tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57787635829728963522024-02-19T22:32:32.272+00:00The LuminescentYogic wisdom with academic flair. Original Research. Primary Sources.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-86476696167969813492023-06-24T09:31:00.007+01:002023-06-24T09:32:43.461+01:00On the Plastic Surgery of the Ears and Nose: The Nepalese Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhZSxh76H6gnpUcFW7DRTityIsSQt4HbVEJnLkEMZyI9JjGx88CkcZTXLKIZM031Bs-dd4S-XzcnB2g3Hr6BmhcVHLsIS0buJ745JgpiIv7dO3maOtgwqwAQdPc8vtqEEFpwHVa3XQUkuTUZ6_dOaT8gI1lq5I8BUuTz78YgM7ENb9o3eHrw0BcUfku8/s1600/cover_wujastyk.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihhZSxh76H6gnpUcFW7DRTityIsSQt4HbVEJnLkEMZyI9JjGx88CkcZTXLKIZM031Bs-dd4S-XzcnB2g3Hr6BmhcVHLsIS0buJ745JgpiIv7dO3maOtgwqwAQdPc8vtqEEFpwHVa3XQUkuTUZ6_dOaT8gI1lq5I8BUuTz78YgM7ENb9o3eHrw0BcUfku8/s1600/cover_wujastyk.jpg" /></a><span style="color: black;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: black;">A forthcoming output of <a href="https://sushrutaproject.org" target="_blank">The Suśruta Project</a> by scholars:</span></div></span><br />D. Wujastyk, J. Birch, A. Klebanov, M.K. Parameswaran, M. Rimal, D. Chakraborty, H. Bhatt, V. Lele, P. Mehta.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><h4 style="text-align: left;">On the Plastic Surgery of the Ears and Nose: The Nepalese Version of the <i>Suśrutasaṃhitā.</i></h4><span style="color: black;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A thousand-year-old Ayurvedic manuscript containing the <i>Compendium of Suśruta</i> was announced to the scholarly world in 2007. The Nepalese manuscript, since adopted by UNESCO as part of the Memory of the World, reveals the state of classical Indian medicine in the ninth century. It enables us to study the changes in this medical classic that have taken place from the ninth to the nineteenth century, when printed texts began to dominate the dissemination of the work. The present monograph describes the research project focussed on this manuscript and offers an edition, study and translation of the historically important chapter about the plastic surgery on the nose and ears.</div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: black;">Forthcoming in Summer 2023. </span>Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/preview?lang=en" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="2000" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsn23lL9lMvCU5TtT9xGgyp5fKX94zwzyy2OLVVrs66GzEwZy1angu0cBPXMsWWoZYysiMHzEZed1lPB1lJPFk4q5LAd6VeladjACJXP7UTxlWLjRX_dvsQJXqAnyWJIlWsI1dqhOxTtI745KTvW9bv1Pcwxf1xL0BfUoRSYkuhSoUN8Ub88BXtv604c/s320/schriftzug_header.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-31164334772036032032023-04-12T09:03:00.006+01:002023-04-16T07:44:56.046+01:00Yoga and the Traditional Physical Practices of South Asia<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_CZ5Hrg_sBAp4FuNgHf1DxLtxhQLnoJbdXvUzWS3YSQVCKGrE7ez0oMw01czoH5CzDL72SUHqdzjqtrYjZMUH5djc7K3OIez2NiIe7YsFOGSz8YUuKliaytAgVMBDClTkKLch6fA1WWSyaf8q0f25Hedybtb-nSfMUmxwoFQT-gu7qWqmfulA-dJ/s1696/JoYS.V4%20cover%202023c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1696" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_CZ5Hrg_sBAp4FuNgHf1DxLtxhQLnoJbdXvUzWS3YSQVCKGrE7ez0oMw01czoH5CzDL72SUHqdzjqtrYjZMUH5djc7K3OIez2NiIe7YsFOGSz8YUuKliaytAgVMBDClTkKLch6fA1WWSyaf8q0f25Hedybtb-nSfMUmxwoFQT-gu7qWqmfulA-dJ/w453-h640/JoYS.V4%20cover%202023c.jpg" width="453" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On the 10th April 2023, the <a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS" target="_blank"><b>Journal of Yoga Studies</b></a> published a special issue (Vol. 4) entitled, <i><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2023.V4" target="_blank">Yoga and the Traditional Physical Practices of South Asia</a></i> edited by Daniela Bevilacqua and Mark Singleton. It contains a collection of fourteen peer-reviewed academic essays by leading scholars on topics of Indian yoga, dance, exercise, and martial arts, as well as discussions about exchange with Chinese and Tibetan physical practices. In the spirit of open-access publishing, the <i>Journal of Yoga Studies</i> offers the entire volume for free and available to read by all.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2023.V4" target="_blank"><b>FULL VOLUME</b></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This volume is the outcome of a workshop held at SOAS University of London in November 2019, under the auspices of the five-year, ERC-funded <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">Haṭha Yoga Project</a> (HYP).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bevilacqua and Singleton write:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">The workshop was organised because of several questions that had been on our minds for some time: considering the centuries-long presence of multiple embodied traditions in India, what was the relationship between the physical practices of yoga and other physical disciplines that bear certain similarities to yoga, at least in appearance? Had there been interchange or even influence across and between different physical disciplines and the practices of yoga? Could such a perspective on the history of yoga help to understand better any of its developments?</blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Table of Contents includes:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.00.Introduction" target="_blank">INTRODUCTION</a></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Daniela Bevilacqua and Mark Singleton</span></i></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I. PRELUDE</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.01" target="_blank">1. Premodern <i>Yogāsana</i>s and Modern Postural Practice: Distinct Regional Collections of <i>Āsana</i>s on the Eve of Colonialism.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves</span></i></p></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">II. YOGIS, ACROBATS OR DANCERS?</span></p>
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</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.02" target="_blank">2. Yogi Sculptures: Complex <i>Āsana</i>s Across the Deccan.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seth Powell</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.03" target="_blank">3. Royal Amusements, Sports, Acrobats and Yogic Practices According to the <i>Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā.</i></a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Saran Suebsantiwongse</i> </span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.04" target="_blank">4. Dance as Yoga: Ritual Offering and <i>Imitatio Dei</i> in the Physical Practices of Classical Indian Theatre.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Elisa Ganser</span></i></p></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">III. MARTIAL ARTS, POLE AND EXERCISE</span></p>
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</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.05" target="_blank">5. <i>Zurkhāneh</i>, <i>Akhāṛā</i>, <i>Pahlavān</i>, and <i>Jyeṣṭhī-malla</i>s: Cross Cultural Interaction and Social Legitimisation at the Turn of the 17th Century.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Philippe Rochard and Oliver Bast</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.06" target="_blank">6. Poles apart? From Wrestling and <i>Mallkhāmb</i> to Pole Yoga.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Patrick S. D. McCartney</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.07" target="_blank">7. Uncovering <i>Vyāyāma</i> in Yoga.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jerome Armstrong</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.08" target="_blank">8. Prostration or Potentiation? Hindu Ritual, Physical Culture, and the “Sun Salutation” (<i>Sūryanamaskār</i>).</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stuart Ray Sarbacker</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.09" target="_blank">9. Managing Wind and Fire: Some Remarks from a Case Study on <i>Kaḷarippayaṟṟụ.</i></a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Laura Silvestri</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.10" target="_blank">10. Firm Feet and Inner Wind: Introducing Posture in the South Indian Martial Art, <i>Kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆.</i></a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lucy May Constantini</span></i></p></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">IV. EXCHANGES WITH CHINA AND TIBET</span></p>
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</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.11" target="_blank">11. Is There Such a Thing as Chinese Yoga? Indian Postural Therapies in Mediaeval China.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dominic Steavu</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.12" target="_blank">12. Knowledge Transfer of Bodily Practices Between China and India in the Mediaeval World.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dolly Yang</span></i></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.13" target="_blank">13. Tracking the Illusory Magical Wheel: Physical Yoga in Tibetan Tantra and Dzogchen.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ian Baker</span></i></p></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i></i></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">AFTERWORD</span></p>
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</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/JoYS.2023.V4.14" target="_blank">14. The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns in the Study of Postural Practice.</a></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Joseph Alter</span></i></p></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2023.V4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi9H8zQ5HZzTcC-Jkp0aoAjR922CjYoVGy9qpfKpuEV-GJeae8VzFT-Rn1Dw610ESobDsNwIf_i5Gtkn38dKTTfaelMp-49t-ghqFhJLBK3o3bKbIx0Pw3fNys9c35fOYXinjDQTKCEgAiCdjG5KrFDnhxHfTSD9l8FFc8eMhipPWDTu92DsYVC3Hq/s320/IG%20Post.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /><i></i></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-89429082327589167112021-06-25T03:37:00.010+01:002021-06-26T06:12:50.850+01:00The Yoga of the Matsyendrasaṃhitā<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFCsvOtouY-94vgg4qpHo8E_ap7cVz2tTCoomFsHVqGh2NaVKdiBfhGvjAasNrPt6LA7SFBgth2urOmTH6cDXXpSq14uK3HiHBS-RdqZRbcnkDxrDDjwcLFVsNfzm6o3GCq4mFsMC_4s/s500/957-image_huge.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="355" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFCsvOtouY-94vgg4qpHo8E_ap7cVz2tTCoomFsHVqGh2NaVKdiBfhGvjAasNrPt6LA7SFBgth2urOmTH6cDXXpSq14uK3HiHBS-RdqZRbcnkDxrDDjwcLFVsNfzm6o3GCq4mFsMC_4s/w454-h640/957-image_huge.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>In June 2021, the <a href="https://www.efeo.fr/base.php?code=227" target="_blank">EFEO Pondicherry</a> published the first volume in their new series dedicated exclusively to Yoga texts, <i><a href="https://publications.efeo.fr/en/livres/957_the-yoga-of-the-matsyendrasam-hit" target="_blank">The Yoga of the Matsyendrasaṃhitā: A critical edition and annotated translation of chapters 1–13 and 55</a> </i>(p. 608) by Dr Csaba Kiss. </p><p>This series was conceived by the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">Hatha Yoga Project</a>, SOAS London University. It will include the publication of the ten critical editions and annotated translations of Sanskrit texts that are outputs of this important five-year research project, which focused on the textual and ethnographic history of Haṭha Yoga.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Yoga of the <i>Matsyendrasaṃhitā</i></b></p><p><i>A critical edition and annotated translation of chapters 1–13 and 55.</i></p><p>Csaba KISS (2021). </p><p>ISBN (EFEO) : 978 2 85539 241 7.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">ABSTRACT</h4><p></p><blockquote><span style="color: #073763;">This volume presents the first critical edition, along with an English translation, of the core chapters of a Sanskrit work of perhaps the thirteenth century surviving in five nineteenth-century witnesses: the Matsyendrasaṃhitā. The work is useful as a primary source for the history of yoga and the Śaiva religions: it reveals important links between the tantric cults of Kubjikā and Tripurā and early haṭhayoga. In addition, its frame-story (in chapters 1 and 55) relates a unique version of the yogin Matsyendra’s legend in which his disciple Gorakṣa is a Chola king. The edition is bracketed by a detailed introduction and by detailed notes on the constitution of the text, as well as an annotated translation. </span></blockquote><p><br /></p><p></p><p>This book is available for purchase from:</p><p><a href="https://publications.efeo.fr/en/livres/957_the-yoga-of-the-matsyendrasam-hit">https://publications.efeo.fr/en/livres/957_the-yoga-of-the-matsyendrasam-hit</a></p><p><br /></p><p>You can also order this title at the following address:</p><p>shanti@efeo-pondicherry.org </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://publications.efeo.fr/en/livres/957_the-yoga-of-the-matsyendrasam-hit" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOBG57i7raAME1Ec7UHijArzB_Pue-ObHSKgEh_9vODqH3ZlNyb-ygCyPNi5XbPf-iTgkvQ_SOAmzgaE6THn_RJOY9hsfDU1RRyQK-h6Tt3RwlaH0BLoWe8btiyAe-MDr3UoKr8Qjd9o0/s16000/Yoga+of+the+Matsendrasamhita+-+Csaba+Kiss+2021.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-58688167492711235732020-12-03T01:43:00.004+00:002020-12-03T22:13:49.948+00:00A critical edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSTzh1oPLhKo7akJPtmBaykr-zh0VV15vDZBdbnReDXHSNz4-6mGIr6r-4lQvjRnrh9fZ1DQlB6oPwHjMOUVkWzD-YlH33krcukLlVUVMslQN-QcqDamPsACxzjsmf3XtAzGEKPXyEF4/s2036/Hat%25CC%25A3hapradi%25CC%2584pika%25CC%2584%252C+4383+Alm+20+Shlf+4+Devanagari+Yoga+Shastra.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="2036" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSTzh1oPLhKo7akJPtmBaykr-zh0VV15vDZBdbnReDXHSNz4-6mGIr6r-4lQvjRnrh9fZ1DQlB6oPwHjMOUVkWzD-YlH33krcukLlVUVMslQN-QcqDamPsACxzjsmf3XtAzGEKPXyEF4/w640-h270/Hat%25CC%25A3hapradi%25CC%2584pika%25CC%2584%252C+4383+Alm+20+Shlf+4+Devanagari+Yoga+Shastra.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Haṭhapradīpikā</i>, MS 4383 Alm 20 Shlf 4, f. 1.<br />© Dharmartha Trust JK. Digitised by eGangotri.</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><h1 style="text-align: left;">Project Funding</h1></div><div>The <a href="https://www.ukri.org/news/uk-german-collaborative-research-projects-announced/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Arts and Humanities Research Council</a><span style="text-align: left;"> (AHRC) and the </span><a href="https://www.dfg.de/en/index.jsp" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</a><span style="text-align: left;"> (DFG) have announced funding of the project:</span></div><p></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Light on Hatha Yoga:</b></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>A critical edition and translation of the <i>Haṭhapradīpikā</i>, the most important premodern text on physical yoga.</b></p><p>This three-year research project aims to bring together arts and humanities researchers in the UK and Germany to conduct outstanding joint research. The project will produce a critical edition and English translation of the <i>Haṭhapradīpikā</i>, authored by Svātmārāma in the early 15th century, which is arguably one of the most widely cited and influential texts on physical yoga, and is instrumental for the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/43781918/Haṭhayoga_s_Floruit_on_the_Eve_of_Colonialism" target="_blank">flourishing of <i>haṭhayoga</i> on the eve of colonialism</a>.</p><p>Building on the success of the five-year ERC-funded <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">Hatha Yoga Project</a> at SOAS University of London, scholars Dr James Mallinson and Dr Jason Birch will be collaborating with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hanneder and Dr Mitsuyo Demoto-Hahn of <a href="https://www.uni-marburg.de/en#" target="_blank">Philipps-Universität Marburg</a> to produce this critical edition and English translation based on over 200 manuscripts, written in a variety of Indic scripts. The oldest manuscript sourced for the project is dated 1496 CE, which is remarkably close to the date of authorship by Svātmārāma himself.</p><p>Beyond the principal investigators and senior researchers, this project includes funding for a PhD student based at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Nils Jacob Liersch, and two research assistants at the <a href="https://www.efeo.fr/base.php?code=227" target="_blank">École française d'Extrême-Orient</a> (EFEO) in Pondicherry, India.</p><p>The project is due to launch in mid-January 2021.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PBa1-iIo6abSro8SSuxKVljQD-uDYlRYOY2mNJZyU27fAv3otipBCFQayTN_5vS-jkv_FMjpEHn-kYPplBf3R8uUK3ojDNPEtf7qkbiiAXixBeUyYTINnvdtnWYv4aPEl0u8JFBV3WA/s1500/AHRC-251120-UK-German-collaborative-research-projects-announced.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PBa1-iIo6abSro8SSuxKVljQD-uDYlRYOY2mNJZyU27fAv3otipBCFQayTN_5vS-jkv_FMjpEHn-kYPplBf3R8uUK3ojDNPEtf7qkbiiAXixBeUyYTINnvdtnWYv4aPEl0u8JFBV3WA/w640-h426/AHRC-251120-UK-German-collaborative-research-projects-announced.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlauTn2TxEO4jGhl29vjDCgxuh7OhAOIXJIlv381fIBRPMMp4anSrfDjEizl7ozxTmXslJNsFOlK-r6NtBg2fvUltzJhQNs96h8SQ4MyjwvpASHzhjGhH3oVJ4WwEUFZjEhcdMvyR9HQM/s2000/HPP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlauTn2TxEO4jGhl29vjDCgxuh7OhAOIXJIlv381fIBRPMMp4anSrfDjEizl7ozxTmXslJNsFOlK-r6NtBg2fvUltzJhQNs96h8SQ4MyjwvpASHzhjGhH3oVJ4WwEUFZjEhcdMvyR9HQM/s320/HPP.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-78046827282900809372020-11-25T07:01:00.009+00:002020-11-25T21:45:16.286+00:00How 'real' are chakras?<p><span style="font-size: x-small;">By<b> <a href="http://www.danielsimpson.info/the-truth-of-yoga" target="_blank">DANIEL SIMPSON</a></b></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpNvgoun2anpTdwugz_Oxsr259o0hQmOqwL2zqlDjwaB5FxVO938AviLt738qh0xhcGkGWsyPMhaQGQUx5zZP2UVUpb1Zs_rYA2G6rbGKt1O0WQJ9By1KNtO3JyYXlEwCJUZN2pkVVFQ/s2000/Drawings-demonstrating-yoga-poses-add_ms_24099_f118.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1204" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpNvgoun2anpTdwugz_Oxsr259o0hQmOqwL2zqlDjwaB5FxVO938AviLt738qh0xhcGkGWsyPMhaQGQUx5zZP2UVUpb1Zs_rYA2G6rbGKt1O0WQJ9By1KNtO3JyYXlEwCJUZN2pkVVFQ/w385-h640/Drawings-demonstrating-yoga-poses-add_ms_24099_f118.jpg" width="385" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yogī with <i>chakra</i>s depicted on the body.<br />Early 19th-century painting. <br />Add MS 24099, f. 118. British Library.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">What follows is an extract from my forthcoming book, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Truth of Yoga</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Subtitled “A comprehensive guide to yoga’s history, texts, philosophy, and practices,” it draws on the abundance of recent research to bring scholarly knowledge to general readers. My aim is to keep things clear—and as accessible as possible—without oversimplifying.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Inevitably, this is a difficult balance to strike, but I think one worth seeking. As I explain in the book, I decided to write it because students often ask me to recommend an overview of history and philosophy. While there are many fine works on more specialist subjects, these are easier to read with a grasp of the basics. However, many titles that are aimed at practitioners are misleading. Yogic texts are often reinterpreted to sound more appealing, or to make tenuous links to contemporary practice.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The example below is a case in point. It explores the evolution of teachings on <i>chakra</i>s (I have chosen not to use diacritics, instead modifying the spellings of Sanskrit terms to reach the widest possible audience).