Kolar Venkatesh Iyer, known as K. V. Iyer (1897-1980) was a gymnast, bodybuilder, proponent of Indian physical culture, and author of books including the 1930 ''Muscle Cult: A Pro-Em for My System''. He contributed to the development of modern yoga as a system of exercise. He was "possibly the most high-profile Indian advocate of physical culture in the first half of the twentieth century."

Life

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. He was a gymnast, bodybuilder, energetic and well-known proponent of Indian physical culture, and a contributor, like other gymnastics teachers such as

Krishnamacharya Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (18 November 1888 – 28 February 1989) was an Indian yoga teacher, ayurvedic healer and scholar. He is seen as one of the most important gurus of modern yoga, and is often called "the father of modern yoga" for h ...

, to the development of modern yoga. He consciously combined

hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

with bodybuilding in his Bangalore gymnasium, around 1930. He helped, too, to present the sequence of yoga

asanas An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...

called Surya Namaskar, the Salute to the Sun, as a practical, modern, stretching exercise rather than as something spiritual. He toured India doing lecture-demonstrations, accompanied by the yoga guru

Seetharaman Sundaram Seetharaman Sundaram (25 February 1901–26 December 1994) was a lawyer and pioneer of yoga as exercise, often known as Yogacharya Sundaram, and the first person to publish a handbook of yoga asanas in English, his 1928 ''Yogic Physical Culture''. ...

. 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. 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" Vyayamsala on J. C. Road, Bangalore. He became "the most important Indian physical culture instructor of the time", 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 The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the southern Indian Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950. In title, the role has been known by differe ...

. 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" with "a body which Gods covet". K. V. Iyer's close friends included

T. P. Kailasam Tyagraj Paramasiva Iyer Kailasam (Kannada: ತ್ಯಾಗರಾಜ ಪರಮಶಿವ ಐಯ್ಯರ್ ಕೈಲಾಸಂ, 1884–1946), was an Indian playwright and prominent writer in the Kannada literature. Literary criticism in Kannada l ...

and

V. Seetharamaiah Venkataramaiah Seetharamaiah (2 October 1899 - 4 September 1983) commonly known as Vee See, was a Kannada poet, writer, essayist, critic, editor and teacher who taught Kannada literature at University of Mysore between 1928 and 1955. He is a re ...

. The humorous playwright

, hearing from Iyer that he had not read anything by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, 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.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iyer, K. V. 1897 births 1980 deaths Indian bodybuilders Modern yoga pioneers People associated with physical culture

Life

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