Mysore Yoga Traditions
Melkote Yoga Immersion
Eight Days in a Living Tradition
Eight days at a living center of yoga and Vedic knowledge.
An hour from Mysore, in a temple village called Melkote, a community of scholars has kept a tradition of Śrīvaiṣṇava learning alive for centuries. It is one of the four great centers of that tradition in South India, a place of deep study and daily devotional practice. We spend eight days here, practicing and learning with the people who carry it.
What You Will Experience
Sunrise on the hill. Āsana in a thousand-year-old temple.
Each morning begins before dawn. You climb the hill to the Yoga Narasimha Temple for sunrise mantra chanting, led by Śrī Yatindra, Dr. Alwar's nephew and disciple, himself in deep traditional training. Practice then moves to the thousand-year-old Kalyani Temple, built in the time of Rāmānuja, for āsana (the postures), prāṇāyāma (breath work), mudrā (gesture and seal), and meditation.
Afternoons are spent with Dr. Alwar, exploring the temples and pilgrimage sites of Melkote that most visitors never find. We take part in the rituals, hear the stories, and receive detailed explanations of the history and philosophy behind each place from scholars who grew up inside this tradition. Each evening includes a short mantra chanting session with Vidyā, Dr. Alwar's wife: a quiet and beautiful close to the day.
Dr. Alwar & the Living Tradition
A living tradition, kept for over a thousand years.
The sage Rāmānuja, who founded the Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy, was exiled for twelve years in Melkote, and that transmission has continued, generation to generation, to this day.
Over centuries, the scholars of this tradition have preserved a body of philosophy and devotional practice and passed it from one generation to the next. This is the deep Śrīvaiṣṇava world that Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya came from, the teacher whose students carried Ashtanga Yoga to much of the world. What Melkote offers is not the history of the postures, but the living inheritance that gives them meaning: the darśanas, the texts, and a way of life still practiced here every day. Most who practice yoga have never encountered that depth. Coming to Melkote is a chance to meet it directly.
Our guide here is Dr. M. A. Alwar, whose family has carried this teaching across generations within Melkote. The philosophy we engage with during the immersion is the worldview from which the practice emerged, studied in the place where it has been kept alive, with a scholar formed within the tradition he teaches.
What is this lineage? →
When Dr. Alwar is in the temples of his ancestors, a beautiful discourse arises in him. In the places where he grew up and where his tradition has lived for centuries, what he shares is different from anything said behind a microphone in the city. It is a timeless transmission, and to sit with it is a rare thing.
Listen to a talk by Dr. Alwar →Melkote & Its Significance
One of the great centers of yogic and Vedantic knowledge in South India.
Melkote is an ancient temple village an hour and twenty minutes from Mysore. It has been patronized by the Wadiyar Royal Family of Mysore for over four hundred years and carries an unbroken tradition of scholarship and temple worship. To this day it remains a place of serious Sanskrit scholarship and daily temple life.
To come to Melkote is to encounter that background in the living atmosphere of a place that has been in continuous practice since the time of Rāmānuja.
Meals & Accommodation
Two meals a day, cooked by the temple pujārīs.
Accommodation is at SV Comforts Hotel in Melkote: clean, comfortable, and well situated for the week ahead. Two meals are provided each day, along with tea and snacks in the afternoon.
The food is prepared by Śrī Ramapriya and Śrī Rangapriya, pujārīs (temple priests) of the Cheluva Narayana temple. They cook in the tradition they grew up in, and we are fortunate to share what they prepare.
A Day in Melkote
Daily Schedule
Timings may vary from day to day depending on outings and the natural rhythm of the week. Check-in at SV Comforts Hotel begins at noon on February 1st. We meet at the hotel at 3 pm for our first outing together.
All levels of experience are welcome. The morning practice is taught with care for where each student is, whether you have a long-established practice or are newer to the mat.
Practical Information
From the moment you decide to come.
A note for 200-hour trainees
The Melkote week falls within the dates of our 200-hour Traditional Ashtanga Immersion (January 12 to February 8) and is included as the closing week of that program. If you are enrolled in the 200hr, you do not need to book Melkote separately.
