Sritattvanidhi

The Sritattvanidhi (, "The Illustrious Treasure of Realities") is a treatise written in the 19th century in Karnataka on the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. One of its sections includes instructions for, and illustrations of, 122 hatha yoga postures.
Authorship.
The "Sritattvanidhi" is attributed to the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (b. 1794 - d. 1868). The Maharaja was a great patron of art and learning, and was himself a scholar and writer. Around 50 works are ascribed to him. The first page of the "Sritattvanidhi" attributes authorship of the work to the Maharaja himself:
Martin-Dubost's review of the history of this work says that the Maharaja funded an effort to put together in one work all available information concerning the iconography and iconometry of divine figures in South India. He asked that a vast treatise be written, which he then had illustrated by miniaturists from his palace.
Contents.
The resulting illuminated manuscript, which he entitled the "Sritattvanidhi", brings together several forms of Shiva, Vishnu, Skanda, Ganesha, different goddesses, the nine planets (navagraha), and the eight protectors of the cardinal points (). The work is in nine parts, each called a "nidhi" ("treasure"). The nine sections are:
Published editions.
An original copy of this colossal work is available in the Oriental Research Institute at the University of Mysore. Another copy is in the possession of the present scion of the Royal Family of Mysore, Sri Srikanta Datta Narsimharaja Wadiyar. An unedited version with only text in Devanagari script was published about a century ago by Khemraj Krishna das of Sri Venkateshvar Steam Press, Bombay (Mumbai).
In recent times the Oriental Research Institute has published three volumes (Saktinidhi, Vishnunidhi, and Sivanidhi. Prof. S.K.Ramachandra Rao, has edited a book titled "Sri-Tattva-Nidhi" (of Krishna Raja Wodeyar III of Mysore) (Vol-1). It was published by Kannada University, Hampi in 1993. However, in reality it was on Ragamala Paintings as depicted in "Svarachudamani" authored by the Mummadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar. Similar set of Ragamala Paintings are also found in Sri Tattva-Nidhi.
Another important work in this genre is by a Sanskrit scholar and hatha yoga student named Norman Sjoman. His 1996 book "The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace" presents the first English translation of a part of "kautuka nidhi", the "Sritattvanidhi", which includes instructions for and illustrations of 122 postures, illustrated by stylized drawings of a yogini in a topknot and loincloth. Some of these poses—which include handstands, backbends, foot-behind-the-head poses, Lotus variations, and rope exercises—are familiar to modern practitioners (although most of the Sanskrit names are different from the ones they are known by today). But they are far more elaborate than anything depicted in other pre-twentieth-century texts. It also describes the origins of some asanas from a gymnastics exercise manual of the late 19th century, the "Vyayama Dipika".
Influence on modern yoga.
In his 1996 book, Sjoman asserts that the influential yoga teacher Krishnamacharya, who did much to create modern yoga as exercise while teaching in the Mysore Palace, was influenced by the Sritattvanidhi, which includes 122 asanas, some possibly based on gymnastics.