In 1928 he published
Yogic Physical Culture, describing a modernised
hatha yoga reworked as a combination of gymnastics,
bodybuilding, and hygiene, illustrated with photographs. It explicitly references contemporary Western
physical culture as well as traditional Indian philosophy; and it goes along with
Indian nationalism by stating that the "sons of India" will need to combine yoga
asanas with bodybuilding to "obtain super-strength to make their
Mother [India] an equal sister among Nations!" The language of the book, with phrases like "Physical Culture Religion", also echoes the bodybuilder
Eugen Sandow's idea of making the body holy through physical fitness. In Sundaram's view, argues the yoga scholar
Mark Singleton, the "tinge of religion" (Sundaram's phrase) makes yoga different from and superior to the purely material Western forms of exercise. The book describes just 13 asanas: the eleven covered by
Kuvalayananda in his 1926 book, plus
Trikonasana and
Padahastasana. Sundaram stated that these provided a complete workout for "an average man of health". Kuvalayananda also included in his selection from hatha yoga's techniques one
bandha, one
mudra, one
kriya, and two
pranayama exercises. The format, essentially a
field guide with the name of each item, a description in text, and a photograph, was adopted by all later yoga manuals including
Light on Yoga. It introduces a procedural innovation, too, creating stages in the adoption of each asana, something entirely missing from medieval texts like the
Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The photographs are all of Sundaram himself, presented not as a new system like that of Sandow and the other bodybuilders like
Bernarr Macfadden (whom Sundaram references), but as of Sundaram's way of practising an age-old system. The effect was to demystify the asanas: they turned from difficult, strange, even repulsive spiritual practices into mere exercises. In
Elliott Goldberg's view, Sundaram's detailed instructions moved the practice of asanas from what had "in all likelihood" been perfunctory and haphazard towards the precision of
modern yoga, in which close attention is paid to the tensions in individual muscles. This approach, Goldberg argues, led to executing the asanas slowly and under control, observing one's body and making necessary adjustments accordingly to achieve correct alignment. All of this facilitated total absorption in the task of performing each asana properly, which in turn allowed the practitioner to go beyond pain or pleasure to the absolute. ==Legacy==