Seeds of Future Past

Krishnamacharyas Savvy Yoga Rahasya

By Eric Shaw

T. Krishnamacharya 1888-1989

Nathamuni c. 824 - 924

Many students of the yoga tradition know that Sri Tirumalai

Krishnamacharya (1888 - 1989) is credited with being the father of modern
yoga, but most remain foggy about the details of his life and even foggier
about the books he wrote.
It is understandable why his writings are not widely known.
Many of his treatises havent seen publication in the West, and some have not
been re-rendered in English. The compositions themselves are opaque:
Krishnamacharya (Ill sometimes call him K) was a hybrid of the old yogi and
new and often composed his treatises in the ancient style; his language is suggestive
rather than explicit, elliptical rather than direct.
Reading him takes time to understand.
Over the Christmas holidays a few years back, I had that time.
Years earlier, Id ordered the Yoga Rahasya (The Secret of Yoga) from the publishing
house of Ks son, T. K. V. Desikachar. I wanted to know all of Krishnamacharyas written
works deeply, for his personal authority carries more weight with modern yogis than any other
traditional writer, except the trinity of Vyasa (The Compiler) credited with the circa 325
Bhagavad Gita (BG), our well-known Patanjali, author of c. 375 The Yoga Sutras (YS) and
Svatmarama, author of the c. 1450 Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP).
The Yoga Rahasya (YR) is one of eight books by K1.
One is an untranslated autobiography in Tamil, one is a commentary on the Yoga Sutras,2
two are books of spiritual poetry of about 30 slokas 1 each, and four are compositions on yoga
practice.
The Yoga Rahasya belongs to the latter group.
K claims to have channeled the Yoga Rahasya at the age of sixteen when he met an
incarnation of the 1100-year-old saint, Nathamuni, but comments by his students, his son,
1

In their most formal rendition, slokas are couplets of sixteen syllables.

2

Desikachar, and analyses by scholars reveal that this is a modern work. 3 K seems to offer a halfconfession of this in his prelude, where he says, I construct the essence of Yoga Rahasya to
please the learned . . . I present here whatever I can recollect (my italics).
We have records of him teaching from the Rahasya as early as 1954,4 but he probably
composed it after experiencing childrearing and experimentation with postures for five or more
years while supported by the king of Mysore. 1937 is a probable composition date. Publication
happened in 1998nine years after his death.
As I said, Ks writing is a haphazard echo of pre-modern yoga Classics. Leaving aside
some quotes, the commentary, and the opening invocation, the Yoga Rahasya consists of 277
slokas. These are boxed in 4 chapters, reminiscent of the Yoga Sutras and the Pradipika.
Reminiscent of the Gita, chapters often change their subject abruptly and circle back to repeat
whats been talked of beforenearly word for word. Some believe this technique is an aid to
memorization. It remains a useful technique for teaching.
Three aspects of this quasi-classic text make it novel for its era and provocative for us
today.

1) It names a great number of poses. Many of which are strenuously athletic,

much like todays books on yoga.
The era of the Rahaysa was pivotal in Hatha Yogas history, and a vastly creative period
for K.
Krishnamacharya belonged to a cadre of Indian physical culturists formulating a pareddown Hatha Yoga focusing on the therapeutic and athletic benefits of asana in the 1920s and 30s.
The aforementioned Hatha Yoga Pradipikathe go-to Hatha text from pre-modern India
hasat most24 poses (depending how you count). The Gheranda Samhita, a sister text from
the 17th century, hasat most39 (also, depending on how you count!).
Looking to contemporary books, Iyengars seminal 1966, Light on Yoga has 200-plus
poses, Dharma Mittras simple 2002 picture book, Asanas has 608 poses. Our greatest pose
compendium to date, Gharotes 2007 Encyclopedia of Traditional Asanas, has more than 900.
Ks Rahasya has 69.
From a historical perspective, this number isnt unheard of, but its enough to make our
our eyes open a bit wide.
Not only did the Pradipika and Gheranda have a restricted number of poses, but they
devoted much of their discussion to non-asana aspects of Hatha practice.
K knew he was going out on a limb by making a great number of (often complex)
postures central to his method sogood scholar that he washe sought historical cover for
his approach.
3

