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Comment by limbicsystem | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure I detect either ignorance or 'malicious thought' in the parent post. It is clearly true that much of modern Yoga practise in the west >is< influenced by other cultures (the Swedish / British keep fit programmes of the 1920s for example). It can also be true that Yoga has deep cultural roots that extend far into the distant past. The parent does not 'reduce' Yoga to certain body poses - you are both effectively agreeing with each other that it is a malleable system that has modernised (significantly) over the past 100 years or so. I would love to know what a C19th Hatha Yoga practitioner from those illustrations would make of the explosion of different styles that have evolved today. I would hope that they and, say, Tim Senesei or Adrianne Mishler might be able to have an interesting (and respectful) conversation.

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> much of modern Yoga practise in the west

That's a shift in goalposts from the original post's claim of "common modern Yoga poses" - Yoga practise in the west is only a small portion of modern Yoga in general. There's a difference between saying "common modern English borrows a lot from Hindi grammar" and "modern English spoken in India borrows a lot from Hindi grammar" - and there's as much difference between your statement and the statement the original comment made.

Since Hacker News readers tend to be (but are certainly not exclusively) living in Western countries, I think it's reasonable to assume from context that the original poster was likely referring to the yoga that's common in the West.

It's true though: "common modern Yoga poses", as popularly practiced in the west and in India, are derived as much from Western gymnastics as they are from classical Hatha yoga, as the GP said. I don't think that that in any way denies the diversity of yoga, or its ancient roots. It's simply a fact that traditionally, asanas were only of marginal importance and they were almost exclusively seated poses intended for meditation. There is no downward dog in the medieval texts, no Surya Namasakar, no vinyasas...

Postural yoga was popularized in India in the 1930s. Hatha yoga had been out of fashion for centuries at that point. Famous teachers like Swami Kuvalayananda, Yogendra and Krishnamacharya revived it and incorporated the standing poses from contemporary gymnastics and, for the first time, movements.

For some, maintaining a connection to the Hatha roots were more important than others. Pattabhi Jois claimed that his Ashtanga yoga (the origin of modern Mysore style in India and Power yoga in the West) was based a 5000 year old sanskrit text that Krishnamacharya had discovered, but unfortunately it was "eaten by ants".

Cultures change over time and the Silk Road is a two-way street. We all learn from each other and that is, for the most part, a good thing.

> Famous teachers like Swami Kuvalayananda, Yogendra and Krishnamacharya revived it and incorporated the standing poses from contemporary gymnastics and, for the first time, movements.

And Yoga went from an obscure practice of (mostly male) Indian ascetics to a household name the world over (practiced a lot by female lay persons).

I find it a great story, though my initial comment on this thread was down voted. We like marketing here on HN right? This is marketing.

Exactly. I was not discrediting, I just saw the poses in the images and thought "interesting how little of these i know from modern yoga". Then I remembered the recent evolution story of yoga.

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