The 1928 Maharaja Who Invented Surya Namaskar
The 12-step Surya Namaskar your school PT teacher called “ancient Indian yoga” is 98 years old.
It was codified in 1928 by Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Raja of Aundh — a small princely state in present-day Satara district of Maharashtra. He drew it from two sources that would shock the average Instagram yoga teacher — Indian wrestling akhada drills and British military calisthenics.
This is not a fringe academic claim. It is the consensus of yoga historians including Mark Singleton (Yoga Body, Oxford University Press, 2010), Elliott Goldberg (The Path of Modern Yoga, 2016), and N. E. Sjoman (The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace, 1996). The deception is not in the historians’ work — it is in the marketing.
This article tells the actual history. For the modern Surya Namaskar steps, calorie data, and lineage comparison, see the main Surya Namaskar guide.
What Classical Yoga Texts Actually Say
Before tracing where Surya Namaskar came from, it is worth establishing what it is not in.
| Text | Approximate Date | Surya Namaskar mentioned? |
|---|---|---|
| Yoga Sutras of Patanjali | 4th century CE | No |
| Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Svatmarama) | 15th century | No |
| Gheranda Samhita | 17th century | No |
| Shiva Samhita | 14th–15th century | No |
| Goraksha Sataka | 12th–13th century | No |
| Vasistha Samhita | undated | No |
The Patanjali Yoga Sutras describe yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi — the eight limbs of yoga. “Asana” is defined in one terse line — sthira-sukham asanam (“a steady, comfortable seat”). It is a meditation posture, not a flowing physical sequence.
The Hatha Yoga texts describe 15 to 84 asanas, most of them seated or supine, with some standing poses. Sun salutation as a flowing 12-step sequence linked to breath does not appear.
This is not because yogis hid the practice. It is because it did not yet exist in that form.
What Existed Before 1928
Some pieces of what became modern Surya Namaskar did exist, scattered:
1. Akhada Wrestling Drills
The akhadas (traditional wrestling gymnasia) of North and Western India had repetitive bodyweight drills built around dand and baithak — Hindu pushup and Hindu squat. The dand in particular is recognisable in any modern Surya Namaskar:
- Lower from plank to chest while sweeping forward (today’s chaturanga to cobra arc)
- Push back through downward-dog-like position
- Repeat for hundreds of reps
These were strength-conditioning drills for pehlwans (wrestlers), performed in counts of 100 (shatabdi), 500, or 1000. The breath-synchronised, meditative flowing version did not exist.
2. Surya Upasana
Solar veneration practices existed in Vedic and post-Vedic traditions — facing east at sunrise, chanting Gayatri mantra, offering arghya (water libation), and performing prostrations (sashtanga pranama). These were devotional, not athletic. They did not involve flowing through 12 postures.
3. British Physical Culture
By the 1880s, British India had introduced calisthenics, gymnastics, and military PT into state schools, princely state gymnasiums, and military training. Photographs from the Aundh state gymnasium (which Pant Pratinidhi ran) in the early 1920s show Indian and British exercises being taught side by side — barbell lifts, club swinging, gymnastic vaulting, and bodyweight movements like the modern pushup.
The fusion that became Surya Namaskar happened at this intersection — Indian wrestling drills + Hindu devotional symbolism + British calisthenic structure.
Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi — The Maharaja
The man at the centre of this story is rarely named in yoga teacher trainings.
Born — 24 October 1868 Died — 13 April 1951 Role — Raja of Aundh, a small princely state in the Deccan Other titles — Indian National Congress sympathiser, social reformer, painter, photographer, multilingual scholar
His state, Aundh, was unusual. Pant Pratinidhi voluntarily declared it a constitutional monarchy in 1939, drafting one of the first Indian constitutions with direct input from M. K. Gandhi. He emphasised mass education, women’s emancipation, and physical fitness as state policy.
In the 1920s, he ran the Aundh state gymnasium, a public-facing fitness institution that taught:
- Indian wrestling (kushti)
- Indian club swinging (mudgal) and Indian mace (gada) work
- Gymnastics and calisthenics in the British tradition
- Yoga asana (in the limited form known at the time)
Out of this experimentation, he formalised a 10-step sequence he called Surya Namaskar and published it in 1928 in The Ten-Point Way to Health (Marathi original, English translation by Louise Morgan in 1938).