In two blunt passages, he tells us Shiva supports him and his nay-sayers are ignorant:
1:48: Eminent yogis have only shown a few asana-s as examples. In the Dhyana Bindu
Upanisad, Lord Siva tells Parvati There are as many asana-s as there are living species.
1:49: Therefore, who has the authority to count the number of asana-s? If someone says
that this is the number of asana-s, it is a reflection of his lack of knowledge. 5

After this, the pose descriptions begin (with many suggested variations!).
Why the dodgy debate technique? What made Krishnamacharya think he stood on
slippery ground? In leaning on posture so heavily, K had few precedents to follow. We see this
when we review books that had 69 or more poses before the YR.
Some contemporary people think Hatha Yoga before our day leaned primarily on poses
for its method, but it didnt. Initiation, pranayama, internal cleansings and practices of unusual
physical control received more emphasis much of the time. Of the texts existing in Ks day that
foregrounded asana through sheer pose number, some were published books with greater or
lesser circulation and some existed only in manuscript form.
Well walk through these from most poses to least.
The c. 1840 Sri Tattvanidhi, pictured 121 poses and was both owned and produced by the
Mysore potentate K worked for.6 Around 1650, the Yogachintamani with 110 poses was
composed, and the Marathi Eighty-Four Asanas of 1899 actually had 97 asanas. Many traditional
texts adhering to an 84-pose list exist, but they arelike Eighty-Four Asanasmostly crowded
near the modern period. The main exception is the Khecarividya of Adinatha composed near
1400. Srinivasa Battas Hatha Ratnavali (circa 1650) looked at 84 poses, and both the 1737
Jogapradipika and c. 1850 Hastamudra Caurashi Asana of Nepal did, too.
The Eighty-Four Asanas was bookprinted, but probably had a narrow circulation. K
probably didnt see it. 7
The Tattvanidhi, Jogapradipika and Hastamudra were manuscripts. Their number and
distribution were even more highly restrictive, and we can tentatively guess that even a polymath
like K was ignorant of all but the Tattvanidhi.
From the list I have given, only the Tattvanidhi is found in the bibliography of his 1934
Yoga Makaranda.8
The books of his contemporaries which he is likely to have known about are also absent,9
but he probably left them unmentioned because they seemed unworthy of scholarly regard (see
below).

Well look a bit more closely at this bibliography because it has been a topic of debate by
some researchers and because it offers some insights into the history behind Ks knowledge of
pose breadth and his presentation of vinyasa yoga.
The Makarandas booklist was probably produced shortly before the Rahaysa was
composed10 and many of its titles arent known to modern scholarship.
Norman Sjoman said in 1996 that the Makarandas bibliography was a padded [one]
with works . . . that have nothing to do with the tradition he is teaching in,11 but in a recent
interview, the Sanskritist, Christopher Tompkins, reported, I have uncovered evidence that
these six Tantras [referenced in Ks Makaranda bibliography] contained the specialized and now
largely lost Vinyasa-Krama that Krishnamacharya attempted to revive. 12 Including an insight
into vinyasas history, we might guess that a new record of pose-breadth is revealed in these
books, too, butunexpectedlyTompkins says we find only 6 different poses in these early
sequences.13
It is possible that other texts from the Makarandas tally are pose-heavyor that K knew
of pose-rich texts he didnt bother to mention (ones also unknown to todays mainstream
scholarship)that helped him put together 69 for the Rahasya.
In the Makaranda, he claims to have learned 700 asanas from his guru.14
He also may have invented a pose here and there.
Whatever their origin, the complex inversions, arm balances, and standing poses in the
Rahasya make up an altogether more athletic compendium than any preceding classic yoga text
we know ofbesides the Sri Tattvanidhi.15
Outside the classics, some popular-consumption, pose-rich texts produced by Ks
colleagues also offered richly athletic posture-cycles; but these poses are less athletic on the
whole than those of the YR.
The Rahasya likely post-dates these books16 so K could have sought cover from them
for his pose-focus like he did from Shiva, but the Secret of Yoga traveled under the guise of
being ancient, and if K acknowledged the works of his contemporaries, he would have confessed
the YRs true timeframe.
K understood a gurus gamesmanship well; hence, he revealed the secret of the
Rahasyas birthdate only obliquelywith caveats of essences, and memories.
Like many of his colleagues, K justified his guruship by proving himself a malla (an
athlete) in public exhibitions17 but his pile of university degrees distinguished him as a jnana (a
scholar, or one seeking the Absolute through knowing), too.
The Rahasya speaks to both demographics.

