The Ashtanga Yoga we know today comes from a lost manuscript, the Yoga Korunta, found by Sri T. Krishnamacharya and then transmitted by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Here is the story of this lineage and of its name.
The discovery of the Yoga Korunta
Thanks to the patronage of the Maharajah of Mysore, Sri T. Krishnamacharya travelled through northern India to spread the science of yoga. In the 1930s, in the university library of Calcutta, he came upon an ancient manuscript written on palm leaves — the “Yoga Korunta”, by a sage named Vāmana Ṛṣi. A specialist in ancient Sanskrit, he understood that it belonged to an oral tradition older still.
Following this discovery, Krishnamacharya asked Sri K. Pattabhi Jois to devote himself exclusively to this original method and to pass it on. From 1937, in Mysore, Pattabhi Jois taught the Yoga Korunta.
From André Van Lysebeth to the first Westerners
In the late 1960s, André Van Lysebeth — the first European yoga teacher — studied with Pattabhi Jois and made him known through admiring articles in his magazine Yoga.
Around 1973, Americans attended a demonstration by Manju Jois near Pondicherry: Norman Allen became Guruji’s student, followed by Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams.
From “Yoga Korunta” to “Ashtanga Yoga”
Pattabhi Jois chose the term “Ashtanga” in reference to yoga, one of the six darśana of Indian philosophy. In the Yoga Sūtra, verse II-29 defines aṣṭāṅga yoga, the “eight limbs”. Because his institute was called the “Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute of Mysore”, the American students believed he taught a yoga named “Ashtanga Yoga” — and the name stayed. In 1975 the practice spread from California to Hawaii.
In Europe, the first to spread it were Jean-Pierre Radhu (Belgium) and Gabriel Plessis (1972); Jean-Bernard Rishi published illustrated booklets with Guruji’s agreement. Then Jean-Claude Garnier (1978) and Serge Fonteneau took up this teaching and made it their mission to share it.
Today this traditional form is one of the most widely practised in the world. Sharath Rangaswamy, Pattabhi Jois’s grandson, passes on in turn what he learned from his grandfather.
Further reading
- Yoga Mala — Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.
- Ashtanga Yoga — John Scott.
- Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual — David Swenson.