Asana — International Yoga Journal is the English-language voice of one of the world’s most respected yoga lineages: the Andiappan tradition of South India. For three decades it has carried authentic teaching, therapeutic research and mindful living to readers in more than thirty countries.
A living lineage
Our roots reach back to the Tamil Siddhar Thirumoolar and the teachings carried forward by the legendary Bengaluru Sundaram. As a direct disciple of Sundaram, Guruji Dr. Asana Andiappan devoted his life to yoga — travelling the length of India through the 1960s and 70s to bring the discipline to a national audience.
Guruji Dr. Asana Andiappan — Founder
Such was his mastery that Swami Sri Sankaracharya conferred upon him the title “Asana”. He went on to receive some of India’s highest honours, including the Gandhi Award and the Maharishi Patanjali Award from the Government of India.
Guruji helped transform yoga into a globally recognised therapeutic discipline, a competitive sport and a formal field of education — instrumental in integrating yoga into India’s medical and educational systems and in its recognition as a sport by the national sporting authorities. His research into heart health, dementia and chronic illness is documented across more than thirty books that remain foundational to modern yoga therapy. He established the Sundara Yoga & Natural Living Trust and the Asana Andiappan College of Yoga, and founded this journal in 1993. In his honour, December 7th is observed as World Yoga Research Day.
Dr. Yogananth Andiappan — Chief Editor
The journal is led today by Dr. Yogananth Andiappan, son of Guruji and heir to the lineage, who began learning yoga from his father at the age of two and went on to win State, National and International championship titles. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Yogic Science, a postgraduate degree in Yoga & Naturopathy, and a Ph.D. in Yoga — his doctoral research pioneering the use of yoga therapy in the rehabilitation of breast-cancer patients.
He moved to Hong Kong in 2003 and founded Anahata Yoga in 2007, since growing into one of the most respected teachers and teacher-trainers in the field. He has authored more than thirty books in Tamil and three in English, among them Yoga from the Heart, the world’s first yoga coffee-table book, and his Andiappan Yoga Therapy series is used by practitioners worldwide. He teaches and certifies teachers across Greater China, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Canada and France, and is today recognised internationally as one of the world’s foremost yoga masters.
Yogi.live
Most recently, Dr. Yogananth founded Yogi.live, an online platform delivering live and on-demand yoga to thousands of practitioners every day — carrying the lineage’s teaching to a global audience, wherever they practise.
The Andiappan Yoga Community
Service sits at the heart of the lineage. The Andiappan Yoga Community (yogacommunity.org), the registered NGO founded by Dr. Yogananth, is the largest yoga charity in Hong Kong — a team of more than three hundred volunteers bringing the benefits of yoga to low-income communities, the elderly and breast-cancer survivors throughout the year.
Our promise to readers
Every issue of Asana Journal is edited to the standard of the tradition it represents: precise, grounded and faithful to the source. We bridge modern scientific research with ancient yogic discipline, in service of mindful living and the advancement of yoga therapy worldwide.