NEW DELHI: Indian yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar, who helped popularize yoga around the world and wrote 14 books on the subject, died Wednesday at age 95. Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar’s death was reported on his website as well as by major Indian TV stations, which said he had been hospitalized with a kidney ailment over the past week in the western city of Pune.
Born in a poor family in Bellur village in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Iyengar was a sickly child who suffered multiple illnesses including typhoid and tuberculosis.
When he was 15, a relative introduced him to yoga in an attempt to build his resistance to disease. By the time he was 18, he moved to Pune to practice yoga and to teach its techniques to others.
Iyengar created his own brand of yoga, called “Iyengar yoga,” and established studios in 72 countries where yoga practitioners are taught ways to improve breathing, concentration and meditation.
By the mid-1950’s word of Iyengar yoga spread in Europe, where he began teaching many new converts, including violinist Yehudi Menuhin and author Aldous Huxley.
Yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar dies at 95
Yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar dies at 95
