Indra Devi
Eugenie Peterson (Latvian: Eiženija Pētersone, Russian: Евгения Васильевна Петерсон; 22 May, 1899 – 25 April 2002), known as Indra Devi, was a pioneering teacher of yoga as exercise, and an early disciple of the "father of modern yoga", Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.
Indra Devi | |
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Indra Devi, upper left, in her distinctive sari; 1963 album cover | |
| Born | Eugenie Peterson 12 May 1899 |
| Died | 25 April 2002 (aged 102) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Occupation | yoga teacher |
| Known for | Bringing yoga to Hollywood Yoga for stress relief |
| Spouse(s) | Jan Strakaty (1930–1946; his death) Sigfrid Knauer (1953–1984; his death) |
| Website | Official webpage (in Spanish) |
She went to India in her twenties, becoming a film star there and acquiring the stage name Indra Devi. She was the first woman to study under the yoga guru Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace, alongside B.K.S Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois who went on to become yoga gurus. Moving to China, she taught the first yoga classes in that country at Madame Chiang Kai-shek's house.
Her popularization of yoga in America through her many celebrity pupils in Hollywood, and her books advocating yoga for stress relief, earned her the nickname "first lady of yoga". Her biographer, Michelle Goldberg, wrote that Devi "planted the seeds for the yoga boom of the 1990s".