<sup><span style="color: #990000;">1</span></sup> Many yoga teacher trainings present them in ways that are barely related to traditional sources. <i>Chakra</i>s have become a general shorthand for subtle anatomy, whose mystical mechanisms transcend distinctions between mind and body.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the biggest contributions of Tantra to physical yoga is a means to awaken this inner dimension and tap its potential for transformation. An overly materialist view can obscure how it works. Regardless of whether <i>chakra</i>s exist in a dissected corpse, they are brought into being through visualization. As a result, they have powerful effects, but this is not quite the same as the logic of workshops that teach how to “cleanse” them.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2khRwqRKdVyrGqIlscKSayLrss9SkG3A74CElWudAy4IivUKfoWDWf7dPh7vxGK1FiWz2kVfnkBbKngJQejz3ZhgxaNlqg33EE2CxgsBp7O-WUKyyzJwAXMa3hQeUcXZVk-FmlHBkIII/s2048/2013GB2031_2500.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2khRwqRKdVyrGqIlscKSayLrss9SkG3A74CElWudAy4IivUKfoWDWf7dPh7vxGK1FiWz2kVfnkBbKngJQejz3ZhgxaNlqg33EE2CxgsBp7O-WUKyyzJwAXMa3hQeUcXZVk-FmlHBkIII/w456-h640/2013GB2031_2500.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Durgā in a <i>chakra</i> with Gaṇeśa and lion. <br />Ink and watercolour on paper, Pahari, probably Guler, second half 18th century. <br />© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">[Extract from <i>The Truth of Yoga</i>.]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000;">IMAGINARY CHAKRAS</span></h3>The best-known parts of the yogic body are often the most misunderstood. <i>Chakra</i>s are subtle “wheels” along the spine, originally used as concentration points. They only really exist if imagined into being. Some teachings on yoga neglect them completely.<div><br />There are many different systems of <i>chakra</i>s, with varying numbers and locations. The predominant model today, with six along the spine and a seventh at the crown, is a mix of tradition and recent invention. The earliest reference comes from the tenth-century <i>Kubjikamata Tantra </i>(11.34–35), describing the anus as the <i>adhara</i>, a “base” or “support,” to which <i>mula</i>, or “root,” is later added as a prefix. The <i>svadhishthana</i> is located above it at the penis, <i>manipuraka</i> (or <i>manipura</i>) at the navel, and <i>anahata</i> in the heart. <i>Vishuddhi</i> is in the throat, and <i>ajna</i> between the eyes. </div><div><br />Generally, <i>chakra</i>s are meant to be templates for visualization. They are presented in Tantras as ways to transform a practitioner’s body, installing symbols connected to gods. Some texts list more than a dozen, others fewer than five. They are sometimes called <i>adhara</i>s, or “supports” for meditation—or alternatively <i>padma</i>s, or “lotuses,” on account of the petals that frame their designs. Either way, they are said to be hubs in a network of channels for vital energy, and focusing on their positions refines perception. </div><div><br />Another early list gives different names: <i>nadi</i>, <i>maya</i>, <i>yogi</i>, <i>bhedana</i>, <i>dipti</i>, and <i>shanta</i>. “Now I will tell you about the excellent, supreme, subtle visualizing meditation,” says the <i>Netra Tantra</i> (7.1–2),<span style="color: #990000;"><sup>2</sup></span> describing the body as comprising “six <i>chakra</i>s, the supporting vowels, the three objects, and the five voids, the twelve knots, the three powers, the path of the three abodes, and the three channels.” This bewildering array of locations is common in Tantras, whose maps of inner realms often sound contradictory.</div><div><br />A few centuries later, the seven-<i>chakra</i> version became more established. This adds the <i>sahasrara</i>—a “thousand-spoked” wheel, or “thousand-petaled” lotus—at the top of the head (or sometimes above it, as in the <i>Shiva Samhita</i>). Another yogic text lists the same seven points without mentioning <i>chakra</i>s: “The penis, the anus, the navel, the heart and above that the place of the uvula, the space between the brows and the aperture into space: these are said to be the locations of the yogi’s meditation” (<i>Viveka Martanda</i> 154–55).<span style="color: #990000;"><sup>3</sup></span> However the points are defined, they function as markers for raising awareness.<br /><br /></div><div>The triumph of this model is the work of Sir John Woodroffe, a British judge in colonial India, who used the pen name Arthur Avalon. In 1919, he wrote a book called <i>The Serpent Power</i>, which included a translation of the sixteenth-century <i>Shat Chakra Nirupana</i>, or “Description of the Six <i>Chakra</i>s.” Other Western writers shared Avalon’s interest in tantric ideas. The occultist Charles Leadbeater also wrote about <i>chakra</i>s in the 1920s. The two men’s books remain influential, along with the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, who incorporated chakras in his system of symbols.</div><div><br />New Age authors have blurred the distinction between mental creations and physical fact, presenting <i>chakra</i>s as if they exist, as opposed to being visualized. They are often depicted with rainbow colors not found in original Sanskrit sources. They are also given attributes that link them to gemstones, planets, ailments, endocrine glands, suits of the Tarot, and Christian archangels, among other details. <br /><div style="text-align: left;"><p>Some mentions of <i>mantra</i>s are also misleading. Tantric rituals connect them to elements pictured in chakras, not the chakras themselves. So reciting a “seed”—or <i>bija</i>—<i>mantra</i> linked to air is unlikely to do much to open the heart, except via placebo effects. However, focusing attention on such things can make them real, at least in the realm of subjective experience. And since this is how Tantras say deities are summoned, perhaps the use of chakras by modern practitioners is not all that different.</p></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqje7VKQal2OcJio7xxZMKjn9AOf4o_z2jsoctBuw0y0bvr5YChxVRvyrKGlz26m3JZwMGlQnG98IC4Ff5t4tmmiBEFARvh7gCj4fRn9SJa6topjSND9Rnr9O0MXLhLoSa9YXaK5QuCU/s1000/9780374722685.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="649" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqje7VKQal2OcJio7xxZMKjn9AOf4o_z2jsoctBuw0y0bvr5YChxVRvyrKGlz26m3JZwMGlQnG98IC4Ff5t4tmmiBEFARvh7gCj4fRn9SJa6topjSND9Rnr9O0MXLhLoSa9YXaK5QuCU/s320/9780374722685.jpg" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Truth of Yoga</i> by Daniel Simpson will be published in January 2021 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is available for pre-order now. You can find out more at <a href="http://truthofyoga.com">truthofyoga.com</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #990000;"><sup>1</sup> </span>The usual editorial policy of <i>The Luminescent</i> is to use the widely accepted method of transliteration (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Alphabet_of_Sanskrit_Transliteration" target="_blank">IAST</a>) with diacritic marks to transcribe Sanskrit words into romanised English. However, seeing that a feature of Daniel Simpson's forthcoming book is the absence of diacritics, this article reflects the spellings used in the author's book. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #990000;"><sup>2</sup> </span>Gavin Flood et al., <i>The Lord of Immortality: An Introduction, Critical Edition, and Translation of the Netra Tantra</i>, vol. 1 (London: Routledge, forthcoming).</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #990000;"><sup>3</sup> </span> James Mallinson and Mark Singleton, <i>Roots of Yoga</i> (London: Penguin Classics, 2017), 319–20.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p><p></p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-34693031626030526562020-10-27T21:24:00.013+00:002020-12-03T00:15:24.798+00:00Yoga and Meditation Across Cultures and Disciplines - A Book Release<span style="font-size: x-small;">By <a href="https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/karen-obrien-kop" target="_blank"><b>KAREN O'BRIEN-KOP</b></a> and <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/people/shn44" target="_blank"><b>SUZANNE NEWCOMBE</b></a></span><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBXBLdrQszEKkVueGot6o94Zsrs_AyZoTKL5lSgijGeQ1cqCycIAlGiXbgGjlFJZjFgkwkfAUSbaIk8nolcs_0w7je6qItTFQqjch_0E5PvsZnBUlAr8bAQmupWvvs5p6tNLnaxAd0OrI/w480-h640/3_Fig+19.1+Maitreya+Carrying+out+Arduous+Practices%253B+Borobudur%252C+Central+Java%252C+c.+8th%25E2%2580%25939th+century.+Photo+Andrea+Acri.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="480" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Maitreya carrying out arduous practices. <br />Borobudur, Central Java, c. 8th–9th century. <br />Photograph by Andrea Acri.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>The study of yoga and meditation is not new. The techniques that we associate with the terms ‘meditation’ and ‘yoga’ are documented over thousands of years in nuanced explorations by practitioners and related theorists. Yet, the ‘outsider’ study of these practices is relatively new.</div><div><br /></div><div>In recent decades, in parallel with the rapid popularization of yoga and meditation practices in many different cultural contexts around the world, academics have shown increasing interest in studying these subjects. The <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><i>Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies</i></a> aims to showcase the range, depth, and complexity of contemporary, global academic research on yoga and meditation. It is a publication by academic experts for those seeking to understand the current state of academic research in this subject. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, the volume also wants to do more than this. We want to draw attention to some of the problematic assumptions that have developed as this academic field of study has become established.
</div><div><br /></div><div>Firstly, we want to challenge a research divide between those who study 'meditation' (usually allied with Buddhism) and those who study ‘yoga’ (usually understood as relating to textual and lived practices of the Indian subcontinent aimed at liberation). The relationship between ‘yoga’ and ‘meditation’ (as both ideas and practices) is always complex and contextual. Yet these ideas and practices need to be looked at in dialogue for either to be more accurately understood. </div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly, the academic study of yoga and meditation rests on the knowledge construction projects of European modernity. The conceptual frameworks of European modernity co-arise with the experiences, cultural oppressions, and transformations of colonization (Quijano 2000 among others make this point). Contemporary understandings of practices of meditation and yoga have been filtered and distorted through these frameworks. Yet, the cultural framings of modernity are not singular. They affect our ideas and ways of studying the world in complex and multifaceted ways. </div><div><br /></div><div>By examining the study of meditation and yoga through a range of disciplines and in a number of specific cultural and historical contexts, we hope to begin to challenge assumptions created by any individual’s cultural positioning or disciplinary training. We hope our chapters represent the most up-to-date, empirically-grounded understandings within their disciplinary frameworks of investigation. Additionally, by placing a spectrum of approaches side-by-side we hope to more fully reveal the blind spots to which a particular way of framing research inevitably gives rise. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxywsBtQWA4BHt6Rtw4BqzAYP8uABaP8Y9yEBbSb05a0HzWvo5qUF2YR8TOoHw8JH5ZXd0T4HuN1CyyHmpQAqhg1cvsKFS1xjij9w_D-ArzAf5tJZ8k8Ip4XdaRXfmOWZsBUzZuGpY1Q/w422-h640/3_Fig+19.2+One+of+the+directional+manifestations+of+S%25CC%2581iva+at+Candi+S%25CC%2581iva%252C+Loro+Jonggrang%252C+Central+Java%252C+9th+century.+Photo+Andrea+Acri.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="422" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of the directional manifestations of Śiva at Candi Śiva.<br />Loro Jonggrang, Central Java, 9th century. <br />Photograph by Andrea Acri.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>The volume takes South Asian history of religions as its starting point, focusing on developments in the Vedic period up to how yoga and meditation are understood in some of the many present-day expressions of Hinduism. However, as we are interested in meditative traditions more broadly, we also consider a range of theological perspectives on meditation (including Jain, Sikh, and Christian) as well as a range of perspectives on the origins, spread, and development of traditions. We include new regional histories of how meditation and yoga practices have been understood and developed in Latin America, Japan, and Korea. Furthermore, the volume is framed by an opening section that investigates a range of critical perspectives that inform public discussions on yoga and meditation today.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1439" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuudUJJws6hIXI0G1o_jQrZpgL8RZ8KfJ1G08t3_edystKo5zJppY-Yw2FYkVDVc2f0069rhJQ6uVnXe6DFXevKMlSYXXFOFn41ZO-Vn6m6TKO8tK24wK-Zk95QV2-H5yrrODiGdXPgPg/w278-h400/COVER+%2528final%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="278" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><br /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div>
<div>Through this effort, we hope to begin a process of breaking up of siloed knowledge and rigid conceptual frameworks. The thirty-four chapters cover a great deal of ground – in terms of time period, region, and tradition – but it is, of course, not comprehensive. We hope that these interdisciplinary reflections can spark new conversations and directions for future research.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>An <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><b>eBook</b></a> will be available for purchase from the 18th November 2020. </div><div><br /></div><div>A book launch will be held by the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies/" target="_blank"><b>SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies</b></a> on Monday, 23rd November 2020. This will include a chaired panel discussion with the editors and some chapter authors.</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">References</h3><div>King, R. E. 2019. ‘Meditation and the Modern Encounter between Asia and the West’ in Farias, M, Brazier, D. and Lalljee, M. (eds), <i>The Oxford Handbook of Meditation</i>. Online. October. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198808640.013.2">https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198808640.013.2</a>. Accessed 21 February 2020.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nye, M. 2019. ‘Race and religion: postcolonial formations of power and whiteness.’ <i>Method and Theory in the Study of Religion</i>, 31(3): 210–237. DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341444">https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341444</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Quijano, A. 2000. ‘Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America.’ <i>Nepantla: Views from South</i>, 1(3): 533–580. </div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1439" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuudUJJws6hIXI0G1o_jQrZpgL8RZ8KfJ1G08t3_edystKo5zJppY-Yw2FYkVDVc2f0069rhJQ6uVnXe6DFXevKMlSYXXFOFn41ZO-Vn6m6TKO8tK24wK-Zk95QV2-H5yrrODiGdXPgPg/s320/COVER+%2528final%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7jMOcS0ez8Q" width="560"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">PANEL DISCUSSION</h2><div>Panel discussion via SOAS Centre of Yoga for the launch of the book, <i>Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies</i>, held on 23 November 2020.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hear from the editors:</div><div><br /></div><div>Suzanne Newcombe is a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, UK, and Honorary Director of Inform, an independent charitable organisation which researches and provides information about minority religions and is based at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London, UK.</div><div><br /></div><div>Karen O’Brien-Kop is a lecturer in Asian Religions and Ethics at the University of Roehampton, UK. Karen has a forthcoming book on Bloomsbury Academic called 'Rethinking Classical Yoga and Buddhism' (provisional title).</div><div><br /></div><div>The editors will be chaired by Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, and joined by contributors to the volume:</div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Borayin Larios: "The scholar-practitioner of yoga in the western academy.”</li><li>Balbinder Singh Bhogal: “Sikhi(sm): yoga and meditation."</li><li>Adrián Muñoz: “Yoga in Latin America.”</li><li>Sat Bir Singh Khalsa: “The psychophysiology of yoga."</li><li>Finnian M. M. Gerety: “Sound and Yoga."</li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-86932396610176275072020-10-14T12:55:00.004+01:002020-10-14T12:55:51.835+01:00HYP Finalé | End of the Epoch<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> By <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jacqueline-hargreaves_16.html">JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLav6yYzNZ9_J35_xsnn_qyHb39vr4KRQhdemG3hgvOfLOS9TV3-XaRdXbq531-FWTuV0dcn7EpfOh9GwRUlnwsM7z5ZF6j469S_Rg4DL9D3kVlNNxAX_gEIIWge3PrynRVpETB-0Rag/w640-h640/HYP+Finale.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /><p>It was with great sadness that Jason Birch and I closed the door of the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk" target="_blank">Hatha Yoga Project</a> office last night (8th October, 2020) at SOAS University of London. It has been a fantastic five years and we must thank our colleagues, James Mallinson, Mark Singleton, and Daniela Bevilacqua, immensely! We would also like to acknowledge the enormous support offered to us through the tireless efforts of research assistants based at the École française d’Extrême Orient, Pondicherry, initially Dr. S. V. B. K. V. Gupta and, in more recent years, Dr Priyanka Avula, and Ramya Rajagopal.</p><p>This is not the end in terms of material outputs by the project, far from it. It is likely that the first critical editions, monographs, and films will be published by the end of this year.</p><p>We have lots of fun back stories to share and hope to drop snippets occasionally here on <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org"><i>The Luminescent</i></a>. So, here's the first one: who was the model for the favicon of the Hatha Yoga Project website (http://hyp.soas.ac.uk)? Guesses are welcome! </p><p>As part of the finalé, the Hatha Yoga Project team members contributed to a virtual panel hosted by the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies/events/" target="_blank">SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies</a>. This event was chaired by <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/people/shn44" target="_blank">Dr Suzanne Newcombe</a>, Open University and Inform. I was pleased to be invited to discuss some of the impact of the project on the yoga community and public, more broadly. This was in particular relation to my role as curator of the exhibition, <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/embodied-liberation/" target="_blank"><i>Embodied Liberation</i></a>, at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS and other outreach events and projects conducted over the five years, 2015–2020.</p><p><br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CBJqS3PeQuI" width="560"></iframe><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-73900794255943720592020-09-11T16:27:00.005+01:002020-12-02T23:56:27.193+00:00Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVc4zfvT6w70DH6EqNENFAAEYxWHbG3d0hGe0nD3SpvDrea4GjlJgoXFEYKJ8V5Wh5F-2U2vje571vI5ucHwaQtoaSAYS6RjIF3rjpeQaBhi_112BN7GCCg-em3VktqbNEwPrCvtVmky4/s2048/COVER+%2528final%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1439" height="625" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVc4zfvT6w70DH6EqNENFAAEYxWHbG3d0hGe0nD3SpvDrea4GjlJgoXFEYKJ8V5Wh5F-2U2vje571vI5ucHwaQtoaSAYS6RjIF3rjpeQaBhi_112BN7GCCg-em3VktqbNEwPrCvtVmky4/w439-h625/COVER+%2528final%2529.jpg" width="439" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">Book Launch:</h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies</i>, 1st Edition.