Consistent with Ks lifelong predilections, he probably undertook the chore of composing

a modern work supported by ancient authorities to serve the need in his day for an athletic,
therapeutic and and health-maintenance-oriented yoga, as readily as to make a novel declaration
within yogas centuries-old tradition of scholastic debate.

2) The Rahaysa is probably the first book to discuss yoga for women. It
specifically addresses womens needs and gives us a yoga for pregnancy.
The Rahasya is not as glamorous a Shiva Reas 2000 Prenatal Yoga DVD or even Geeta
Iyengars 2010 tome, Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood, but K supplies unique and trustworthy
advice in this vein, and his focus on women is meaningful historically.
His attention to infancy and women also helps us guess when the text was composed.
Before he took B. K. S. Iyengar under his wing in 1934, K had taught two of the future
masters older sisters: Jaya18 and Ammagiriamawhom K had married in 1925.19 K also taught
yoga to his first two children, daughters, Pundarikavalli (b. 1931) and Alamelu (b. 1933). 20 His
son, T. K. V. Desikachar, quoted K as saying, "I think that if we do not encourage women, the
great Indian traditions will die because the men are not following the Vedic rules and
regulations. They are all becoming business people. 21
Similarly, Rahasya, 1:14, says, Women, when compared to men, have a special right to
practice yoga. This is because it is women who are responsible for the continuity of the lineage
[sic].
To support this conviction, he devotes 58 of the books 277 teaching slokas (21%) to
reflections on women, infants and pregnancy.
Ks emphases in the Rahasya, his public statements, and his teaching activities situate
him prominently within the company of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Abhedananda, Pierre
Bernard, Sri Yogendra, Mollie Bagot Stack, Sita Devi Yogendra and Cajzoran Ali as the modern
eras most prominent early advocates of yoga for women.
Ks prodigality gave him personal acquaintance with womens pregnancy.
He fathered six kids!
He started raising them as he labored in yogas avant garde athletic movement of the
1930s; hence, he would naturally have reflectionsin Ks case, deep reflectionson yogas best
practices for mothering, birthing, and the gestation process.
Despite his admirable focus, if we look specifically at the YRs material on infants, much
of it is pessimistic and absurd.
K uses the c. 4th century Vishnu Purana (VP) as a part-source, and probably takes cues
from statements with a similar coloring from the c. 8th century BCE Garbha Upanishad.
6

The stylistic particulars of Ks dark view of infant life will be familiar to readers of the
mukhya2 upanishads and other old texts where the body is described as a site for worms, feces,
pain, and other unpleasantries.
Citing the Vishnu Purana, K writes, Unable to extend or contract its limbs, [the fetus]
lies tormented in a mire of excreta and urine.22 Other quotes from the VP attribute the infant
with unbelievable philosophical reflections, e.g. Covered by the darkness of ignorance it
questions . . . By what am I bound? What is and what is not the cause? What is my action and
what is not my action? What must I speak and what must I not speak?23
His material on women and/or pregnancy is more practical and easier to digest.
Seventeen slokas discuss pregnancy.
He recommends helpful poses and gives particular attention to pranayama for
pregnancy.24
Before the Rahaysa, discussions of womens needs are almost universally absent from
yoga books.
The Rahasyas nearest timely relation is distinguished as both the first modern yoga text
authored by a woman, and the first text devoted to yoga for females: Sita Devi Yogendras Yoga
Physical Education for Women of 1934. It likely pre-dated the Rahasya by three years.
Though we have ample stories of female gurus and yoginis, it goes without saying that
yoga mostly belonged to the society of male sannyasins and householders before the 20th
century. Both health and spiritual advice in yoga texts had been either explicitly or implicitly
addressed to men.

3) The Rahasya provides a window on the historical moment of yogas shift

from a spiritual technology to a health technology
Though asanas had been used in the health science of Ayurveda before the 20th century,
beginning in the 1920s Krishnamacharya and others25 redirected a spiritually-focused Hatha
Yoga toward the near-exclusive goals of fitness and health.
To understand Ks particular approach to this, well compare the topos of modern yoga
given there with that of two high-profile contemporaries.
Yogacharya Sundaram was part of an emerging movement to blend yoga with body
building. He was known to K, and had a gym and great following in nearby Bangalore during the
years K was active in Mysore.

