Yoga guru BKS Iyengar helped share ancient Indian practice with the world

BKS Iyengar, the yoga guru who helped take the ancient Indian spiritual practice to the rest of the world, died yesterday aged 95, his website said.

Iyengar started his yoga school in 1973 in the western city of Pune, developing a unique form of the practice that he said anyone could follow.

He trained hundreds of teachers to disseminate his approach, which uses props such as belts and ropes to help the novice practitioner to achieve the poses.

He wrote many books on yoga, a practice that dates back more than 2,000 years in Asia, but has in recent decades become hugely popular around the world.

He attracted many celebrity followers, among them the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who came across Iyengar before he became famous, during a trip to Mumbai.

"Perhaps no one has done more than Mr Iyengar to bring yoga to the West," The New York Times wrote in a 2002 profile of the guru.