Indra Devi

Indra Devi
Indra Devi, upper left; Anne T. Hill, bottom center (record album cover)
Born	Eugenie Peterson May 12, 1899 Riga, Russian Empire
Died	April 25, 2002 (aged 102) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Other names	Eugenie Peterson
Occupation	yoga teacher
Spouse(s)	Jan Strakaty (1930-1946, his death) Sigfrid Knauer (1953-1984, his death)

Eugenie V. Peterson (Russian: Евгения Васильевна Петерсон; May 12, 1899 – April 25, 2002), known as Indra Devi, was a Russian yoga teacher who was an early disciple of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.

Born in Riga, Russian Empire, to Vasili Peterson, a Swedish bank director and Alejandra Labunskaia, a Russian noblewoman, Eugenie attended drama school in Moscow as a girl and escaped to Berlin with her mother as Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. In Berlin, she became an actress and dancer.

Devi's fascination with India began at 15, when she read a book by poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and a yoga instruction book by Yogi Ramacharaka. In 1927, she sailed for India and adopted a stage name that would sound Hindu (using "dev", the Hindi root for "god") and acted in Indian films. In 1930, she married Jan Strakaty, a commercial attache to the Czechoslovak consulate in Bombay.

The famous Yoga guru Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya accepted her as a student, only after the Maharaja of Mysore spoke on her behalf, and in 1938 she became the first foreign woman among dedicated yogis. She met every challenge Krishnamacharya set out for her and was so successful that the guru asked her to work as a yoga teacher, when he learned that her husband was to be transferred to China and she would leave India.

In 1939, she held what is believed to be the first Yoga classes in China and opened a school in Shanghai at the house of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the nationalist leader and a new yoga enthusiast. There were many Americans and Russians among her pupils. More and more people began to call her Mataji, which means mother. Indra Devi was giving lectures on yoga, including free lessons in orphanages.