01/14/2026
Sometimes there are questions that resurface concerning the long lost Yoga Koruṇṭa and the mythology surrounding it. Some come across criticisms that suggest T Krishnamacharya made it up. But Krishnamacharya must have learned from somebody, and he always stated he learned from a master Haṭha yogi named Ramamohan Brahmachari.
The first question I may ask for those with over-arching curiosity into the story of the Yoga Koruṇṭa is, are you coming from Ashtanga Vinyasa with the belief Yoga Koruṇṭa potentially contains the Ashtanga Vinyasa series'? It should be noted that whenever the Madras/Chennai cohort of Krishnamacharya pupils (Ramaswami, Desikachar, Mohan, etc) speak of Krishnamacharya referencing the unknown and apparently lost Yoga Koruṇṭa, they don't refer it supposedly containing such Ashtanga Vinyasa series' specifically. I recall Ramaswami sir suggesting it was one of the texts that taught long breathing in āsana practice, and Desikachar references it as supposedly teaching therapeutic approach (it should further be noted that Cikitsā Krama as how Desikachar teaches or how Ramaswami or Mohan explain and teach, is not primary series of Ashtanga Vinyasa as P. Jois used to refer as Yoga Cikitsā, but rather a highly individualized approach and often more recuperative in nature with fewer āsana-s and more emphasis on attentive long breathing synchronizing slow and mindful movements with gentle procedures selected specifically addressing the individual's unique case).
So what did the Yoga Koruṇṭa contain? We don't know. A note on the Madras/Chennai cohort of Krishnamacharya pupils, in a bigger way they tend to highlight the importance of another obscure text more so than the long lost Yoga Koruṇṭa, the Yoga Rahasya which Krishnamacharya is said to have received under mysterious circumstances while on pilgrimage and in a deep meditative state to which he attributes to a family ancestor in the 9th century Vaiṣṇavite saint Nāthamuni. Though largely Mohan and Ramaswami refer to Yoga Rahasya as a Krishnamacharya work, though perhaps inspired by his family tradition and certainly coming to him under mysterious circumstances. The Yoga Koruṇṭa only figures more popularly among discussions between Ashtanga Vinyasa practitioners than it does between students in Vinyāsa Krama and Viniyoga lineages where the Yoga Rahasya factors of greater importance.
Have you come across Jason Birch's research into an obscure late medieval Haṭha manual called the Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati? What's notable is the author of said manual is noted to be an individual by the name of Kapālakuraṇṭaka. And otherwise, Krishnamacharya himself has apparently referred to Yoga Koruṇṭa occasionally by alternate names like Yoga Kuraṇṭi and Yoga Kuraṇṭam (see also Ramaswami references which follows such alternate spellings), which start to bear closer resemblance in spelling to the name of the author of this Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati, Kapālakuraṇṭaka.
While Krishnamacharya doesn't reference Yoga Koruṇṭa in his 1934 Yoga Makaranda, he does reference it (under the name Yoga Kuraṇṭi) in his Yogāsanagalu. However, we can directly see Krishnamacharya reference in his Yoga Makaranda the Śrītattvanidhi for a section on āsana-s that was compiled by the Maharaja of Mysore from 1850s, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III who was great grandfather to Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV who would happen to employ T Krishnamacharya in the 1930s to teach yoga at the Jaganmohan palace. Refer Norman Sjoman's research on the Mysore yoga traditions for a detailing of this impressive āsana section of the Śrītattvanidhi. What Birch's more recent research has revealed is that the older Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati of Kapālakuraṇṭaka serves as the principle source for the Yogāsana section of the Śrītattvanidhi. We know the Śrītattvanidhi was in possession of the Mysore royal library, and we also know there is a Mysore manuscript of the Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati of Kapālakuraṇṭaka as well (the main manuscript used for Birch's and Kaivalyadhama's research and translations come from another manuscript more readily accessible located in a library in Pune).
So what makes this Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati of Kapālakuraṇṭaka interesting? Does it contain Ashtanga Vinyasa series'? It doesn't, but what it does contain is quite remarkable. Firstly, the Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati isn't merely showing the āsana-s, but rather covers various elements of Haṭha yoga, starting firstly with the habitation and places of practice for the Yogi, an alternate detailing of various Yama-s and Niyama-s, then is an extensive section covering some 112 impressive Yogāsana-s, followed by a section on Haṭha Kriyā-s, Prāṇāyāma, and the Haṭha Mudrā-s. As for the various āsana-s described, what's impressive is that they appear to be organized in a sort of working sequence and is suggested they be practiced in sequence and not individually, many of them are rather dynamic incorporating various movements and even jumping and other rigorous procedures, they are grouped together in categories of their starting plane of movement whether they be lying in a supine position, lying in a prone position, seated variations, standing variations, even obscure hanging rope variations, and a section cryptically for "piercing Sun and Moon," a couple procedures even seem to have explicit instructions for what to do with the breath in the āsana-s like Kumbhaka or long breathing with sound, etc, there's instances where there is a progression described explicitly followed with what then appears as a counter-pose, and we see many precedents for the kinds of āsana-s we see today. No, we don't see standing "triangles" and "warriors," but we pretty much see much everything else in regard to standing on one leg-variants, squatting movements, supine variants including shoulder-stand and variations, prone variants including various back bending as well as various arm-balancing variations as well as headstand, various seated variations we can recognize today, etc. For as compelling the contents of this Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati reveal to be, Birch has speculated the author Kapālakuraṇṭaka may have something to do with the Yoga Kuraṇṭam we otherwise hear about.
So while Krishnamacharya clearly had access to the Śrītattvanidhi and directly references it, it is also likely that he had access to the Mysore manuscript of the Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati equally in possession by the royal family in Mysore. I would also like to suggest an alternate theory, as the compiler of the 1850s Śrītattvanidhi in Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (great grandfather to Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV) is evidenced to have had links to T Krishnamacharya's own great grandfather Śrī Śrīnivasa Brahmatantra Svatantra Parakāla Svāmi who was head pontiff at the neighbouring Mysore Parakāla Maṭh (after all, T Krishnamacharya came from a family lineage of respected scholar-practitioners), and T Krishnamacharya is evidenced to have in his possession āsana pictorials that resemble in no small part those that appear in the Śrītattvanidhi and the illustrated Mysore manuscript of the Haṭhābhyāsa-Paddhati of Kapālakuraṇṭaka, suggesting a link there. The story his son Desikachar has otherwise given was these āsana drawings were given to a young T Krishnamacharya by his Himalayan Yogācārya Ramamohan Brahmachari. But otherwise their clear resemblance to the Śrītattvanidhi illustrations might suggest perhaps the copied out drawings might have been passed down T Krishnamacharya's family having received it from his father whom was his first teacher. The link of Krishnamacharya's great grandfather as spiritual advisor to the 1850s Maharaja who would compile the Śrītattvanidhi is a very compelling one to me. Perhaps a young T Krishnamacharya was seeking out a master practicing Haṭha yogi in Ramamohan Brahmachari to help explain how such dynamic procedures described in Kapālakuraṇṭaka are to be done, to get practical guidance into such practices, after he may have received said drawings through his father.
Anyway, hope this provides some thoughts to inquire further.
