Vinyāsa: Difference between revisions

A '''vinyasa'''<ref name="Lexico">{{cite web |title=Vinyasa |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/vinyasa |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221062205/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/vinyasa |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 21, 2021 |publisher=Lexico |access-date=30 November 2019 |quote=Definition of vinyasa in English:... Origin Sanskrit vinyāsa ‘movement, position (of limbs)’.}}</ref> ({{lang-langx|sa|[[wikt:विन्यास|विन्यास]]}}, [[IAST]]: ''{{IAST|vinyāsa}}'') is a smooth transition between [[asana]]s in flowing styles of modern [[yoga as exercise]] such as [[Vinyasa Krama Yoga]], and [[Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga]], especially when movement is paired with the breath.

According to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga's official history, [[Krishnamacharya]] learned the complete system of [[asana]]s (postures) and vinyasas (transitions) from an otherwise unknown document, the ''[[Yoga Kurunta]]'', supposedly written 5,000 years ago by Vamana Rishi; the history tells that Krishnamacharya copied it out and taught it, unmodified, to Pattabhi Jois. However, the original manuscript was supposedly destroyed by ants, and no copy survives; neither Jois nor any other of Krishnamacharya's pupils transcribed it, as would have been expected in a traditional [[guru]]-[[shishya]] relationship. Further, Krishnamacharya "surprising[ly]"{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=184}} did not cite the text in his 1935 ''[[Yoga Makaranda]]'' or his c. 1941 ''Yogasanagalu''.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=184}} The ''Yogasanagalu'' did contain tables of asanas and vinyasas, and these are "comparable"{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=188}} to Jois's system, but far from being fixed as written in an ancient manuscript, Krishnamacharya's "jumping" yoga style at the Mysore palace was constantly changing, adapted to the needs of specific pupils according to their ages, constitutions (''deha''), vocations (''vrttibheda''), capabilities (''sakti''), and paths (''marga'');{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=188}} the approach was "experimental".{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=186}} In contrast, the system that Krishnamacharya taught to Jois and that became the basis of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was fixed. This may have been because Jois had to teach at the Sanskrit Pathasala in 1933, while Krishnamacharya's other pupils were studying at his Yogasala, so he may, [[Mark Singleton (yoga scholar)|Mark Singleton]] suggests, have taught the 18-year-old Jois a simple fixed sequence suitable for a novice teacher to use with large groups of boys.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|pp=189-190}} [[Norman Sjoman]] notes that Krishnamacharya cited the 19th century ''[[Sritattvanidhi]]'' which documents asanas used in the Mysore palace in his early writings; his early vinyasas developed into forms more like those of Jois, something that Sjoman takes as evidence that Krishnamacharya created rather than inherited the vinyasas: "It was not an inherited format".{{sfn|Sjoman|1999|p=52}}<ref name="Cushman 1999">{{cite book |title=New Light on Yoga |url=http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/466|last=Cushman |first=Anne |author-link=Anne Cushman |work=[[Yoga Journal]] |date=Jul–Aug 1999 |ISSNissn=0191-0965 |page=43}}</ref>

*{{cite book |last1=Sjoman |first1=Norman E. |author-link=Norman Sjoman |url=https://books.google.com/books?vidid=ISBN8170173892 |title=The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace |publisher=Abhinav Publications |year=1999 |edition=2nd |orig-year=1996 |isbn=81-7017-389-2}}

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