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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 "the 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.

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.

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.

Early life

Krishnamacharya was born on 18 November 1888 in Muchukundapura, situated in the Chitradurga district of present-day Karnataka, in South India, to an orthodox Iyengar family. His first language was Telugu,[14] which means that according to Telugu name style, "Tirumalai" is the family name, which is usually abbreviated, and "Krishnamacharya" the significant given name. His parents were Sri Tirumalai Srinivasa Tatacharya, a well-known teacher of the Vedas, and Shrimati Ranganayakiamma.[15] Krishnamacharya was the eldest of six children. He had two brothers and three sisters. At the age of six, he underwent upanayana. He then began learning to speak and write Sanskrit, from texts such as the Amarakosha and to chant the Vedas under the strict tutelage of his father.

When Krishnamacharya was ten, his father died,[16] and the family had to move to Mysore, at the time largest city in Karnataka, where his great-grandfather, Sri Srinivasa Brahmatantra Parakala Swami, was the head of the Parakala Math.

Education

Krishnamacharya spent much of his youth traveling through India studying the six darśana or Indian philosophies: vaiśeṣika, nyāya, sāṃkhya, yoga, mīmāṃsā and vedānta.[18] In 1906, at the age of eighteen, Krishnamacharya left Mysore to attend university at Banaras, also known as Vārānasī, a city of hundreds of temples and a highly regarded North Indian center of traditional learning.[19] While at university, he studied logic and Sanskrit, working with Brahmashri Shivakumar Shastry, "one of the greatest grammarians of the age".[20] He also learned the Mimamsa from Brahmasri Trilinga Rama Shastri.

In 1914, he once again left for Banaras to attend classes at Queens College, where he eventually earned a number of teaching certificates. During the first year he had little or no financial support from his family. In order to eat, he followed the rules that were laid down for religious beggars: he was to approach only seven households each day and offer a prayer "in return for wheat flour to mix with water for cakes".[21] Krishnamacharya eventually left Queens College to study the ṣaḍdarśana (six darshanas) in Vedic philosophy at Patna University, in Bihar, a state in eastern India. He received a scholarship to study Ayurveda under Vaidya Krishnakumar of Bengal.

Krishnamacharya claimed that he was invited to the coronation of the Rajah of Dikkanghat (a principality within Darbhanga), at which he defeated a scholar called Bihari Lal in a debate, and received rewards and honors from the Rajah.[22] He stated that his stay in Banaras lasted 11 years. He further claimed that he studied with the yoga master Sri Babu Bhagavan Das and passed the Samkhya Yoga Examination of Patna,[2] and that many of his instructors recognized his outstanding abilities in yoga, some asking that he teach their children.

Accomplishment as a scholar

Krishnamacharya was highly regarded as a scholar. He earned degrees in philosophy, logic, divinity, philology, and music.[6][58] He was twice offered the position of Acharya in the Srivaishnava sampradaya, but he declined in order to stay with his family, in accordance with his guru's wishes.

He also had extensive knowledge of orthodox Hindu rituals. His scholarship in various darshanas of orthodox Indian philosophy earned him titles such as Sāṃkhya-yoga-śikhāmaṇi, Mīmāṃsā-ratna, Mīmāṃsā-thīrtha, Nyāyācārya, Vedāntavāgīśa, Veda-kesari and Yogācārya.

One of Krishnamacharya's most distinctive teachings was about kuṇḍalinī. To him, kuṇḍalinī is not an energy that rises. Rather, it is a blockage that prevents prāṇa (breath) from rising.

Courtesy – Wikipedia
- Krishnamacharya

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