An Outline Of Jason Birch And Mark Singleton’s Article On The Hathabhyasapaddhati

A Background And Comparison Of The Text (see full article in PDF here)

“T. Krishnamacharya, whose teachings have greatly influenced modern and global forms of yoga, probably had access to a manuscript of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati in the Mysore Palace archives”.

This text is of particular interest as it illustrates, beyond a doubt, the grouping of postures into sequences, with the clear indication that they are to be moved through dynamically.

It also describes way more asanas than had previously been documented in prior texts on hatha yoga.

As well as this, it suggests certain transitions that are similar to those used today in the Ashtanga yoga of Pattabhi Jois.

The obvious place to start is to compare this text to the currently more well-known hathayogapradipika which documents 15 asanas in the fifteenth century as opposed to the hathabhyasapaddhati (HBP) which describes 115 authored in the early 1800’s.

Up to this point, there had been a gradual increase in the number of asanas documented, but, nothing like this number is seen until the Sritattvanidhi (TN) which has been documented (with photographic evidence) in Norman Sjoman’s book The Yoga Traditions of the Mysore Palace.  You can listen here to the podcast with Norman.

The text is of singular interest then, as previously there was a fairly standard (and small) list of core asanas which the HBP expanded upon exponentially. Also, to repeat, also of great importance is its emphasis on the asanas it describes following a particular order.

Birch and Singelton had been looking for such a text for a while, as it appeared that the TN had a source text behind it. You can hear about the moment Jason Birch confirmed his hunch looking through slides in Norman Sjoman’s attic on my podcast episode with Jason here.

The TN dated to the mid 1850’s appears to have followed the HBP, as a redacted version of this text (which has been suggested to be dated to around 50 to 100 years earlier).  The earlier HBP, extant in two badly preserved notebooks, seems to have been a practice text on hatha yoga circulated amongst practitioners. Whereas, the TN was commissioned by the reigning Maharaj of Mysore at that time for the palace library.

The latter text also differs in presenting variations of the postures listed in the hathabyhasapaddhati and including a few more (totalling 122 to the earlier texts’ 112).

The TN is still assumed to be in the Mysore palace where Sjoman originally took a photo of it in 1985. However, the current Maharani has denied any scholars access to the library (including the text) over recent years. Another notable difference is that the HBP is written in the Devanagari (Sanskrit) script, whereas the tattvanidhi (TN) is in the local Kannada language of the province of Mysore. As opposed to the TN the HP doesn’t reference or seem to borrow directly from any other texts.

It appears then to have been written for an audience with praxis as the specific focus. Whereas the later text, The TN may be seen to be an overtly politicised gesture in line with the times.

Particular Details Of Interest Regarding The HBP

Religious Leaning

Unusually for a hatha yoga text, it is sectarian, and in this, Vaishnite in its’ prescription of the worship of the avatars of Vishnu. Making it all the more unusual, as hatha yoga is generally more associated with Saivism (although, Krishnamacharya himself was, indeed, Vaishnite).

“it is worth noting that the term tapas is reinterpreted as the performance of one’s religious obligations (svadharma), which indicates that the author was more interested in associating Haṭhayoga with religious practice in general, rather than extreme asceticism, such as sitting amidst five fires. “

The Purpose Of Asana In The HBP

“The statement introducing the section on āsana declares that the postures aim to enable the yogin to do the ṣaṭkarma.47 The same point is made at the end of this section, with the additional comment that the āsanas make the body firm.48 The preliminary role of ṣaṭkarma in healing excess phlegm and fat before one begins the practice of yoga, as stipulated in the Haṭhapradīpikā,49 appears to be have been redefined in the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati. “

Along these lines, asana here seems to stand more in the classical sense as a precursor for meditation as opposed to the more tantric rendering we find evident in hatha yoga from around the 8^th Century (see podcast with James Malinson here), where asana is used to alter the internal energy system of the body – namely, to awaken kundalini.

Pranayama

“The Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati teaches eight breath retentions (kumbhaka), which are to be performed after the practice of the ṣaṭkarma and for accomplishing the ten mudrās.66 The eight are sūryabhedana, ujjāyī, sītkāra, śītalī, bhastrikā, bhrāmarī, mūrcchā, and kevalakumbhaka”

Influences On Krishnamacharya’s Teaching At The Mysore Palace

All in all, the scholars conclude then that Krishnamacharya would likely have borrowed from the above texts along with possibly the Hathayogapradipika. However, there is also another book in the Mysore palace library that is likely to have been an influence:

The Vyāyāmadīpike, Elements of Gymnastic Exercises, Indian System

This text was exactly that; a record, according to Sjoman, of the Mysore palaces’ gymnastic tradition. However, it is equally likely that this tradition borrowed from (as well as influenced) the yoga tradition:

“The Vyāyāmadīpike’s kiluputa, or ‘low jump’ exercise (1896, 44, no. 30), in which the student jumps up and touches the heels to the buttocks is the same as the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati’s ‘deer posture’ (hariṇāsana).116 Other postures, such as the jumping exercises known as meluputa are suggestive of, if not identical to, the other jumping exercises of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati’s standing sequence.”

