K. V. Iyer

Kolar Venkatesh Iyer was born in the village of Devarayasmudra in Kolar District, Karnataka. His mother died when he was ten, and he went to school in Mysore, reaching the Intermediate level. Soon after that he began developing his own system of bodybuilding.{{sfn|Bharathi|2015|pp=63-67}} He was a gymnast, bodybuilder, energetic and well-known proponent of Indian physical culture, and a contributor, like other gymnastics teachers such as Krishnamacharya, to the development of modern yoga.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|pp=122–129}}{{cite journal |last1=Balsekar |first1=R. S. |title=Presenting Professor K. V. Iyer |journal=Superman |date=April 1939 |page=186}}{{cite journal |last1=Chapman |first1=David |title=Gallery of Ironmen: Professor K. V. Iyer |journal=Ironman |date=March 1991 |volume=50 |issue=3 |page=68}} He consciously combined hatha yoga with bodybuilding in his Bangalore gymnasium, around 1930.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|pp=122–129}}{{sfn|Goldberg|2016|pp=chapter 20: K. V. Iyer: Mixing Bodybuilding and Yoga at the Palace}} He helped, too, to present the sequence of yoga asanas called Surya Namaskar, the Salute to the Sun, as a practical, modern, stretching exercise rather than as something spiritual.{{sfn|Goldberg|2016|pp=chapter 21: K. V. Iyer: Presenting Surya Namaskar as Stretching Exercise}} He toured India doing lecture-demonstrations, accompanied by the yoga guru Seetharaman Sundaram.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=126}}

This helped to change the perception of yoga from a magical technique intended for the medieval and magical transformation of the body into something immortal, by conquering the five elements, to a view of the body from the point of view of looking good and being physically fit.{{cite journal |last1=Alter |first1=Joseph S. |author-link1=Joseph Alter |title=Modern Medical Yoga: Struggling with a History of Magic, Alchemy and Sex |journal=Asian Medicine, Tradition and Modernity |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=2005 |pages=119–146}}{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=122}}

His first gymnasium was established in the Sultan's palace in Bangalore in 1922. He moved several times, finally in 1940 setting up the "famous"{{sfn|Singleton|2010|pp=122–129}} Vyayamsala on J. C. Road, Bangalore.{{sfn|Singleton|2010|pp=122–129}} He became "the most important Indian physical culture instructor of the time",{{cite book |last=Chapman|first=David L. |title=Sandow the Magnificent: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79QappH54EYC&pg=PA213 |year=1994 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02033-9 |page=213}} attempting "to blend Yoga, Hindu mysticism, and occidental physical culture into something uniquely his own".

Iyer served also as physician to the Maharajah of Mysore. As well as promoting gymnastics, he vigorously promoted himself, appearing in magazines such as Health and Strength and The Superman, and describing himself as "India's most perfectly developed man"{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=122}} with "a body which Gods covet".{{sfn|Singleton|2010|p=122}}

His students include Seetharaman Sundaram (1901–1994) who operated a Yogic School of Physical Culture and Ramesh Balsekar (1917–2009) an influential Advaitin philosopher.Newcombe, Suzanne. (2017). [https://oro.open.ac.uk/48147/1/April_Yoga_Revival_Newcombe.pdf The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India]. In: Barton, John ed. Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Religion. Oxford University Press.

Iyer was a vegetarian.Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Ina. (2010). Managing the Body: Beauty, Health, and Fitness in Britain 1880–1939. Oxford University Press. p. 100. {{ISBN|978-0199280520}} His close friends included T. P. Kailasam and V. Seetharamaiah. The humorous playwright T. P. Kailasam, hearing from Iyer that he had not read anything by Oscar Wilde, replied "Oh my! You are only into body-building, what about your brain? You should prove to the world that a well-built body can harbour a creative mind too." The effect was to encourage Iyer to become a novelist, publishing Roopadarshi, Shantala, Leena, Mrischakitika, Samudyata, Ekalavya, and Sayyada Mane in the Kannada language.{{sfn|Bharathi|2015|pp=63-67}}

• {{cite book |last1=Iyer |first1=K. V. |title=Muscle Cult: A Pro-Em to My System |date=1930 |publisher=Hercules Gymnasium and Correspondence School of Physical Culture |location=Bangalore |pages=41–42 |oclc=37973753}}
• {{cite book |last1=Iyer |first1=K. V. |title=Perfect Physique: a Poem to My System |date=1936 |publisher=Bangalore Press |location=Bangalore |oclc=39147503}}
• {{cite book |last1=Iyer |first1=K. V. |title=Physique & Figure |date=1940 |publisher=Bangalore Press |location=Bangalore |oclc=949949106}}
• {{cite book |last1=Iyer |first1=K. V. |title=Physical training through correspondence Lessons 1-8 |date=n.d. |publisher=Hercules Gymnasium and Correspondence School of Physical Culture |location=Bangalore |oclc=743336221}}

• Seetharaman Sundaram - Iyer's assistant and yoga specialist on his lecture/demonstration tours

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Bharathi |first=Veena |title=Ordinary Feet, Extra-Ordinary Feat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yg-qCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 |year=2015 |publisher=Vij Books India |isbn=978-93-84318-78-9 |pages=63–67 }}
• {{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Elliott |title=The Path of Modern Yoga: The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmEoDwAAQBAJ |year=2016 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-62055-568-2 }}
• {{cite book |last=Singleton |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Singleton (yoga teacher) |title=Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice | publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-539534-1 |oclc=318191988 }}

{{Modern yoga}}

{{Physical culture}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iyer, K. V.}}

Category:1897 births

Category:1980 deaths

Category:Indian male bodybuilders

Category:Modern yoga pioneers

Category:People associated with physical culture