Yoga Korunta
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The Yoga Korunta is a purported ancient text on yoga written in sanskrit by Vamana Rishi and allegedly discovered by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in the National Archives of India in the early 20th century.[1] Krishnamacharya later related an oral translation of the text to his students, such as K. Pattabhi Jois and B. K. S. Iyengar. Jois used it as the basis to create the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga system.[2] The original text reportedly was not preserved, and its historicity and existence has been questioned.[3] According to Mark Singleton's Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, this legacy of Krishnamacharya is one of the bases for "power struggles" among competing methods of modern yoga.[4]
It is said to have been made up of stanzas using rhymed, metered sutras, in the manner common to texts transmitted orally in the guru-shishya tradition.
The text is said to have described several lists of many different asana groupings, as well as highly original teachings on vinyasa, drishti, bandhas, mudras and general teachings.[5]
The name Yoga Korunta may be the Tamilized pronunciation of the Sanskrit words Yoga grantha, meaning "book about yoga". Alternatively, there may be some connection with the name Kapālakuruṇṭaka, the author of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati.[6]
So a text authored by the yogi named Kurantaka does exist and is also known to some Sanskrit scholars in India. I subsequently learnt that it is usually referred to as the ‘Kapala Kurantaka.’[7]
References
- ^ Smith, Benjamin Richard. "Body, mind and spirit? Towards an analysis of the practice of yoga." Body & Society 13.2 (2007): 25-46.
- ^ Kavalya, Alanna (April 28, 2012). "How We Got Here: Where Yoga Poses Come From". Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
- ^ Cushman, Anne (July–August 1999). "New Light on Yoga: From Loincloths to Leotards, Yoga has come a long way in 500 years. But is yoga as we know it really that old?". Yoga Journal (147): 46.
- ^ Singleton, Mark (February 10, 2010). Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0195395341.
- ^ "Ashtanga Yoga Background". ashtanga.com. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ^ "Jacqueline Hargreaves: Hathābhyāsapaddhati- A Precursor of Modern Yoga | YogaJaya". YogaJaya. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
- ^ Russell, James."YOGA KORUNTA - UNEARTHING AN ASHTANGA LEGEND" , James Russell's Blog, Devon, 11/11/15. Retrieved on 20 September 2017.
Sources
- Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois. "Ashtanga Yoga". Ashtanga Yoga Research Center. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2007-08-07.