Sri K Pattabhi Jois - Father of Ashtanga Yoga

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was introduced to yoga in 1927 as a twelve year old when he attended a demonstration by S. T. Krishnamacharya who had learned yoga in Tibet. Thus began Guruji's 25 years of yoga study with Krishnamacharya.

In 1929, Jois moved to Mysore to study Sanskrit. He married in Mysore and with his wife Amma had three children.

Twenty years later he established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute as a centre for the study and practice of Ashtanga yoga. In 1958 he began writing Yoga Mala. It was published in India but took more than 40 years before it was published in the west.

The west was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in the early 1960s when a european student spent two months with Jois learning the primary and intermediate asanas of the Ashtanga Yoga system. He returned to Europe and spread the word, marking the beginning of westerners coming to Mysore to study Ashtanga yoga.

Jois continues to teach at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, now located in the neighbourhood of Gokulum, with his daughter Saraswati and his grandson Sharath.

Jois' yoga shala attracts thousands of foreign yoga students every year. They come to practice in his presence, and to have the opportunity to learn from the master.

BKS Iyengar - Founder of Iyengar yoga

Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar was born Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar in 1918. As the founder of Iyengar Yoga, he is considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 60 years.

He has written many books on yogic practice and philosophy, and is best known for his books "Light on Yoga," "Light on Pranayama," and "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali." He has also written several definitive yoga texts. Iyengar yoga is taught around the world.