Seetharaman Sundaram

Indian lawyer, yogi

Seetharaman Sundaram

In Halasana, Plough Pose, 1928

Born| 25 February 1901
Died| 26 December 1994 (1994-12-27) (aged 93)
Nationality| Indian
Occupation(s)| Lawyer, Yogacharya
Known for| Yogic Physical Culture

Seetharaman Sundaram (25 February 1901–26 December 1994[1]) was a lawyer and pioneer of yoga as exercise, often known as Yogacharya Sundaram, and the first person to publish a handbook of yoga asanas in English, his 1928 Yogic Physical Culture. This was also the first yoga book to be illustrated with photographs.[2] He travelled India with the bodybuilder K. V. Iyer, helping to popularise the new blend of hatha yoga and physical culture.

## Life[edit]

Seetharaman Sundaram was born in Mathurai, Tamil Nadu in a Brahmin family.[3] He trained as a lawyer and worked in law throughout his career.[4][5] He ran the Yogic School of Physical Culture (also called the Sri Sundara Yoga Shala[6]) in Bangalore in the 1930s, and travelled around India with the bodybuilder K. V. Iyer doing lecture/demonstrations, Iyer on muscles, Sundaram on yoga.[7] His legal colleagues did not know that he was revered as a yoga guru; in 1949, a retired high court judge was astonished to see Sundaram being seen off at Madras's Central Railway Station by a crowd of wealthy and powerful people, prostrating before the garlanded figure of the man he knew as a lawyer.[5]

## Yogic Physical Culture[edit]

In 1928 he published Yogic Physical Culture, describing a modernised hatha yoga reworked as a combination of gymnastics, bodybuilding, and hygiene, illustrated with photographs. It explicitly references contemporary Western physical culture as well as traditional Indian philosophy; and it goes along with Indian nationalism by stating that the "sons of India" will need to combine yoga asanas with bodybuilding to "obtain super-strength to make their Mother [India] an equal sister among Nations!"[7] The language of the book, with phrases like "Physical Culture Religion", also echoes the bodybuilder Eugen Sandow's idea of making the body holy through physical fitness. In Sundaram's view, argues the yoga scholar Mark Singleton, the "tinge of religion" (Sundaram's phrase) makes yoga different from and superior to the purely material Western forms of exercise.[8]

The book describes just 13 asanas: the eleven[a] covered by Kuvalayananda in his 1926 book, plus Trikonasana and Padahastasana. Sundaram stated that these provided a complete workout for "an average man of health". Kuvalayananda also included in his selection from hatha yoga's techniques one bandha, one mudra, one kriya, and two pranayama exercises. The format, essentially a field guide with the name of each item, a description in text, and a photograph, was adopted by all later yoga manuals including Light on Yoga.[9] It introduces a procedural innovation, too, creating stages in the adoption of each asana, something entirely missing from medieval texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The photographs are all of Sundaram himself, presented not as a new system like that of Sandow and the other bodybuilders like Bernarr Macfadden (whom Sundaram references), but as of Sundaram's way of practising an age-old system. The effect was to demystify the asanas: they turned from difficult, strange, even repulsive spiritual practices into mere exercises.[10]

In Elliott Goldberg's view, Sundaram's detailed instructions moved the practice of asanas from what had "in all likelihood" been perfunctory and haphazard towards the precision of modern yoga, in which close attention is paid to the tensions in individual muscles. This approach, Goldberg argues, led to executing the asanas slowly and under control, observing one's body and making necessary adjustments accordingly to achieve correct alignment. All of this facilitated total absorption in the task of performing each asana properly, which in turn allowed the practitioner to go beyond pain or pleasure to the absolute.[11]

## Legacy[edit]

Dr. Asana Andiappan, founder of the Sundara Yoga and Natural Living Trust and the monthly Asana International Yoga Journal, studied yoga under Sundaram as a child.[12][13]

## Works[edit]

* 1928 Yogic Physical Culture or the Secret of Happiness. Bangalore: Brahmacharya Publishing.

## See also[edit]

* Yogasopana, an earlier yoga manual, written in Marathi and illustrated with halftone plates

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ Kuvalayananda described Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, Matsyasana, Halasana, Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Dhanurasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana, Paschimottanasana, Mayurasana, and Savasana.

