page_title: Yoga as exercise
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Yoga as exercise / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bodhisattvadevi (female bodhisattva) Prajnaparamita; the buddhist goddess of transcendental wisdom, personified in a statue from 13th century Singhasari East Javanese art. The statue was discovered in Cungkup Putri ruins near Singhasari temple, Singhasari, East Java. According to local beliefs, the statue was made in Ken Dedes likeness. Probably served as her mortuary deified statue. The Prajnaparamita was first seen in 1818 or 1819 by the Dutch colonial official D. Monnereau. In 1820 Monnereau gave the statue to C.G.C. Reinwardt, who took it to Holland where it eventually came to be deposited in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden. Prajnaparamita is a goddess of high standing in Mahayana tantric Buddhism; she is considered the sakti, or consort, of the highest Buddha (in the Buddhist pantheon known as vajradhara), she symbolizes perfect knowledge. As with many statues from East Java, this one is thought to be the “portrait statue” of Rajapatni Gayatri queen, the wife of King Kertarajasa (the first King of Majapahit Kingdom), grandmother of Hayam Wuruk. In January 1978 the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) returned the statue to Indonesia, where it was placed in the Museum Nasional Indonesia. Today the statue is displayed in the second floor of National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta.
context_page_description: Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially in America and Europe. It is derived from the postures used in the medieval spiritual discipline of Haṭha yoga, but it is generally simply called "yoga". Academics have given yoga as exercise a variety of names, including modern postural yoga and transnational anglophone yoga.
  Postures were not central in any of the older traditions of yoga; posture practice was revived in the 1920s by yoga gurus including Yogendra and Kuvalayananda, who emphasised its health benefits. The flowing sequences of Salute to the Sun were pioneered by the Rajah of Aundh, Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi, in the 1920s. It and many standing poses used in gymnastics were incorporated into yoga by the yoga teacher Krishnamacharya in Mysore from the 1930s to the 1950s. Several of his students went on to found influential schools of yoga: Pattabhi Jois created Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, which in turn led to Power Yoga; B. K.
caption: Yoga was originally a spiritual practice based on meditation.[5] Statue from Java, 13th century
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