Iyengar, his student, achieved world renown. His very vigorous, athletic, acrobatic approach to yoga asanas was attractive, especially to Westerners and those who enjoyed physical challenges. He developed a unique approach to yoga asana, which was probably a synthesis of his yogic knowledge and the Indian wrestling exercises patronized by the Maharaj, as well as the exercises introduced by English acrobats who were invited by the Maharaj to his palace. Krishnamacharya was a Sanskrit scholar and yoga tutor in the palace of the Maharaj of Mysore, and in general, led a relatively unknown life. Another, who perhaps ultimately has had the most influence on today's Western yoga culture, again, through his students who went westward, was Sri T. Yogic attitudes, simple asanas, pranayama, relaxation and health oriented techniques were systematically devised to help people solve the problems of daily living. He felt yoga could be used to create a better lifestyle. His contemporary, Sri Yogendra, who was known as the 'householder yogi', aimed to make the concepts, practices and techniques of yoga available to all, especially to ordinary family people. He also embarked on scholarly academic analysis of the ancient Sanskrit literature. Swami Kuvalayananda of Lonavla, India emphasized modern scientific validation for the ancient yogic practices of asanas, pranayama, kriyas and shat karmas. This period also saw the emergence of a new class of yogis, though, who endeavoured to bring yoga into 'practical use' for the modern society at large. Jiddhu Krishnamurthy was yet another who discarded all traditions and physical practices, professing to delve deep within the 'Self' to find ultimate truth. This timeframe also saw the recognition of fellow jnana yogi Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry, a reclusive scholar who produced insightful commentary on the traditional Sanskrit texts and crafted the path known as Integral Yoga. Swami Sivananda was primarily a vedantist though, and did not himself practice much of hatha yoga but when adepts of these physical practices came to his Divine Life Society headquarters in Rishikesh, he had them teach his young disciples the art of asanas and pranayama.
Of prominent note is Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, whose followers set up yoga vedanta centres in nearly every country around the world.
The second wave of modern yoga masters was heavily dominated by English-speaking, British-educated Indians who were also predominately advaitic vedantists. During this period, some prominent masters in the Bengali Tantric tradition (where certain esoteric practices of kundalini arousal were emphasized, which also included certain asanas and pranayamas) also emerged - such as Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Yukteshwar and Swami Kanakananda - who would all later become known though the prominence of their own disciples who took their messages to the West in the ensuing decades too. They did not put much, if any emphasis on asana, pranayama or other physical yogic practices. Those such as Sri Ramakrishna, and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, and others like Ramana Maharishi from the famed Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, were very much in the advaitic (non-dualistic) vedanta tradition. This first wave of Modern yoga saw several Indian gurus enter the world stage. In tracing the history of modern yoga, we can see major 'waves' which can be divided into three distinct periods (1893–1920 1920–1960 1960–present), including several prominent world teachers who arose during each. The beginning of the Modern Yoga Period, which coincides with the movement of yogic concepts to the West in a powerful wave, is usually traced back to Swhen Swami Vivekananda made his historic address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA.
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