</span></h2><p>By <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/people/shn44" target="_blank">Suzanne Newcombe</a>, <a href="https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/karen-obrien-kop" target="_blank">Karen O’Brien-Kop</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>"The <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><i>Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies</i></a> is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>Introduction to yoga and meditation studies</p><p>History of yoga and meditation in South Asia</p><p>Doctrinal perspectives: technique and praxis</p><p>Global and regional transmissions</p><p>Disciplinary Framings</p></blockquote><p>In addition to up-to-date explorations of the history of yoga and meditation in the Indian subcontinent, new contexts include a case study of yoga and meditation in the contemporary Tibetan diaspora, and unique summaries of historical developments in Japan and Latin America as well as an introduction to the growing academic study of yoga in Korea. Underpinned by critical and theoretical engagement, the volume provides an in-depth guide to the history of yoga and meditation studies and combines the best of established research with attention to emerging directions for future investigation. This handbook will be of interest to multidisciplinary academic audiences from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences."</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Biography</b></p><p>Suzanne Newcombe is a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, UK, and Honorary Director of Inform, an independent charitable organisation which researches and provides information about minority religions and is based at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College London, UK.</p><p>Karen O'Brien-Kop is a lecturer in Asian Religions and Ethics at the University of Roehampton, UK.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Table of Contents</b></h2><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">PART I: INTRODUCTION TO YOGA AND MEDITATION STUDIES</h4><p>Reframing Yoga and Meditation Studies – <i>Karen O’Brien-Kop</i> and <i>Suzanne Newcombe</i></p><p>Decolonising Yoga – <i>Shameem Black</i></p><p>Meditation in Contemporary Contexts: Current Discussions – <i>Ville Husgafvel</i></p><p>The Scholar-Practitioner of Yoga in the Western Academy – <i>Mark Singleton</i> and <i>Borayin Larios</i></p><p>Neoliberal Yoga – <i>Andrea Jain</i></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">PART II: HISTORY OF YOGA AND MEDITATION IN SOUTH ASIA</h4><p>How Yoga Became Yoga: Yoga and Meditation up to the Classical Period – <i>Kengo Harimoto</i></p><p>Buddhist Meditation in South Asia: An Overview – <i>Florin Deleanu</i></p><p>Tantric Transformations of Yoga: Kuṇḍalinī in the 9-10th century – <i>Olga Serbaeva</i></p><p>Early Haṭhayoga – <i>Mark Singleton</i></p><p>Yoga and Meditation in Modern Esoteric Traditions – <i>Julian Strube</i></p><p>Hindu Ascetics and the Political in Contemporary India – <i>Raphaël Voix</i></p><p>Yoga and Meditation as a Health Intervention – <i>Suzanne Newcombe</i></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">PART III: DOCTRINAL PERSPECTIVES: TECHNIQUE AND PRAXIS</h4><p>Yoga and Meditation in the Jain Tradition – <i>Samani Pratibha Pragya</i></p><p>Daoist Meditation – <i>Louis Komjathy</i></p><p>Islam, Yoga and Meditation – <i>Patrick D’Silva</i></p><p>Sikhi(sm): Yoga and Meditation – <i>Balbinder S. Bhopal</i></p><p>Christianity: Classical, Modern, and Post-Modern Forms of Contemplation – <i>Michael Stoeber </i>and <i>Jaegil Lee</i></p><p>Secular Discourse as a Legitimating Strategy for Mindfulness Meditation – <i>Masoumeh Rahmani</i></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">PART IV: GLOBAL AND REGIONAL TRANSMISSIONS</h4><p>Yoga and Meditation Traditions in Insular Southeast Asia – <i>Andrea Acri</i></p><p>Yoga in Tibet – <i>Naomi Worth</i></p><p>The Political History of Meditation and Yoga in Japan – <i>Kurita Hidehiko</i></p><p>Yoga and Meditation in Korea – <i>Park Kwangsoo</i> and <i>Park Younggil</i></p><p>Yoga in Latin America: A Critical Overview – <i>Adrián Muñoz</i></p><p>Anglophone Yoga and Meditation Outside of India – <i>Suzanne Newcombe</i> and <i>Philip Deslippe</i></p><p>The Yogic Body in Global Transmission – <i>Sravana Borkataky-Varma</i></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">PART V: DISCIPLINARY FRAMINGS</h4><p>Philology and Digital Humanities – <i>Charles Li</i></p><p>Observing Yoga: The Use of Ethnography to Develop Yoga Studies – <i>Daniela Bevilacqua</i></p><p>Yoga and Philosophy: Ontology, Epistemology, Ethics – <i>Mikel Burley</i></p><p>On ‘Meditational Art’ and Maṇḍalas as Objects of Meditation – <i>Gudrun Bühnemann</i></p><p>The Psychophysiology of Yoga: Characteristics of the Main Components and Review of Research Studies – <i>Laura Schmalzl, Pamela Jeter and Sat Bir Khalsa</i></p><p>Meditation and the Cognitive Sciences – <i>Asaf Federman</i></p><p>Inclusive Identities – The Lens of Critical Theory – <i>Karen-Ann Wong</i></p><p>Yoga: Between Meditation and Movement – <i>Matylda Ciołkosz</i></p><p>Sound and Yoga – <i>Finnian M.M. Gerety</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1439" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuudUJJws6hIXI0G1o_jQrZpgL8RZ8KfJ1G08t3_edystKo5zJppY-Yw2FYkVDVc2f0069rhJQ6uVnXe6DFXevKMlSYXXFOFn41ZO-Vn6m6TKO8tK24wK-Zk95QV2-H5yrrODiGdXPgPg/s320/COVER+%2528final%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-48492103445961847712020-09-03T12:03:00.015+01:002023-06-24T09:43:13.046+01:00Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati : An online learning experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVkwz86nL6X2v56eY41D9s0XDegzVixtfgroYLGAFkdMQse2zICLCbja5LfJyoZc3YDWeizgE_jS7-_6F9Dsbho9iJyPyH2f7Bo2_QxRz3mwGeGXpYB96ArdZ9vAnDkSgm16Fi7o8bunU/w640-h640/jumping+over+the+threshold+v4.jpg" title="Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati : A Precursor to Modern Yoga" width="640" /></div><br /><p>One of the extraordinary aspects of the postural practice documented in the eighteenth-century <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i> is that it includes dynamic, moving <i>āsana</i>s. Many of these <i>āsana</i>s are unique in the <i>haṭhayoga</i> corpus.</p><p>An example of a dynamic standing <i>āsana</i> is ‘Jumping over the threshold’ (<i>dehalyullaṅghanāsana</i>).</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">DEHAYULLAṄGHANĀSANA </h3><h4 style="text-align: left;">Jumping over the threshold [pose]</h4><p></p><blockquote><p>Clasping both hands together, [the yogi] should jump both feet inside [the hands], outside, and inside [again]. [This] is the “jumping over the threshold [pose].”</p><p>hastadvayaṃ baddhvā tanmadhye caraṇadvayam uḍḍānena bahir ānīya antaḥ nayet dehalyullaṅghanaṃ bhavati | 86 | </p></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: right;">(Translation Birch 2020.)</p><p><br /></p><p>This <i>āsana</i> is quite challenging. The idea is to jump through your hands, and back again, while keeping them interlaced. Above you can see an illustration of 'Jumping over the threshold pose' from a manuscript of the <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i>. Below is a reconstruction of this <i>āsana</i> on the cover of <a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2019.V2" target="_blank">Journal of Yoga Studies</a> (volume 2), which was very skilfully performed by Ruth Westoby. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2019.V2" target="_blank"><img alt="Journal of Yoga Studies, Vol 2" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCfnNJHx4OOG5DAQ-nevArUrLndbp2AdYR1yboiFtCSQrUqHeqQvzmohplxpQ0KH_mROk8vYv64chB00w5TI97GjxvbNnHUt-_W3n-5fm_tGcf07AmzydAiXYN3m7ZLFTCmDGTsg8wkM/w284-h400/JoYS.V2+cover+2019+v2.jpg" title="Journal of Yoga Studies, Vol 2" width="284" /></a></div><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: center;">HAṬHĀBHYĀSAPADDHATI</h3><h4 style="text-align: center;">A Precursor to Modern Yoga</h4><p style="text-align: center;"><i>A 12-hour online course with Dr. Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;">4 weeks • September 8 – October 1, 2020</p><p style="text-align: center;">Enrolment closing soon! </p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnN-m9tUmznI1rzSdIb0K_dO9dFurwgiIPYLPbpuTDWnkcErsAsSfLjaDZnfinxgKgCuYaqHbdMODGAlwMdpGS8H5m3p-fes2Y3SBl6xplRBU-ueORyDrB5F-x8IQ7NAhTHNvHDG_HM0/s1920/Title+-+PPT.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnN-m9tUmznI1rzSdIb0K_dO9dFurwgiIPYLPbpuTDWnkcErsAsSfLjaDZnfinxgKgCuYaqHbdMODGAlwMdpGS8H5m3p-fes2Y3SBl6xplRBU-ueORyDrB5F-x8IQ7NAhTHNvHDG_HM0/s320/Title+-+PPT.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-83219666763604614132020-08-24T19:09:00.016+01:002020-10-14T13:23:43.774+01:00The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F3yd1ZKrCJz56X-yJQeOzqAD-MLDXChSCs68VRAHojF1F0aeDa1c1Kwa4MMNyJdv51YHFXAoBdwEr5PyZ0vRWQ3jSfCIQ8J-c7exeum3weLxuG6tu6eVrfjkPERS-iHdqgrXS9sejts/s550/Oxford+History+of+Hinduism+-+Hindu+Practice.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="364" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2F3yd1ZKrCJz56X-yJQeOzqAD-MLDXChSCs68VRAHojF1F0aeDa1c1Kwa4MMNyJdv51YHFXAoBdwEr5PyZ0vRWQ3jSfCIQ8J-c7exeum3weLxuG6tu6eVrfjkPERS-iHdqgrXS9sejts/w423-h640/Oxford+History+of+Hinduism+-+Hindu+Practice.jpg" title="The Oxford History of Hinduism - Hindu Practice" width="423" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On the 20th August, 2020, <i><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-history-of-hinduism-hindu-practice-9780198733508?lang=en&cc=gb#" target="_blank">The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice</a></i> edited by <a href="https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/gavin-flood" target="_blank">Prof. Gavin Flood</a>, Senior Research Fellow, Campion Hall, was published by Oxford University Press. It contains a collection of essays by leading scholars on topics of asceticism, yoga, and devotion, including dance and music.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The book description states:</div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #073763;">Traditions of asceticism, yoga, and devotion (<i>bhakti</i>), including dance and music, developed in Hinduism over long periods of time. Some of these practices, notably those denoted by the term yoga, are orientated towards salvation from the cycle of reincarnation and go back several thousand years. These practices, borne witness to in ancient texts called <i>Upaniṣads</i>, as well as in other traditions, notably early Buddhism and Jainism, are the subject of this volume in the Oxford History of Hinduism. Practices of meditation are also linked to asceticism (<i>tapas</i>) and its institutional articulation in renunciation (<i>saṃnyāsa</i>). There is a range of practices or disciplines from ascetic fasting to taking a vow (<i>vrata</i>) for a deity in return for a favour. There are also devotional practices that might involve ritual, making an offering to a deity and receiving a blessing, dancing, or visualization of the master (<i>guru</i>). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #073763;">The overall theme—the history of religious practices—might even be seen as being within a broader intellectual trajectory of cultural history. In the substantial introduction by the editor this broad history is sketched, paying particular attention to what we might call the medieval period (post-Gupta) through to modernity when traditions had significantly developed in relation to each other. The chapters in the book chart the history of Hindu practice, paying particular attention to indigenous terms and recognizing indigenous distinctions such as between the ritual life of the householder and the renouncer seeking liberation, between 'inner' practices of and 'external' practices of ritual, and between those desirous of liberation (<i>mumukṣu</i>) and those desirous of pleasure and worldly success (<i>bubhukṣu</i>). This whole range of meditative and devotional practices that have developed in the history of Hinduism are represented in this book.</span></div></div></blockquote><p><br /></p>Table of contents includes:<br /><br /><br /><b>Introduction: A History of Hindu Practice <i>Gavin Flood </i></b><br /><br /><b>I. TEXTUAL SOURCES</b><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Ritual, Ascetic, and Meditative Practice in the Veda and Upaniṣads <i>Cezary Galewicz</i> </div><p style="text-align: left;">2. Historical Context of Early Asceticism <i>Johannes Bronkhorst</i></p><div>3. Religious Practices in the Sanskrit Epics <i>John Brockington</i><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>II. HISTORIES OF PRACTICE</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">4. The Early History of Renunciation <i>Patrick Olivelle</i><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">5. The Later Institution of Renunciation <i>Sondra L. Hausner</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">6. Measuring Innovation: Genesis and Typology of Early Pūjā <i>Natalia Lidova</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">7. Haṭhayoga's Early History: From Vajrayāna Sexual Restraint to Universal Somatic Soteriology <i>James Mallinson</i></span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">8. The Quest for Liberation-in-Life: A Survey of Early Works on Hatḥa- and Rājayoga <i>Jason Birch</i></span> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">9. Practice in the Tantric Religion of Śiva <i>Gavin Flood</i> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">10. Vaiṣṇava Practice <i>Rembert Lutjeharms</i> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">11. Theatre as Religious Practice <i>Lyne Bansat-Boudon</i> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">12. Sounding Out the Divine: Musical Practice as Theology in Samāj Gāyan <i>Richard David Williams</i> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">13. Women's Observances: Vratas <i>Tracy Pintchman</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>III. RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND POLITICS IN MODERN HINDUISM</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">14. Gandhi, Hinduism, and Humanity <i>Faisal Devji</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">15. Legal Yoga <i>Sunila S. Kale and Christian Lee Novetzke</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">16. The Modern Spirit of Yoga: Idioms and Practices <i>Elizabeth De Michelis</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">17. Gurus in Contemporary Hindu Practice <i>Daniel Gold</i></div><div><p><br /></p><p>The two essays on yoga written by team members of the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk" target="_blank"><b>Hatha Yoga Project</b></a> will be made open-access in the near future.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-history-of-hinduism-hindu-practice-9780198733508?lang=en&cc=gb#" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="364" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTUDtR5Vp_9C3i7lvgruKOvp832tc_nqiU0WmPrnSnMrPEYpLiikIoek8c2OLZxQX4iwzWUzJTAZ4BH-E57g0oqdiOKaUrMdLiKDtDMM5G4iAhDH8LXXYVDuYZYWeO2VIkke_kBBa17uU/s320/Oxford+History+of+Hinduism+-+Hindu+Practice.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-2518946817852163532020-08-20T11:51:00.008+01:002020-08-31T13:15:12.680+01:00SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies Podcasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1200" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7V-i3ERWeGMmDASbUMuSOzpZ_Z4K1oe_rzg5-i9pjZc_IKxJxHQz4BXMOd7W3hk5jzyPU31kGmqnfS17uDu8r191bJ4ZUr2MkRAzUCTfht1ryyek8zOK0mnPvgRRrE6i_O2V8-Jy-OI/w781-h486/SOAS+Podcasts.jpg" width="100%" /></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1045587358&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: interstate, "lucida grande", "lucida sans unicode", "lucida sans", garuda, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/soas-university-of-london" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="SOAS Podcasts">SOAS Podcasts</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/soas-university-of-london/sets/centre-of-yoga-studies" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Centre of Yoga Studies">Centre of Yoga Studies</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-28462036153624005962020-08-06T15:04:00.014+01:002020-10-14T13:31:40.826+01:00Visual Evidence for Royal Yogins<span style="font-size: x-small;">by <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jacqueline-hargreaves_16.html">JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</a></span><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="893" height="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Gn9Mzes9M8AI0Vc0Mbourt5kq-BqAY7vo8qEeEqz8EHettyROBvMH2UJWKP7FwfEmxnH2ATHESMYhbL-pYSZjPmWifMUT4azMO3_D9u7CVkuLnEnaDzvFJLfxBay8qAeT9xChgwJGB0/w584-h800/117036251_1657179414421205_6896882493061919762_o.jpg" title="A crowned prince performs prāṇāyāma. Chamba school, circa 1740-50 CE. Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh." width="584" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A crowned prince performs <i>prāṇāyāma</i>. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chamba school, circa 1740-50 CE. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Although there is significant textual evidence to suggest that yogic techniques, such as <i>āsana</i>s, <i>mantra</i> repetition and </span></span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">prāṇāyāma</i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">, were practised by householders, it is unusual to find visual depictions of this and, in particular, members of a royal court. As such, </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I was quite excited to come across this </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">mid-18th century painting</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> of a crowned prince seated in a yogic posture while performing <i>prāṇāyāma</i>. According to the Bhuri Singh Museum, this is in a local style that flourished in Chamba before new trends were introduced by the Guler school of painters. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">The yogic body of the prince contains figures of Śiva (at the forehead), Brahmā (at the heart), and Viṣṇu (at the navel). </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">The depiction of deities at these places is symbolic of the <i>cakra</i>s (energetic centres) or <i>granthi</i>s (knots) within the practitioner's</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;"> body.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Not surprisingly, most of the premodern visual evidence for the practice of yogic techniques</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">depicts ascetics. So, the image above of a richly jewelled prince performing </span><i style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">prāṇāyāma </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">is quite unique. It </span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">reminded me of the late-17th century painting of Man Dhata (below) in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Depicted here, in a similar profile portrait, the crowned prince is seated in a yogic posture with his right hand lowered. The unusual gesture of this hand might suggest that he has just completed the practice of </span></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">prāṇāyāma</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As in the painting above,</span><span style="color: #1c1e21; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the same three deities are represented. However, in this case, the lower two are reversed with Viṣṇu at the heart and Brahmā at the navel. Dated slightly </span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); white-space: pre-wrap;">earlier, this bold and vibrant miniature is representative of the sub-Himalayan and Himachal Pradesh miniatures of this period.