The 1928 book is striking when you actually read it:
- Photographs show the Maharaja and Aundh state youth performing the sequence in athletic shorts and singlets — not yogic dhotis
- The framing is physical fitness for the modern Indian male, including military preparedness
- Mantras are mentioned as optional devotional accompaniment, not as core practice
- The sequence emphasises high-repetition strength building — Pant Pratinidhi recommends building up to 300 rounds per day, a wrestler-style volume
This is not the slow meditative practice Sivananda would later popularise. This is akhada-influenced fitness in nationalist branding.
How Krishnamacharya Transformed It
While Pant Pratinidhi worked in Aundh, a Sanskrit scholar and yogi named Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989) moved to Mysore in 1924 and was appointed yoga teacher at the Mysore Palace under the patronage of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV.
The palace context shaped what Krishnamacharya taught:
- His primary students were young palace princes and their friends, ages 12–25
- The palace gym had British gymnastics equipment — vaulting horses, rings, parallel bars
- A British gymnastics instructor was on staff (documented in palace records)
- The young princes needed an exercise system as athletic as Western gymnastics, framed in Indian traditional language
Krishnamacharya adapted Pant Pratinidhi’s Surya Namaskar with three innovations:
- Breath synchronisation — each pose tied to inhale or exhale, transforming the drill into a flowing vinyasa
- Chaturanga dandasana — the controlled lowering from plank, replacing the wrestler-style dand
- Jump-throughs and jump-backs — gymnastic-influenced transitions between standing and seated poses
He developed two formal sequences — Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B — which became the opening movements of the modern Ashtanga Vinyasa system.
His two most influential students were:
- K. Pattabhi Jois (1915–2009) — formalised the Ashtanga system and established the AYRI/KPJAYI in Mysore. Carried Surya Namaskar A and B to the West from 1975 onwards.
- B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–2014) — Krishnamacharya’s brother-in-law and student. Moved to Pune in 1937 and developed the alignment-focused Iyengar method, which broke Surya Namaskar back into individual asana holds.
How “Ancient Yoga” Became the Marketing Frame
The 1920s–1940s Indian nationalist movement created the framing that modern fitness practices were a recovery of suppressed Hindu tradition. This was strategically useful — it gave the British-influenced physical culture revival an indigenous identity.
Mark Singleton’s Yoga Body documents the chain:
- Pant Pratinidhi’s Surya Namaskar — explicitly modern in 1928 but with Sanskrit naming and mantra options
- Sivananda’s adoption — Swami Sivananda (1887–1963), founder of the Divine Life Society, published widely in English from the 1930s and presented Surya Namaskar as ancient yoga
- Iyengar and Jois in the West — taught Surya Namaskar from the 1960s onwards as core yoga, leveraging Western interest in Eastern spirituality
- School curriculum integration — Indian school PT adopted Sivananda’s 12-step version from the 1960s onwards as standard
- Modern Instagram era — “ancient” framing amplified by social media, where historical nuance does not survive a Reel
By the 2000s, the framing was so dominant that questioning the antiquity of Surya Namaskar was considered culturally insensitive — even though Indian academic historians had documented the modern origin since the 1990s.
What Got Lost in Translation
Several elements of the 1928 original disappeared in the modern versions:
| Element | 1928 Aundh Original | Modern Sivananda Version | Modern Ashtanga A |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of postures | 10 | 12 | 9 movements |
| Repetition target | 300/day for fitness | 12–24 typical | 5 typical |
| Tempo | Athletic, wrestler-fast | Slow with breath sync | Fast vinyasa |
| Mantras | Optional | Often included | Usually omitted |
| Devotional framing | Modern fitness, mantra optional | Devotional + fitness | Vinyasa fitness |
| Target audience | Young athletic males | All ages | Mid-fitness adults |
| Cultural framing | Aundh state nationalism | Pan-Indian spirituality | Globalised yoga |
If you wanted to practise the actual 1928 Aundh original today, you would do a fast-paced 10-step bodyweight strength drill with optional Sanskrit chants, repeated 300 times in a session. No yoga studio in India teaches this. It survives only in academic reconstructions and a few akhada-style fitness coaches in Maharashtra.
