Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
(1888 – 1989)
Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was born on November 18, 1888 in Muchukundapura in Karnataka, South India.
His father was a well-known teacher of the Vedas, the ancient holy scriptures of India, and he began learning Sanskrit and Vedic chanting at the age of 6.
His family moved to Mysore, South India when he was 10 years old after his father died.
He began his formal education at the Parakala Matham, an ancient school for philosophy and a premier religious academy. He became renowned for debating many visiting Scholars.
In 1906, he left Mysore to study at the University of Benares (Varanasi). Three years later, he returned to Mysore and continued his studies under Sri Krishna Brahmatantra Swami, the new head of the Parakala Matham. At the age of 25 he returned to Benares and continued to deepen his study of Vedic Philosophy and Ayurveda (India’s traditional science of medicine and healing).
He began learning Yoga from Sri Babu Bhagwan Das, and passed the Sankhya Yoga Examination of Patna. (KYM.org) After this, he decided to search out Yogeshwara Ramamohan Brahmachari, an advanced yogi rumored to live in the mountains beyond Nepal.
For the next eight years he learned many ancient and secret yogic practices from this great Master, and memorized several yoga texts, including an ancient manuscript called the Yoga Korunta.
The teachings of the Yoga Korunta (“yoga groups”) are attributed to the Rishi Vamana. Little is actually known about this text, but it is said to have contained detailed instruction on both asana and pranayama practices, describing the method of vinyasa (a breath and movement system), drishti (specific gazing points) and bandhas (energetic locks found in the subtle body).
Accordingly, the particular sequence of postures that comprise the ‘Ashtanga Yoga’ practice, are thought to have originated from this source.
As tradition holds, at the end of his studies with Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari, Krishnamacharya asked what payment he should offer? Ramamohan responded that he was to "take a wife, raise children and be a teacher of Yoga." (TKV Desikachar – Health, Healing and Beyond, 44).
In 1926, Sri Krishnarajendra Wodeyar IV, the Maharajah of Mysore at the time, requested Krishnamacharya to teach him and his family Yoga. He sponsored him to open a Yoga Shala (school) in the Jaganmohan Palace, where he taught for the next 20 years.
Some of his students included many of today’s most influential teachers: the late Pattabhi Jois and Indra Devi, his own son T.K Desikachar, and B.K.S Iyengar, to name only a few.
He dedicated his life to carrying forth the message of the immense healing potential of Yoga.
What he focused on was the adaptation and application of the ancient discipline of Yoga to contemporary lifestyles, thereby enhancing health, longevity and quality of life. (KYM.org)
Although he never crossed any ocean, Krishnamacharya’s teachings on yoga have spread throughout the whole world.
In fact, many of his contributions have been so thoroughly integrated into the way yoga is presented today, especially its emphasis on the asana (posture) practice, that most students and many teachers do not even realize that he is its source.
Subsequently, he is thought by many to be the
“Grandfather of Modern Yoga.”
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