SCANDINAVIAN ROOTS OF MODERN YOGA by Tyr Neilsen

The roots of modern yoga are not just Indian, they are also Scandinavian. What we now call yoga goes back a little over 100 years, and is a mix of Indian yoga and Scandinavian gymnastics / physical training techniques that were employed as British military exercise drills.

The original Scandinavian source for modern yoga exercises come from Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839), founder of the Swedish gymnastic system. Following on from Ling's work, Niels Bukh (1880–1950) from Denmark, developed a system called Primitive Gymnastics, which “emphasized continuity of movement, rhythmic exercise, and intensive stretching to seek elasticity, flexibility, and freedom”.

Bukh’s system became part of the official British army training program in 1906, and via the British Army, found it's way to India, where it came to occupy a central position in the Indian physical education scene in the early 1900s. 

Until the late 1800s, yoga in India was primarily a philosophical and spiritual discipline, which emphasized meditation, breathing exercises and purification methods. Apart from sitting meditation positions, there is no evidence that body positions we currently associate with Indian yoga were key elements of Indian yoga tradition.

During the Hindu cultural renaissance in the late 1800s, Swami Vivekandanda (1863-1902), included physical yoga in his philosophy. The innovative yoga teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) and his successors were influential in integrating Scandinavian / British- gymnastics exercises into Indian yoga. A few decades later, this new form of Indian/Scandinavian/British yoga won a foothold in the West.

As Løse-tak Glima was part of the Swedish/Norwegian military, and part of the basis for the Indian/Scandinavian/British yoga, now practiced in Europe and America, the similarities to Draga are not so unusual.