Hot Yoga

The information on this page is written by Monica Shannon, founder and director of Open Door Yoga and the Bija Hot Yoga Teacher Training program.

A Brief History
Hot Yoga is a style of hatha yoga that can be traced back to two Kolkata physical culturalists and yoga teachers, Buddha Bose and Bishnu Ghosh. Bishnu Ghosh was the youngest brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi). He had been studying Kriya Yoga and physical culture, along with a minimal amount of hatha yoga, when he was introduced to a more extensive method of hatha yoga via Buddha Bose. Together they developed and taught hatha yoga programs at Ghosh’s Yoga College in Kolkata, which was established in 1923. While they specialized in working with students one on one in the traditional method of yoga teaching, they started developing group classes in the 1960‘s. It’s interesting to note that Ghosh’s main passion was physical culture and was famous in his region for mentoring body builders and athletes who could perform extraordinary feats of strength. This school is still operating under the direction of Ghosh’s granddaughter and now specializes in training teachers in the traditional method of Yoga Therapy.