Yehudi menuhin autobiography of a yogi

In the previous post, I introduced the BBC TV show Yehudi Menuhin and his Guru, in which David Attenborough interviewed the world-famous violinist and his yoga teacher (BKS Iyengar). Here I will look more specifically at how the concepts of yoga and the yogi were discussed on the show.

It is hoped these interactions can help better illuminate the period&#;s discourses and how the navigation of these played a role in producing common understandings of what yoga is in the UK.

Ideas about what yoga is are presented several times in the show, some of which are challenged and discussed, others are not.

The first occurs in the show&#;s opening when David Attenborough introduces yoga via its dictionary definition. This can be seen to offer viewers unfamiliar with yoga (as the majority of the audience would have been at the time) a starting point and reference for their viewing of the rest of the show. 

Attenborough says, &#;Yoga, according to the dictionary, is a Hindu system of asc