Yoga Makaranda

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Yoga Makaranda
Yogasana Samasthiti Kramam"
AuthorTirumalai Krishnamacharya
CountryIndia
LanguageKannada
SubjectModern yoga
GenreInstruction manual
Publication date
1934
Published in English
2006, 2011

Yoga Makaranda (Sanskrit: योग मकरन्द​), meaning "Essence of Yoga", is a 1934 book on hatha yoga by the influential pioneer of yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Most of the text is a description of 42 asanas accompanied by 95 photographs of Krishnamacharya and his students executing the poses. There is a brief account of practices other than asanas, which form just one of the eight limbs of classical yoga, that Krishnamacharya "did not instruct his students to practice".[1]

The yoga scholar

vinyasa system of yoga.[6]

Context

The Maharaja of Mysore sponsored the book, which had been intended to be the first of a series. 1906 painting by K. Keshavayya

Yogananda, and Yogendra.[7]

The yoga teacher

vinyasa krama", which was the way Krishnamacharya taught yoga to children in the Mysore palace. Other practices which he strongly endorsed like pranayama and meditation were to be topics of later books and were therefore not covered.[8][9]

Krishnamacharya's disciple and biographer A. G. Mohan states that the book was written "in three nights" according to Krishnamacharya's wife, at the behest of the Maharaja. Mohan notes without comment that the book covers yoga practices other than asanas that Krishnamacharya "did not instruct his students to practice".[1]

Book

Publication and translation

Yoga Makaranda was published in the

T.K.V. Desikachar was published in paperback in 2011 and online in 2013.[10]

Contents

The book is introduced with a discussion of why yoga should be practised, the

shatkriyas) and seals (mudras). The bulk of the book is taken up with a description of 42 asanas.[YM 6]

Approach

Each asana is described with some paragraphs of instructions, and illustrated with one or more photographs. The student is instructed how to stand, and which limbs should be straight. For many poses, the

vinyasa is used with the meaning of "stage in the execution of an asana". For example, Sarvangasana is introduced with the words "This has 12 vinyasas [stages]. The 8th vinyasa is the asana sthiti [the actual pose]."[YM 7]

Illustrations

There are four photographs of Krishnamacharya's Yogasala showing the hall and students. The chapter on asanas is illustrated with 95 monochrome photographs, each of an individual performing the named pose. Many are of Krishnamacharya himself; others are of his students, including T. R. S. Sharma as a boy, or of Keshavamurthy, stated by Elliott Goldberg to be his favourite student, who performs difficult poses such as Durvasasana (standing with one leg behind the neck).[11] Some poses, such as Krishnamacharya demonstrating Mayurasana, are on a tiger skin.[YM 8]

Nomenclature

Krishnamacharya names the asanas, in Sanskrit, by the parts of the body and the stretches involved. For example "Adhomukha Uttanasana" means "Face Down Extended Stretch Pose", while "Supta Utthita Dakshinapada Janusirsasana" is "Reclining Extended Right Foot Head to Knee Pose"; a glossary of Sanskrit is provided in the text.[YM 9]

Reception

Pattabhi Jois's students.[2]

The yoga scholar

Pattabhi Jois [though] very few have actually seen it".[2] He quotes the original introduction by V. Subhramananya Iyer, which called the book "a result of the many tests conducted under the special orders of the Maharaja of Mysore", in other words that the book "was intended to be, and in practice was, experimental (his italics)".[3] Singleton observes that the book called for the asanas to be held for long periods (3 to 15 minutes), arguing that the rapid sequences inherited by his pupil Pattabhi Jois were a special case, even then.[12]

The yoga scholar Norman Sjoman is critical of the book's perfunctory treatment of both academic requirements and yogic practices other than asanas. He comments that Krishnamacharya's list of sources "reveals his relation to tradition", but is "a padded academic bibliography with works referred to that have nothing to do with the tradition he is teaching in".[4] The list includes for instance the well-known hatha yoga texts, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Gheranda Samhita and the Sritattvanidhi as well as the Yoga Upanishads. Sjoman gives as an example the recommendations for vajroli mudra which call for "a glass rod to be inserted into the urethra [of the penis] an inch at a time. His recommendations show that he has most certainly not experimented with this himself in the manner he recommends."[4]

Elliott Goldberg calls this image from Yoga Makaranda of Krishnamacharya with his students performing asanas in the Mysore palace "showy" and "eye-catching" rather than spiritual.[13]

The yoga scholar

atma[n].[16] He notes that Krishnamacharya was following the traditional interpretation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, that the eight limbs formed a sequence of steps.[17]

See also

  • Light on Yoga, Krishnamacharya's pupil B. K. S. Iyengar's 1966 encyclopedia of yoga asanas
  • Yoga Body, Mark Singleton's 2010 book on the origins of global yoga in physical culture

References

Primary

These references are supplied to indicate the parts of the Yoga Makaranda text being discussed.

  1. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 1
  2. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 3
  3. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 17
  4. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 25
  5. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 33
  6. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, pp. 51–151
  7. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 146
  8. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, p. 145
  9. ^ Krishnamacharya 2006, pp. 159–161

Secondary

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8348-2249-8
    .
  2. ^ a b c Singleton 2010, p. 9.
  3. ^ a b Singleton 2010, p. 186.
  4. ^ a b c Sjoman 1999, p. 66 (note 69).
  5. ^ a b Goldberg 2016, p. 218.
  6. ^ a b c Goldberg 2016, pp. 240–242.
  7. ^ Campion, Mukti Jain (17 June 2016). The Secret History of Yoga. BBC. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  8. ^ "Introduction to the Yoga Makaranda by TKV Desikachar". Centre for Yoga Studies. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  9. ^ Desikachar, T. K. V. (November 1993). "Introduction to the Yoga Makaranda" (PDF). KYM Darśanam (November 1993).
  10. ISBN 978-81-926674-1-6
    .
  11. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 219.
  12. ^ Singleton 2010, pp. 195–196.
  13. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 218, 221–222.
  14. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 221–222.
  15. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 238.
  16. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 358.
  17. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 422.

Sources

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