Introducing Advanced A and B Asana into Primary and Intermediate Series , from original 1974 Ashtanga syllabus In an earlier post this month I posed the question Did Pattabhi Jois teacher Krishnamacharya have an Advanced series and if so where was it. I had shown that the Primary and Middle groups from the asana table in his 1941 book Yogasanagalu corresponded closely with the Ashtanga Primary and Intermediate series we have now, but what about the table of advanced postures, it appeared to be more of a lumping together of asana rather than suggesting any sequence. Krishnamacharya doesnt seem to have followed fixed sequences. Although there appears to have been intuitive progressions of primary and middle asana subroutines that most likely corresponded to our current practice it was unlikely they were fixed in stone. It was Pattabhi Jois who seems to have formalised the different levels of asana in to, originally, four sequences, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A and Advanced B and this seems to have been necessitated by his being invited to teach a four year yoga course at the Sanskrit college. Had the course been three or two years the practice we have today would most likely have been significantly different. So if Krishnamacharya had no Advanced A and B series how would he have approached these more challenging asana? Manju Jois mentioned on a recent workshop I attended in Rethymno, Crete that he practices some of Primary, some of 2nd series and a couple of postures from Advanced series. It seems likely to me that this would have been how Krishnamacharya would have approached the practice of his more proficient students. There is an often intuitive development of asana in Krishnamacharyas approach, we can see this in the layout of asana in the Primary and Intermediate groups. We find Marchiasana A B and C following each other in the Primary group, but the more challenging Marchiasana D appears in the Intermediate group, Marichiasana E, F, G and H, more challenging still, turn up the proficient group. It seems likely that as the student progressed they were given more advanced variants of the Marchi posture. This is similar to Pattabhi Jois early approach to parivritta trikonasana, the reverse triangle posture we all practice in the standing sequence. On visiting the USA in the early 80s Pattabhi Jois was supposedly shocked to find beginner students practicing the posture, he had listed it under the fourth year (Advanced B in the 1974 asana list he gave to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams). A compromise was found and for a time one would wait until they had learnt all of primary series before being taught the twisting posture when it would then be reintroduced in its rightful place in the standing sequence. Below is the list of proficient asana from the Advanced A and B sequences, the 3rd and 4th years in the 1974 original Ashtanga list. The pictures are mostly my own often take around the time I first gained some semblance of the posture, they are in no way to be taken as indications of how the posture should be performed, some of these I practice with more facility now, others I have lost completely as I have focused on other aspects of Krishnamacharyas practice, his use of kumbhaka for example.. Ive tried to indicate how we might introduce more advanced postures into our Primary and Intermediate series practice as we become more proficient. We do this already of course, we introduce the full finishing sequence once weve learnt Primary series up to Marichasana B, we introduce drop backs after completing full Primary, bakasana as an exit in Primary once we have gained more strength, the dwi pada sirsaasana entry to supta kurmasana once we have learnt that posture in 2nd series. What becomes interesting as we introduce postures this way is that we start to see the Vinyasa Krama sequences that Ramaswami presents corresponding to how he was taught by Krishnamacharya in the 1950s-80s. In Vinyasa Krama, in the Asymmetric sequence for example, we find a similar progression through subroutines that we have in our Ashtanga Primary series. We find the Triang Mukha eka pada paschimottansana and janu sirsasanas, ardha badha parma paschimottanasana followed by the marichiasana subroutine, we then move into the leg behind head posture, eka pada sirsasana found in Ashtanga 2nd series but then move on to the more advanced series leg behind head options, Durvasana for example. In Vinyasa Krama we would add the more advanced extensions as we gained proficiency with a previous variation of a posture, each posture can be seen as a preparation for the one that follows or an extension of one that proceeds it. It is suggested then that occasionally introducing progressively more advanced variations of postures into a core practice most likely characterised the approach taken to asana practice by Krishnamacharya in the Mysore years 1920s-1950 when he was teaching small and large groups of students but that it was also the method he employed in his later small group and one to one teaching. The construction of fixed series, particularly Advanced A and B by Pattabhi Jois, in response to the demands of a four year course structure, was a departure from Krishnamacharyas approach. Both approaches to advanced asana have their benefits as well as their drawbacks Obviously caution is advised as is common sense, we do not just practice an advanced posture because its there, we have to consider where we are with a proceeding posture before introducing a more advanced variation. There are benefits though. In Ashtanga Intermediate series there is a nice build up of backbends leading to kapotasana but no preparation for the first leg behind head posture. In the Krishnamacharya Krama there would be plenty of preparation through the less challenging asymmetric postures before taking our leg behind our head into the more advanced hip opener. This follows through each of the Vinyasa Krama sequences Below Ive suggested where the advanced posture might follow on from postures in the primary and Intermediate series but often in Vinyasa Krama there would be even more preparatory postures in between. This is how Ive included these postures in my own practice although these days I seem to be less and less interested in exploring the Advanced postures preferring to explore Krishnamacharyas approach to the breath, particularly his use of kumbhaka, in postures mostly from his Primary group. Many Ashtanga practitioners have no interest in progressing to 3rd second series, it was supposedly only for demonstration after all, some have no ambition perhaps for second series either however they may well have gained proficiency in certain areas within the Primary sequence. This approach allows as to add more challenging asana where we feel confident and comfortable and appears to be in line with Krishnamacharyas original teaching way back when he was teaching the young Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, it is an approach in line with the tradition. NB: The intention of this post is not to encourage anyone to run off and practice advanced postures before they are ready to do so. The argument is that there are certain areas in our practice in which we are stronger than others, more proficient than others, and these can be explored further, should we see benefit in doing so, by introducing asana from Krishnamacharyas proficient group. This seems to have been Krishnamacharyas original practice back when he was teaching pattabhi Jois in Mysore as well as that he taught throughout his life and the approach taught to me by Krishnamacharyas student of over thirty years, Srivatsa Ramaswami. The numbering system below is the same as that found on the original Ashtanga syllabus given to Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams in 1974 and supposedly the same as that formalised by Pattabhi Jois when he began teaching a four year course of Yoga at the sanskrit college in the early 1940s.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 07:47:57 +0000
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