7 interesting facts on the Father of Modern Yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

The father of modern yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, was born on November 18, in the year 1888. Considered as the most admired yoga teacher in India, Krishnamacharya was not only a master of the Vedic lessons but also an Ayurvedic healer.

Krishnamacharya lived and taught in Chennai until he slipped into a coma and died in 1989, at the age of 100 years.

On his 128th birth anniversary, we bring to you seven interesting facts about Tirumalai Krishnamacharya:

• With the help of yoga, Krishnamacharya had cured Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of Simla, of diabetes. In return, the Lord sponsored his trip to Tibet in 1919

• Krishnamacharya walked for about two and a half months to find Sri Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari's ashram at the foothills of Mount Kailash. He studied the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, learnt asanas and pranayama, and studied the therapeutic aspects of yoga for over seven years

• He was requested by the Maharaja of Jaipur to serve as the principal of the Vidya Sala in Jaipur. However, as the yoga teacher was not used to answering too many people, he quit after a short time and settled in Varanasi

• During his visit to Varanasi in 1926, the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV came to know Krishnamacharya. The king was so impressed by the yoga teacher's scholar, he appointed him as the teacher at Mysore Palace. Krishnamacharya gradually became a trusted advisor of the king and the Ashthana Vidwan or the highest scholar of the palace

• On August 11, 1933, Krishnamacharya started a yoga school at the Jaganmohan Palace in Mysore under the patronage of the Maharaja of Mysore. There, he introduced the concept of western meditation along with the Vedic Yoga techniques

• In 1934, Krishnamacharya wrote a book titled Yoga Makaranda, which was published by Mysore University. The book promoted the use of yoga along with western meditative techniques

• The concept of Hatha Yoga, which is now called modern yoga, was first preached in India by Krishnamacharya. Hatha Yoga has important principles and practices that are shared with other yoga methods such as physiology, dharaa (fixation of elements) and nadanusandhana (listening to the innate sounds of the body).

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