99-year-old 'Yoga Grandma' V Nanammal passes away in Coimbatore

The 99-year-old Nanammal, who was conferred the Padma Shri in 2018, had a fall from the cot a week ago and since then she was not keeping well.

V Nanammal (Photo | EPS) 

COIMBATORE: Nonagenarian yoga exponent V Nanammal breathed her last around 12:30 pm at her residence near here on Saturday, her family members said. 

The 99-year-old Nanammal, popularly known as 'yoga grandma', suffered a fall from her cot a week ago and since then she was not keeping well, sources said. 

Former President Pranab Mukherjee presents the Nari Shakti Puraskar to V Nanammal, on the occasion of International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. (File Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

She was conferred the Padma Shri in 2018 and had bagged the Nari Shakti Puraskar and Yoga Ratna awards in 2016 and 2017 respectively. She was also honoured with the Nari Shakti Puraskar on International Women's Day in 2017. 

Nanammal had trained over 10 lakh students over 45 years, with nearly 100 students coming to her classes daily.

Nanammal has left behind two sons who run yoga centres in the city. “Our aim is to spread yoga across the country --- that was the passion of our mother who followed the practice of waking up before sunrise and avoided taking coffee or tea,” her son Balakrishnan said.

He added that his mother had trained over 60 of their family members as yoga teachers.

(With PTI inputs)