Mysore Yoga Traditions
The Origins of Mysore Yoga
One window onto a city of many traditions, and the practice that came from it.
A Brief Introduction
Much of the yoga practised around the world came from Mysore. When something has changed our lives as this practice has, it is only natural to want to know where it came from. I have been studying the cultural history of this city for some years now, and I would like to share a little of what I have learned.
I will start by saying that if we go looking for a simple ancient pedigree behind a particular āsana practice, the history may prove more complicated than we expect. At least as far as my own studies have revealed, it is simply not that straightforward.
What can be said is that Mysore has an extraordinarily rich history, and that it is truly an honour to have learned yoga from such a remarkable community. The longer I study, the more astonished I become at how many layers and facets there are.
Mysore is a city of many traditions: Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, and Śākta; Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and Dvaita; families, maṭhas, temples, and colleges that have been teaching, reciting, debating, and worshipping alongside one another for centuries, within a culture of learning long supported by the Mysore court. No single account could contain that world, and this one does not try.
What follows traces one of the living threads within it: a Śrīvaiṣṇava paramparā descended from Rāmānuja through Ananthāchārya. It has been opened to me by one of my most revered teachers, Śrī U.Ve. Prof. M.A. Lakṣmīthāthāchārya Swami, and by his son, my teacher Dr. M.A. Alwar. Much of what is shared here comes through their family's history, scholarship, memory, and living transmission. To be allowed even a glimpse into that world is something I regard with deep gratitude.
Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya also came from the Śrīvaiṣṇava world, a tradition with many branches, houses, and centres of learning, shaped by his own family inheritance, his own teachers and institutions, and his own course of study. His formation is a story worth telling carefully, and best told by those who hold it. What this page offers is one window, and through it something of the wider atmosphere of Mysore begins to come into view: a city where Vedānta, Sanskrit scholarship, devotional practice, temple culture, royal patronage, and yoga lived in continual proximity.
This account reflects my ongoing study, still deepening the longer I sit with it. Whatever depth and truth you find here belongs to the tradition and to the teachers who shared it; any shortcoming is mine alone. It is offered with gratitude, and in the spirit the tradition itself keeps: the door is open to all who sincerely seek.
Śrīvaiṣṇavism: The Philosophical Foundation
The philosophy of Viśiṣṭādvaita, propagated by Rāmānuja and his predecessors, is rooted in the Upaniṣads, the Brahma Sūtras, and the Bhagavad Gita. The Āḻvārs of South India experienced these truths directly; their outpourings, the Divya Prabandham, form the Tamil canon of the tradition. Together with the Sanskrit Vedānta, they constitute the Ubhaya Vedānta, the twin canon central to all Śrīvaiṣṇavas. The tradition also holds the Pāñcarātra and Vaikhānasa Āgama traditions, and the Rahasya tradition.
What distinguishes Śrīvaiṣṇavism is the direct, person-to-person relationship between ācārya and śiṣya. The aspirant begins with samāśrayaṇa, approaching an ācārya of the sampradāya in complete sincerity. If accepted, the aspirant is then received into the tradition through the Pañca Saṃskāra, the five rites of initiation that form the core of the Iyengar tradition. The rites themselves are personal and not named here. Following Rāmānuja's tenets, the door is open to all who sincerely seek, regardless of caste, creed, or background.
His life, his work, and the lineage he carried are remembered on a page of their own.
In loving memory of Sri U.Ve. Prof. M.A. Lakshmithathacharya Swami