Mukhyathe texts of Vedanta, c. 800 BCE to 200 CE, consisting of 10 17 books (depending on who counts) in
which we get our first descriptions of yoga.

Few could match K in eloquence and textual knowledge, and Sundaram was not even in
the running.
With fun punctuation, odd capitalizations, strange spellings, far-out phrases and erratic
syntax, he creates a mythic scene to introduce his yoga-for-fitness in The Secret of Happiness or,
Yogic Physical Culture [sic] from 1928:
It is a curious name, this Yoga-Asana, wonderful as its sylvan inventors, the sages of
India. . . this Yoga-asana . . . perfects the human body . . . and prepares it for . . becoming the
God-man, the Jivan-Muktha.
Whatever the object of the sages the perfection of the human body as a means to . . . Godrealisation . . . could they not utilise it as a system of physical culture? [all sic].26

With better writing, Swami Kuvalayanandas 1931 Popular Yoga Asanas also juxtaposes
old and new for a modern yoga typology.
It does so by offering a classification of yoga practice.
Yoga for health (aimed at physiological results) he labels Cultural and pre-modern
yoga, (aimed at accommodating the spiritual force called Kundalini) he labels as Meditative:
Asanas are divided into . . . Cultural and Meditative . . . In trying to obtain physiological
results by the practice of the cultural poses, both spiritual culturalists as well as physical
culturalists wish to maintain the nervous and the endocrine systems . . . A student of spiritual
culture [however] . . . undertakes the practices of the cultural poses with a larger object in view.
He wants the nervous system to be . . . trained . . . [to] bear the interaction of the spiritual force
called Kundalini . . . 27

Krishnamacharya introduces a new yoga-for-the-body a different way.

Sundaram speaks as an athlete and Kuvalayanandawho did laboratory work on
yoga speaks as a scientist.
28

Krishnamacharya speaks as an athlete, a devotee and a scholar.

Like Kuvalayananda, he creates a classification system.
He provides styles of practice attuned to the practitioners age.
In the quote below, Ks Brahmachari refers to the state of youth, his Grhastha refers to
adulthood, and Sanyasi, refers to old age:3
Yoga . . . can be divided into three types of practice.

In this K is following the classic Ashramas, which give us four stages of life, Brahamacharya, Grhastha,
Vanaprastha (forest monk) and Parivajaka (wandering monk). These last two are subsumed under his rubric of
Sanyasi. Depending on which authority we follow, each stage is said to extend 20 25 years.

Understanding that Srsti Krama [Releasing Practice] is for the Brahmachari [student],
Sthiti Krama [Strength or Health Practice] for the Grhastha [householder] and Samhara Krama
[Withdrawing Practice] for the Sanyasi [renunciant], yoga must be accordingly practiced.29

Elsewhere, he gives us two outcomes for these practice types, but only one is approved
by the scriptures:
The fruits of yoga . . . can be material (bhukti) or freedom from suffering (mukti). Those
who are devotees of the Lord, praise Hari [the sustainer god, Vishnu] for the purpose of mukti.
Others seek material benefit, which is not approved by the Sastra-s [scriptures].30

In other words, no matter what kind of yoga you are doing in whatever stage of life, if
you adore the Highest while practicing, you will gain the fruit of mukti (liberation), but if you
forget the Lord in practice, your fruits will be only material (like Kuvalayanandas Cultural
yoga); youll miss the big boat.
K wants you to keep Hari in mind, so that whether you are a youth doing yoga for
athletics, or an adult doing yoga for health-maintenance, youll still acquire the fruits of the old
folks yoga-ing for liberation
K unifies the categories of modern practice by subsuming them under the category of
bhakti yoga (first firmly articulated in the Bhagavad Gita.) Consistent with his promotion of the
householder path throughout his career, K explains that you can adjust yoga to whatever stage of
life you find yourself in and still get the fruit of more ultimate practices.
The Rahasya speaks as the Gita does in several ways.
1) It delimits the many yogas it describes by saying bhakti yoga is best,
2) It guarantees liberation through this method, and
3) It is particularly attuned to the life of the householder.
Hence, the shift to a body-focused yoga that K both articulates and justifies in the
Rahasya is only a partial shift away from pre-modern forms.
Unlike Sundaram and Kuvalayananda, Krishnamacharyas yoga of health did not cut any
part of the practice off from more existential goals.