</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="" style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFdr-qeU30W7je4NfCXi4EoGYrykUcYmuIuPZV9HTTLEfZk4Q0fGHBeWP5V3RhYmdUAzCqCMSWmnlgpynrofgMqFXoTHNXYd2XcYkLiQsQ_skYfIsSO1pmUA49QhGfDjXUOZ52QxmoL4/s2048/1966.27_print.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFdr-qeU30W7je4NfCXi4EoGYrykUcYmuIuPZV9HTTLEfZk4Q0fGHBeWP5V3RhYmdUAzCqCMSWmnlgpynrofgMqFXoTHNXYd2XcYkLiQsQ_skYfIsSO1pmUA49QhGfDjXUOZ52QxmoL4/w448-h640/1966.27_print.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Man Dhata seated in a yogi position.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">c. 1690-1700. India, Pahari, Nurpur, late 17th Century. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ink and color on paper; overall: 20 x 14 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.). </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1966.27.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another important painting of a person of high rank performing yoga is the striking 19th-century miniature in the Wellcome Collection (see below). The inscription on the back of the painting states:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>Appu [?] Sahib Patumkar [?] performing <i>jogh</i>, awaiting inspiration preparatory to turning [into a] devotee.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The painting depicts Appu Sahib Patumkar performing a yogic posture (<i>āsana</i>) outdoors on a mat of antelope skin with a temple perched upon a distant hill. The practitioner's name suggests he is a person of noble family.</div></div></span></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #1c1e21;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjskfmTqM_UlpEmBHjZWxohVePTSatCKTWI1xvvi0I3G6ivkVVHfxSvII0UFih25L-w1iwNHCiGd0k5Ef59-SBTFr1OVp2G6io64chhsYUrMdf4oVc9otYCv7SftFIxF-WnOivzd1ie8Rc/s2048/b5af4uy9.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1352" data-original-width="2048" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjskfmTqM_UlpEmBHjZWxohVePTSatCKTWI1xvvi0I3G6ivkVVHfxSvII0UFih25L-w1iwNHCiGd0k5Ef59-SBTFr1OVp2G6io64chhsYUrMdf4oVc9otYCv7SftFIxF-WnOivzd1ie8Rc/w400-h263/b5af4uy9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Appu Sahib Patumkar performing <i>jogh</i> [<i>āsana</i>].</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">c. 19th century. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">India.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting, gouache on paper; image </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">size: 15 x 24 cm.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wellcome Library no. 574888i</span></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></span><div><span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">The form of the posture matches the description of an unnamed <i>āsana</i> (no. 51) in the prone (<i>nyubja</i>) section of the 18th-century yoga text called the <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i>. The description of this <i>āsana</i> is as follows:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><blockquote>hastadvayena pādadvayāgre gṛhītvā ekaikaṃ pādāṅguṣṭhaṃ karṇayoḥ spṛśet || 51 || </blockquote><blockquote> Grasping the toes of the feet with both hands, [the yogin] should touch the big toes, one at a time, on the ears.</blockquote></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><i style="text-align: right;"><br /></i></div></span></span><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i> 51</div><span><span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">Although the <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i> doesn't provide a name for this <i>āsana</i>, the artists of the Mysore Palace, who skilfully illustrated the chapter on <i>āsana</i> in the <i>Śrītattvanidhi</i> (19th century), borrowed the description from the <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i> and named it the bow pose (<i>dhanurāsana</i>).</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">I have previously written about the bow pose (<i>dhanurāsana</i>) and other manuscript material on this posture here: </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2017/11/dhanurasana-two-versions-of-bow-pose.html">DHANURĀSANA: Two Versions of Bow Pose</a>.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span><b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: small;">Citation: </span></b></span></div></span></span></div><span><span><div style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: x-small;">Hargreaves, Jacqueline. 2020. “Visual Evidence for Royal Yogins.” in <i>The Luminescent</i>, 6 August, 2020. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2020/08/visual-evidence-for-royal-yogins.html">https://www.theluminescent.org/2020/08/visual-evidence-for-royal-yogins.html</a></span><br /><br /><br /><div><div class="column" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><div class="column" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3IqWO2JK_X9r3SooDYup13CAvlyXeKzGJhGtZkNYUV6T_okGrz82PJ5oB_21e0slmNShUYef31_VZmrIfPljSl0TQiUggFTAU0U0QwIldXV56xQ_X_hvicxfAOlnA0r4ms9BSaH9pTS4/s1225/117036251_1657179414421205_6896882493061919762_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="893" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3IqWO2JK_X9r3SooDYup13CAvlyXeKzGJhGtZkNYUV6T_okGrz82PJ5oB_21e0slmNShUYef31_VZmrIfPljSl0TQiUggFTAU0U0QwIldXV56xQ_X_hvicxfAOlnA0r4ms9BSaH9pTS4/s320/117036251_1657179414421205_6896882493061919762_o.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">♥ </span><b><a href="https://paypal.me/TheLuminescent?locale.x=en_GB" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Donate via Paypal</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">♥</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">• <a href="https://paypal.me/TheLuminescent?locale.x=en_GB" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #990000;">ONE OFF DONATION</span></b></a> •</span></div><br /><div style="color: black; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.patreon.com/TheLuminescent" target="_blank"><img border="" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="710" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpWv2qeAm6IwBS7puOAsXfda5YSMwVOgXBzb5HORHteGXyYRW8P_1DU7Ri9DJJTlLvdiIrlfGagItOKr-1kwwawFROInLBiErk6GtT9X8qQXxj0CHQnqRmhVwHsABj2T7C3QTePTOHjc/s320/TheLuminescent_footer_icon.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><h3 class="underline" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: black; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0.5em; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></h3><h3 class="underline" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(217, 217, 217); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0.5em; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #990000;">FRIEND . 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It includes significant contributions from almost all of his past students, which covers a breadth of expertise in several fields of Indology including several papers on Yoga. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The entire book and each of its essays are available open access.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><b>Śaivism and the Tantric Traditions: Essays in Honour of Alexis G.J.S. Sanderson</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432802" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432802</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Series: Gonda Indological Studies, Volume: 22.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Editors: Dominic Goodall, Shaman Hatley, Harunaga Isaacson, and Srilata Raman.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Academic study of the tantric traditions has blossomed in recent decades, in no small measure thanks to the magisterial contributions of Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, until 2015 Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. This collection of essays honours him and touches several fields of Indology that he has helped to shape (or, in the case of the Śaiva religions, revolutionised): the history, ritual, and philosophies of tantric Buddhism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism; religious art and architecture; and Sanskrit belles lettres. Grateful former students, joined by other experts influenced by his scholarship, here offer papers that make significant contributions to our understanding of the cultural, religious, political, and intellectual histories of premodern South and Southeast Asia. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Contributors are: Peter Bisschop, Judit Törzsök, Alex Watson, Isabelle Ratié, Christopher Wallis, Péter-Dániel Szántó, Srilata Raman, Csaba Dezső, Gergely Hidas, Nina Mirnig, John Nemec, Bihani Sarkar, Jürgen Hanneder, Diwakar Acharya, James Mallinson, Csaba Kiss, Jason Birch, Elizabeth Mills, Ryugen Tanemura, Anthony Tribe, and Parul Dave-Mukherji.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432802_021" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbcyKALcQ7HvshEeJmIYwZ-Zs8eDH5cllS6Xy1gcHOksbmlPO0gd6rbkBPWNEqyaNcrLOSlTEA5n-R7oL6SC9Ih1cmR8znCvLTNHrA2pzOVIJj17VD4-am63ldeulqMDIsXvQzJQtxTw/w512-h512/Hathayoga%2527s+Floruit.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://brill.com/view/title/56613?language=en" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn4QFCUfNFmmMu3oOR-eF6baFwk4QNgx9GEXp3KCzR1lvhyphenhyphenhHvvAihJAhOixQw3oclxsTXc58npuiq_qVIcFehDOoCSsVLqMx-zBlVxdnA62PBf-x2cWpYYtS075EWbNj066L8NZmVF08/s320/9789004432802.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-70917352312056928012020-06-22T16:43:00.004+01:002023-06-24T09:43:34.183+01:00AYURYOG TIMELINE | A shared history of Yoga and Indian Medicine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</span><br />
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Today, we launched this significant piece of research, which is an output of the <a href="http://ayuryog.org/" target="_blank">AyurYog Project</a>:<br />
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<b>AyurYog Timeline: The entangled histories of Yoga and Indian medicine (Ayurveda).</b><br />
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<a href="http://ayuryog.org/timeline"><span style="color: #990000;">http://ayuryog.org/timeline</span></a><br />
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[Best viewed on a computer rather than a mobile phone.]<br />
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This interactive web-based resource is based on the latest philological and modern sociological research of the AyurYog Project.<br />
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Use it to learn about some of the key milestones and historically significant events that have shaped the entanglement of Yoga and Indian medicine (Ayurveda).<br />
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Curated by <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jacqueline-hargreaves_16.html" target="_blank">Jacqueline Hargreaves</a> (www.TheLuminscent.org) and <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/people/shn44" target="_blank">Dr Suzanne Newcombe</a>.<br />
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With special thanks to Prof. Dagmar Wujastyk, Dr Jason Birch, Dr Christèle Barois, and Dr Patricia Sauthoff.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-49009393608885370332020-06-18T13:01:00.000+01:002020-08-29T16:37:04.224+01:00ALCHEMY RECONSTRUCTION | Preparing Ingredients<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By <span style="color: #990000;"><b><a href="http://ayuryog.org/team/dagmar-wujastyk" target="_blank">DAGMAR WUJASTYK</a> | </b></span></span>A special guest from the <span style="color: #990000;"><b><a href="http://ayuryog.org/index.php" target="_blank">AyurYog Project</a>.</b></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGLitm7g1MQk7HwQOqQd4q1ZjUy8DFETvAPXBHyg8lJYupH_oOcDrLr8WSFbz73pIWnHewAXAeyRjDmYxQqP_hCP5S-amnFjpK2rGJbNNlkY7LtlGq40kYDh5Qs3p7jhu-cxztXmoQDk/s1600/copper+for+teaser+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1481" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGLitm7g1MQk7HwQOqQd4q1ZjUy8DFETvAPXBHyg8lJYupH_oOcDrLr8WSFbz73pIWnHewAXAeyRjDmYxQqP_hCP5S-amnFjpK2rGJbNNlkY7LtlGq40kYDh5Qs3p7jhu-cxztXmoQDk/s640/copper+for+teaser+image.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper sheet coated with salt and lemon and roasted over a fire.</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ayuryog.org/content/alchemy-reconstruction" target="_blank">Watch the pevious steps in the reconstruction of the medieval alchemy of the <i>Rasahṛdayatantra.</i></a></span></b><br />
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The fifth procedure in the <i>Rasahṛdayatantra</i> calls for a copper paste (<i>śulbapiṣṭi</i>), which is then subjected to a sublimation process. The making of the copper paste is not described in any way. We can infer from the text that it has to contain mercury, presumably the mercury that has undergone the first four steps. And, given that it is called ‘copper paste’, copper would suggest itself as another ingredient.<br />
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Andrew Mason noted that he had been taught to always purify copper before applying it, so he suggested to do so for the fifth procedure, even though the text does not actually specify that the copper of the copper paste must be purified.<br />
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One of the innovations of Indian alchemy is the concept of processing materials to make them fit for purpose. The procedures we are showing in the documentaries focus on the refinement of mercury, but we should note that other materials are also subjected to various procedures before they are applied in the making of the mercurial elixir. The texts often state that an ingredient is purified (<i>śuddha</i>), which means it has been subjected to detoxifying and potentiating procedures. The term ‘purified’ may not quite evoke the right image: A purified material does not necessarily look more clean and it does not have to be more pure in chemical terms. Rather, its properties are supposed have changed for the better. The purification procedures are meant to make substances safe for human consumption, as well as ensure their efficacy as reagents. Mostly, this concerns metals and minerals, but also organic poisons.<br />
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There are different ways of purifying copper, and Andrew tried out different versions. We weren’t quite sure what the copper available to alchemists would have looked like. India has a very long history of metallurgy and it is likely that copper was available on the market in sheets or as a powder, though it may have been necessary for alchemists to procure copper from its natural source.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTgXDiBFiTsPfHGYPyhAB_NZGFc3LfsckdAy8o8E8-NjdSAn_S2IMlXbek7cO3lPDgXE1AbrQpCMhYtfYdlEqKG90SPhfPsMTKYFbuYTrGwxTB_UtzkRZ21sgvXw0Kk__DPyxP6ndcAl4/s1600/copper+raw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTgXDiBFiTsPfHGYPyhAB_NZGFc3LfsckdAy8o8E8-NjdSAn_S2IMlXbek7cO3lPDgXE1AbrQpCMhYtfYdlEqKG90SPhfPsMTKYFbuYTrGwxTB_UtzkRZ21sgvXw0Kk__DPyxP6ndcAl4/s400/copper+raw.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copper is one of the few metals that can occur in nature in a directly usable metallic form.</span></td></tr>
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Andrew started out by using sheets of copper.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_phhSW3wBvyr5uS1bAd1EvLs50Z51qq4-oZxlo1H2Ifa79L7vDNWfHHCXFr-xRqbesr1fU31HRElHI1ULqpE-scJ9yHrV0lL30eNt3ozak7oInSSXS77lkz7BxY5v9v7XXi1qMXA1biY/s1600/untreated+copper+sheets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="608" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_phhSW3wBvyr5uS1bAd1EvLs50Z51qq4-oZxlo1H2Ifa79L7vDNWfHHCXFr-xRqbesr1fU31HRElHI1ULqpE-scJ9yHrV0lL30eNt3ozak7oInSSXS77lkz7BxY5v9v7XXi1qMXA1biY/s400/untreated+copper+sheets.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper sheets.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwvBecdCWLcHfoKN_PguRhCo98PUIDLeqe7Ts4m8DQR81tUG5ZPy2rAQbX_jKjuL6iV6ueyieCoLTuSv_HcfrbgG9rp1JaERiGWtmuG79XlZm-lxQIDEEb7oUENrkeU3fB2APuJ_bpQUs/s1600/copper+in+fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1308" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwvBecdCWLcHfoKN_PguRhCo98PUIDLeqe7Ts4m8DQR81tUG5ZPy2rAQbX_jKjuL6iV6ueyieCoLTuSv_HcfrbgG9rp1JaERiGWtmuG79XlZm-lxQIDEEb7oUENrkeU3fB2APuJ_bpQUs/s400/copper+in+fire.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper sheets are coated with salt and lemon juice and roasted.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bu96tPYfYm6z8oWin5hwRXO83OfeRMvKROEf83ypa6-E5Br_77lLzrrTtoyvsweD_JAK6d09snikaAYR_Daeibnq8NlUMroNssFhWq_rUaU6-294Yx-Ao80wpLq1deXsqJ0wRzGU8dU/s1600/copper+boiled+in+urine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1071" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bu96tPYfYm6z8oWin5hwRXO83OfeRMvKROEf83ypa6-E5Br_77lLzrrTtoyvsweD_JAK6d09snikaAYR_Daeibnq8NlUMroNssFhWq_rUaU6-294Yx-Ao80wpLq1deXsqJ0wRzGU8dU/s400/copper+boiled+in+urine.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper sheets boiling in urine and five salts.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbjSJtnKwY6CPnBOSdcR-ree8d3SPI8pVKRmP3Lz-IJ5CxbyL8PGYKMJdQktvuVQSSMmBPUgU1Vl0XyuMj2wc84bjxn_RKvjCUJS6uBWQ5nT6QjvBuSJF-DNy17_niJ7gha9l_IcQ6HY/s1600/copper+sheets+after+treatment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1526" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbjSJtnKwY6CPnBOSdcR-ree8d3SPI8pVKRmP3Lz-IJ5CxbyL8PGYKMJdQktvuVQSSMmBPUgU1Vl0XyuMj2wc84bjxn_RKvjCUJS6uBWQ5nT6QjvBuSJF-DNy17_niJ7gha9l_IcQ6HY/s400/copper+sheets+after+treatment.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper sheets after treatment.</td></tr>
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But then the rasashastra practitioners from India told him they would use copper powder for the mercury-copper paste, so he decided to make copper powder.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6ipIGxIcs2esywCAkbFHTboWJtDLwdhz8nU4T7edPYIeHq29OPJFOjEBQC3_LNMZ9DwFyNaQ5WxJcUoiivMP_qbBCOZ4ZEoB10yqnEhku1ORLZ7pLr75mxROesFESrXbYt4kq5X7QxA/s1600/copper+in+furnace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="935" data-original-width="1360" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6ipIGxIcs2esywCAkbFHTboWJtDLwdhz8nU4T7edPYIeHq29OPJFOjEBQC3_LNMZ9DwFyNaQ5WxJcUoiivMP_qbBCOZ4ZEoB10yqnEhku1ORLZ7pLr75mxROesFESrXbYt4kq5X7QxA/s400/copper+in+furnace.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making copper powder: copper sheets are melted in a furnace.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mSXNHhxEXRCN1CYODhQ_Fkb71MEDDNpkhn_AKdTqFXmSsAHK2mWzHhaWZ2gK81Ey_K6k4OKHZ4PBYQNPwW81nnOKPL2kLDyDL9EehyiPO2iCgPAoEFYHO53Ay3yMIeakT3qi6q1BjZU/s1600/copper+in+furnace+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1260" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mSXNHhxEXRCN1CYODhQ_Fkb71MEDDNpkhn_AKdTqFXmSsAHK2mWzHhaWZ2gK81Ey_K6k4OKHZ4PBYQNPwW81nnOKPL2kLDyDL9EehyiPO2iCgPAoEFYHO53Ay3yMIeakT3qi6q1BjZU/s400/copper+in+furnace+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper in the furnace.</td></tr>
