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BKS Iyengar

One of the leading pioneers of hatha yoga, BKS Iyengar grew up poverty-stricken in south India, yet today heads one of the largest yoga schools in the world.

Born to a poor family in south India, BKS Iyengar was a weak child. Suffering from tuberculosis, his chest expanded only ½ an inch when he was 14. The family was regularly without food – Iyengar was often at his married sister’s door, begging for something to eat.

Things changed when Iyengar’s older daughter married professor Krishnamachyra, a scholar and yoga expert. Iyengar joined Krisnamachyra’s yoga shala in the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore. Krishnamachyra proved a strict teacher, however (something that would later rub off on Iyengar). He’d force the boy to walk five miles home to return his school books before practicing yoga – this despite the fact that the yoga shala was next door to the school. Hunger even drove Iyengar to theft – he later confessed he’d stolen some of Krisnamachyra’s books and exchanged them for food.

In 1936, Iyengar was selected to go on tour with Krisnamachyra’s yoga group, to give public displays of their asana practice. Never his guru’s favourite, Iyengar was actually a last-minute stand in to replace Krisnamachyra’s son. Consequently, when an impressed member of the audience asked the guru if Iyengar could travel to Pune (on the other side of the country), Krishnamachyra readily agreed.

The young man arrived in Pune in the late 1930s with 4 rupees, 2 shirts and 1 dhoti. Here he underwent an period of intense practice, doing asanas for 10-12 hours a day. He was still poor, surviving on a few private lessons, stale bread and tea.

Over a period of fifteen years, though, he made his name. In 1951 he was asked to conduct regular classes for the military, then in 1952, he was visited by a European celebrity – the conductor Yehudi Menuhin – who radically changed the young teacher’s life.

Iyengar’s visit to Europe must stand as one of the strangest trips in yoga history. From practicing and teaching in poverty to a largely unappreciative public, Menuhin introduced him to a social high life of European music. Iyengar began to teach musicians in Menuhin’s circle; his flexibility, strength and vitality impressed everyone he met. Later he travelled to the US to teach an heiress of the Standard Oil empire, and the queen of Belgium.

Encouraged by the reception he’d received in Europe, Iyengar began to write his magnum opus, Light on Yoga, which, when published, brought his yoga to the masses in a way that his personal classes never could. By the 1960s he’d gained a reputation all over the western world, and his talks, films and publications continued to attract a wide audience. Today there are many Iyengar institutes in many countries, even in India, the country that for so long had spurned his innovative practice.