Conclusions
Throughout Ks Secret of Yoga he foreshadows todays practice while remaining
faithful to yogas traditional aim of liberation. There is a breadth, freshness and faithfulness to
the received tradition in Ks writing. These make the Rahaysa a compelling patchwork of old
and new, and a special window into Krishnamacharyas thoughts in the period he wrote.
The Rahasya is secret (rahasya) like a seed; the progeny of a great yogi, it contains
yogas soon-to-be-prominent concerns in embryonic form. It contributes to our modern

emphasis on athleticism, posture, and yoga for women. Speaking the language of the past, it
addresses the pressing concerns of our living practice.

10

Appendix
The Bibliography of the Yoga Makaranda
1. Rajayoga Ratnakaram
2. Hathayoga Pradipika
3. Yoga Saravalli
4. Yoga Balaprathipikai
5. Ravana Nadi (Nadi Pariksa of Ravana)
6. Bhairava Kalpam
7. Sri Tattvanidhi
8. Yoga Ratnakarandam
9. Mano Narayaneeyam
10. Rudrayameelam (Rudrayamalam)
11. Brahmayameelam
12. Atharvana Rahasyam vii
13. Patanjala Yogadarshanam
14. Kapilasutram
15. Yogayajnavalkyam
16. Gheranda Samhita
17. Narada Pancharatra Samhita
18. Satvata Samhita
19. Siva Samhita
20. Dhyana Bindu Upanishad
21. Chandilya Upanishad
22. Yoga Shika Upanishad
23. Yoga Kundalya Upanishad
24. Ahir Buddhniya Samhita
25. Nada Bindu Upanishad
26. Amrita Bindu Upanishad
27. Garbha Upanishad

The poses of the Yoga Rahaysa

(all Rahasya citations by pada and sloka)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Astavakrasana, 1.50-51
Bherundasana, 2.18
Bhekasana, 2.19
Baddha Konasana, 1.73, 2.13, 3.23
Baddha Padmasana, 2.13
Bakasana, 2.19
Bhadrasana, 1.73
Bharadvajasana, 2.16, 3.10
Bhujangasana, 2.14
11

10. Brahmasana, 1.73

11. Cakorasana, 2.14
12. Catuspadapitham, 2.14
13. Dandasana 1.53-54, 1.74, 2.13, 3.10
14. Dhanurasana, 2.17
15. Dvipdapitham, 3.19
16. Ganda Bherundasana, 2.18
17. Garbhapindasana, 2.15
18. Garudasana, 2.16
19. Gomukhasana, 2.16
20. Kapotasana, 2.21
21. Konasana, 2.20
22. Halasana, 2.17
23. Jathara Parivrtti, 1.52, 2.17
24. Kaundinyasana, 1.50-51
25. Krauncasana, 1.50-51, 1.74, 2.14
26. Kukkutasana, 2.15
27. Kurmasana, 2.15
28. Mahamudra, 2.13, 3.23
29. Makrasana, 2.19
30. Maricyasana, 1.50-51, 2.17
31. Matsyasana, 2.17, 2.19
32. Matsyendrasana, 2.19
33. Mayurasana, 2.15
34. Mulabhandasana, 1.73
35. Natarajasana, 1.50-51, 2.18
36. Parvatasana, 2.22
37. Pascimatanasana, 2.13
38. Padmasana, 1.73, 2.15, 3.10, 3.20
39. Pincha Mayurasana, 2.15
40. Purvatansana, 2.14
41. Salabhasana, 2.14, 2.18
Sarvangasana, 3.11, 1.53-54
42. Setubhandasana, 1.50-51
43. Siddhasana, 1.73, 2.24
44. Simhasana, 2.16
45. Sirsasana, 3.11, 1.53-54, 2.13
46. Sirsa Dandasana, 2.18
47. Svastikasana, 1.73, 2.24
48. Supta padangusthasana, 1.50-51
49. Supta Prasarita Padangusthasana, 1.50-51
50. Tadakamudra, 2.13
51. Tadasana, 3.23
52. Trikoasana, 1.50-51
53. Trivikramasana, 2.16
54. Unmukha pitham, 3.18
12