## References[edit]

1. ^ "About School Of Yoga". School of Yoga. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
2. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 152–178.
3. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 153.
4. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 154–155.
5. ^ a b Goldberg 2016, pp. 177–178.
6. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 177.
7. ^ a b Singleton 2010, p. 126.
8. ^ Singleton 2010, p. 127.
9. ^ Goldberg 2016, p. 161.
10. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 162–163.
11. ^ Goldberg 2016, pp. 166–167.
12. ^ "Guruji Dr. Asana Andiappan". Andiappan Yoga. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
13. ^ "Dr Asana Andiappan to Receive the Maharishi Patanjali Award - 2005". IndiaDivine. 4 May 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2005.

## Sources[edit]

* Goldberg, Elliott (2016). The Path of Modern Yoga : the history of an embodied spiritual practice. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. ISBN 978-1-62055-567-5. OCLC 926062252.
* Singleton, Mark (2010). Yoga body : the origins of modern posture practice. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539534-1. OCLC 318191988.

* v
* t
* e

Yoga as exercise

Topics|

| Asanas|

* List of asanas
* Standing asanas
* Downward dog
* Lotus position
* Meditation seats
* Sun Salutation
* Tree pose
* Warrior
* Accompaniments
* Drishti
* Pranayama
* Vinyāsa
* Hasta Vinyasas

|

Teacher training|

* Standards
* British Wheel of Yoga
* European Union of Yoga
* André Van Lysebeth
* Yoga Alliance

Therapy|

* Yoga using props
* 1979 Accessible yoga
* 2002 Trauma-sensitive yoga
* 2007 Restorative Yoga
* 2008 Yoga nidra
* International Association of Yoga Therapists • Richard Miller
* Janice Gates

Events|

* Competitive yoga
* International Day of Yoga

Journals|

* Asana Journal
* Yoga Journal

Props|

* Yoga brick
* Yoga mat
* Angela Farmer
* Hugger Mugger
* Yoga pants
* Lululemon

History|

| Early|

* Early modern yoga
* Vivekananda
* 1896 Raja Yoga
* Pierre Bernard
* Harmonial gymnastics/yoga
* Marguerite Agniel
* Mary Bagot Stack
* Genevieve Stebbins
* Physical culture
* B. C. Ghosh
* K. V. Iyer
* Seetharaman Sundaram
* Paramahansa Yogananda
* Autobiography of a Yogi

|

Aspects|

* Hot yoga
* Science of yoga
* Sexual abuse by yoga gurus
* Matthew Remski
* Yoga and cultural appropriation
* In advertising
* For children
* For women
* Geeta Iyengar
* Yoga tourism

Hybrids|

* 1938 Naked yoga
* 1990 Mindful Yoga
* Frank Jude Boccio
* Anne Cushman
* Janice Gates
* Jon Kabat-Zinn
* Cyndi Lee
* Phillip Moffitt
* 2003 Acroyoga
* Doga
* 2013 Paddleboard Yoga
* 2014 Aerial yoga
* Beer yoga

By country|

* America
* 1961 Yoga for Health
* 1970 Lilias, Yoga and You
* Britain
* 1976 Lyn Marshall
* France
* Germany
* India
* Italy
* Russia
* Sweden
* 2015 Rachel Brathen
* Switzerland
* 1941 Selvarajan Yesudian

Books|

* 1996 Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace
* 2004 Yoga in Modern India
* A History of Modern Yoga
* 2005 Positioning Yoga
* 2010 Yoga Body
* The Subtle Body
* 2015 Selling Yoga
* 2016 The Path of Modern Yoga
* 2017 Roots of Yoga
* 2019 Yoga in Britain
* 2020 The Story of Yoga

