Mira Mehta

{{see also|Yoga in Britain#1980s onwards}}

Mira Mehta earned her B.A. degree in linguistics and anthropology at the University of London. She gained an M.Phil. degree in Sanskrit and classical Indian religion at the University of Oxford. She continued her studies of ancient yoga texts as a postgraduate under Krishna Arjunwadkar.

She learnt yoga directly from B. K. S. Iyengar from an early age, through "frequent visits" to his yoga institute in Pune. She had a scoliosis which she gradually overcame with yoga, becoming a full-time Iyengar Yoga teacher at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Maida Vale, London.{{harvnb|Mehta|Mehta|Mehta|1990|pp=7, 9}} She gained Iyengar's advanced yoga teaching certificate and has taught in different countries including Spain.

In 1999 Mehta founded "The Yogic Path", a yoga studio with classes of 20 students in West Hampstead, London. It teaches Iyengar Yoga and philosophy as well as therapy yoga and yoga for back pain.{{cite web |title=Yogic Path (The) |url=https://cindex.camden.gov.uk/kb5/camden/cd/service.page?id=x8Sx_2ulA4k |publisher=London Borough of Camden |access-date=5 March 2025}} She has published a poetry collection, Cascade of Stars, and translations of Sanskrit verse.{{cite web |title=Mira Mehta biography |url=http://www.poetrypf.co.uk/miramehtabiog.shtml |website=Poetry p f |access-date=5 March 2025}}

File:Stamp of India - 1991 - Colnect 164221 - Ustrasana.jpeg on a 1991 Indian postage stamp]]

Mehta has been called "the most senior [Iyengar] Yoga teacher outside India, recognised as an authority in all its aspects: asana, pranayama, philosophy and therapy."{{cite web |title=Pranic Pathways and the Inner Journey with Mira Mehta |url=https://yogaloftlondon.com/workshops/pranic-pathways-and-the-inner-journey-with-mira-mehta/ |publisher=Yoga Loft |access-date=20 March 2019 |date=3 February 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903131021/https://yogaloftlondon.com/workshops/pranic-pathways-and-the-inner-journey-with-mira-mehta/ |archive-date=3 September 2019}}

She and her brother Shyam Mehta appeared on a set of 4 stamps issued by the Indian Department of Posts in 1991. She was depicted demonstrating Ustrasana (camel pose) on a 6.50 rupee stamp, and Trikonasana (triangle pose) on a 10 rupee stamp. The images, redrawn from photographs in the Mehtas' 1990 book Yoga the Iyengar Way,{{sfn|Mehta|Mehta|Mehta|1990}} were described as "perfect postures".{{cite web |title=India on Yogasana 1991 |url=http://www.istampgallery.com/yogasana/ |website=iStampGallery |date=7 February 2016 |access-date=20 March 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241221060000/https://www.istampgallery.com/yogasana/ |archive-date=21 December 2024}}{{cite news |title=Yoga stamps issued by postal department forgotten |work=The Times of India |access-date=20 March 2019 |date=18 June 2015 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Yoga-stamps-issued-by-postal-department-forgotten/articleshow/47722272.cms |quote=The set of four multi-coloured stamps in the denominations of Rs 2, 5, 6.5 and 10 were issued on December 30, 1991, depicting yoga postures - Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana, Ushtrasana and Utthita Trikonasana - respectively.}}

In 1993, she was included in the "Best of British Women 1993" for her work in alternative health.{{cite web |title=Mira Mehta |url=https://yogaformacioninstitute.es/en/teachers/59-mira-mehta |publisher=Yoga Formacion Institute, Spain |access-date=5 March 2025}}

The yoga teacher Barry Chapple, writing in The Hindu in 2015, described Mehta as one of the "yoga greats".{{cite news |last1=Nathan |first1=Sarah |title=An English Encounter: English yoga teacher Barry Chapple talks about his interaction with his guru the late BKS Iyengar in England |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/an-english-encounter/article7332620.ece |work=The Hindu |date=20 June 2015}}

Mehta's yoga books have all been translated from English into multiple languages.

• {{cite book |last1=Mehta |first1=Silva |last2=Mehta |first2=Mira |last3=Mehta |first3=Shyam |title=Yoga the Iyengar Way |title-link=Yoga the Iyengar Way |date=1990 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley }}
• {{cite book |last=Mehta |first=Mira |title=How to use Yoga |publisher=Rodmell Press |year=1994 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Mehta |first=Mira |title=Health through Yoga |publisher=Thorsons |year=2002 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Mehta |first1=Mira |last2=Arjunwadkar |first2=Krishna S. |title=Yoga Explained |publisher=Kyle Cathie |year=2004 |ref=none}}

• {{cite book |last=Mehta |first=Mira |title=Cascade of Stars |publisher=Shepheard-Walwyn |year=2002 |ref=none}}
• {{cite web |last=Mehta |first=Mira |title=Readings for Serenity |website=Yogic Path |year=2010 |url=http://www.yogicpath.com/poetry/pp-serenity |ref=none}} (48 translations from Sanskrit)

{{further|Yoga the Iyengar Way}}

Yoga Matters calls Yoga the Iyengar Way "an influential classic textbook."{{cite web |title=Yoga: The Iyengar Way |url=https://www.yogamatters.com/yoga-the-iyengar-way.html |publisher=Yoga Matters |access-date=24 March 2019}} In his foreword to the book, Iyengar wrote that he was "pleased to be associated with this work of my pupils."{{harvnb|Mehta|Mehta|Mehta|1990|p=6}} The journalist and yoga teacher Ann Pizer, writing on Very Well Fit, comments that many practitioners see the book as a complement to Iyengar's own Light on Yoga, and that the combination of big colour illustrations and "explicit alignment points" actually make it rather more approachable.{{cite web |last1=Pizer |first1=Ann |title=The 10 Best Yoga Books of 2019 |url=https://www.verywellfit.com/best-yoga-books-3567014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402132045/https://www.verywellfit.com/best-yoga-books-3567014 |archive-date=2 April 2019 |website=Very Well Fit |date=23 May 2019}} The yoga teacher and journalist Marina Jung, writing in Australian Yoga Life, called the book a "bestseller" and "highly influential throughout the world".{{cite journal |last=Jung |first=Marina |title=In Conversation with Mira Mehta |journal=Australian Yoga Life |date=December 2013 |issue=December 2013 – February 2014 |page=66 |url=http://yogaroom.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mira-Mehta-conversation-article.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316123641/http://yogaroom.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mira-Mehta-conversation-article.pdf |archive-date=16 March 2019}}

Madhavi Kolhatkar, reviewing Yoga Explained for Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, writes that the book sets the practice of asanas in the context of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Each unit of the book presents an asana, a page on the Yoga Sutras, and a section on philosophy.{{cite journal |last=Kolhatkar |first=Madhavi |title=[Review:] Yoga Explained A New Step-by-step Approach to understanding and practicing Yoga by Mira Mehta, Krishna S. Arjunwadkar |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=89 |year=2008 |pages=187–189 |jstor=41692121}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060508154338/http://www.poetrypoetics.com/ Poetry Poetics]

{{Yoga as exercise}}

{{Modern Yoginis}}

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Category:British yoga teachers

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