B.K.S. Iyengar was born on December 14, 1918. He started doing yoga as a teenager in an effort to improve his health after contracting tuberculosis, studying with his brother-in-law, Krishnamacharya, in Mysore, India. Iyengar began teaching yoga in 1936. As American and European students began seeking yoga instruction in the 1960s, Iyengar's method rose to prominence. He established his principal school, the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (named for his wife) in Pune, India in 1975. This center became a nexus for the popularization of yoga. As one of the first teachers to teach yoga to westerners, Iyengar's influence on modern asana practice cannot be overstated. He died on August 20, 2014, at the age of 95. His son Prashant now administerS the RIMYI.