13/09/2025
I am writing a chapter for an upcoming book titled 'Yoga in Bengal,' which will be titled: The 1930s: When Calcutta Yoga & 84 Yoga Asana Went Abroad.
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This chapter examines the transnationality of hatha yoga practice from Calcutta, India, abroad, with a focus on the 1930s. The essay follows the life of Buddha Bose (1913-1983), who was half British and half Indian (and born in between on the boat before reaching Ceylon). Raised in Calcutta, Bose encountered his youthful teacher, Bishnu Ghosh.
In 1930, Bose began his life inside the family home of Bhagabhati Ghosh, the father of Bishnu and Paramahansa Yogananda.
Together, the trio toured Bengal and South India in 1935. Then Buddha and Bishnu went on a world tour to Europe and America in 1938–39, where Buddha performed ‘India’s physical culture system’ of eighty-four yoga asanas under the guidance of Bishnu Ghosh and the spiritual practice of kriya as handed down from Babaji and Lahiri to Yogananda. Buddha and Bishnu stayed in California, teaching Yogananda’s disciples the 84 yoga asanas of hatha yoga.
Through the lives of Buddha Bose, Bishnu Ghosh, and Yogananda during the 1930s, we can see the historical moment of bringing the 84 yoga asanas from Calcutta to Europe and the USA. Now, nearly 100 years later, what is its legacy?
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To answer this question, I hope to explore the development of the 84 Yoga Asanas in this Calcutta lineage and explore the legacy of this practice today from a fresh perspective. I hope to uncover more about the 84 yoga asanas that Bishnu and Buddha taught to Yogananda's students, as reflected in the SRF magazines, but I also hope to make this more about the present than merely a historical perspective.
The questions I have been exploring historically include: Why is 84 Yoga Asanas so compelling? What is the intent or motivation of aligning with that number?
The questions I have been exploring within this lineage include: How was it taught, what was its structure, and how was it demonstrated? Were there requirements before learning the 84 yoga asanas? Were there spiritual requirements? Did they consider it a therapeutic practice, or was it purely for demonstration?
The questions I hope to explore within the legacy of the 84 Yoga Asanas in the present include: What are the syncretic changes and innovations that have developed over a timeline? What conflicts have surfaced? Is the practice growing? Should it grow?
And from an autoethnographic perspective, I have begun a daily practice of the 84 asanas, which I hope inspires me to look at this practice from a personal perspective as well.
Let's see how it develops.
