Mystical systems
Ashtanga Yoga
Direct answer
Ashtanga Yoga: Ashtanga yoga, in its modern sense, is the method of fixed posture series joined by breath-counted movement that K. Pattabhi Jois taught at Mysore from the mid twentieth century.
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At a glance
- Also called
- ashtanga vinyasa yoga, mysore style yoga, ashtanga primary series
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Vinyasa, Sun Salutation, Yoga Sutras, Asana
Ashtanga yoga, in its modern sense, is the method of fixed posture series joined by breath-counted movement that K. Pattabhi Jois taught at Mysore from the mid twentieth century.
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What does ashtanga mean?
The method has six series of postures, each learned in a set order. Most students spend years in the first, called yoga chikitsa or yoga therapy. Every movement is counted to a breath, and three points of attention are held together: the posture, a steady audible breath and a fixed gazing point. In the traditional class, called Mysore style, students work through the sequence at their own pace while the teacher moves round the room and adds a posture when the last is steady.
The name means eight limbs and comes from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, where it describes a path of conduct, posture, breath control and meditation. Patanjali's text contains no posture series; the name states an aim, not a source.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Yoga, qigong, tai chi.
What sets Ashtanga Yoga apart
Its mark is the fixed sequence taught one posture at a time. A student is given the next posture only when the teacher judges the previous one sound, so two people in the same room may be years apart in the same series. The method names three things to be held at once, called tristhana: the posture, the sounding breath and the gazing point. The eightfold path in Patanjali, from which the name is borrowed, is a different thing and contains no sequences.
- Teacher: K. Pattabhi Jois, 1915 to 2009, of Mysore
- Institute founded: Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, 1948
- Manual: Yoga Mala, Kannada 1962, English translation 1999
- Series: six: primary, intermediate and four advanced
- Tristhana: posture, breath and gazing point (drishti)
- Claimed source: the Yoga Korunta, a manuscript no one has produced
Often mistaken for something else: Patanjali's ashtanga is an eight-limbed path of conduct, breath and meditation set out in the Yoga Sutras; Jois's Ashtanga is a twentieth-century posture method that took its name from it.
The story behind Ashtanga Yoga
Krishna Pattabhi Jois (1915 to 2009) studied under Krishnamacharya from 1927, first at Hassan and later at Mysore, and founded the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute at Mysore in 1948. His manual Yoga Mala was published in Kannada in 1962. He said the series came from a manuscript called the Yoga Korunta; no copy has been produced, and scholars treat the claim as unverified. Western students arrived from the 1960s and 1970s, and he first taught in the United States in 1975.
Why Ashtanga Yoga matters
Most flowing yoga taught in studios descends from this method, so its terms and habits explain a great deal of the modern class.
How to read Ashtanga Yoga
Practitioners keep it as a morning discipline on most days of the week, traditionally resting on the days of the full and new moon.
Ashtanga Yoga in practice: an example
A student in a Mysore room might arrive at six, practise the first half of the primary series in silence and leave when their own sequence ends.
Where readings of Ashtanga Yoga go wrong
Ashtanga Yoga is physically demanding, and injuries are reported when it is forced. In published accounts, former students have described unwanted touching by Jois during adjustments; hands-on correction needs consent.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- ashtanga vinyasa yoga, ashtanga yoga meaning, what is ashtanga yoga, mysore style yoga, ashtanga primary series
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does ashtanga mean?
It is Sanskrit for eight limbs. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras use it for an eightfold path that runs from ethical restraint to absorbed meditation. Pattabhi Jois took the word as the name of his posture method.
What is Mysore style?
It is the traditional way of teaching the method, named after the city in Karnataka where Jois taught. Each student practises the memorised sequence at their own breath and pace in a shared room, and the teacher helps one person at a time.
Is the Yoga Korunta a real text?
No manuscript has been found. Jois and Krishnamacharya spoke of it as an old work on palm leaves that was later lost, and the account rests on their word alone.