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The copper powder would then be subjected to a different purification procedure as well.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPps1-PuljNjChGGe7YnOzZrpPWRj6brvqsqB4lCiGJ6a9tNj3jh6IPMj2G9hgV8IR_JKKNXE_ecpsTmbpsYIrkylFuVlRUOxe_XzXGCH1jCq-ZQMy8TXBayZItBTPtZydaqafgVuZnw/s1600/copper+powder+dolayantra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1478" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPps1-PuljNjChGGe7YnOzZrpPWRj6brvqsqB4lCiGJ6a9tNj3jh6IPMj2G9hgV8IR_JKKNXE_ecpsTmbpsYIrkylFuVlRUOxe_XzXGCH1jCq-ZQMy8TXBayZItBTPtZydaqafgVuZnw/s400/copper+powder+dolayantra.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper powder is boiled in a 'swing-device' (<i>dolāyantra</i>).</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKSysgACb0R8crbQc1_uz9-afD6wESZnMgT9dYPntFwYw4ly56nCm2WAqrvKEyoaj7sBxJs_5aL0xrSS-AkFEy1t6vCGWfH-ZQdM5-To7_jT7vt07JR0qu81nnutTi1Eg-Pw3i_tI5ws/s1600/copper+powder+dolayantra+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1517" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKSysgACb0R8crbQc1_uz9-afD6wESZnMgT9dYPntFwYw4ly56nCm2WAqrvKEyoaj7sBxJs_5aL0xrSS-AkFEy1t6vCGWfH-ZQdM5-To7_jT7vt07JR0qu81nnutTi1Eg-Pw3i_tI5ws/s400/copper+powder+dolayantra+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The colour of the liquid changes as the copper is boiled.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR3LHXuHkBGcOAKdRu7ZfvsJzh00JmD2dzEwS-Q8c_d_Y-YoT27fFGKAWXk2mVRlRC3g4EzcxZtJ3-REmIXko4BhyoQYNOilqSld1ERbv_KCf36VICeCKJUZgdSuxPByJAW5K8ZH8sFE/s1600/copper+powder+after+procedure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1432" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR3LHXuHkBGcOAKdRu7ZfvsJzh00JmD2dzEwS-Q8c_d_Y-YoT27fFGKAWXk2mVRlRC3g4EzcxZtJ3-REmIXko4BhyoQYNOilqSld1ERbv_KCf36VICeCKJUZgdSuxPByJAW5K8ZH8sFE/s400/copper+powder+after+procedure.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copper powder after procedure.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCrHR5Ww-AzLbtuJpxsfdvSTzI1q4Wbq2jPHAGXEbIkkb8wKRkNZH8AuopPfEaCAsIze7nsG4VydZCOAhpchflUSYaM9rUNyg0zBzxQz_f8bEHysaZLZvinQO0XqHDRPe04JgvU38dRk/s1600/copper+powder+final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1389" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCrHR5Ww-AzLbtuJpxsfdvSTzI1q4Wbq2jPHAGXEbIkkb8wKRkNZH8AuopPfEaCAsIze7nsG4VydZCOAhpchflUSYaM9rUNyg0zBzxQz_f8bEHysaZLZvinQO0XqHDRPe04JgvU38dRk/s400/copper+powder+final.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Washed copper powder.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The following films show: 1) a purification procedure applied to copper sheets, 2) a procedure for making copper powder, and 3) a purification procedure applied to copper powder. These represent a departure from the text of the <i>Rasahṛdayatantra</i>, but on the other hand, it seems likely that some purification procedure would have been carried out.<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Purifying Copper Sheets</span></h4>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBTZakuqMbQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Making Copper Powder</span></h4>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MCEam84_q64" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Purifying Copper Powder</span></h4>
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X88fxDex01Q" width="560"></iframe><br />
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At present (mid-June, 2020), Andrew is still working on the fifth procedure, which consists of several steps with several different apparatuses. We hope to have a film ready in a couple of weeks.<br />
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<br />
<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ayuryog.org/content/alchemy-reconstruction" target="_blank">Watch the pevious steps in the reconstruction of the medieval alchemy of the <i>Rasahṛdayatantra.</i></a></span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>RELATED ARTICLES</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2020/05/untangling-traditions.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Untangling Traditions</span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/05/what-is-role-of-teacher.html">What is the role of the teacher?</a></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2017/08/medicine-and-yoga-in-south-and-inner.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Medicine and Yoga in South and Inner Asia</span></a><br />
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<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-53121001835665631002020-06-09T10:17:00.001+01:002023-06-24T09:44:00.783+01:00MANUSCRIPTS | Yoga on Leaves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</span><br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="420" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MkeD0J8VFUo?vq=hd1080" width="100%"></iframe>
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<br />
This film was shown as part of the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/embodied-liberation-ii/" target="_blank">Embodied Liberation II</a>, a virtual exhibition at the Brunei Gallery SOAS University of London.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #990000;">MANUSCRIPTS | Yoga on Leaves</span></b><br />
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This film offers the viewer a visceral experience of working with palm leaf Sanskrit manuscripts on Yoga. The philological fieldwork of the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Hatha Yoga Project</a> requires searching through hundreds of catalogues and unpublished manuscripts in order to locate, identify, transcribe, and collate a text before a critical edition and annotated translation into English are possible.<br />
<br />
The fieldwork took place in many libraries, museums, and private collections across India between 2016 and 2019. This film provides the viewer with an intimate behind-the-scenes view at one of these locations.<br />
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<b>Producer and Photographer: </b><br />
Jacqueline Hargreaves<br />
<br />
<b>Hatha Yoga Project Researchers: </b><br />
Dr Jason Birch, SOAS University of London and Dr SVBKV Gupta, École française d'Extrême-Orient.<br />
<br />
<b>Librarian:</b><br />
Dr Tejasvini Jangda<br />
<br />
<b>Music:</b><br />
"Not Much To Say-39688" by David Fesliyan on the album, <i>Fesliyan Studios</i>.<br />
AdRev for a 3rd Party (on behalf of Fesliyan Studios (Fesliyan Studios)); AdRev Publishing.<br />
<br />
<b>Length: </b>11 minutes.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-19283952717209689502020-06-08T15:45:00.001+01:002020-08-29T16:38:18.122+01:00LONGEVITY | A Timeline of Ayurveda and Yoga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="420" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ixLaGkKyWBs?vq=hd720" width="100%"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21;">This is a visual tour of an exhibition by the </span><a href="http://ayuryog.org/" target="_blank">AyurYog Project</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21;">, which was postponed due to COVID19. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #990000;">LONGEVITY | A Timeline of Ayurveda and Yoga.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This timeline highlights some of the key milestones and historically significant evidence in the entangled histories of yoga and Ayurveda. It is a visual expression of the extensive philological research of the AyurYog Project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> The video contains small font and is best viewed at a high resolution, <b>High Definition (1080p) format</b>. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please select this option in the settings at the bottom of the Youtube player panel.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Producer: </span></b></div>
<div style="color: #1c1e21;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jacqueline Hargreaves (<a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="origin" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.TheLuminescent.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0bPoez564avomQL2s-ohegPg8zZilpcaw64_xCXD2Ki4FIpvunuBJZK3Q&h=AT2IweBf4AOutiTG9h1WngMGHQmDean-AG9Q2CJJmLTVarnG_qs2QhH0M8y4hl7tIhD0e00UiiZ-jnwPHMGX7130zwFrF9zGJRyZlVNQimOeLrjGSh-mE3cpP3Z0xrb0Txc5IAUaeta8XQqDHbbEJGzts6ZjqtGHn9p5iG4fzIlrj8R5I0A1aSJfWFPu8rWvsyGWhcoFjHqBA6ad15SlUa9X4rxXM6HqK6JLrvt7LvZx4Pk-FoaNzBT0ggFm_OBC_SDHbd_eX9m7h9PnRb510sV98Lk0WWf09FTilPWGvnuESHP_7P_Nw5eeqZ5P1bAhEymN-GUUAUPipMix6QTsMMUstz_O7cyWUm1cX1VA3woPtXUCh6AytQrh-_etP0p83oe5YjGidThde9wY5JqYB-Fr4Uvm7ArDfAV7URXz6IQ8NS9HjGNHqdnBnxrbI7uj_7RidUawIuKkT_8eNVviTbCp-xtc1eK5A4rz4aSd45rV53M4ZtiqIuxrO_OT0ZOKEMFb9q_RxZWsylxGHQV3lPk483uFWpwzXEnyxrkVMDnOR7SWGHEfz3voPkR5Q1XrmU6mXY7sfsCCyP1P1OoCQUF834Lu87JDXKFDROyfrRShA08ykOSzpdShD_3uY9-YvLjSzP7cQK_X3rz4pdrKblj6" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.TheLuminescent.org</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Project:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">AyurYog Project (<a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="origin" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fayuryog.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3zK1QFHfn6rWj_t_k_BdZTHZ2HRUID_NzQRWjh4xFAxw-q1puO_aXWBrI&h=AT3sQqtV4W-2wZjsqXVVYmHocWQ1P99cCiITlFUWmdnWMz7ltk7HeZxeO4RDnQlVGsvshKmf0SZkC5hoXbx7BP_fqcbwWun04sQWpEx6XRBuPtGOtJzAKxR1Laql_B9MNJodUV9KEy7ymssJ2f41KmFjqBz-hgZG-wUrSFMFosYokdhgpwP8v5_BzTb9yAmSdpxR_FLawm1BePwwnYNACTX15wbNQiHkJ_92Ifk7Jo56UFR8zsUlduvVEvXm3v5SqrC6C1nTBtGWFOwbgOnfepVFMrZLT3u2z6NyECCu-8PpMmcNtmCZdseUqA8tMdyepLK9Uj31hF_-qPv3imHXzrbXYRw5urXzTr7IKQFXmV7gS1IE47tNlqd2wFCNGSL75woC7o6FOLYJ74B7NiknA0vTAEj5YVO4CJ1hZ_zECjbhWx4QvuodA6pfnUlqu59OuGKtCUQke9IF2Ci5LB08k4q9GKnAy_qONgImEC68hSMOzSC6D-1dCxWpnZkfdU0Im6PWenxEWRzdr2StscZYLz211M74QdcmN39j6amIvfXnAQqyWSTIK1BZO7JdDSFn1YjuGRh_AfcndkZK-QkMyKX3ZWG2N3yrCZ3Z5vBx84On6aaFHZ7CCtyt5cgf_nObMeLx3VGq6tH19dxnmHsPo5FL" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ayuryog.org</a>), University of Vienna.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #1c1e21;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sound: </b>No Audio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Length: </b>35 minutes.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">LONGEVITY | A Timeline of Ayurveda and Yoga.</span></b></div>
<div style="color: #1c1e21; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A visual expression of the extensive philological research of the AyurYog Project.</span></i></div>
<div style="color: #1c1e21; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">00:00 • LONGEVITY | A Timeline of Yoga and Ayurveda</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">01:25 • [400–200 BCE] Early Buddhism: Pāli Canon and Mahāvastu</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">02:11 • [100–500 CE] Carakasaṃhitā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">02:57 • [300 CE] Suśrutasaṃhitā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">03:51 • [400–500 CE] Pātañjalayogaśātra</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">04:55 • [700 CE] Aṣṭāṅghṛdayasaṃhitā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">06:00 • [600–700 CE] Dharmaputrikā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">07:06 • [1000–1100 CE] Kālacakratantra and the Vimalaprabhā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">09:52 • [1100 CE] Amṛtasiddhi</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10:40 • [1200 CE] Amaraugha</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12:41 • [1200–1300 CE] Vasiṣṭhasaṃhiitā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">14:44 • [1200–1300 CE] Vivekamārtaṇḍa</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">16:59 • [1300–1400 CE] Yogayājñavalkya</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">20:59 • [1300 CE] Yogabīja</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">22:57 • [1400 CE] Yogatārāvalī</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">23:49 • [1400 CE] Gorakṣaśataka</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">24:41 • [1400 CE] Khecarīvidyā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">26:52 • [1450 CE] Haṭhpradīpikā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">28:03 • [1500 CE] Āyurvedasūtra</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">29:12 • [1600 CE] Yuktabhavadeva</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">30:22 • [1737 CE] Jogapradīpyakā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">31:33 • [1850 CE] Haṭhasaṅketacandrikā</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(28, 30, 33); font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">32:20 • [1800 CE] Satkarmasaṅgraha</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-37537888194380815142020-05-08T16:29:00.000+01:002020-06-02T09:26:35.252+01:00UNTANGLING TRADITIONS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: orange; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://ayuryog.org/content/untangling-traditions" style="color: orange;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">UNTANGLING TRADITIONS</span></a><span style="color: #990000;"> <span style="color: orange;">| </span></span></span></b><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #990000;">Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy </span></i></h4>
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<i>An online conference by the <a href="http://ayuryog.org/index.php" target="_blank">AyurYog Project</a>.</i></div>
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Yoga, ayurveda and alchemy have historically been considered different disciplinary fields. However, evidence also demonstrates complex interactions and areas of significant overlap. The AyurYog project’s goal has been to reveal the historical entanglements of these fields of knowledge and practice, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries.</div>
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Drawing upon the primary historical sources of each respective discipline as well as on fieldwork data, the research team have explored their shared terminology, practical applications and discourses. The research reveals how past encounters and cross-fertilizations have informed and shaped these bodies of knowledge over time.</div>
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These presentations introduce some of the project results and outputs and showcase collaborations with other research projects, scholars and practitioners.</div>
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First up in the programme is an introductory interview with <a href="http://ayuryog.org/team/dagmar-wujastyk" target="_blank">Prof. Dagmar Wujastyk</a>, Principal Investigator of AyurYog project. We will be asking Prof. Wujastyk:</div>
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<i>What does she consider the most important findings of the entangled histories of Yoga, Āyurveda, and Alchemy?</i></div>
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We'll be discussing:</div>
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<i>Did yogins in the medieval period practise medicine?</i></div>
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<i>Did they formulate their own ways of treating ailments?</i></div>
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<i>Were the medicines of Rasaśāstra (alchemy) radically different to those of classical Āyurveda or did they depend upon ayurvedic principles?</i></div>
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We'll also touch on how she hopes to build upon the research completed and what will be the next stage of research in this field.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">DAGMAR WUJASTYK: What is AyurYog?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SUZANNE NEWCOMBE: The institutionalisation of Yoga as medicine in modern India.</span></b><br />
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Next up in the programme is an interview with Dr Suzanne Newcombe, Post-doctoral Research Fellow on the AyurYog project. Dr Newcombe, author of <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/yoga-britain/" target="_blank">Yoga in Britain</a>, researches yoga and Indian medicine (Ayurveda) from a sociological and social-historical perspective.<br />
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<i>When did institutionalisation begin in India, and what factors brought it about?</i><br />
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<i>Is institutionalisation responsible for the emphasis on therapy in the globalised forms of modern Yoga?</i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CHRISTÈLE BAROIS: Yoga and therapy (<i>cikitsā</i>) in the <i>Dharmaputrikā</i>.</span></b><br />
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The next interview is with Dr. Christèle Barois, Post-doctoral Research Fellow on the AyurYog project. Dr. Barois discusses the Yoga and medicine in the <i>Dharmaputrikā</i>, the "Little Daughter of Dharma." The <i>Dharmaputrikā</i> is an early Yoga manual that includes elaborate descriptions of methods for overcoming obstacles to success in Yoga as well as methods for curing diseases.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k6z4PLbJjbs?cc_load_policy=1" width="560"></iframe>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ANDREW MASON AND DAGMAR WUJASTYK: The Reconstruction of Indian Alchemy.</span></b><br />
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Next up in the programme, we are very excited to share the "embodied" philological work of Prof. Dagmar Wujastyk and Andrew Mason. Together, they have reconstructed the procedures of the 'Heart of Mercury' (<i>Rasahṛdayatantra</i>), the earliest of the Sanskrit alchemical works. Prof. Wujastyk has written up her account of this process <a href="http://ayuryog.org/blog/philology-and-experimentation-reconstructing-alchemical-procedures">here</a>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">JASON BIRCH: Premodern Yoga and Alchemy: A Shared History.</span></b><br />
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Next up in the programme, Dr Jason Birch of the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/">Hatha Yoga Project</a> discusses his research on the topic of Yoga and Ayurveda (Indian medicine) which aims to determine their shared theory and terminology; compare the Indian medical body with the 'yogic' metaphysical body; and provide examples of historical Yogins who claimed to be doctors and healers.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-45226730921334108532019-12-29T18:49:00.005+00:002020-08-31T16:16:57.020+01:00Jumping over the Threshold<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">by <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jacqueline-hargreaves_16.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e06666;">JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</span></a></span><br />
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<a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/2019.V2" target="_blank"><img alt=" Journal of Yoga Studies | Volume 2 • 2019" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13f5xt9aCYaqZzVspTOda6p0Hy0Y9QOdWpvbWWGnKOghI1khciN0jonUk3u5THPDTWLRWUTMbFuX9_42y-3thpV7Cg-IyGj8LkO8h_Zjtgr_FMBSrEKm7kPLg1ARgoRcyFltyqL4B74Q/s640/00+JoYS+2019.V2+Cover.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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The <a href="http://www.journalofyogastudies.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>Journal of Yoga Studies</i></span></a> has published its second volume. It features an <a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/2019.V2.DeMichelis.Hargreaves.Editorial" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">editorial</span></a> by Elizabeth De Michelis and myself, an important historical paper on "<a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/2019.v2.Birch.Singleton.TheHathabhyasapaddhati" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">The Yoga of the <i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i></span></a>" by Jason Birch and Mark Singleton, and a <a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/article/view/30" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">book review</span></a> of Suzanne Newcombe's book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yoga-Britain-Stretching-Spirituality-Educating/dp/1781796602/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=yoga+in+britain&qid=1577645079&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Yoga in Britain</a></i> by Matylda Ciołkosz.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-55264182587259570682019-12-17T20:58:00.002+00:002023-06-24T09:44:50.789+01:00EMBODIED LIBERATION | The Exhibition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">By <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jacqueline-hargreaves_16.html"><span style="color: #990000;">JACQUELINE HARGREAVES</span></a></span><br />
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We've been busy. </div>
