Published: Oct 26, 2019 by Lucy Tennyson
V Nanimmal, thought to be the world’s oldest yoga teacher, has died in southern India at the age of 99. She was teaching right until the time of her death.
Her Wikipedia entry says her yoga teaching began after an accident to her mother-in-law made Nanammal realise that yoga could potentially help other people as well. Her mother-in-law was out in the farm and had wrenched her leg, Instead of getting treatment from a doctor, she offered to teach her some yoga poses and she got better with this technique. After that incident, her mother-in-law became her very first student.
Nanammal and her family, including her children, grandchildren and even great-grand children, follow the traditions passed on from generation to generation. In the year 1972 they established “Ozone Yoga centre” in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, where she taught 100 students daily.
She was known as India’s Yoga Grandma, and practised a traditional form of yoga which included pranayama (breathing) taught to her by her father.
For more, see the BBC news website this week.