Iyengar's early Ashtanga days

[Guest guest]

Yesterday I reread an interview with BKS Iyengar

by Anne Cushman in an old copy of the Yoga Journal

(December 1997/Issue 137), which I once bought at the

beginning of my yoga practice. Some parts of the interview

are particularly interesting from an Ashtanga point

of view.<br><br>On BKS Iyengar's first years as a

teacher when, still a teenager, he was introducing yoga

into schools and colleges in Pune:<br><br>"I was

teaching many classes, one after the other. I was doing

these jumpings and all. I was thinking this was only a

physical exercise - so jumping, going from one pose to

another pose, from one corner to the other corner. After

the first class I finished, they were all sweating.

During the second class, the ones from the first class

were watching."<br><br>(In Iyengar Yoga, the term

"jumpings" denotes sequences of postures all connected

together in a steady flow. It might mean that in those

heroic days, BKS Iyengar was teaching some form of

Ashtanga Yoga.)<br><br>Anne Cushman: "There are a wide

range of poses that you teach now, and that are in

Light on Yoga, which are not in the Hatha Yoga

Pradipaka or other ancient texts. Where did they come

from?"<br><br>BKS Iyengar: "No books have said it, it is a fact. My

guru had some drawings with him, which I have seen -

yoga on the ropes and all, and in trees. It was not

printed, it was written by hand. So there we see some of

the poses. And I have a book in Marathi which is

about 100 years, 120 years old.<br> But when I started

teaching - you know the college students, they will never

continue to do the same thing over and over again.

Students were leaving if there was only repetition. So

that was the time for me to think - how to hold them

so that they come back? So creativity came.<br> I

had to create poses - if Trikonasana can be done like

this, why not Parivrtta Trikonasana? If Virabhadrasana

I could be done, why not Virabhadrasana III? If you

can do Vasisthasana, why not Visvamitrasana? Or

Kukutasana - if you do, why not Parsva Kukutasana? If

Bakasana, why not Parsva Bakasana? So that's how it

developed."<br><br>(So Parivrtta Trikonasana, Virabhadrasana III,

Visvamitrasana, Parsva Kukutasana and Parsva Bakasana are

postures which BKS Iyengar invented himself, whereas

Trikonasana, Virabhadrasana I, Vasisthasana, Kukutasana and

Bakasana may originally have been taught to him by his

guru, the legendary Sanskrit scholar and yogi T.

Krishnamacharya - who was also the teacher of KP Jois. Parivrtta

Trikonasana is done in Yoga Chikitsa too, but I think to have

read that this posture is not part of the original

primary series, rather that it has been added to it only

later.<br> And what about that book in Marathi, 100 or 120

years old? It might have been written in the second

half of the 19th century: those were the heydays of

the Raj, when India was ruled by the British.

Specifically what influence might English callisthenics of

that period have had on Iyengar's Marathi book?)

[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting that Iyengar interview. Gets

me thinking: <br><br>WHY have we invested so much

importance to these "classical" asanas?<br><br>The general

idea one gets about yoga asanas is that they've come

to us from the misty dawn of time, and their

presentation is somewhat beyond reproach or question.

Marichasana, for example, must have a profound mystical

significance that we can but barely comprehend. After all, it

is named for the ancient sage, Marichi! And it is an

"Asana"!<br><br>That's the mythos invested in the posture. In practical

terms though, we're just wrapping our arm around our

knee and bending.<br><br>I'm not trying to be totally

reductionistic about hatha yoga. However, I think it's getting

obvious that the origin of what are called "asanas" is

more human than we perhaps at first imagined.

[Guest guest]

Hi I would love to read the whole article on the

Iyengar interview. I'll check the Yoga Journal site to

see if they have back issues posted Otherwise if you

have a scanner you might be kind enough to post the

whole article on the net.<br>Thanks Ray

[Guest guest]

Human in origin indeed yes, but from a wise part of our humanity don't you

think?<br><br>crowjuice

[Guest guest]

ray,<br><br>I don't have a scanner, sorry for

that.<br><br>But if there is enough interest on this board (which

I have the impression isn't the case), I might be

kind enough to post the whole interview here. Since it

is very long, I coldn't do that all at once. But if

I were to start next Monday say, I think you will

have the whole thing on this board on the following

Friday.<br><br>The interview is worth the effort indeed. Please note

though that I was merciful enough only to post those

parts of it which I found interesting for Ashtanga Yoga

practitioners. The other parts concern Iyengar's life, his

teaching method as well as his views on yoga in

general.<br><br>I hope you will be able to get a back issue of the

Yoga Journal article, because as far as I know, the

original Iyengar interview is not to be found anywhere on

the Web.<br><br>Good luck.

[Guest guest]

I have only just been told that I could also scan

the Iyengar interview in an office shop here. But

since I never scanned anything in my life, I would

first have to find out how that works.<br>Let's see...

[Guest guest]

You can order Yoga Journal #137 Nov/Dec 1997 at <a

href=http://www.yogajournal.com/markets/bi_frame.html

target=new>http://www.yogajournal.com/markets/bi_frame.html</a>

[YogaTree]

It's possible the book Iyengar is refering to in his article has now been printed and commented upon by Sjoman in his book The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. This book contains postures hanging from ropes etc and some lovely old photo's of Krishnamarchaya's training.