55. Urdhvakukkutasana, 1.50-51, 2.17

56. Ustrasana, 2.21
57. Uttana Kurmasana, 2.16
58. Uttana Mayurasana, 1.50-51
59. Uttanapadasana, 1.50-51
60. Uttanasana, 3.23
61. Uttanashiki (Uttana Mayurasana), 2.23
62. Vajrasana, 1.73, 2.14, 3.10
63. Vasisthasana, 1.50-51, 2.17
64. Vatayanasana, 2.16
65. Viparita Dandasana, 1.53-54
66. Virabhadrasana, 1.50-51
67. Virasana, 1.74, 3.10
68. Vrscikasana, 2.14, 2.19
69. Yoga Nrsimhasana, 2.15

The pranyamas of the Yoga Rahaysa

1. Andoli, 1.100
2. Bhramari, 1.100
3. Bhastrika, 1.100-101, 3.14
4. Kapalabhati, 1.100-101, 3.14
5. Lahari, 1.100
6. Nadi Shodana, 1.100, 1.103, 2.61, 3.16
7. Sama Vrtti, 1.94
8. Sitkari, 1.100
9. Surya Bhedana, 1.100, 2.61, 3.16
10. Sithali, 1.100, 2.61, 3.16
11. Ujjayi, 1.33, 1.100, 2.61

The bhandas of the Yoga Rahaysa

Jalamdhara, 1.60, 1.71-78, 1.80-1.83 1.101, 2.50, 2.52, 3.15
Mulabhanda, 1.60, 1.62, 2.50-51, 3.14
Uddiyana, 1.60, 1.64-70, 2.50, 2.52, 3.14

The vayus of the Yoga Rahaysa

Apana Vayu, 3.15

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13

The poses of the 1931Popular Yoga Asanas by Swami

Kuvalayananda compared
1. Ardha-Matsyendrasana, p. 80
2. Bhujangasana, p. 72
3. Dhanurasana, p. 78
4. Halsana, p. 69
5. Matsyasana, p. 83
6. Mayurasana, p. 95
7. Padmasana, p. 48
8. Paschimatana, p. 82, 91
9. Salabhasana, p. 76
10. Samasana, p. 54
11. Sarvangasana, p. 65
12. Savasana, p. 97
13. Siddhasana, p. 50
14. Simhasana, p. 84
15. Sirshasana, p. 56
16. Supta-Vajrasana, p. 89
17. Svastikasana, p. 52
18. Vajrasana, p. 87
19. Vakrasana, p. 83
20. Viparita Karani, p. 105
21. Yogi Mudra, p. 101

