Indian yoga guru Sri K Pattabhi Jois passes away at 93

London, May 21 (ANI): Sri K Pattabhi Jois, one of the leading figures in the world of yoga, has died. He was 93.

Jois, from India, was a yoga teacher and practitioner famous for popularizing Ashtanga yoga in the West.

Ashtanga yoga is based on synchronising the breath through a progressive series of postures.

He died in the southern Indian city of Mysore on Monday, a press statement from the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute said.

His many thousands of students include the pop musicians Sting and Madonna, and the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, reports The BBC.

Jois considered yoga to be a form of mind medicine.

"Ashtanga yoga is helping many people throughout the world to balance the mental, physical and spiritual pressures and stresses posed by the modern world we live in today," he said.

Pierre Bibby, chief executive officer of the British Wheel of Yoga, said: "He was a massive influence on the development of yoga, and greatly respected.

"He did a great deal to broaden the appeal of yoga, and make it more accessible to a Western constituency."

Born in Kowshika village in the state of Karnataka in 1915, the yoga guru began to learn the art from his teacher T. Krishnamacharya at the age of 12, a biography on his institute's Web site said. (ANI)