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We approach the end of 2019 having completed three years of fieldwork in India, where we visited over thirty-five libraries, government institutions and private collections. Our most recent scholarly efforts have focussed on collating critical editions of unedited Sanskrit works, writing (six!) academic articles, producing a <a href="http://hathabhyasapaddhati.org/" target="_blank">film</a> that reconstructs Yoga through philological means, maintaining an open-access, <a href="https://journalofyogastudies.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">peer-reviewed journal</span></a>, collaborating with the <a href="http://ayuryog.org/" target="_blank">AyurYog Project</a> to develop an interactive historical timeline and exhibition on the history of Ayurveda and Yoga, prepping for University <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies/yoga-summer-school/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">summer schools</span></a>, delivering <a href="https://www.yogacampus.com/workshops/the-yogic-breath-special-instructions-in-medieval-yoga-for-the-proper-techn" target="_blank">workshops</a> and <a href="https://triyoga.co.uk/teacher-training-courses/triyoga-advanced-yoga-teacher-training/" target="_blank">trainings</a> based on our original research to Yoga professionals, and curating a forthcoming <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/embodied-liberation/" target="_blank">exhibition</a> in London. Perhaps a little too ambitious? We feel completely overwhelmed with many deadlines looming. Nonetheless, we do hope our efforts will be worth the toil as we prepare to open our much anticipated exhibition in the new year. </div>
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Please do pop in!</div>
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">EMBODIED LIBERATION</span></b></div>
<i>The Textual, Ethnographic and Historical Research of the Hatha Yoga Project.</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Brunei Gallery | 16th January - 21st March 2020 </span></blockquote>
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In the gloriously petite Foyle Room of the Brunei Gallery at SOAS University of London, the exhibition, <i>Embodied Liberation</i>, will highlight the most recent research discoveries in the field of Yoga Studies as identified by the Hatha Yoga Project, SOAS.</div>
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The exhibition will lead the audience through different chronological periods of Yoga’s history using a variety of visual and interactive mediums which derive from the diverse methodological approaches used by the research team. Handwritten Sanskrit manuscripts, which are fascinating samples of the principal textual discoveries of the project, will be on display. A vivid Mughal painting of pre-modern asceticism will be contrasted with photographs and video material sourced during extensive ethnographic fieldwork of present-day ascetic practitioners in India, including very rare examples of female practitioners.</div>
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Two of the highlights of the exhibition will be photographs of the oldest known sculptures of complex Yoga postures (i.e., the twelfth-century Mehudī Gate of Gujarat, India) and a multimedia video installation of 'embodied philology' - the reconstruction of the <i>āsana</i>s (along with Sanskrit recitation and English translation) of the <a href="http://hathabhyasapaddhati.org/" target="_blank"><i>Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati</i></a>, an eighteenth-century Sanskrit manual on the practice of <i>haṭhayoga</i>, which is one of the ten critical editions to be published by the project.</div>
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Find out more about the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Hatha Yoga Project</a>.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London WC1H 0XG51.5218425 -0.1287528000000293125.999807999999998 -41.437346800000029 77.043877 41.17984119999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-61176070257823128622019-10-31T20:03:00.008+00:002020-09-14T15:17:49.546+01:00The Arabic Pātañjalayogaśāstra<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">By <a href="https://kyoto-u.academia.edu/NoemieVerdon" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>NOÉMIE VERDON</b></span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Download this article as a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AN29BNSAZF-pprvPQ7vJK593yhMvaV17/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #990000;">PDF</span></b></a></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Left) First page of the <i>Kitāb Pātanğal</i> written in the margin of the manuscript.<br />
Credit: Köprülü Library, Istanbul.</span></td></tr>
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At the dawn of the first millennium CE, the Muslim intellectual al-Bīrūnī (973-ca. 1050), a native from Khwarezm in today’s Uzbekistan, interpreted Patañjali’s treatise on yoga (ca. 350-450) into Arabic. Al-Bīrūnī’s book, titled <i>Kitāb Pātanğal </i>and literally meaning the <i>Book of Patañjali</i>, is the first known translation of the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> into a non-Indic language.<sup><span style="color: #990000;">1</span></sup></div>
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At the time, the north-western sub-continent, including parts of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, was experiencing the second wave of Muslim incursions into its territory under the Ghaznavid dynasty. Amid these territorial disputes, al-Bīrūnī traveled with the court of the sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazna chiefly to north-western Panjab, gathered Sanskrit books and interacted with Indian thinkers.</div>
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Among these Sanskrit texts, he found a copy of the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> and, more than five hundred years after its original compilation, made an interpretation of this Yoga text. He also translated a work related to Sāṅkhya. The yoga work rendered into Arabic is extant today in the form of a single text written on the margins of a manuscript (Ritter 1956: 165), while the Sāṅkhya work did not survive the test of time and only portions of it are found in another of al-Bīrūnī’s writing. These two works are the only translations he made of so-called orthodox Indian philosophical literature. The reasons why he chose to translate these works in particular remain obscure. Was he especially interested in the viewpoints elaborated by these two systems of thought? Or did he only meet Indian philosophers of Yoga-Sāṅkhya? Both speculations may be true to some extent, because there is evidence that Sāṅkhya was well-known in the regions he visited, and al-Bīrūnī was certainly sympathetic to the Yoga path, as will be discussed below.</div>
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He writes about these two texts:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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I had translated two books into Arabic: the first of them on the principles (المبادئ) and a description of the existents (وصفة الموجودات), named <i>Sānk</i> (سانك); the second on the liberation of the soul from the fetters of the body (تخليص النفس من رباط البدن), known as Pātanğal (پاتنجل). These two [books] contain most of the fundamentals (الاصل) around which their (i.e., the Indians) faith revolves, without the subdivision of their religious laws (دون فروع شرائعهم) (Taḥqīq 1958: 6.1-4).<sup><span style="color: #990000;">2</span></sup></blockquote>
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This description thus testifies to the popularity of the two texts among the Indians whom al-Bīrūnī encountered, and at the same time indicates the focus of each of the philosophies. His understanding of Sāṅkhya as ‘a description of the existents’ concurs with our knowledge of the doctrine elaborated in the <i>Sāṅkhyakārikā</i>, which sets out and defines the ontological principles of existence. His explanation of the <i>Book of Patañjali</i> as dealing with the ‘liberation of the soul from the fetters of the body’ is a reformulation of the idea of liberating the self (<i>puruṣa</i>) from materiality by the different practices described at length in the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i>.</div>
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In addition, al-Bīrūnī provides us with a valuable account regarding the history of transmission of the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> as a text. Some commentators regard Patañjali as the author of the aphorisms (<i>sūtra</i>) and Vyāsa of the commentary (<i>bhāṣya</i>). More recently, however, scholars have questioned this view. It is likely that the dissociation between the aphorisms and commentary is a relatively late convention, and that one author in fact compiled the whole work under the Sanskrit term <i>śāstra</i>, i.e., treatise. (Bronkhorst 1985: 203; Maas 2013: 57-68). Al-Bīrūnī translated the whole treatise, intermingling the aphorisms and the commentary in a dialogue, and attributed the totality of the work to a person named Patañjali (Maas 2013: 59-60).<br />
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However, al-Bīrūnī’s yoga text is not a literal translation of the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> and, as a matter of fact, differs from it in many respects. Due to the technical character of the Sanskrit original, al-Bīrūnī had to modify it to fit his conceptual framework. In a sense, he faced similar difficulties to those of today’s translators of philosophical Indian texts (Maas and Verdon 2018: 321-328).<sup><span style="color: #990000;">3</span></sup></div>
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Two examples of how al-Bīrūnī handled these problems are given below. First, however, two facts about his interpretation should be mentioned. He never translated the aphorisms as such. Instead, he created a dialogue including questions and answers which intermingles the two layers of the original text and reshapes its content (Maas and Verdon 2018: 317-320).</div>
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In this manner, the content of <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> 1.1-2 is summarised and paraphrased in the two first questions of al-Bīrūnī’s work. The widely known <i>sūtra</i> 1.2 can be translated as:</div><div><br /></div>
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Yoga is the suppression of the activities of mind.<br />
<i>yogaś cittavṛttinirodhaḥ</i></blockquote>
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Al-Bīrūnī conveys the meaning of this <i>sūtra</i> in the following way:</div><div><br /></div>
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[The true knowledge is] to compress what is spread outward from you, in such a way that you are only engaged with yourself, and to prevent the faculties of soul from clinging to what is different from you (Ritter 1956: 170.2-3).<sup><span style="color: #990000;">4</span></sup></blockquote>
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قبض المبتثّ عنك نحو الخارجات اليك لئلا تشتغل الا بك و قمع قوى النفس عن التشبّت بغيرك </div>
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<div>In Arabic, the term <i>nafs</i> (نفس) is polysemic and means ‘soul’, ‘spirit’, ‘mind’ or ‘human being’. So, he interprets <i>cittavṛtti</i> (i.e., the activities of the mind) by the expression ‘the faculties of the soul’ (قوى النفس). </div>
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In his <i>Book of Patañjali</i>, al-Bīrūnī never uses the term yoga. In other words, he did not transliterate it into the Arabic script, nor did he directly translate the concept, as seen in <i>sūtra</i> 1.2 above. Nonetheless, question 5 of his dialogue includes the content of <i>sūtra</i>s 1.5 to 1.11, and describes the five faculties in a way that is consistent with the definitions of the five yogic mental activities in the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i>; which confirms his translations of <i>vṛtti</i> (activities) by the term faculties in Arabic.</div>
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Al-Bīrūnī’s translation of <i>samādhi</i> is equally interesting. In the Sanskrit text, <i>samādhi</i> is mentioned in numerous instances, while in its Arabic version, only one passage appears to explicitly refer to this concept. This passage corresponds to <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> 1.17-18. Al-Bīrūnī’s translation states that there are two types of contemplation: one is perceptible with matter, which corresponds to <i>saṃprajñāta-samādhi</i>, and the other is contemplation of the intelligible, free from matter, which is <i>asaṃprajñāta-samādhi</i>. In both instances, al-Bīrūnī’s rendering differs from the original Sanskrit text, as he used terminology indebted to his Islamic intellectual background. However, in both cases, he conveyed the message rather faithfully. As shown by his interpretation of <i>samādhi</i>, al-Bīrūnī appears to have simplified technical concepts and partly omitted the complex discussions on the meditative states in the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i>.</div>
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There are two main reasons underlying such adaptations. First, as mentioned above, al-Bīrūnī, as any translator, depended on his cultural, linguistic and intellectual framework when he rendered technical concepts of yoga into Arabic. Secondly, the mental processes and the methods taught in the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> to achieve a transcendent state of liberation from materiality resonated with al-Bīrūnī, as he was acquainted with theories of healing and elevating the soul, which were developed by Islamic thinkers. Therefore, he appears to have been keen to facilitate the transmission of these Indian ideas to his Muslim readership. While most of the message of the original text is preserved in al-Bīrūnī’s Arabic <i>Book of Pātanğal</i>, his work most certainly constitutes an interpretation, rather than a translation.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">NOTES</h3><div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="color: #990000;">1</span></sup> This post is based on my PhD research (Verdon 2015), which can be downloaded on the following link: <a href="https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_779D64E820E1.P001/REF"><span style="color: #990000;">https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_779D64E820E1.P001/REF</span></a>. Therefore, I do not refer to it, but only to other relevant studies in this communication.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="color: #990000;">2</span></sup> See also Sachau 1910: I: 8.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="color: #990000;">3</span></sup> The reader interested in the complete <i>Kitāb Pātanğal </i>can refer to the English translations by Pines and Gelblum (1966, 1977, 1983, 1989). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="color: #990000;">4</span></sup> See also Pines & Gelblum 1966: 313-314.</span><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3><div>
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Bronkhorst, Johannes. 1985. <i>Patañjali and the Yoga Sūtras</i>. Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, 10, 191-212.</div>
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Maas, Philipp A. 2013. “A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy.” In E. Franco (Ed.), <i>Historiography and Periodization of Indian Philosophy</i> (pp. 53-90). Vienna: De Nobili Series.</div>
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Maas, Philipp A. and Verdon, Noémie. 2018. “On al-Bīrūnī’s Kitāb Pātanğal and the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.” In Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas and Karin Preisendanz (Eds.), <i><a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2018/10/yoga-in-transformation-vienna-volume.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</span></a></i>. Vienna: Vienna University Press, (Vienna Forum for Theology and the Study of Religions 16), p. 283–334.</div>
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Pines, Shlomo and Gelblum, Tuvia. 1966. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Arabic Version of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra</i>. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 29(2), 302-325.</div>
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Id. 1977. <i>Al-Bīrūni’s Arabic Version of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra: A Translation of the Second Chapter and a Comparison with Related Texts</i>. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 40(3), 522-549. Hyderabad: Da’irat al-Ma’arif il-Osmania Publications.</div>
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Id. 1983. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Arabic Version of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra: A Translation of the Third Chapter and a Comparison with Related Texts</i>. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 46(2), 258-304.</div>
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Id. 1989. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Arabic Version of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra: A Translation of the Fourth Chapter and a Comparison with Related Texts</i>. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 52(2), 265-305.</div>
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Ritter, Hellmut. 1956. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Übersetzung des Yoga-Sūtra des Patañjali</i>. Oriens, 9(2), 165-200.</div>
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Sachau, Carl Edward. 1910. <i>Alberuni’s India. An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about AD 1030</i>. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.</div>
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Taḥqīq. 1958. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Kitāb fī taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind min maqūla maqbūla fī l-ʿaql aw marḏūla</i>. Hyderabad: Da’irat al-Ma’arif il-Osmania Publications.</div>
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Verdon, Noémie. Forthcoming, 2020. <i>Al-Bīrūnī’s Kitāb Sānk and Kitāb Pātanğal: A Historical </i><i>and Textual Study.</i> Vienna: De Nobili Research Library.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</h3><div>
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<b><a href="https://kyoto-u.academia.edu/NoemieVerdon" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Noémie Verdon</span></a></b> is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Research in Humanities of Kyoto University under a Swiss National Science Foundation scholarship. Her PhD examined al-Bīrūnī's life and his interpretation of Saṅkhya and Yoga Sanskrit texts into Arabic. Her current project explores Pre-Islamic and early Islamic Kāpiśī and Gandhāra focusing on the interactions between political and and religious agents of the region mainly based on textual sources, Arabic and Sanskrit. Her research interests generally focus on the history of transmission of ideas and knowledge between cultures in early medieval South Asia.</div>
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<br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Citation: </h4>
<div style="text-align: left;">Verdon, Noémie. 2019. “The Arabic <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra.</i>” In <i>The Luminescent</i>, 30 October, 2019. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/10/the-arabic-patanjalayogasastra.html"><span style="color: #990000;">https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/10/the-arabic-patanjalayogasastra.html</span></a>.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-13825208474453750102019-09-12T17:59:00.001+01:002020-11-25T20:44:44.315+00:00Post-Lineage Yoga & Dandelions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What dandelions have to teach us about 'post-lineage yoga'.</h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>By <a href="https://www.wildyoga.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;"><b>THEODORA WILDCROFT</b></span></a></span><br />
