Re-posted from 5th January 2012
I was just skimming through the Yoga unveiled documentary and came across the Ashtanga section, nice clip of Pattabhi Jois pointing to that old picture from Krishanamacharya's Yoga Makaranda and saying " That's Me ( in Kapotasana ) and that's Krishnamacharya (standing on top of him).
Interesting hand position in his Kapo, they're almost underneath the ankles rather than on top.
'About the Film
Harnessing the colorful commentary of the most prominent yoga scholars, teachers, and medical experts, Yoga Unveiled reveals how yoga began, tells the story of yoga's passage to the West, describes its numerous branches, recounts the fascinating biographies of the foremost yoga masters, and explores yoga's astonishing medical potential.
Stunning cinematography, ornate visual displays, and stirring music create a truly enchanting viewing experience. The great devotees of yoga grace the screen with their profound wisdom and delightful manner.
Yoga Unveiled also features commentary by Krishna Das, Dr. Herbert Benson, Edwin Bryant, Subhash Kak, Vasant Lad, Dr. Timothy McCall, Larry Payne, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Father Joe Pereira, Swami Sivananda, Dr. Martina Ziska, and Dharma Mittra'.
Here's the trailer
UPDATE: My friend Gilad, long long time practitioner and teacher of Ashtanga has a different understanding. He sent me a photo he has had for over 20 years where Pattabhi Jois is indicated in Red, in headstand and Krishnamacharya in Blue. Unfortunately Gilad no longer remembers who to credit the photo to. You have to admit it does physically look like the Pattabhi Jois of the famous Yoga mala photo but on the other hand Jois mentioned that Krishnamacharya used to stand on him in Kapotasana while giving lectures, for the photo Krishnamacharya would no doubt have chosen a suitable student to stand upon. Pattabhi Jois points himself out in Kapo in Yoga Unveiled and if I'm not mistaken Breath of the Gods, it could also be of course that he has misremembered.
However, I've just checked another scene, this time from Breath of Gods, where Pattabhi Jois discusses the picture and again he says it's him in kapotasana but goes further saying that the boy in sirsasana ( in red above ) was his best from Mahadeva Bhatt.
Update 2
I've heard of late that it may well be T R S Sharma in Kapotasana with Krishnamacharya standing in top if him.
I was just skimming through the Yoga unveiled documentary and came across the Ashtanga section, nice clip of Pattabhi Jois pointing to that old picture from Krishanamacharya's Yoga Makaranda and saying " That's Me ( in Kapotasana ) and that's Krishnamacharya (standing on top of him).
Interesting hand position in his Kapo, they're almost underneath the ankles rather than on top.
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| LINK TO DVD |
Harnessing the colorful commentary of the most prominent yoga scholars, teachers, and medical experts, Yoga Unveiled reveals how yoga began, tells the story of yoga's passage to the West, describes its numerous branches, recounts the fascinating biographies of the foremost yoga masters, and explores yoga's astonishing medical potential.
Stunning cinematography, ornate visual displays, and stirring music create a truly enchanting viewing experience. The great devotees of yoga grace the screen with their profound wisdom and delightful manner.
Yoga Unveiled also features commentary by Krishna Das, Dr. Herbert Benson, Edwin Bryant, Subhash Kak, Vasant Lad, Dr. Timothy McCall, Larry Payne, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Father Joe Pereira, Swami Sivananda, Dr. Martina Ziska, and Dharma Mittra'.
Here's the trailer
UPDATE: My friend Gilad, long long time practitioner and teacher of Ashtanga has a different understanding. He sent me a photo he has had for over 20 years where Pattabhi Jois is indicated in Red, in headstand and Krishnamacharya in Blue. Unfortunately Gilad no longer remembers who to credit the photo to. You have to admit it does physically look like the Pattabhi Jois of the famous Yoga mala photo but on the other hand Jois mentioned that Krishnamacharya used to stand on him in Kapotasana while giving lectures, for the photo Krishnamacharya would no doubt have chosen a suitable student to stand upon. Pattabhi Jois points himself out in Kapo in Yoga Unveiled and if I'm not mistaken Breath of the Gods, it could also be of course that he has misremembered.
Update 2
I've heard of late that it may well be T R S Sharma in Kapotasana with Krishnamacharya standing in top if him.
