Indra Devi (1899-2002) was known as the “first lady of yoga." While she recognized yoga as a deeply spiritual discipline, she also knew how to use her high profile connections to popularize the practice and bring it into the mainstream.
Indra Devi (1899-2002) was known as the “first lady of yoga." While she recognized yoga as a deeply spiritual discipline, she also knew how to use her high profile connections to popularize the practice and bring it into the mainstream.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about women who’ve made important contributions to the world of health and wellness.
Today’s wellness titan was known as the “first lady of yoga”. While she recognized yoga as a deeply spiritual discipline, she also knew how to use her high profile connections to popularize the practice and bring it into the mainstream.
Let’s talk about Indra Devi!
Indra Devi was born Eugenie Peterson in Riga, Latvia on May 12, 1899. With a mother who was a Russian noblewoman and a father who was a Swedish bank director, Eugenie had a comfortable childhood. As a girl, she attended drama school in Moscow. But in 1917, Eugenie and her mother fled to Berlin when the Communist Party rose to power.
In Germany, Eugenie joined a Russian traveling theater group and worked as an actress and dancer. At age 15, she became enchanted with India. Many sources say that this fascination began when she read a book by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
. But another source claims that Indra attended an event in Holland where she met yoga master Jiddu Krishnamurti and was immediately taken with Indian philosophy.
In 1927, Eugenie pursued her interest and sailed to India – destination: Bollywood. Eugenie adopted the stage name Indra Devi, and soon caught the attention of Jan Srakaty, an attaché to the Czech Consulate in Bombay. The two married in 1930.
Because of Jan’s position, Indra met many diplomats and politicians, including the rulers of the Kingdom of Mysore, a realm in southern India.. In their palace, they had a yoga school that was led by master Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is known today as the “father of modern yoga”.
Indra asked him for a lesson. At first, he said no. Indra was an outsider, a Western woman. But eventually, he gave in. Indra became his first foreign, female student. For the next year, Krishnamacharya trained Indra. In addition to yoga lessons, he also made her follow a strict regimen. No coffee, tea, white sugar, white flour, white rice or meat.
Indra listened dutifully. But later, when it was time for her to go off on her own, she built her own style of yoga. It used Krishnamacharya’s fundamental teachings, but took a gentler approach, appealing to Westerners.
In the mid 1930s, Indra’s husband was transferred to China. There, in Shanghai, Indra taught what’s believed to be the first yoga class in modern China.
This was a radical act that went against both her husband’s wishes and the Japanese who had began to occupy the city in 1937.
But Indra was undeterred, and she opened her first yoga school in China in 1939. Indra taught her classes out of the home of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the wife of the country’s ruler, who had a passion for yoga herself.
While in China, Indra also taught a “prison class,” for imprisoned staff members of the American Consulate
After World War II, Indra returned to India. She authored what’s believed to be the first yoga book, written by a Westerner, published in India. Indra was also the first Westerner to teach yoga in India. To her followers, she was known as Mataji, which is the Hindi name for mother.
After her husband, Jan’s, death in 1946, Indra set sail for a new place. This time? Southern California.
Indra became a yoga teacher to the stars, with clients like Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo. She’s credited today for popularizing yoga in the U.S. .
Indra also taught yoga lessons at Elizabeth Arden’s spas around the country. When she was approached about officially joining the staff, she declined.She didn’t want to work for anyone.
In 1953, Indra married Dr. Siegrid Knauer. She became an American citizen and legally changed her name to Indra Devi. Dr. Knauer gifted Indra with an 80 acre ranch in Tecate, Mexico. She spent many years there training yoga teachers.
In 1960, Indra returned to Russia for the first time in 40 years. Indra spoke to the officials about the health benefits of yoga. And although it took years for yoga to officially be legalized in Russia, Indra had a significant impact on that process.
In the mid-1960s, Indra became friends with Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba. Together, they created a new style of yoga, called Sai yoga. It combined the teachings of her first teacher and a devotional style of yoga called Bhakti.
After her second husband’s death, Indra moved to Buenos Aires in 1985. Her popularity there was fueled by a single television appearance, and she became nationally known. With this momentum, Indra opened six yoga studios that each held 15 classes a day.
Indra Devi died on April 25, 2002, in Buenos Aires at the age of 102.
Even in her final years, Indra performed demanding yoga poses. She saw the power and beauty in the practice and spread that understanding around the world.
All month, we’re honoring women who changed the landscape of health and wellness.
For more information and pictures of some of the work we’re talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!