YOGAJOURNAL.COM 87OPPOSITE: CASSIE MATIAS/UNSPLASHTHIS PAGE: ASHIM D SILVA/UNSPLASH
IMPORTANT
PLACES
FOR YOGAMYSORE
Located in the southwestern state of
Karnataka, this former capital of the
Kingdom of Mysore is home to the
opulent Mysore Palace and centuries-
old Devaraja Market. Mysore
was also home to Sri Tirumalai
Krishnamacharya, an Indian yoga
teacher, Ayurvedic healer, and scholar
who’s often referred to as the father
of modern yoga. Yoga students may
know it as the birthplace of Ashtanga
Yoga, where the Ashtanga Yoga
Research Institute was established
in 1948 and where Ashtanga
practitioners from all over the world
travel to practice and train.PUNE
B.K.S. Iyengar was born in 1918 in
Bellur, a city that was in the grip of
the influenza pandemic at the time.
An attack left Iyengar sick throughout
his childhood, and when he was 16
years old, his brother-in-law—Sri
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya—asked
him to come to Mysore to help with
the family. There, Iyengar started
to learn asana, which steadily
helped his health improve. In 1936,
Krishnamacharya sent Iyengar to
Pune to spread the teaching of yoga.
Now, Pune is home to the Ramamani
Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute—
which Iyengar opened in 1975, and
is considered the heart and soul of
Iyengar Yoga. Iyengar students from
all over the world come here to
practice and train with the institute’s
esteemed teachers.MYSORE