TRADICIÓN KRISHNAMACHARYA

You may never have heard of him, but Tirumalai Krishnamacharya influenced and may have even invented your Yoga.

Whether you practice the dynamic series of Pattabhi Jois, the refined alignment of B.K.S. Iyengar, the classical postures of Indra Devi or the Vinyasa of ViniYoga tailored to you, your practice originates from the same source: a five-foot-five brahmin born over a hundred years ago in a small village in South India. He never crossed an ocean, but Krishnamacharya’s Yoga has spread throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

It is hard to find a yogic tradition today whose asanas have not been influenced by him. Even if you learn from a yogi now removed from the traditions associated with Krishnamacharya, it is quite likely that your teacher has previously studied the Iyengar, Ashtanga, or Viniyoga method before developing his or her own style. Rodney Yee, who appears in numerous popular videos, studied, for example, with Iyengar. Richard Hittleman, a well-known T.V. yogi of the 1970s, studied with Devi.

 Other teachers have incorporated teachings from various styles based on Krishnamacharya, creating in turn particular methods such as Ganga White’s White Lotus Yoga and Manny Finger’s ISHTA Yoga. Most teachers even of styles not directly related to Krishnamacharya – Sivananda and Bikram yoga, for example – have been influenced by some aspects of Krishnamacharya’s teachings. Many of his contributions have been so integrated into the fabric of yoga that the source has been forgotten. Krishnamacharya is said to be responsible for the modern emphasis on Shirshasana (headstand) and Sarvangasana (shoulder stand). He pioneered the refinement of postures, optimising their sequences and attributing therapeutic value to specific asanas. By combining pranayama and asana, he made the postures an integral part of meditation, rather than a step on the path leading to it. Indeed, Krishnamacharya’s influence can be seen, most clearly, in the emphasis on asana practice, which has become the hallmark of Yoga today. There has probably been no other yogi who has so deliberately developed physical practices. In the process, he transformed the Ata – which was an obscure stream of Yoga – into the  its mainstream. The resurgence of Yoga in India owes much to his innumerable tours and demonstrations during the 1930s and also to his four most famous disciples – Jois, Iyengar, Devi and his own son T.K.V. Desikachar, who have played a huge role in popularising Yoga in the West.