K. V. Iyer

He was "possibly the most high-profile Indian advocate of physical culture in the first half of the twentieth century.

[1][6] He helped, too, to present the sequence of yoga asanas called Surya Namaskar, the Salute to the Sun, as a practical, modern, stretching exercise rather than as something spiritual.

[10] His students include Seetharaman Sundaram (1901–1994) who operated a Yogic School of Physical Culture and Ramesh Balsekar (1917–2009) an influential Advaitin philosopher.

The humorous playwright T. P. Kailasam, hearing from Iyer that he had not read anything by Oscar Wilde, replied "Oh my!

The effect was to encourage Iyer to become a novelist, publishing Roopadarshi, Shantala, Leena, Mrischakitika, Samudyata, Ekalavya, and Sayyada Mane in the Kannada language.