T Krishnamacharya


Picture courtesy of KYM Archives

Shri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was one of India's most respected authorities on the Vedic tradition and Yoga Teachings and practice.

He was born in Karnataka State in South India in 1888 and belonged to a family of distinguished ancestry. Among his forebears was the 9th century teacher and sage Nathamuni. Shri Nathamuni was a great Teacher who created remarkable works, such as the Nyaya Tattva. In his youth, Shri Krishnamacharya experienced insights around some of these teachings in a mystic dream whilst on a pilgrimage. Many of his later teachings were influenced by this ancient sage’s approach to spiritual practice.

T Krishnamacharya began his formal education at the age of six, at the Parakala Math in Mysore. His thirst for knowledge gave him the opportunity to travel widely and seek all aspects of the Vedic tradition from the best teachers across India. His formal education, largely in Sanskrit, included degrees from several universities in North India. He in turn studied and mastered these systems and was bestowed with titles such as Samkhya Yoga Sikhamani, Mimamsa Tirtha, Nyayacarya, Vedanta Vagisa and Veda Kesari. He was also a master of Ayurveda (the ancient Indian system of healing) and Sanskrit.

At the age of twenty-eight, he trekked over 200 miles to Lake Manosarovar at the foot of Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas in Western Tibet, to learn Yoga from Ram Mohana Brahmacari. He stayed for over seven years returning on his teacher's instructions to South India to teach. Being a master in many subjects, Krishnamacharya was offered high scholastic positions in great institutes of learning. Instead he chose to be a Yoga teacher to fulfil the promise he made to his own teacher in Tibet. Eventually he came to establish a school of yoga in the palace of the Maharajah of Mysore.
To download the article “The King and the Young Man” as a PDF file please click the logo

On many occasions he demonstrated the great potentials of yoga in different areas of health and self-control over oneself. The most prominent among them was being able to stop the heart beat for more than two minutes, using yogic practices. With his vast learning in yoga as well as other systems of Indian Philosophy, he emphasized that the practice of yoga must be adapted to the individual, and not the individual to yoga. This was probably one of his most significant contributions in the field of health and healing through yoga. Some of his early students, such as Pattabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar and the late Indra Devi, became renowned teachers themselves.

After Independence and the closing of the school he moved to Madras where he became well-known for his therapeutic use of yoga. He was married and had six children, two of whom are also teaching yoga.

Sri Krishnamacharya is now becoming renowned the world over as an accomplished exponent of Yoga, and a major influence in shaping what we see as Yoga in the West. He was also a visionary who had a sense of the atrophy that Vedic study would face in modern times. He made it his lifetime work to nurture Vedic culture by teaching Yoga, Sanskrit and the Vedas, to one and all who sought him. Tracing the genesis of Vedavani, a center for teaching Vedic chanting, which was inaugurated in 1999 under the auspices of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, TKV Desikachar linked its roots to his father's conviction that teaching of the Vedas had to be kept alive at all costs.

Undaunted by the criticism that the Vedas cannot be chanted by everyone, he taught the Vedas, on the authority of the scriptures that such stringent regulations could be set aside at times when there was threat to dharma (Apadkala), which was true of this age. Even though it may not be possible to follow the same system of teaching in such an institution, it was more important to retain the spirit of the tradition, said Desikachar, in an address at the inaugural function of Vedavani, a centre established solely to teach Vedic Chanting.

He died in 1989, and his death, at the age of 100, marked the passing of a great sage and teacher.

TKV Desikachar


Picture courtesy of KYM Archives

Today the tradition and teaching of Shri T Krishnamacharya is being perpetuated and developed by his son and long time pupil TKV Desikachar.
To download the article “My Father’s Yoga” as a PDF file please click the logo

TKV Desikachar was born in Mysore, Karnataka, the fourth child of Shri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his wife, Shrimati Namagiriammal, sister of BKS Iyengar. As the son of the eminent Shri Krishnamacharya, Desikachar could not help but be exposed to the richness and depth of Indian culture while growing up. However, in spite of the portent of his namesake, the great sage Vedanta Desika, the young Desikachar was encouraged to seek a modern education. Accordingly, he completed a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and his early adult life saw him successfully pursuing his career as a civil engineer. Yet the influence of his father’s teaching was still present and able to cause a change of direction in Desikachar’s life.