“As well as the evident familiarity of Krishnamacharya with the Śrītattvanidhi, we know of the existence of an album of āsana drawings in the possession of Krishnamacharya’s family which are strikingly similar to the illustrations in the Mysore Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati and the Śrītattvanidhi.122 Krishnamacharya’s grandson Kausthub Desikachar (2005, 65) states that the drawings were done by the daughter of Krishnamacharya's guru, Rammohan Brahmachari..”

However, the existence of this guru, as well as Krishnamacharya’s time in the Himalayas studying with him, is becoming increasingly unlikely. Instead, Sjoman suggests that Rammohan Brahmachari may in fact have lived in an ashram on the banks of the Gandaki river in Northern Karnataka.

However, Krishnamacharya’s album contains āsanas that are not found in the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati or the Śrītattvanidhi. Therefore, it is indeed likely there are additional source that can account for the extra drawings in the Krishnamacharya album.  Namely, probably his own innovation from his own experience.

The HBP As The Missing Yoga Korunta?

“In Krishnamacharya’s book, Yogāsanagaḷu (‘Yoga Postures,’ 1941), which contains postural sequences similar to modern Ashtanga (Vinyasa) Yoga, a Yogakuraṇṭi is in fact named as the fourth of six sources, which also include (1) the Pātañjalayogasūtra, (2) the Haṭhayogapradīpikā, (3) the Rājayogaratnākara, (5) Upaniṣads related to yoga, and (6) things learned from his guru(s) and own experience (guropadeśa mattu svānubhāva). It is noteworthy that in the Yogāsanagaḷu the Śrītattvanidhi is no longer listed as a source, as it was in the Yogamakaranda of 1934. “

The HBP is said to be authored by Kapālakuraṇṭaka – which is one main reason why some suggest, along with its six sequences of asanas (although they are nothing like the Ashtanga sequences of Patabhi Jois), that the HBP might be the famed Yoga Korunta that both Jois and Krishnamacharya mention as the source of their teaching.

However, as mentioned already, the sequences of ashtanga yoga do not at all match, or even approximate, the particular āsana groupings of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati.

On A Precedent For The Use Of The Characteristic (In Ashtanga Yoga) Term, Vinyasa

Moreover, while the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati contains probable sequences of āsanas, the text does not mention the term vinyāsa, nor does it describe the kind of postural transitions or linked movement and breath that are associated with Krishnamacharya’s concept of vinyāsa. Namely the vinyasa based on Surya Namaskar (there is no mention of SN in either the HBP or the TN).

This seems to contradict ideas frequently cited in Ashtanga circles that the sage Vāmana is said to insist on the importance of vinyāsa in the practice of āsana.

“If the asanas and the Surya Namaskara are to be practiced, they must be done so in accordance with the prescribed vinyasa method only. As the sage Vamana says, “Vina vinyasa yogena asanadin na karayet [O yogi, do not do asana without vinyasa]” (Jois 2010, 30).”

Birch and Singleton state:

“This (metrical) verse does not appear anywhere in the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati, nor (as noted) does the term vinyāsa. In fact, the term vinyāsa is yet to be found in any text in the sense in which it is understood in Ashtanga Yoga prior to Krishnamacharya.138 Neither is there mention of sūryanamaskāra in the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati.“

“It seems clear that Krishnamacharya has borrowed a common term and reassigned it to describe a principle of his own syncretic āsana system, and that the verse attributed to Vāmana and cited by Pattabhi Jois (and subsequently his students) has been creatively construed to fit with the particularities of the āsana system that Jois learned from Krishnamacharya. “

“Krishnamacharya’s vinyāsa method is most likely derived from wrestling exercises like those described in the 1896 Mysore gymnastics manual, the Vyāyāmadīpike. “

In Conclusion Krishnamacharya, A Bridge Between Tradition And Modernising (Innovation);

“Krishnamacharya was a complex figure who embodied, in many respects, the encounter of tradition with (colonial) modernity.158 As noted by Ikegame (2013), the political and social structures, education systems, and physical culture practices in Mysore at the time were deeply influenced (and indeed closely controlled) by the colonial powers,159 and Krishnamacharya himself, a traditionally trained Brahmin, was also part of this modern, western-oriented milieu, even enjoying playing polo with the British.160 The yoga he taught in Mysore, while rooted in the Indian yoga traditions, was composite, syncretic and constantly evolving. His son T.K.V Desikachar notes that he ‘developed’ and ‘discovered’ new postures161 and techniques (such as vinyāsa)162 throughout his teaching career. Innovation in practice was also sometimes encouraged in his students.”