<span>Download this article as a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qbOqXziPYnx3MC32hNCcJKAvqCrXATPG/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #e69138;">PDF</span></b></a></span><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYQnNe0TR5W7go3_x63GKNW0lsrM8AgguGSy9Ybim9_BC0mA00N8FfT7iqvKBudhyphenhyphenb7yuj7ojDQ2iW4IaWtclXnUOllhysD5CamxO0Pov4-ScYYlm6MjZ4VvClFJQgxUeQH_rmwdbD6I/s1600/A+dandelion+%2528Taraxacum+species%2529-+flowering+plant+growing+with+young+ferns.+Watercolour.+Credit-+Wellcome+Collection.+CC+BY.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1600" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYQnNe0TR5W7go3_x63GKNW0lsrM8AgguGSy9Ybim9_BC0mA00N8FfT7iqvKBudhyphenhyphenb7yuj7ojDQ2iW4IaWtclXnUOllhysD5CamxO0Pov4-ScYYlm6MjZ4VvClFJQgxUeQH_rmwdbD6I/s640/A+dandelion+%2528Taraxacum+species%2529-+flowering+plant+growing+with+young+ferns.+Watercolour.+Credit-+Wellcome+Collection.+CC+BY.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Figure 1: <i>A dandelion (Taraxacum species): flowering plant growing with young ferns.</i></b><br />
<span>Watercolour. Wellcome Collection. </span></span></td></tr>
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In the course of researching my PhD into alternative yoga subcultures in Britain, I needed to create a new term to describe the community relationships I was seeing in my fieldwork. That term, post-lineage yoga, has much wider usefulness for talking about the ways in which yoga practices have been shared through time and across the world. As a result, the label ‘post-lineage yoga’ is used more and more in contemporary yoga media, but there’s been a great deal of confusion about what exactly it means.</div>
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The problem with describing a previously-unresearched phenomenon like post-lineage yoga is that, to begin with, it’s very complicated. It takes months to hone the picture that fieldwork is showing into a clear and accessible concept that others can understand. Now that I’ve published my PhD thesis (Wildcroft 2018), I’m working hard on a book or two, and getting out and about, talking to yoga communities, describing my research and what it might mean. These recent efforts at disseminating my research are making it easier to describe post-lineage yoga in ways yoga teachers and practitioners can understand. So I’m grateful to <i><a href="http://www.theluminescent.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">The Luminescent</span></a></i> for letting me share with you a simplified version of ‘post-lineage yoga in a (betel) nutshell’.<sup><span style="color: #e69138;">1</span></sup></div>
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Hopefully this post will clarify the term for those of you that have been hearing it a lot, and for others, it might tempt you to read the whole thesis, which you can find on an open access server at this link: <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/59125/"><span style="color: #e69138;">http://oro.open.ac.uk/59125/</span></a>.<br />
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One of the first academics to describe what is modern about modern yoga, Elizabeth De Michelis (2007), gave us a term to describe the yoga that is most visible in mainstream culture: modern postural yoga. Whilst terms such as this one are useful, they of course don’t fit all cases. Any new categorisation is also a generalisation. And when one describes a cultural shift, it does not mean necessarily that one approves of it. Almost all evolutions in cultural practice will have positives and negatives. De Michelis wasn’t saying that all yoga fits her <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2016/11/typology-of-modern-yoga.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">typology</span></a> neatly, nor that any kind of yoga is ‘better’ than another. But we’re still using the term ‘modern postural yoga’ because understanding when contemporary practice does and does not fit this definition still leads to us understanding more about what unites and divides practitioners of yoga.<br />
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Academics often say that typologies are ‘good to think with’. Post-lineage yoga has been good for me to think with for the past few years, and increasingly, other scholars and yoga teachers are finding it good to think with also. You might decide that post-lineage yoga isn’t a way of working that you approve of. But it’s probably still helpful to think about and recognise what its key features are. In fact, when most yoga teachers listen to the real definition, they recognise themselves at least a little in what they hear.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Post-lineage, as its name suggests, is a change not in the content of yoga, but in how it is shared. What it does not mean is anti-lineage, or non-lineage, and it certainly doesn’t mean anti-tradition. Briefly put, post-lineage yoga is a description of the authority processes that govern the teaching of yoga—how you decide what you’re sharing with others is authentic and safe, and how it relates to the teaching of yoga in the past, and the teaching of yoga around the world.</span></blockquote>
Post-lineage yoga describes a shift that many yoga teachers and practitioners go through—they might start out only learning from one teacher, and never questioning their authority. But at some point, many look beyond the lineage teachings to expand their understanding of how yoga works in practice. They might or might not maintain a strong respect for their original teachers, but they might read books from other lineages, or be fascinated by the latest neuroscience research, or share a practice with peers or go to workshops with other teachers.<br />
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So why is thinking about the term post-lineage yoga important? Partly it’s a way of recognising the contribution of <i>saṅghas</i> (communities), as well as <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/05/what-is-role-of-teacher.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;"><i>guru</i>-<i>śiṣya</i> (teacher-student) relationships</span></a>, to the sharing of yoga. But the last couple of decades have also seen many aspects of authority in yoga communities come under scrutiny. Whether it’s new evidence challenging the health claims in Iyengar’s <i>Light on Yoga</i> (Broad 2012), or the uncovering of abuse by apparently enlightened teachers (Remski 2019), or new historical evidence concerning the development of <i>āsana</i> practice (Birch 2013, Mallinson and Singleton 2017), many yoga practitioners now feel they need more than established yoga hierarchies to justify how they practice and teach.<br />
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Post-lineage networks support and correct the vertical hierarchies of yoga knowledge with peer-negotiated knowledge. That’s a complicated sentence, so here’s my favourite way of explaining it.<br />
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We often talk about the ‘roots of yoga’, and we commonly visualise the various schools of yoga like branches on a tree, with each practitioner connected in a long line back to the roots. But in order to draw on those roots, each individual depends completely on the integrity and absolute knowledge of every person between them and the ground. If the established structures of authority in yoga start to be questioned for some reason, any of those branches could break. There is not a lot of resilience in the system overall.<br />
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A lot of plants have a very different root structure, and happily, there are theories of learning that have already noticed this. A lesser known ‘branch’ of research focuses on ‘rhizomatic’ learning (Howard 2013; Lionel and Le Grange 2011). Dandelions are rhizomes. Each dandelion might not look as impressive as a tree, but together, the roots of dandelions form a web, sharing resources underground. As any gardener will tell you, the awesome and infuriating thing about dandelions is that they can survive being chopped down, because they grow back from even the tiniest bit of root. So individual dandelions might not be impressive, but together, they are very resilient, and adapt to almost any change, and any part of their network being broken.<br />
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According to learning theory this means that when knowledge is embodied by a whole group of people, and when the knowledge needs to adapt to circumstance and be resilient to change, it tends to form networks that look more like a horizontal web than a vertical tree. In this metaphor, each practitioner, each teacher shares as much as possible with others, across boundaries of lineage and school, nationality and intention. That way, even though an individual teacher or a particular practice might be ethically compromised, or just ill-adapted to new cultural conditions, each practitioner can draw from many sources, and calibrate their practice as it evolves with everyone else. As such, Yoga as a flow of cultural practice through time, survives in the network as a whole.<br />
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To do this most effectively, the network must also be as democratic as possible, and each person in the network should be encouraged to play an active part in the sharing and production of knowledge about the human condition. It works less well when students cannot question or adapt the teachings that they learn. That is why post-lineage communities are often found in trauma-sensitive and accessible yoga, because these are types of yoga that encourage resilience and self-reliance in each student, and also because they celebrate the benefits of diversity, in practice and in humanity.<br />
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Hopefully some of you have already realised that this is a very simplified picture. There is much more to my thesis. In particular, like previous traditions, post-lineage yoga is marked by power and oppression, and differences of access. However, in a post-lineage network, the depth of each person’s practice might not correlate completely to how long they spend in a single school. My research suggests that many post-lineage practitioners have a deep and abiding attachment to the practice and aims of yoga. Their roots may be as deep as they are wide. For many, it was this commitment that got them through a crisis of faith in a particular teaching or teacher, and allowed them to find new ways to practice. For others, new knowledge from outside their lineage allows them to keep updating the practices they love, and to share their own teacher’s wisdom with a wider audience.<br />
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Post-lineage yoga seems to be at its most resilient when it recognises the value in both horizontal and vertical knowledge, that is, a yoga culture that honours both precedent and, what Etienne Wenger called, ‘communities of practice’ (Wenger 1999). Post-lineage yoga is incompatible with any doctrinal view that claims that only one way of practicing can ever be valid and that methods should not be mixed between schools. These ways of teaching form mini-networks that remain isolated from others—perhaps like a series of trees in pots rather than trees in a forest. Such views aren’t necessarily wrong, they just might not be sufficiently resilient to weather a crisis.<br />
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Returning to the natural metaphors then, it’s satisfying to note that each tree in a forest is not a self-sufficient island. In fact, a tree is connected by a vast, invisible network of horizontal fibres called mycelium, which carries resources and information from one tree to another (Stamets 2005). The oak might look like the most impressive tree in the wood, but without the friendly fungi that connect it to every birch, beech and hazel, it wouldn’t thrive as well.<br />
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If there’s one recommendation that comes out of my research, it is that if we want contemporary yoga practice to continue to thrive, and adapt, and survive the shock-waves of change, we might do well to pay attention to the health of our humble connections between yoga teachers, as well as to the bureaucratic and pedagogical hierarchies that are so much more visible.<br />
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Maybe that looks a lot less like more training and more rules, and a lot more like hanging out at conferences, and festivals instead. If you want me to come and hang out and facilitate that conversation, get in touch. More and more post-lineage yoga practitioners are finding it helpful to talk with me not just about trees and dandelions, but starlings and geese, borders and osmosis, consent and contact too. More on that later.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">NOTES</span></b></h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><b><span style="color: #e69138;">1</span></b></sup> Read this: <a href="https://www.wildyoga.co.uk/2018/05/on-betel-nuts/"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://www.wildyoga.co.uk/2018/05/on-betel-nuts/</span></a> for an explanation of why I’m fascinated by betel nuts.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></h4>
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Birch, J. 2013 (Published 2018). “Proliferation of Āsana-s in Late Mediaeval Yoga Texts” in Baier, K. Maas, P. & Preisendanz, K. (eds.). <i>Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</i>. Vienna: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress.<br />
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Broad, W. J. 2012. <i>The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards</i>. Bath: Simon & Schuster.<br />
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De Michelis, E. 2007. “A Preliminary Survey of Modern Yoga Studies” in <i>Asian Medicine</i>, 3: 1-19.<br />
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Howard, R. G. 2013. “Vernacular Authority: Critically Engaging ‘Tradition’” in Blank, T. & Howard, R. G. (Eds.), <i>Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present</i>. Logan: Utah State University Press.<br />
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Lionel, L. & Leonard Le Grange. 2011. “Sustainability and Higher Education: From arborescent to rhizomatic thinking” in <i>Educational Philosophy and Theory</i>, 43: 742-54.<br />
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Mallinson, J. & Singleton M. 2017. <i>Roots of Yoga</i>. London: Penguin Books.<br />
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Remski, M. 2019. <i>Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, and Healing in Yoga and Beyond.</i> Kentucky, USA: Embodied Wisdom Publishing.<br />
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Stamets, P. 2005. <i>Mycelium Running: how mushrooms can help save the world.</i> Berkley, Calif: Ten Speed Airlift.<br />
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Wenger, E. 1999. “Community” in Wenger, E. (Ed.), <i>Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity.</i> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<br />
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Wildcroft, T. 2018. <i>Patterns of Authority and Practice Relationships in ‘Post-lineage Yoga.’</i> UK: Open University. Retrieved from: <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/59125/"><span style="color: #e69138;">http://oro.open.ac.uk/59125/</span></a>.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">About the Author</span></h4>
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<b>Theodora Wildcroft </b>PhD is a researcher investigating the democratization and evolution of physical practice as it moves beyond yoga lineages. Her first peer-reviewed article was the co-written ‘Sacrifices at the altar of self-transformation’ with Alison Robertson, and she has a chapter in the forthcoming Routledge <i>Guide to Performance Philosophy</i>. She is the Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal <i>Body and Religion</i> and an active member of the British Association for the Study of Religions. Her monograph <i>Post-lineage Yoga: from guru to #metoo</i> is currently in production. A yoga teacher herself with over a decade of experience, she also blogs, appears on podcasts, on panels and conferences and writes numerous other articles on yoga, on social justice, on hope, and on untold stories. Theo consults with a number of major yoga organisations, and she teaches workshops across Europe and North America.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Download this article as a<span style="color: #e69138;"> </span></span><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qbOqXziPYnx3MC32hNCcJKAvqCrXATPG/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDF</a></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-small;">Citation: </span></h4>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Wildcroft, Theodora. 2019. “Post-lineage Yoga & Dandelions: What dandelions have to teach us about ‘post-lineage yoga’.” in <i>The Luminescent</i>, 12 September, 2019. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/09/post-lineage-yoga-dandelions.html"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/09/post-lineage-yoga-dandelions.html</span></a>.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-18146988973904314002019-08-24T13:58:00.000+01:002020-08-29T19:12:34.781+01:00118 Asanas of the mid-17th century<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">BY <a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/p/jason-birch.html" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">JASON BIRCH</span></a></span></span><br />
<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An extract from:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Birch, J. (Submitted 2013, 2018). "<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36193862/The_Proliferation_of_%C4%80sana-s_in_Late-Mediaeval_Yoga_Texts" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;"><b>The Proliferation of Āsana-s in Late Mediaeval Yoga Texts.</b></span></a>" In <i>Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</i>. Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas & Karin Preisendanz (eds.). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8YLZ0ngAEu4iHY438wUyd6XGPcgVRvqDYI8wxt2I6iIUJkBIAEPRuhFUyAzJ-iW-VQCH-u4SemooRYQeJk5QoiPqqAGu_KUAzwQl_tCV4lTZ09FNd8nZR_gOj8FsCm0Ext9Pu_rgVdo/s1600/Detail+from+Krishna+Vishvarupa+%2528ca.+1740%2529%252C+Himachal+Pradesh%252C+Bilaspur+School.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8YLZ0ngAEu4iHY438wUyd6XGPcgVRvqDYI8wxt2I6iIUJkBIAEPRuhFUyAzJ-iW-VQCH-u4SemooRYQeJk5QoiPqqAGu_KUAzwQl_tCV4lTZ09FNd8nZR_gOj8FsCm0Ext9Pu_rgVdo/s640/Detail+from+Krishna+Vishvarupa+%2528ca.+1740%2529%252C+Himachal+Pradesh%252C+Bilaspur+School.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Detail from the <i>Krishna Vishvarupa</i> (ca. 1740)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">which includes various Gods & </span></b><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">a Nāth yogī seated in an <i>āsana</i> with ankles crossed.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;">Bilaspur School. Himachal Pradesh, India.<br />Opaque watercolour and gold on paper. H x W (Image): 19.8 × 11.7 cm (7 13/16 × 4 5/8 in).<br />Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection.</span></td></tr>
