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K. Pattabhi Jois

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Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois (Template:Lang-kn)(July 26, 1915[1] – May 18, 2009[2]) was an Indian yoga teacher. He was a student of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, and taught at his school, the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, in Mysore, India.

Biography

Jois was born on July 26, 1915, (Guru Pūrṇimā, full moon day) in the village of Kowshika,[3] near Hassan, Karnataka, South India.

Jois's father was an astrologer, priest, and landholder. From the age of 5 he was instructed in Sanskrit and rituals by his father, as were all Brahmin boys. No one else in his family had learned yoga or even professed interest in it.[4]

In 1927, at the age of 12, Jois attended a lecture and demonstration at the Jubilee Hall[5] in Hassan by T. Krishnamacharya[6] and became his student the very next day. For two years Jois remained in Kowshika and practiced with Krishnamacharya every day. Jois never told his family he was practicing yoga. He would rise early, go to practice, and then go to school.

In 1930, Jois ran away from home to Mysore to study Sanskrit, with 2 rupees.[1][7] Around the same time Krishnamacharya departed Hassan to teach elsewhere. Two years later, Jois was reunited with Krishnamacharya, who had also made his way to Mysore. During this time, the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar, had become seriously ill and it is said that Krishnamacharya had healed him, through yoga, where others had failed. The Maharaja became Krisnamacharya's patron and established a Yoga shala for him on the palace grounds. Jois often accompanied Krishnamacharya in demonstrations.[8] Krishnamacharya remained in Mysore with Jois until 1941, when he left for Madras after the death of the Maharaja.

Jois remained in Mysore and married a young woman named Savitramma[7] (but who came to be known as Amma), on the full moon of June 1937 when Jois was 21 years old. In 1948 they, with the help of Jois' students, purchased a home in the section of town called Lakshmipuram, where they lived with their children Saraswathi, Mañju and Ramesh.

He held a teaching position in yoga at the Sanskrit College[8] of Maharaja from 1937 to 1973,[9], becoming vidwan (professor) in 1956,[9] as well as being Honorary Professor of Yoga at the Government College of Indian Medicine from 1976 to 1978.[10] He taught there until 1973, when he left to devote himself fully to teach yoga at his yoga shala. He had studied texts such as the Patanjali Yoga Darshana, Hathayoga Pradeepika, Suta Samhita, Yoga Yajnavalkya and the Upanishads,[10] and in 1948, he established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute at their new home in Lakshmipuram.[11]

In 1964, a Belgian named André Van Lysebeth (1919-2004) spent two months with Jois learning the primary and intermediate asanas of the Ashtanga Yoga system. Not long afterwards, van Lysebeth wrote a book called J'apprends le Yoga (1967, English title: Yoga Self-Taught) which mentioned Jois and included his address. This marked the beginning of westerners coming to Mysore to study yoga.[7] His students included Madonna, Sting and Gwyneth Paltrow.[6] All his students, including the celebrities and his grandson, received the same training.[7]

His first trip to the West was in 1974 to South America, to deliver a speech in Sanskrit at an international yoga conference.[9] In 1975 he stayed for four months in Encinitas, California, marking the beginning of Ashtanga yoga in the US.[12] He would return to the US several times over the next 20 years, to teach yoga at Encinatas and elsewhere.[12]

He wrote his only book, Yoga Mala, in Kannada in 1958, and it was published in 1962, but was not published in English until 1999.[12] A film was made about him by Robert Wilkins.[13]

Jois continued to teach at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, now located in the neighbourhood of Gokulam,[3] with his only daughter Saraswathi Rangaswamy (b. 1941) and his grandson Sharath[8] (b. 1971), until he died aged 93 of natural causes in Mysore.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Pattabhi Jois: Ashtanga yoga guru, The Times
  2. ^ Pattabhi Jois passes into the ages
  3. ^ a b YOGA GURU K. PATTABHI JOIS IS NO MORE. RIP., churumuri
  4. ^ Stern, Eddie. Foreword in "Yoga Mala" by Pattabhi Jois. New York: North Point Press, 2002.
  5. ^ The second most famous Mysorean in the world, churumuri
  6. ^ a b At the pearly gates in dhoti, vibhuti, pump shoes, Sunaad Raghuram, churumuri
  7. ^ a b c d Krishna Pattabhi Jois, Leading Expert in Yoga, Dies at 93, The New York Times
  8. ^ a b c Jois @ work: ‘Bad lady, why forgetting bakasana?’, churumuri
  9. ^ a b c Pattabhi Jois, Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Passes Away at Age 93, Huffington Post
  10. ^ a b Yoga exponent Pattabhi Jois dead, The Hindu
  11. ^ Yoga pioneer Pattabhi Jois dies, BBC News
  12. ^ a b c K. Pattabhi Jois, leading teacher of Ashtanga yoga, dies at 94, Los Angeles Times
  13. ^ Guru, a film by Robert Wilkins

References

  • Stern, Eddie and Summerbell, Deirdre, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois: A Tribute. New York: Eddie Stern and Gwyneth Paltrow, 2002.
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