Born in 1918 in Bellur, Karnataka, Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar founded the Iyengar School of Yoga.

By the time he was 15, Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja had experienced series of sickness – malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and malnutrition in the highlights. It was then when his brother-in-law, Sri Tirumali Krishnamacharya asked the young Iyengar to seek respite in Yoga to improve his health, giving him a brief training of 10-15 days. This, they say was the only Yoga training Iyengar has ever received.

At 18, Iyengar began teaching yoga. He was often called as “modern rishi”. Named at one of the top 100 influential personalities in the world by TIME magazine. His Yoga schools have more than 100 branches in the world. One of his famous stints include teaching headstand to 80 year old Queen Elizabeth.

Even when he was old, Iyengar would place heavy stones on his knees and continue to sit in that position for hours. He continued practising asanas for three hours and pranayamas for an hour daily even at the age of 90.