The Yoga Makaranda was Krishnamacharya's first book, it was written in 1932, supposedly over four days and published in the Kanada language in 1934 and later translated into Tamil. It was clearly a major influence on Krishanamacharya's student Sri K Patarbhi Jois's own book Yoga Mala and of the Ashtanga practice we know and love, as well as many of the current popular styles of Yoga.
Last Summer I was fortunate enough to study the text, line-by-line with Ramaswami, Krishnamacharya's student of over thirty years, on his 200 hour Vinyasa Krama TT course.
This book may well be considered the source, the holy grail and thanks to the generosity of Lakshmi & Nandini Ranganathan the text has now been made freely available such that we can decide for ourselves, enjoy.
'...I ask that you do not sell it but you are welcome to put it on a website for anybody to download, to email further, or to lend your manuscript to be copied by anybody. It does have typos (remember, we did this in 2006 and planned to do a final revision or new edition later) but I think it is actually otherwise reasonable (we would welcome corrections and comments). Most importantly, it will accomplish our goal that people read what Krishnamacarya had to say without interruption and without censorship. The book is powerful and wonderful and I hope any of you that reads it finds it as meaningful and relevant as we did.'
Nandini (Ranganathan).
Another version of the text has just been published by Media Garuda, I ordered a copy, which arrived this week, before I was aware of a dispute regarding their edition. The background to this dispute can be found HERE, I leave you to make up your own minds about it.
The Media Garudu edition is, it has to be said, a nicely produced book. The pictures are beautiful and it has a nice layout. At the back are a series of line drawings showing the vinyasas in and out of the postures as outlined in the text. It also has footnotes. My first impression of these were that they often seemed to seek to bring the 1930's text in line with a more recent conception of Yoga possibly held by the publishers that did not seem necessarily in keeping with the original text, but perhaps I'm being unfair.
In the next few days I'll be doing a parallel reading of the texts to see how they compare and get back to you.
21 comments:
cool, thank you for all the links G
Didn't give too much away did I? no peeking : )
You know it... :-) it is kind of cool that is open for the world to see anyway now... I am glad. Now I just need some time aside to sit and read... I kind of want to read before the other one arrives.
Definately, I was fortunate enough to be able to study it line by line with Ramaswami last year, haven't really felt able to discuss it here because it wasn't really available., until now.
Actually, looking at the two I think it's good to read this one first and then look at what they've done with this 'revised edition'.
Nice holiday reading.
Thank you Grimmly i will be checking this out!
David G
How very nice. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for posting this!
Yeah thanks for the update Grimmly, i tried ordering the KHYF one a few weeks back and couldn't order it from the web, so i mailed them and they got back to me and its on order i think, then i inadvertently found the other by googling it, i couldn't believe it, i was skeptical about the translation and have read some, funny the way things are looking so thanks for the heads up...
Thank You Grimmly! Well...at least I think...I printed it out! All 167pages and now need new toner :~P
haha!! Well worth it!
Your all most welcome, wonderful that the translators have made it so freely available. Now if only someone would do the same with his Yogasanagalu, I've only seen a copy of the Kanadada edition, great pictures though.
Apologies to everyone's toner cartridges
My toner cartridge can deal. This is why we have toner cartridges! Amazing to be able to finally read this. Can't wait for your upcoming posts on it...
Lot's of little differences, don't suppose they matter as long as the essentials are retained.
Of course that begs the question......
I had to put it down last night when I read:
Once you can retain your breath for 1.5 hours then gently pull your intestines out and wash them in the river... Need new stomach to continue reading today... hee hee
Ahhh the Kriya section, imagine, we had to read all those out loud. I think many of them are from the old yoga upanishads ( which are available on the kindle app by the way).
Yeah, the kryas... goodness! we did some at TT in Thailand, but the one where you drink the water till full and then expell by the anus, I mean, I know, I am bad, I am going to yoga hell, I just cannot stop laughing, maybe I need to get the teenager out of my system, is just... like imagining how exactly does that happen?, I can't quite get my mind around it...
I remember asking about the one of the intestines coming out, because when I first heard I just could not believe it, and a teacher telling me it was"urban myth... " but it is here in the book, I suppose, as Quentin points out quite a bit may be lost in translation
Thanks for that Quentin
I remember Ramaswami talking about how remarkable the old yogi's were in addressing all areas of the body, through the kriya', postures that stimulate blood circulation throught, postures where the heel or some part of the body is push in to stimulate the internal organs ( mari D say), the range of pranayama's, chanting, as well as the meditative practices, amazing range. We might smile at some of the kriya's now but when you think about problem of parasites even today in india, giving some love to your colon makes some sense.
Still, happy to give most of these a miss.
Wonder how many of these he tried himself. Seem to remember him saying somewhere that you only need a couple of these will try to find the quote.
Are you enjoying it though Claudia. on the course we read it, a paragraph each then, when we got to the asana section we would try the postures in the asana class. if you look at the slideshow i made a little while back with Ramaswami chanting you can see we have the book out beside our mat's as we try out the postures as he described them.
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.com/2011/03/srivats-ramaswamis-chanting-on-2011.html
Thanks for the link. I've tweeted, reposted on blog and fb. Can't wait for your upcoming entries!
So I've taken interest in the makaranda, especially section 3.6. So far I have been practicing Neti kriya: Jala and Sutra, and Kapalantra Dhauti for the past week. I have noticed some improvement. There are others that I want to try out, like Nauli Kriya, Trataka Kriya, and Vastra Dhauti. Have you done any in this section and or anything similar?
I've used neti quite a bit. Always wanted to try vastra dhauti but think I'd rather wait and do it with somebody wh knows what they're doing. Nauli i used to do but haven't practiced for ages. Trataka I did for a while, staring at a candle but again, seem to have stopped practicing most of these. i should visit them again.
dear friend!
My name is Alexey and I`m from Russia.
I`ve got a question on authencity of Nandini`s source. There are some opininions(Norman Syoman in "Summary
of Research on Yoga") that none has the real edition of 1934`Makaranda so there couldn`t be any trustful source for that book. Shortly, the real book is lost and hardly ever coul be brought back...
Now i`m translating Nandini`s version into Russsian and would like to ask you first give some comments on that(facts rather tnan emotions))) and second be so kind as to send me Nandini`s e-mail if you have one....Thank you ,Bro!
ayoga@list.ru
Sorry Alexey, I don't have Nandini Ranganathan email address.
Isn't it the Yoga Korunta that Sjoman is questioning the existence of? I'm not aware of anyone questioning the authenticity of Krishnamacharya's own Yoga makaranda. I have Sjoman's Yoga Yradition book but haven't read the article 'Summary of Yoga' is there anything new in it, different than his book?
Good luck with your translation.
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.