Credit: Penney Sing
B.K.S. Iyengar
14th December 1918 - 20th August 2014
Sri B.K.S. Iyengar was born in Bellur, India. He had a difficult childhood, suffering from many illnesses. His father died when he was 8, leaving the family living in great poverty. By the time he reached 15, he moved to live with his eldest sister and began to study yoga under his brother in law T. Krishnamacharya. He was often taken to classes as an assistant to demonstrate the poses. As he started teaching himself, he realised there was no written method for each pose. Referred to as an encyclopaedia of yoga, he wrote the great book ‘Light on Yoga’ (1966) which still remains an indispensable reference tool. He also invented many of the props we use today to allow all students to work safely in the poses, and studied how yoga could be used as a treatment for serious medical conditions. Mr Iyengar realised how yoga not only strengthens the muscles, but also the respiratory system, circulatory system and nervous system, ultimately to unify the body and mind.
He was instrumental in bringing yoga to the West, famously with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin whom he met in 1952 in Bombay. Iyengar was a relatively unknown yoga teacher at the time and Menuhin, exhausted from his violin concerts, almost refused to meet him. Iyengar put Menuhin into a lying down position, savasana, and taught him how to relax. From that moment, their friendship developed. At the end of Iyengar’s visit in 1954, Menuhin gave him a watch engraved with, “to my best Violin teacher“. Through Menuhin, Iyengar met many influential people, and so his method of yoga teaching spread.
He wrote several other books: including Light on Pranayama, Light on the Yoga Sutras, The Tree of Yoga and Light on Life.
In memory of his late wife Ramamani, he set up the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India in 1975 and he continued to practise here until shortly before his death. His son, Prashant, and his granddaughter, Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar, carry on his work at the RIMYI to this day.
He was probably the world’s greatest yoga teacher.
Geeta Iyengar
7 December 1944 – 16 December 2018
Geeta Iyengar, was the eldest daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar and was "the world's leading female yoga teacher". She studied yoga from a very young age, and soon started helping her father teaching if he was away. She was especially instrumental in the study of yoga for women, adapting the sequences and postures to suit women during their different stages of life. She was the author of the well known book “Yoga: A Gem for Women”.
In addition to teaching at RIMYI, Geeta travelled the world to carry on the Iyengar tradition, but mostly taught from the RIMYI in Pune, right up until her death in 2018, aged 74. She was a great inspiration to many.
Prashant Iyengar
Born 1949
Prashant S. Iyengar is B.K.S. Iyengar’s son, who continues the Iyengar Yoga tradition. He has a particular focus on breathing and the quality of the poses, rather than just mechanical movements. He has written extensively about yoga.
He teaches from the RIMIYI in Pune and travels the world to host workshops and conventions for other students.
ABHIJATA IYENGAR
Abhijata Iyengar practised Iyengar Yoga as a child, but she did not immediately know she would become a teacher. She achieved a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 2003, and a Masters in Bioinformatics in 2005, and it was only when she had to decide whether to study for a PHD that her path changed, and she started teaching Iyengar Yoga. Having been taught by her grandfather B.K.S Iyengar and her aunt Geeta Iyengar, this was a natural progression for her. However, unlike her aunt and uncle, she has a young family to juggle, which makes her teaching style very approachable.
She now is a senior teacher at the RIMIYI in Pune, with her uncle Prashant. She travels the world teaching internationally, continuing the traditions of her family. In response to a question about the most important thing she learnt from her grandfather, Abhi said: “I vividly remember he said ‘life is as dynamic as the River Amazon. As that river flows, life flows with that energy, hence your practice and your living has to be so dynamic’.”
