogaasanagalu (c. 1941),[10] Yoga Rahasya, and Yogavalli (Chapter 1 – 1988)—as well as several essays and poetic compositions.[11]

Krishnamacharya's students included many of yoga's most renowned and influential teachers: Indra Devi (1899–2002); K. Pattabhi Jois (1915–2009); B. K. S. Iyengar (1918-2014); his son T. K. V. Desikachar (1938-2016); Srivatsa Ramaswami (born 1939); and A. G. Mohan (born 1945). Iyengar, his brother-in-law and founder of Iyengar Yoga, credits Krishnamacharya with encouraging him to learn yoga as a boy in 1934.[12][13]

  1. ^ Mohan 2010, p. 125.
  2. ^ "Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram". Archived from the original on 11 April 2015.
  3. ^ Singleton & Fraser 2014, pp. 83–106.
  4. ^ Mohan, A. G.; Mohan, Ganesh (5 April 2017) [2009]. "Memories of a Master". Yoga Journal. Archived from the original on 15 March 2010.
  5. ^ "The YJ Interview: Partners in Peace". Yoga Journal. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Pagés Ruiz 2001.
  7. ^ Singleton 2010, p. 111.
  8. ^ Mohan 2010, p. 7.
  9. ^ Mohan 2010, p. 38.
  10. ^ Singleton 2010, p. 240.
  11. ^ Mohan 2010, pp. 128–130.
  12. ^ Iyengar 2006, pp. xvi–xx.
  13. ^ Singleton & Fraser 2014, p. 83.