14

ENDNOTES
1

Though thirty-nine works are attributed to K by some sources (see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumalai_Krishnamacharya and http://krishnamacharya.net/works, accessed on 6
Sept. 2016) many of these appear to be pamphlets and the like. Of his books, three of the eight, the Yogavalli
(chapter 1, nd), the Rahasya (1998--posthumous), and the Yoga Makaranda (1934) have become hardcopy books
in English. His pose-focused Yogasanagalu (1940), has seen partial English translation online
(http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/p/yogasanagalu-translation-project.html ), a bootleg book of asana lecture
notes by K titled, Salutations to the Eternal One circulates among yoga students in the know, and there is an
autobiography in Tamil. Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram has also translated and published two chapbooks of Ks
spiritual poetry titled Yoganjalisaram (1995) and Dhyanamalika (1998).
2
Apparently, chapter 1 of the Yogavalli.was published in Sanskrit in 1988, see Mohan, A. G., 2010,
Krishnamacharya: His Life and Work, Boston: Shambhala, p. 134-6.
3
See Singleton, Mark, 2010, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, New York: Oxford University
Press, p. 185, and Srivatsa Ramaswami, 2000, Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, Rochester Vermont: Inner
Traditions, p. 18, and Mohan, p. 46, 120. For Desikachars comments on the book, see White, David Gordon,
2014, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A Biography, Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 232.
4
Ramaswami, p. 6, 18.
5
Krishnamacharya, Tirumalai, 2003 (1998), Nathamunis Yoga Rahasya, T. K. V. Desikachar, trans., Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, India: K Yoga Mandiram, p. 5.
6
King Wadiyar IV. See Sjoman, Norman, 1999 (1996), The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace, New Delhi:
Abhinav, passim.
7
Buhnemann, Gudrun, Eighty-Four Asanas in Yoga: A Survey of Traditions, New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, p. 36, 39,
65.
8
Krishnamacharya, Tirumalai, 2011 (1934), Yoga Makaranda, T. K. V. Desikachar and E. R. Ramaswamy Iyengar,
trans., Kausthub Desikachar, ed., Chennai: Media Garuda, p. 42. Please see the appendix for the titles of the
Makarandas bibliography.
9
We know he knew of these men, partly because he tells the story of a failed plan to gather them all in a mid1930s conference to stanadardize Indias yoga practices. See Mohan, p. 80.
10
It is worth noting that we can trace K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga to the pose sequences found in the
Makaranda.
11
Sjoman, p. 66.
12
http://www.sutrajournal.com/christopher-tompkins-on-the-origins-of-vinyasa accessed 9 June, 2016.
13
Personal correspondence with the author.
14
Krishnamacharya, 2011 (1934), p. 32.
15
Sjoman says these were influenced by European athletics, passim.
16
Ks colleague, Yogacharya Sundaram published his Yogic Physical Culture in 1928. Sri Yogendra published asana
books in 1928 and 31; Swami Kuvalayananda published manuals in 1931, 33, 35 and 36; and K. V. Iyer published
asana texts in 1930, 36, 37 & 40.
17
Singleton, 2010, p. 193
18
Kadetsky, Elizabeth, 2004, First There is a Mountain, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., p. 81; and Iyengar, B. K. S.,
Astadala Yogamala, vol. 1, 2007 (2000), New Delhi: Allied Publishers, Limited, p. 54; and Desikachar, Kausthub,
2005, The Yoga of the Yogi, Chennai, Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, p. 99.
19
Iyengar, B. K. S., Astadala Yogamala, vol. 6, 2010, New Delhi: Allied Publishers, Limited, p. 108, and Desikachar,
K., Ibid. He also taught yoga to his sons, of course. Sri T.K. Srinivasan, (b. 1936) was well-versed in Yoga, and
became an authority on the Indian philosophies of Nyaya and Mimamsa. His other sons are Sri T.K.V. Desikachar
(b. 1938) and Sri T.K. Sribhashyam (b. 1940). He had a third daughter, Shubha, after 1940.
20
As can be seen in the well-known, 1938 Film of K and Iyengar. This clip shows K his daughters doing asana on his
own and with his assists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eXiTm5HY&feature=share&list=PLF60F76F5E8449C60 , 12/14/2012. See also Desikachar, K., Ibid.
21
Sri Tirumalai. Krishnamacarya quoted from memory by his son, T. K. V. Desikachar, in Desai, Gita, Director, 2004,
Yoga Unveiled: The Evolution and Essence of a Spiritual Tradition, (DVD), yogaunveiled.com.

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For this reason, his storied resistance to teaching the Latvian, Indra Devi beginning in 1938, could not be
because she was a womanas is often claimed.
Her European birth put him off, as well as his caste rule as a male Brahmin to refrain from instructing
women outside his circle of family.
His politics also mitigated against it.
He believed that yoga should remain in the hands of Indians. (See his quotes on this topic,
Krishnamacharya, 2011 (1934), p. 83.)
That said, we know he did relent and teach Devion the orders of his king and benefactor, Wadiyar IV
and he came to have love her dearly.
22
Krishnamacharya, 2003, p. 32.
23
Ibid., p. 35.
24
This pranayama talk reflects a wider emphasis. Seventy-six slokas (27%) of the text in toto concern themselves
with breath practice, its locks (bandhas), holds (kumbhakas), cadences, and aims.
25
Mainly Sri Yogendra, Swami Kuvalayananda and their guru, Sri Madhava Dasa Ji. See, Goldberg, Elliot, 2016, The
Path of Modern Yoga, Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, passim.
26
Sundaram, Yogacharya, 2000 (1928), The Secret of Happiness or, Yogic Physical Culture, Coimbitore, Tamil Nadu,
India: The Yoga Publishing House, p. 3.
27

Kuvalayananda, Swami, 1964 (1931), Popular Yoga: Asanas, Bombay (Mumbai): Popular Prakashan, p. 33-34.
See Joseph Alters fine exploration of Kuvalayananda in Yoga in Modern India, 2004, Princeton: Princeton
University Press, p. 73-108.
29
Krishnamacharya, 2003, p. 100.
30
Ibid, p. 21. Bhukti indicates the pleasures of this life.
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