Why the History Matters
Knowing the actual origin of Surya Namaskar changes how you should approach the practice:
1. Stop Treating It as Sacred and Unchangeable
If the 12-step sequence is 98 years old, modifying it is not desecration. Adapting for a bad back, weak wrists, or hypothyroid fatigue is not breaking tradition — it is following exactly what Krishnamacharya, Iyengar, and Pattabhi Jois all did when they adapted the Aundh original for their own students.
2. Pick the Variant That Fits Your Body
Different lineages emerged for different bodies and goals. The Aundh original was for young athletic males. Sivananda’s slow version was for householder spiritual aspirants. Ashtanga A and B were for palace princes in their teens and twenties. Iyengar’s broken-down asana approach was for anyone, including injured and elderly students. Modern adults in their 30s–50s with desk-worker bodies often do best in Iyengar or Sivananda style — not in Ashtanga A despite its prestige.
3. Disconnect Fitness from Mythology
If you want fitness, train for fitness. If you want devotional practice, do devotional practice. The 1928 original separated these cleanly — mantras were optional. Modern conflation (“Surya Namaskar will cure your thyroid because it is ancient sacred yoga”) is marketing, not medicine. For genuine thyroid management, you still need Levothyroxine alongside any yoga practice.
4. Respect the Genuinely Ancient Parts
Parts of Surya Namaskar are genuinely ancient. The Surya devotional tradition with its mantras dates back centuries. The akhada dand drills are at least medieval. Breath as a meditative anchor comes directly from Hatha Yoga texts. The 12-step flow itself is modern. Knowing which parts are which lets you honour the ancient elements without lying about the modern ones.
Where to See the History Yourself
If you want to verify any of this, here are concrete starting points:
- Bhawanrao Pant Pratinidhi’s 1928 book — The Ten-Point Way to Health — out of copyright, available in public domain archives. The Louise Morgan English translation (1938) is the most cited version.
- Mark Singleton (2010) — Yoga Body — The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, Oxford University Press. The standard academic reference.
- Elliott Goldberg (2016) — The Path of Modern Yoga, Inner Traditions.
- N. E. Sjoman (1996) — The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. Documents the Krishnamacharya era.
- Aundh State Archives — held in Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai. Photographs and records of the Aundh state gymnasium.
- KPJAYI Mysore — Pattabhi Jois shala, continues the Krishnamacharya-Mysore tradition of Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A and B.
- RIMYI Pune — Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, established by BKS Iyengar in 1975. Teaches the Iyengar-method approach.
The Modern Practitioner’s Honest Position
You can practise Surya Namaskar daily and benefit from it without believing it is ancient. You can also believe in its spiritual lineage without ignoring the documented 20th-century history. These are not in conflict — unless you are using “ancient” as a marketing crutch to sell yoga retreats or supplement bundles.
The Aundh maharaja, Krishnamacharya, Sivananda, Iyengar, and Pattabhi Jois all contributed to what we call Surya Namaskar today. They were modern Indians solving modern problems with creative synthesis. Calling them ancient is a disservice to what they actually accomplished — building a practice that genuinely works for modern bodies, drawing on multiple traditions, in less than a century.
Knowing this should make you more, not less, respectful of the practice. And it should free you to adapt it for your specific body, goal, and life — exactly as its founders did.
Sources & References
- Singleton M (2010). Yoga Body — The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford University Press.
- Goldberg E (2016). The Path of Modern Yoga — The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice. Inner Traditions.
- Sjoman NE (1996). The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace. Abhinav Publications.
- Pant Pratinidhi BS (1928). The Ten-Point Way to Health — Surya Namaskars. Aundh State. Louise Morgan translation 1938, J. M. Dent & Sons.
- Alter JS (2004). Yoga in Modern India — The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton University Press.
- Maharashtra State Archives — Aundh State Records, Mumbai.
For health decisions, consult a doctor or certified yoga therapist. This article is historical, not medical advice.
Medical Disclaimer
This article is for informational and historical purposes only. It is not medical advice. The historical analysis here does not endorse or discourage any particular yoga lineage or practice. Before starting or modifying any exercise programme — including Surya Namaskar in any of its modern variants — consult your doctor, particularly if you have pre-existing medical conditions or are over 40.