V. Nanammal

V. Nanammal (24 February 1920 – 26 October 2019) was India's oldest yoga teacher. She trained one million students over 45 years and taught one hundred students daily. Six hundred of her students have become yoga instructors around the world.

Her work was honoured with India's National Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2016 and the country's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2018.

Personal life Nanammal was born on 24 February 1920 in an agricultural family at Zameen Kaliayapuram, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Nanammal's father and grandfather were both 'Registered Indian Medicine Practitioners (RIMP)'. Yoga was their family tradition and they were not teaching yoga to anyone outside the family and it stayed within the group. During those days, the primary business of the family was traditional Siddha medicine and agriculture. Her family owned coconut and cashew farms in the Kerala state.

Nanammal's husband was a Siddha practitioner and was into agriculture and cultivation, with whom she moved to Negamam and later to Ganapathy.

Later life and death Nanammal attempted to get on to the Guinness Book of World Records by teaching yoga to over 20,000 students and enthusiasts in Coimbatore. Her objective was to create awareness among women, mainly girl students, about yoga techniques by going to various educational institutions to solve several health-related problems, especially after marriage. She was also going to take part in Indian reality show 'India's Got Talent' as a contestant. She had gained popularity on YouTube which included videos of her performing difficult yoga positions in her usual attire, a pink sari.

Nannamal suffered a fall from her bed in the autumn of 2019 and was confined to bed thereafter. For her achievement, Nanammal was conferred with the following awards and citations: 2016 – National Nari Shakti Puraskar award received from former President of India Pranab Mukherjee News18 reported her, being the oldest recipient of the award. 2018 – Rotary club's Lifetime achievement award