Indra Devi

Indra Devi
Indra Devi, upper left, in her distinctive sari;[1] 1963 album cover
Born
Eugenie Peterson

12 May 1899
Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia)
Died25 April 2002 (aged 102)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupationyoga teacher
Known forBringing yoga to Hollywood
Yoga for stress relief
Spouse(s)Jan Strakaty (1930–1946; his death)
Sigfrid Knauer (1953–1984; his death)
WebsiteOfficial webpage (in Spanish)

Eugenie Peterson (Latvian: Eiženija Pētersone, Russian: Евгения Васильевна Петерсон; 12 May 1899 – 25 April 2002),[2] known as Indra Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as exercise, and an early disciple of the "father of modern yoga",[3] Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.

She went to India in her twenties, becoming a film star there and acquiring the stage name Indra Devi. She was the first woman to study under the yoga guru Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace, alongside B.K.S Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois who went on to become yoga gurus. Moving to China, she taught the first yoga classes in that country at Madame Chiang Kai-shek's house.

Her popularization of yoga in America through her many celebrity pupils in Hollywood, and her books advocating yoga for stress relief, earned her the nickname "first lady of yoga". Her biographer, Michelle Goldberg, wrote that Devi "planted the seeds for the yoga boom of the 1990s".[4]

  1. ^ Syman 2010, p. 179.
  2. ^ Aboy, Adriana (2002). "Indra Devi's Legacy". Hinduism Today. Retrieved 13 September 2008.
  3. ^ Mohan, A. G.; Mohan, Ganesh (5 April 2017) [2009]. "Memories of a Master". Yoga Journal.
  4. ^ Michelle Goldberg 2016, p. 271.