This happened in 1961, when Desikachar was visiting his parents’ house in Madras on route to northern India. One morning about 6.00am he was awakened by the sound of a foreign woman knocking at the door and demanding to see “the professor”. Before he could take stock of what was happening, Desikachar was astonished to see this Western woman run down the path, and fling her arms around Shri Krishnamacharya as he emerged from his quarters while exclaiming, “I slept! I slept!” Despite his Western style education, the young Desikachar was unprepared for the sight of a foreign woman hugging the austere and reverential figure of his South Indian Brahmin father. Witnessing her relief at overcoming her chronic and severe insomnia led Desikachar to appreciate the healing power of yoga and Krishnamacharya’s extraordinary mastery of its art and application. He determined to find out more about it, and very soon thereafter gave up his engineering pursuits in favour of extensive studies with his father. He continued with his studies for nearly three decades, and went on to co-found an Institute that bears his father’s name.

The Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram was founded in 1976 in Madras with the aim of making available the heritage of Yoga and in later years Vedic Chanting as taught by Shri Krishnamacharya. TKV Desikachar was one of the founders and managing trustee of the KYM. It provides assistance to people coming from all over India as well as elsewhere, by means of careful assessment and individualised treatment. Accordingly, it is recognised by the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The KYM also provides ongoing training and consultation on a number of special projects, including for example, training programmes for teachers of children with learning difficulties. In addition it offers a special two year teacher training diploma course in yoga studies.
Link to the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram

In 1999 due to the tremendous interest in Vedic Chanting a separate unit called Vedavani was established solely to teach Vedic Chanting with specialised teachers in individual and small group situations.
To download the article “Sound - A means beyond Asana and Pranayama” as a PDF file please click the logo

Under Desikachar's guidance the KYM and Vedavani have developed into important teaching and therapy centres receiving students from all over the world as well as India.

Teaching regularly in many counties around the world, TKV Desikachar has come to be recognized as an authority in Yoga and Vedic Chanting, representing his father’s teachings in prestigious international conventions and conferences. He has authored numerous books and is frequently invited to contribute articles on Yoga health, psychology and spirituality to Indian newspapers and journals both in English and Tamil.
To download the article “Yoga in the XXIst Century” as a PDF file please click the logo

2006 marked the thirtieth anniversary of Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. To honour this occasion and acknowledge TKV Desikachar's outstanding contribution to the world of yoga, a special commemorative book " TKV Desikachar - A Tribute" was released at London on 31st March 2006. This tribute was made possible through the generous support of students and well-wishers from around the world.
To download the book “TKV Desikachar - A Tribute” as a PDF please click on the logo

The past few years have also seen the increasing emphasis in the promoting of the name of Desikachar’s father and teacher the eminent T Krishnamacharya as a Yoga master of profound influence to the development of Yoga in the West and the emergence of Desikachar’s son Kausthub as a force in the Yoga teaching world.

The latest step from the movement to represent the teachings of T Krishnamacharya globally is the founding of the Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation (KHYF) on January 1 2006 by TKV Desikachar along with Kausthub. With Desikachar’s son and primary student Kausthub in a leading role, it is an organization committed to spreading the holistic yoga teachings of Yogacarya Sri T Krishnamacharya.
Link to the Krishnmacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation

TKV Desikachar lives in Chennai with his wife Menaka who as his longtime student teaches Yoga and Vedic Chant. They have a daughter Mekhala, also teaching Yoga and Vedic Chant, two sons Bushan and Kausthub and three grandchildren.“

"Teach what is inside you.
Not as it applies to you,
to yourself,
but as it applies to the other."

- T Krishnamacharya