T. K. V. Desikachar
Born(1938-06-21)21 June 1938
Mysore, Mysore district, Kingdom of Mysore (now Karnataka, India)
Died8 August 2016(2016-08-08) (aged 78)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation(s)Yoga teacher, author
Known forViniyoga
SpouseMenaka Desikachar
ChildrenSons Bushan (b1970) & Kausthub (b1975) and a daughter Mekhala (b1978)

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar, was a yoga teacher, son of the pioneer of modern yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style that he taught was initially called Viniyoga although he later abandoned that name and asked for the methods he taught to be called "yoga" without special qualification.[1][2][3]

Biography

Desikachar was born in Mysore, son of the pioneer of modern yoga Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, under whom he studied. He moved to Madras (now Chennai) in the early 1960s. He had trained as an engineer, but, inspired by his father's teachings, he studied under his father in the 1960s, and from the 1970s he taught in many parts of the world. He published many books, especially the 1995 The Heart of Yoga. During his thirty years of study, Desikachar learned the practice and application of yoga techniques and texts, for therapeutic, exercise, and spiritual purposes.[4][5]

Desikachar developed Viniyoga,[6] a term from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This approach is claimed to be holistic and aligned with the Yoga Sutras.[6]

In 1976 Desikachar and A. G. Mohan founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), a yoga therapy clinic and yoga center in Madras, India, as a non-profit public charitable trust.[7][8][9] Under Desikachar’s leadership, it offered teacher training and individual instruction in asana, pranayama, meditation, yoga philosophy, and Vedic chanting. It conducted research into the impact of yoga on people suffering from schizophrenia, diabetes, asthma, and depression. It has been recognized by the Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of the Department for Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. The institution is a public registered charity, identified by the Department of Family Health and Welfare of the Government of Tamil Nadu.

Family

His wife, Menaka Desikachar, taught yoga and Vedic chanting at KYM and continues to do so at Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation (KHYF), founded in 2016. Bushan Desikachar, Dr. Kausthub Desikachar and Mekhala Desikachar are his three children.

Death

Desikachar died on 8 August 2016 in Chennai, India at the age of 78.[10]

Bibliography

Desikachar authored books that include[11]

References

  1. ^ Shearer, Alistair (2020). The Story of Yoga from Ancient India to the Modern West. London: Hurst. pp. 161–165. ISBN 978-1787381926.
  2. ^ Singleton, Mark; Fraser, Tara (2014). Singleton, Mark; Goldberg, Ellen (eds.). Gurus of Modern Yoga. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 83–92. ISBN 978-0199938728.
  3. ^ Jain, Andrea R. (2015). Selling Yoga. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 76, 88, 96. ISBN 978-0199390243. Krishnamacharya ... his students, most notably Iyengar, K Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar, who constructed yoga brands and most successfully marketed those brands to the general populace ...
  4. ^ "Poses and postures". The Hindu News. 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
  5. ^ "Pioneering work in the area of wellness through Yoga". KYM. 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  6. ^ a b Ricci, Jeanne (28 August 2007). "T.K.V. Desikachar Developed Viniyoga to Fit Each Individual Student". Yoga Journal. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  7. ^ "An Interview with T.K.V. Desikachar and his family following the Krishnamacharya Yoga Festival in San Francisco". Scott Peck. 2004. Retrieved 2 February 2004.
  8. ^ "Modern Yoga in America". Emily Parkinson Perry, Utah State University. 20 May 2020. p. 18. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Honoring Sir, A Celebration of Viniyoga". 20 June 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Yoga guru T.K.V. Desikachar no more". The Hindu. 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  11. ^ "Beyond Dissociation And Appropriation: Interpretation Of Culturally Embedded Presentations Of Yoga, Page 336". Genelle Benker. 1 June 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
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