This prospective, randomised trial compared the efficacy of anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) with two separate programmes (yoga and breath awareness) on lung capacities and bacteriological status in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. A total of 1009 pulmonary tuberculosis patients were screened and 73 were alternately allocated to yoga (n = 36) or breath awareness (n = 37) groups, with 48 patients completing the 2-month trial. Patients aged between 20 and 55 years who were sputum-positive on three consecutive examinations, had no prior ATT and no co-morbidities or extra-pulmonary tuberculosis were included. In addition to ATT, one group practised yoga (n = 25) and the other practised breath awareness (n = 23) for 6 h per week, each session being 60 min long. The main outcome measures were symptom scores, bodyweight, forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV(1)], FEV(1)/FVC%, sputum microscopy, sputum culture and postero-anterior view of the chest X-rays (CXR). At the end of 2 months, the yoga group showed a significant reduction in symptom scores (88.1%), and an increase in weight (10.9%), FVC (64.7%) and FEV(1) (83.6%). The breath awareness group also showed a significant reduction in symptom scores and an increase in weight and FEV(1). Significantly, more patients in the yoga group showed sputum conversion based on microscopy on days 30 and 45 compared to the breath awareness group. Ten of 13 in the yoga group had negative sputum culture after 60 days compared with four of 19 in the breath awareness group. Improvement in the radiographic picture occurred in 16/25 in the yoga group compared to 3/22 in the breath awareness group on day 60.