We are here to help you plan every part of the trip: visa application, flights, ground transportation, dietary needs, what to pack.
Most students arrive through Bengaluru International Airport (BLR), though direct flights to Mysore are sometimes available and worth checking. We recommend taking a taxi directly rather than connecting onward after a long flight, and we are happy to arrange reliable drivers. If you are traveling from Mysore to Melkote, we can help arrange that as well. It is a beautiful hour-and-twenty-minute drive through the Karnataka countryside.
Visas are required for most nationalities; begin that process well in advance and we will guide you through it. If you would like to arrive early and take time to rest, extra nights of accommodation can be arranged in both Mysore and Melkote.
All meals are vegetarian, with vegan and gluten-free options available. Please let us know your dietary requirements in advance. Wifi is available at the hotel. Bring any medications, supplements, or vitamins you take regularly. We are happy to answer any questions about health, safety, and packing.
The Teachers
The people you will study with.
Dr. Alwar was born and raised in Melkote, son of the late U.Ve. M. A. Lakshmithathacharya Swami. He has studied the philosophy and rituals of this tradition since childhood, as a way of life inherited from birth.
He knows every temple, every kalyāṇī (the stepped temple ponds), every story and every ceremony with the intimacy of someone for whom this is not the past but the present. When he moves through these places, something shifts. The tradition comes alive through him, and knowledge that exists in no book becomes suddenly and directly accessible.
Accompanying us is his nephew and disciple Śrī Yatindra, a young man of deep traditional training, walking the same path and preparing to carry this knowledge forward into the next generation.
To spend eight days in their company is a rare gift. We do not take it lightly, and neither do they.
Read more about the Parampara →
Join me in the ancient temple village of Melkote, right at the roots of Mysore's yoga culture!
Melkote has been part of Mysore's yoga history for centuries. It is one of the most important places in the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition and a center of knowledge and study. We will explore it with Dr. M. A. Alwar and get a first-hand introduction to the temples, the culture, and the philosophy that stand in the background of Ashtanga Yoga.
This is an immersion in every sense of the word. You will be chanting at dawn. You will be practicing āsana in ancient temples. You will be eating food prepared by pujārīs of the Cheluva Narayana temple.
Come meet the Sanskrit community and learn what yoga means in their eyes. To understand a tradition and a culture you have to sit with the elders of that community and experience their world view and their life lessons. The Sanskrit word paramparā literally means "that which is passed from one generation to the next." Simply learning postures in a particular order cannot give you this. It needs time and interaction and exposure.
I first visited Mysore in 1990 and I have been returning ever since, attempting to learn about this tradition. I made my first documentary about it, Mysore Yoga Traditions. What you get here is the benefit of those years and the relationships I have formed along the way. All the while you will be very well taken care of, with good accommodation, food, and transportation.
All of this together is a rich and beautiful experience, and I am so happy to get to share it with you. What you leave with is a completely different picture of the roots of your practice, and a full heart from the kindness, generosity, and openness of the culture that actually stands behind the yoga the whole world enjoys.
Andrew
What happens in Melkote is difficult to describe to someone who has not been there. The temples, the teachings, the food, the dawn chanting on the hill, it settles into you in a way that is hard to explain and impossible to forget. If it is calling you, come.
Pricing & Payment
Eight days, fairly priced.
Eight days including all teachings, accommodation, meals, and transportation within Melkote.
Early registration · $1,500 after October 1, 2026
A $300 deposit reserves your place; balance due before the immersion begins.
As a gesture of gratitude to our conference community, attendees of the Mysore Yoga Conference receive 20% off the full immersion: $1,040 earlybird, $1,200 thereafter.
Email andrew@ashtangayogastudio.com with your conference confirmation to receive the discount code.
Joining us from Mysore for the day? Meet us in Melkote at 3 pm, join the afternoon outing with Dr. Alwar, and stay for a delicious evening meal prepared by the pujārīs of the Cheluva Narayana temple before heading back to Mysore. A remarkable afternoon.
A 50% discount is available for Indian citizens. Please inquire for details.
Melkote in Photographs
