This post is a follow on or continuation of my previous post
Did Pattabhi Jois practice some or all of the Series he created and if so for how long?
Sometime after writing the above post I decided to add an appendix relating to Pattabhi Jois' early photoshoot that resulted in the photo's that were included in Yoga Mala. Pattabhi Jois also seems to have had some advanced/proficient asana photo's taken at or around the same time.
His Visvamitrasana caught my eye
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| Pattabhi Jois' Visvamitrasana (1940s?) |
We have two dates for Pattabhi Jois' development of the Ashtanga syllabus, apparently based on Krishnamacharya's asana group table ( primary, Middle and Proficient asana) and in response to the request for a four year yoga syllabus. 1939 has been given as one date but this may well have been when Pattabhi Jois entered the Sanskrit college as an advanced student. 1947 is the other date given for when Pattabhi Jois started to teach the four year course, this from his life long friend T. S. Krishnamurthyas quoted in Guruji.
Pattabhi Jois' Visvamitrasana does not look very comfortable here, it's certainly not as proficient as many of the other asana photos he had taken, it's not suggestive of daily or regular practice of this asana.
Here is my own photo of visvamitrasana from around the time I first attempted it, pretty similar and suggesting to me that Pattabhi Jois had not been practicing the asana that often or that regularly either, when his photo was taken in the 1940s
Iyengar's is a little more accomplished in this photo taken for his book Light on Yoga,
But Iyengar's Visvamitrasana was looking much more.... disciplined a few years earlier in the 1938 movie, around the time he had been giving asana demonstrations for Krishnamacharya. Visvamitrasana was an asana in Krishnamacharya's proficient asana table, he gives the states of the asana as vinyasa's 7, 8 and 9
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| Visvamitrasana vinyasa 7 |
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| Visvamitrasana vinyasa 8 |
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| Visvamitrasana vinyasa 9 |
The other conclusion perhaps is that the syllabus was just that, a teaching tool and Pattabhi jois himself continued to practice asana in a more flexible approach in accordance with the methodology of his teacher Krishnamacharya. These proficient asana were always considered demonstration postures and perhaps did not form a regular part of Pattabhi Jois' own practice.
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| Vasisthasana, first asana of Advanced A (later 3rd series) |
A more recent presentations of Visvamitrasana from from the cover of David Swenson's Ashtanaga Yoga Practice Manual, what almost daily practice of the posture can look like.
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| The iconic David Swenson shot |
Sharath from the 1999 demonstration of Advanced A
This post is about Advanced series but these days I tend to feel that some slow Primary or Middle group asana in half a series or not seems plenty. I looked at Advanced A again for this and the previous post and wondered how many of the postures in the Advanced series or proficient group I could conceive of staying in for a significant number of slow breaths (See the Ashtanga Rishi series of posts), very few. As both Krishnamacharya Pattabhi Jois indicated, the so called Advanced postures are more for demonstration and perhaps a distraction.
Appendix
On double checking that Visvamitrasana was indeed on the 1973 syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams when they first practiced with Pattabhi Jois ( it is) I noticed, for the first time I think, that there was no Vinyasa count on the syllabus for Advanced A and B although it is there for Primary and Intermediate, how curious.
It may be that Pattabhi Jois typed the list out for Nancy and David and the count as far as Intermediate, reflected the stage they were at in the practice at the time but then why not just type out those two series. It seems more likely that this was a copy of the original syllabus, thus the division into years and the reading list but if so why was the vinyasa count not included on the original syllabus?
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| LINK to post with full syllabus |
Here is the beginning of proficient table of asana from Krishnamacharya's original table of asana divided into three groups (primary, middle, proficient) published in Yogasanagalu in 1941 (Mysore). Note the vinyasa count and that Krishnamacharya gives the stats of the asana as vinyasas 7,8,9 and 13,14,15 (see the movie screenshots of BKS Iyengar above).
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| LINK to full table |
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| Original table in Kannada language |
Here is BKS Iyengar in the 1938 movie with Krishnamacharya and his family. Iyengar demonstrates Visvamitrasana 7:00 minutes into the movie
4 comments:
Or ......Could just be the limitations of photography and not catching or timing the shot very well and not seeing it until it was developed. Just look at the pin sharp shot of Jessica. Could be one of 20 or 30 shots
After all, some others from the time look better
Hi Ben. I wondered that myself at first but looked his other advanced asana and apart from his Galvasana none of them suggest to me regular practice. Interesting to compare his advanced asana with Iyengars's in the 1938 movie, perhaps he wasn't that interested in Advanced asana thus his just for Demo comment.
I think these photos tell a different story. Here's why.
Film was precious. I've heard that even the Light on Yoga shoot was only one photo per pose! If it's taken at the wrong time, the pose won't look proficient. Modern photos shoots are elaborate affairs designed to grab the perfect pose. The Jois photos were probably taken in the context of a sequence with slow film speeds and very limited resources.
Those photos of Iyengar in Visvamitrasana are not a good example. His alignment is really not so good. Look how for the buttocks moves back and his chest moves forward. In fact, a senior Iyengar teacher pointed out that BKS Iyengar is one of the first humans to really see himself in asana through photos and was probably horrified! He even has articles where he posts these "immature" photos vs. his refined asanas.
I think photographic technology has reframed our whole attitude toward asana to make it more geometric and aesthetically pleasing. It's a visual language created to project the ideals and aspirations of yoga. The photos you've chosen are a good example of that. Over the past 100 years yoga has become wealthy and modern and poses have become polished on the outside.
Hi John.
Yes photography back then a complicated affair.
The first photo of Iyengar I posted I also mentioned didn't appear that impressive by Iyengar's standards. The other three photos are screenshots from the 1938 demonstration video, he passed through each of the vinyasas without pausing so there is that to take into account.
Interesting point re asana photography, Krishnamacharya in Yoga Makaranda (1934) mentions several times that we should look at the picture included and copy the posture exactly, so the photo and the text went hand in hand.
Re the Pattabhi Jois photo's ( and see my most recent post with more advanced photos), I considered the photographic process of the time and I also wondered if we could put it down to him not being warmed up but we know how practice changes with regular practice. My own durvasana was just as stooped as his (more so) when I first started it and/or didn't practice it often. With regular practice it became much less stooped, much straighter. My Vasisthasana higher and I was less twisted up in purna matsyendrasana and viranchyasana than we see Pattabhi Jois in the photos, just regular practice of the Advanced series
This is not intended as a criticism of Pattabhi Jois ( quite the opposite in fact) or who's asana is better than who's, I lost interest in Advanced asana after a couple of years so mine never reacheed the standard of ease of those who have been practicing Advanced series for years. My point was that I didn't think, and still don't feel, that Pattabhi Jois' advanced asana photos suggest that he had been practicing these postures regularly, as for example in a daily ( or rather three or four times a week) series.
However, look at Pattabhi Jois' sublime mayurasana, not comparing the shape or form with how it's practiced today but the serene presence of it. Krishnamacharya considered it one of the six postures that we should practice daily ( he mentions 15 minutes to three hours in Mayurasana), Jois would no doubt have practiced it regularly. See to all the Primary photos, not his alignment so much as his ease, photographer did fine with those, why blame him for the Advanced asana.
Jois was a devout scholar, he has something of the ascetic in him in those teaching photos above, I suspect he was profoundly serious regarding his studies and practice at that time doesn't surprise me at all to think he may have been less interested in collecting advanced asana but looking for something more in the long stays his son Manju him practicing.
it's all stories
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