• Washington Post, Monday, August 23, 2010 9:31 AM

An Indian government agency is taking a martial posture against what it calls "yoga theft" after several U.S. companies said they wanted to copyright or patent their versions of the ancient practice that has its roots in South Asia, Emily Wax and Ayesha Manocha report from New Delhi.

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library has gathered yogis from nine schools and 200 scientists to scan ancient texts and document more than 900 yoga postures. Next month, it will release a video catalogue of 250 of the most popular ones, from sun salutation to downward-facing dog.

"Yoga is collective knowledge and is available for use by everybody no matter what the interpretation," says V.K. Gupta, head of the digital library, which was set up by the ministries of health and science. "It would be very inappropriate if some companies try to prevent others from any yoga practice, even if they call it some other name."

Beverly Hills yogi Bikram Choudhury touched off the "yoga wars" in 2004 by claiming as his intellectual property 26 postures that his students performed in a room heated to 105 degrees. He wanted to collect money from smaller studios offering "Hot Yoga" classes. A confidential settlement was reached with a nonprofit group that filed a federal lawsuit against Choudhury's patent.

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