Films|

* 2006 Guru
* 2009 Enlighten Up!
* 2012 Breath of the Gods

Schools
(Gurus)|

* 1918 The Yoga Institute
* Shri Yogendra
* Hansa Yogendra
* 1924 Kaivalyadhama
* Swami Kuvalayananda
* 1934 Viniyoga
* Tirumalai Krishnamacharya
* Yoga Makaranda
* T. K. V. Desikachar
* A. G. Mohan
* Indra Devi
* Srivatsa Ramaswami
* Vanda Scaravelli
* c. 1948 Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
* K. Pattabhi Jois
* Mysore style
* Tim Miller
* Kino MacGregor
* Larry Schultz
* 1959 Sivananda Yoga
* Vishnudevananda Saraswati
* Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga
* 1963 Bihar School of Yoga
* Satyananda Saraswati
* 1965 Ananda Yoga
* Kriyananda
* 1966 Integral Yoga
* Satchidananda Saraswati
* 1966 Kripalu Yoga
* Amrit Desai
* Stephen Cope
* 1971 Himalayan Institute
* Swami Rama
* 1973 Bikram Yoga
* Bikram Choudhury
* 1975 Iyengar Yoga
* B. K. S. Iyengar
* Light on Yoga
* Yoga the Iyengar Way
* 1975 Dharma Mittra
* c. 1975 Yin Yoga
* Paulie Zink
* Paul Grilley
* Sarah Powers
* 1982 Forrest Yoga
* 1984 Jivamukti Yoga
* Sharon Gannon
* 1995 Power Yoga
* Beryl Bender Birch
* Bryan Kest
* 1997 Anusara Yoga
* John Friend
* 2006 Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga (Sadie Nardini)

Related|

* Yoga
* Hatha yoga
* Modern yoga
* Post-lineage yoga
* Asanas (template)
* List of yoga schools
* Yoga scholars (template)
* Yoga teachers (category)
* Modern Yoginis (template)

* v
* t
* e

Physical culture

Antecedents|

* Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths
* Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
* Johann Baptist Krebs
* Pehr Henrik Ling
* Franz Nachtegall
* Francisco Amorós y Ondeano
* Adolf Spiess
* Thomas Topham

Systems|

| European|

* Bert Assirati
* William Bankier
* Edward William Barton-Wright
* Zishe Breitbart
* Niels Bukh
* Victor Dane
* François Delsarte
* Edmond Desbonnet
* Launceston Elliot
* Tony Emmott
* Juan Ferrero
* Eileen Fowler
* Bob Fitzsimmons
* Gustav Frištenský
* Edith Margaret Garrud
* Hermann Görner
* George Hackenschmidt
* Georges Hébert
* Oscar Heidenstam
* F. A. Hornibrook
* Thomas Inch
* John Lees
* Dan McLeod
* Jørgen Peter Müller
* Hartvig Nissen
* Reg Park
* William Pullum
* Joan Rhodes
* Eugen Sandow
* Arthur Saxon
* Sokol
* Mary Bagot Stack
* Lionel Strongfort
* Maxalding
* Maxick
* Monte Saldo
* Vulcana
* Ronald Walker
* Emily Diana Watts
* Freddie Welsh

|

Indian|

| Bodybuilding|

* Manohar Aich
* Ramesh Balsekar
* The Great Gama
* B. C. Ghosh
* K. V. Iyer
* Kodi Rammurthy Naidu
* Chandgi Ram

|

Yogic|

* Krishnamacharya
* Kuvalayananda
* Seetharaman Sundaram
* Shri Yogendra
* Tiruka
* Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao

New World|

* Marguerite Agniel
* Charles Atlas
* Sanford Bennett
* Pierre Bernard
* Mark Berry
* Joe Bonomo
* George Brosius
* Drexel Biddle
* Marie Bjelke Petersen
* William Blaikie
* Paul Bragg
* Alan Calvert
* Edwin Checkley
* C. Ward Crampton
* Jack Delinger
* Ludwig Durlacher
* George Eiferman
* Carrica Le Favre
* Keene Fitzpatrick
* Mark Forest
* Ed Fury
* John B. Gagnon
* Vince Gironda
* Joe Greenstein
* John Grimek
* Milo Hastings
* Roy Hilligenn
* Bob Hoffman
* George F. Jowett
* Annette Kellerman
* Siegmund Klein
* Jack LaLanne
* W. R. C. Latson
* Diocletian Lewis
* Gilman Low
* Dan Lurie
* Bernarr Macfadden
* Artie McGovern
* William Muldoon
* Ralph Parcaut
* Kid Parker
* Harry Paschall
* Bill Pearl
* Steve Reeves
* Leo Robert
* Joe Rollino
* Tony Sansone
* Dudley Allen Sargent
* Larry Scott
* Amos Alonzo Stagg
* Genevieve Stebbins
* Alois P. Swoboda
* Armand Tanny
* Vic Tanny
* John Terpak
* Warren Lincoln Travis
* Al Treloar
* Turners

Related|

* Battle of the Systems
* Fitness culture
* Gymnastics
* Muscular Christianity
* Muscular Judaism
* Yoga as exercise
* Natural hygiene
* Pilates

* Category

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