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| Photo probably taken around 5 years after the Mysore school photo |
"The archival photographs of Guruji that are often seen, such as the one of him in samasthiti, were taken in Tiruchinapalli and Kanchipuram, both in Tamil Nadu. Tiruchinapalli is home to the famous Sri Ranganatha temple, and Kanchipuram, to Adi Shankaracharya Mutt, Sri Kancha Kama Koti Peetham, as well as a sprawling Siva temple. Amma’s grandfather, a great scholar of Sanskrit, Veda, and astrology, was the teacher of the Shankaracharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, when he was a young man. This Swamiji was to become a major figure and driving spiritual force in Hinduism. Widely regarded as an enlightened being, he was known for his extreme humility and genuine compassion for all beings. People from all over India traveled to see him, and his knowledge of a vast array of subjects was renowned. Around the time that the photographs included in the book Yoga Mala of Guruji doing asanas were taken, Guruji and Amma had gone to visit the Swamiji. On their first visit, he inquired who they were and Guruji told him that he was the son-in-law of Narayana Shastri. With this, the Shankaracharya visibly brightened and the two spoke together at length about Yoga and philosophy. Guruji and Amma then remained with the Swamiji for eight days and, during that time, the Shankaracharya asked him to give a Yoga demonstration. So impressed was he with the knowledge and abilities Guruji demonstrated that he asked him to stay on in Kanchipuram to teach Yoga, but Guruji’s obligations elsewhere forced him to decline. He and Amma however visited the Shankaracharya several more times. On their last visit, they came with the entire family. When they arrived, they were informed that the Shankaracharya was keeping silence and thus not seeing visitors. But when a secretary informed him that Guruji had come with his family from Mysore, the acharya came to the door, smiled, and raised his hand in silent greeting, before again retiring". http://ayny.org/sri-k-pattabhi-jois/
The nail in thigh, Krishnamacharya standing on him Kapo story from YJ
On one occasion while in Kapotasana with Krishnamacharya standing on him for a demonstration and lecture, the young Jois' was aware of a nail sticking in his thigh
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| Yoga Journal Mar-Apr 1986 |
13 comments:
I've seen that photo many times before but didn't realize Pattabhi Jois was the one in kapotasana! I'm kind of glad that he didn't pass that particular adjustment on to all his senior students. I also saw a video footage of Bikram standing on someone's pelvis in ustrasana. I guess it's safe if you know what you're doing. I'd love to see the full documentary.
Vaguely heard mention that he was in the picture but didn't know how to take it, nice surprise to come across this clip. take a look at his hands in his kapo though, almost underneath the ankles rather than on top, elbows nicely tucked in though. Documentary seems OK but perhaps not great, i'd try and pick it up cheap on Amazon rather than pay full price.
Yes, nice surprise, had no idea it was him... Cool.
Hi Claudia, been trying to work out how old Jois was in the picture, he would have been what 20/21 when the Yoga Makaranda came out but looks to me around fifteen or so here here.
Hi Grimmly,
Sorry for the post delete before, made a mistake
Just saw you reposted and wrote that to me, I calculated it too for a post I wrote on "would you let your teacher stand on you while bleeding", cause Sharath told the story of how one time the big K stood on Jois for a while when he was in kapo and had a rock under his shoulder, whose mark he carried for years, the rest of his life.
Anyway, I checked Mysorepedia and it seems he would have been between 12 and 14 by my count, but 15 could also be plausible... no more than that...
Hm meant to say wikipedia...
yes it seemed timely to repost it : ) thanks for working that out 14/15 seems about right.
No posts on blog or FB from you for a few days, was starting to worry about you : )
I remember you telling that Sharath story and thought of this, pictures took ages to actually take a photo back then.
Pattabhi Jois is actually on the other side of the picture, in shoulder-stand. The same picture also appears in the 1934 book, Yoga Makaranda. In 1934, Jois who was born in 1915 would have been about 19 years old. The boy in the picture is clearly much younger than 19 years old!!!
True it is in Yoga Makaranda Anon but in my copy there's no date on the picture in Yoga Makaranda. Kausthub dates it as 1934 in his book on Krishnamacharya but he might just be going by Makaranda's publishing date. That said K. looks the same in this picture as in the other pictures in Makaranda so it may have been taken for the book.
If I was to pick somebody in the picture I'd say the guy far left in Sirsasana, that slender waist we see in the Yoga Mala pictures.
(1) In Breath of the Gods, Jois also identifies himself as the young boy in Kapotasana when asked about the same photo.
(2) Jois identifies the young boy at the bottom of the same photo as Krishnamacharya's first son in Breath of the Gods. Krishnamacharya's first son who was born in 1931 (see Health, Healing, and Beyond (1998), p. 94) would have only been a 3 year old baby then. A comparison will show that this boy also appears in other photos in Yoga Makaranda.
(3) The person in Sirsanana on the left of the same photo was identified by Jois as his best friend Mahadev Bhatt in the Breath of the Gods.
(4) According to http://kpjayi.org/biographies/k-pattabhi-jois, Jois was re-united with Krishnamacharya in 1932. In 1932, Jois would have been about 17 years old.
(5) The Yogashala of Krishnamacharya opened on August 11, 1933 (see Yogaasanagalu). This is consistent with a 1933-1934 palace administrative record which mentions the opening of the Yogashala.
(6) Aside from the group photos with Krishnamacharya being labeled as from the Yogashala in Yoga Makaranda, TKV Desikachar captions this picture as from 1934 (see Health, Healing, and Beyond).
Thanks for these points Andre was thinking of checking breath of gods myself, thanks for saving me the trouble. I was thinking about proficiency, as you say the yoga shala started in 1933 and if we assume this picture was indeed taken in '34 then that's only a year of practice. We know jois at least had been practicing directly since 32 and no doubt keeping his practice up since the first meeting in '28. We would expect Jois then to be doing one of the more challenging postures. Krishnamacharya points out somewhere that Jois was one of the senior students at that time.But then at the age of these boys you could do pretty much anything with K. barking at you.
When the same comment was posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79XZmXfbqk8 PARSMEDIA replied: "So he mixed it up - fair at 92."
When the same comment regarding this photo was posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79XZmXfbqk8 PARSMEDIA replied: "So he mixed it up - fair at 92."
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