0Pattabhi Jois claimed to have learned the system of Ashtanga from Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who in turn claimed to have learned it from a supposed text called Yoga Kurunta by an otherwise unknown author, Vamama Rishi. This text was imparted to Krishnamacharya in the early 1900s by his Guru, Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari. Jois insists that the text described all of the āsanas and vinyāsas of the sequences of the Ashtanga system. However, the Yoga Kurunta text is said to have been eaten by ants, so it is impossible to verify his assertions. Additionally, it is unusual that the text is not mentioned as a source in either of the books by Krishnamacharya, Yoga Makaranda (1934) and Yogāsanagalu (c. 1941).
According to Manju Jois, the sequences of Ashtanga yoga were created by Krishnamcharya. There is some evidence to support this in Yoga Makaranda, which lists nearly all the postures of the Pattabhi Jois Primary Series and several postures from the intermediate and advanced series, described with reference to vinyasa.
There is also evidence that the Ashtanga Yoga series incorporates exercises used by Indian wrestlers and British gymnasts. Recent academic research details documentary evidence that physical journals in the early 20th century were full of the postural shapes that were very similar to Krishnamacharya's asana system. In particular, the flowing Surya Namaskar, which later became the basis of Krishnamacharya's Mysore style, was in the 1930s considered as exercise, not part of yoga; Surya Namaskar and Krishnamacharya's yoga were taught separately, in adjacent halls of the Mysore palace.