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<b>Birch writes:</b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Two centuries after the <i>Hathapradīpikā</i>, several large yoga compilations which integrated teachings of Haṭha and Rāja Yoga with those of Pātañjalayoga and Brahmanical texts were written. One such work is the early seventeenth-century <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i> of Śivānandasarasvati, an Advaitavedāntin who probably resided in Vārāṇsī during the reigns of the Moghul rulers Shāh Jahān and his sons. The latter half of this work is structured according to the standard eight auxiliaries of yoga. In the section on <i>āsana</i>, there are descriptions of thirty-four <i>āsana</i>-s from a wide selection of sources [...]. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Among the five manuscripts and one printed edition of the <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i> that have been consulted for this chapter, one manuscript contains considerably more <i>āsana</i>-s than the others. The manuscript in question, which I refer to as the “Ujjain manuscript” [dated <i>vikramasamvat</i> 1717, Thursday, 5 June 1659 CE], is held at the Scindia Oriental Research Library in Ujjain. [...] The names of <i>āsana</i>-s in the Ujjain manuscript have been reproduced in [the table], below. </blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9XSsGMmHi0VXuoQ5w0w0zJUtUFjXcKgwZoG9p54R809dBAkvffxCmtHfD0neuYCuoZKt3SWoW0VAQWRkfUYWvkTa3zLqxBlWn5VE7KuVTVMy-YGzpxFc1bkwQxUBxkI3J5vrzvehU7E/s1600/Screenshot+2019-08-22+at+18.05.18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9XSsGMmHi0VXuoQ5w0w0zJUtUFjXcKgwZoG9p54R809dBAkvffxCmtHfD0neuYCuoZKt3SWoW0VAQWRkfUYWvkTa3zLqxBlWn5VE7KuVTVMy-YGzpxFc1bkwQxUBxkI3J5vrzvehU7E/s640/Screenshot+2019-08-22+at+18.05.18.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Ujjain Manuscript of the <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i>, folio 62v.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;">Photograph: Jacqueline Hargreaves (2009).</span></td></tr>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
The Ujjain manuscript extends our knowledge of <i>āsana</i>-s practised in the seventeenth century by providing lists 1b, 2 and 3. List 1b consists of the twenty-eight <i>āsana</i>-s that have been added to list 1a. List 2 adds thirty-nine <i>āsana</i>-s to lists 1a and 1b. List 3 adds another seventeen, which yields <b>a total of one hundred and eighteen <i>āsana</i>-s in the Ujjain manuscript.</b> Therefore, the Ujjain manuscript contains an <b>additional eighty-four</b> <i>āsana</i>-s to the thirty-four in other manuscripts of the <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i> (i.e., list 1a). Eight of these have been taken from Vācaspatimiśra’s <i>Tattvavaiśāradī</i>. However, I am yet to find the names of the other seventy-six additional <i>āsana</i>-s in any yoga text dated before the sixteenth century.</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCThXLMqdsnYO8R8aQLds5iutgPVrtKCyNZqFOOJ1iaWEOLAyKLp7NeiChDNJ4DJwYMz_C2ysO2aveF9CWqtjnwOIM1KLLifT0qkUP_kvY9nRb_o9xrYIx9i3xSsk6mCf9ujxMUoi5phQ/s1600/Screenshot+2019-08-23+at+08.59.01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="971" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCThXLMqdsnYO8R8aQLds5iutgPVrtKCyNZqFOOJ1iaWEOLAyKLp7NeiChDNJ4DJwYMz_C2ysO2aveF9CWqtjnwOIM1KLLifT0qkUP_kvY9nRb_o9xrYIx9i3xSsk6mCf9ujxMUoi5phQ/s640/Screenshot+2019-08-23+at+08.59.01.png" width="388" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />Table: Names of <i>āsana</i>-s listed in the Ujjain manuscript of the <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i></span></b><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span></b></td></tr>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
The <i>Yogacintāmaṇi</i> (Ujjain ms.) contains descriptions for sixty-two (62) of the 118 <i>āsana</i>-s listed. Apart from those few which are based on Vācaspatimiśra’s <i>Tattvavaiśāradī</i>, I am yet to find the majority of these descriptions in another text or manuscript.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
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[...]</blockquote>
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Generally speaking, most of the seated, forward, backward, twisting and arm-balancing poses in modern yoga have been anticipated by these seventeenth and eighteenth-century sources. This may not be so apparent in comparing the names of <i>āsana</i>-s from one tradition to another, because similar <i>āsana</i>-s can have different names. This is true for both medieval and modern yoga. Such differences may reflect regional influences and attempts by gurus to distinguish their own repertoire of techniques. The main exceptions to this are the names of <i>āsana</i>-s in the well-known, principal texts such as the <i>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</i> and the <i>Hathapradīpikā</i>. Since these texts have been invoked to establish the traditional credentials, so to speak, of more recent lineages, the names of their <i>āsana</i>-s have endured. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipW9XbMM9slYM0SxE5BeAGwsZYC9cE1kUeTbmVp_rB5B2XENv9vMgzCHd3-uqcuQjs41OCp5SKlCQe4MxKxV3GUxuBpt1UWxvOi8maNiK8ntoFIvtYJvvXqzLOuO8Gvn3xoZqwYdhr0iI/s1600/Wellcome+MS+Hindi+371%252C+folio+62r+-+Si%25CC%2584ghagari%25CC%2584+seated+squat+with+ankles+crossed+and+holding+a+ma%25CC%2584la%25CC%2584.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="796" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipW9XbMM9slYM0SxE5BeAGwsZYC9cE1kUeTbmVp_rB5B2XENv9vMgzCHd3-uqcuQjs41OCp5SKlCQe4MxKxV3GUxuBpt1UWxvOi8maNiK8ntoFIvtYJvvXqzLOuO8Gvn3xoZqwYdhr0iI/s640/Wellcome+MS+Hindi+371%252C+folio+62r+-+Si%25CC%2584ghagari%25CC%2584+seated+squat+with+ankles+crossed+and+holding+a+ma%25CC%2584la%25CC%2584.png" width="584" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Yogin seated in a squat <br />with ankles crossed, holding a <i>mālā.</i></b><br />Wellcome Library (MS Hindi 371, folio 62r).</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify;">About the Author</span></span></h3>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Jason Birch</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow on the <a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">Hatha Yoga Project</span></a>, SOAS University of London. </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His current area of research is the history of physical yoga on the eve of colonialism. He is editing and translating six key Sanskrit texts on Haṭha and Rājayoga, which are outputs of the project. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He holds a </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">DPhil in Oriental Studies (2013) from the University of Oxford and is a founding member of the <a href="http://www.journalofyogastudies.org/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: #e69138;">Journal of Yoga Studies</span></i></a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Citation:</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">Birch, J. (Submitted 2013, 2018). "</span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/36193862/The_Proliferation_of_%C4%80sana-s_in_Late-Mediaeval_Yoga_Texts" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;"><b>The Proliferation of Āsana-s in Late Mediaeval Yoga Texts.</b></span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">"</span><br style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;" /><i style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">. Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas & Karin Preisendanz (eds.). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Unipress.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-65733781962545733752019-08-09T11:51:00.008+01:002020-08-31T16:00:09.045+01:00Yoga and Gender Study Group<div><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">By </span><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><a href="http://www.enigmatic.yoga/" target="_blank"><b>RUTH WESTOBY</b></a></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Download this article as a</span><span face="" style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uoqok8HBSwo11dGwlQn3PQ78DlJAfSL6/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138; font-size: xx-small;"><b>PDF</b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face="" style="color: #990000;">SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies – Chair Notes
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Figure 1: Cāmuṇḍā.</b><br />Khajuraho region (10-11th century).<br />Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.<br />Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard E. Houston.</span></td></tr>
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<span face="">For five weeks in the Summer Term 2019 the <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies</span></a> organised a study group on yoga and gender. The seminars were an opportunity for students and researchers to engage with cutting edge work being conducted through SOAS and further afield and show-case rising researchers as well as more established scholars. We wanted to explore yoga and gender from a cross-disciplinary approach, integrating philology, ethnography, sociology, iconography and critical theories—exploring themes of gender, sex, power and abuse, female praxis, the esoteric feminine and ferocious goddesses in historical and contemporary contexts.</span></div>
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<span face="">As a research student at SOAS working on constructions of gender in Sanskrit texts on Haṭhayoga convening this group was an opportunity to learn from colleagues and extend research networks. Alongside the fascinating content, I was keen to see how different projects were designed and carried out practically, and how contrasting methodologies and theories were drawn upon to interrogate the data.</span></div>
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<span face="">The format for the sessions was short presentations followed by interactive discussions based on both the material presented and prior set readings. The intention was to curate an environment where interaction of ideas and reflection was optimised. The sessions were well attended by an inquisitive and diverse body of academic researchers and yoga professionals including teachers, museum guides, and documentary film-makers and photographers.</span></div>
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<span face="">SOAS welcomed five researchers: Monika Hirmer, a SOAS doctoral researcher working on goddess worship at a Kāmākhyā shrine; Daniela Bevilacqua, a post-doctoral ethnographer working on the Hatha Yoga Project; Amelia Wood, a SOAS doctoral researcher working on abuse of power in modern yoga; Suzanne Newcombe, Open University Lecturer and AyurYog post-doctoral researcher who has published on women in Britain; and Sandra Sattler, a philologist and art historian at SOAS researching for a doctoral degree on fierce goddesses. We were also able to include a presentation by Agi Wittich, a doctoral researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem working on women in the Iyengar yoga tradition.</span></div>
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<span face="" style="color: #0b5394;">Kāmākhyā Worship</span></h3>
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<span face="">Ritualised, tactile, erotic devotion was a feature of the Kāmākhyā worship explored by Monika Hirmer who is working on ‘Becoming the Goddess: Study of a contemporary South Indian Tantric tradition and its implications for concepts of personhood, gender relations and everyday life.’ Monika’s presentation explored the outcomes of her research in relation to worshipping and embodying the goddess, entitled ‘Playing (with) Devī: Praxis, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">māyā</i><span face=""> and ungendered femininity’. Monika introduced the methodology of her fieldwork, provided an ethnographic profile of the temple complex where she worked and described the cosmology that informs the life of the Śrīvidyā practitioners she lived with. Monika analysed Devī’s propensity for play (</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">līlā</i><span face="">), the shrine which plastically expresses Devī’s yoni and womb, and a conception of the body at atomic and subtle level. Monika argues that this points to a pervasive underlying feminine substratum.</span><br />
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<span face="">The ritual of <i>kalāvāhana</i> focuses on ritualised worship of the divine by physically pleasuring the devotee through touch. Pleasure is believed to generate a state of nondistraction and be the utmost offering to Devī—if she is pleased the ritual will be efficacious. The </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">kalāvāhana</i><span face=""> may be a recent innovation based on an older practice. It can be done through ritual, as at the temple complex studied by Monika, or meditatively as described in the piece by Madhu Khanna, one of the suggested readings for this session. Monika’s informants performed an embodied ritual where the body is the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">śrīcakra</i><span face="">.</span><br />
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<span face="">Some of the social implications of this practice are a valorising of maternal qualities in male as well as female devotees. Monika described caste inversions, yet not as described by anthropological ritual theorists—the privileged status of the low-caste temple priestess extended beyond the duration of the ritual inversion—i.e., beyond the ritual itself.</span><br />
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<span face="">This practice community appears to be living out the tantalising prospect of a feminine divine, beyond a polarity of masculine and feminine. Yet the feminine was still characterised with ideas of maternal sentiment. For Monika the absolute principle was specifically female: not beyond gender, but female. Monika described </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">bindu</i><span face=""> as premanifest energy and the female absolute as the primordial creatrix. A fascinating discussion ensued around whether this female absolute could exist as gendered female prior to a masculinity in relationship with which such characteristics could be articulated: is it possible to have a female without a male referent?</span></div>
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<span face="">Monika’s rationale behind suggesting the quite distinct readings for the session was to illustrate the different results derived from different approaches: Madhu Khanna (2016) was working from the everyday life of practitioners whilst David Gordon White (1998) was extrapolating a textual response.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Female Asceticism in India</span></span></h3>
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<span face="">The second session welcomed Daniela Bevilacqua to present ‘An historical and ethnographic view of yoga physical practices and female asceticism in India’. Daniela is a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC-funded </span><a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">Hatha Yoga Project</span></a><span face="">, a South-Asianist collecting, through fieldwork, historical evidence of yoga practice and ethnographic data among living ascetic practitioners of yoga. She conducted doctoral research on the Rāmānandī Sampradāya and was awarded a doctoral thesis from the University of Rome, Sapienza and from the University of Paris X Nanterre Ouest La Défense. Daniela has recently published her first monograph </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India </i><span face="">which examines the Rāmānandī order (</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">sampradāya</i><span face="">) and gives a portrait of the Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya Rāmnareśācārya.</span><br />
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<span face="">In her session with us Daniela explored ‘traditional’ female asceticism in India and the difficulties faced by women who want to become ascetics. She then gave a detailed case study of Rām Priya Dās, a female yoga practitioner who belongs to the Rāmānandī Sampradāya, a Vaiṣṇava order. Rām Priya Dās is one of the few examples of a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">yogi rāj</i><span face="">, someone who has learnt the practices from childhood. There are few women in this category most likely due to the challenges faced by women who wish to become ascetics.</span><br />
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<span face="">Daniela’s research on notions of Haṭhayoga amongst practitioner communities in India shows the disjunction between textual and ethnographic studies: rather than calling on textual sources to justify and source authority for their teachings there is a tendency to disparage written sources. One of Daniela’s articles we read for the session explored these themes in relation to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">āsana</i><span face=""> (Bevilacqua, 2017a). Our second reading focused on female practitioners (Bevilacqua, 2017b).</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Figure 2: Photograph of a <i>sannyāsinī</i> (female ascetic).</b><br />Oman, John Campbell (1905: 227). <i>The Indian Mystics & Saints of India.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span face="">In looking at ‘gender’ there is a risk of equating gender with women’s studies. Here women are the category marked by gender whereas the male is the neutral, a </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">priori</i><span face=""> body. Women tend to be characterised by social roles, particularly motherhood, and are associated with maternal expectations. In her above mentioned article on women ascetics, Daniela notes ‘Generalized labels to define what is “typical female” and what is “typical male” risk of flattening the idea of female asceticism’ (Bevilacqua, 2017b: 72). In our discussion of motherhood and gender where women are marked by maternal duties or sentiment, it emerged that men, even when engaged in paternal duties, are not marked by paternity. In contrast, Monika’s research found that men were positively characterised by maternal qualities as a mark of being closer to Devī.</span></div>
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<span face="">The enduring image of Daniela’s session was a photo of the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">sādhvī</i><span face=""> Rām Priya Dās censored by biro: in an inversion her clothing slips down, and her exposed thigh has been scribbled over. As the </span><a href="http://hyp.soas.ac.uk/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">Hatha Yoga Project</span></a><span face=""> enters its final year and the team turn to writing up their findings I look forward to reading further outputs.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Figure 3: Photograph of Rām Priya Dās censored by biro.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span face="">Amelia Wood is at the forefront of bringing a critical perspective to abuses of power in yoga, a topic which has recently received sustained attention particularly since the exposures prompted by the #metoo movement. Amelia is researching for a doctoral thesis at SOAS on ‘Yoga, power and gender: an investigation into the abuse of power by modern gurus’. Amongst the case studies that she is exploring are Bikram Choudhry (inventor of Bikram Yoga), Kausthub Desikachar (lineage holder to his grandfather’s legacy, TKV Krishnamacharya) and the head of Satyananda Yoga in Australia in the 1970s and 80s, Swami Akhandananda. The intersectional questioning she is bringing to bear on these cases include asking about the extent to which the transnational dislocation of cultural categories such as yoga, gender and spiritual authority has contributed to the abuse of power within the global modern yoga context. She brings a normative thrust to her project by asking ‘How can discussions of abuse support victims rather than those already in positions of power?’ Amelia has an unrelenting commitment to refocusing the critical gaze from the actions of gurus to the predicament of victims / survivors. We prepared for the session by reading Amanda Lucia’s theorising of abuse (Lucia, 2018) where the emphasis is placed on the structural, systemic dynamic of charisma opening up space for abuse to occur. Lucia defines ‘haptic logics’ as the ‘disciplinary logics of physicality’ and follows a social constructivist theory of charisma. Lucia argues for haptic logics as a systemic approach rather than the psychological analysis usually served to ‘headline stealing hyper gurus’.</span><br />
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<span face="">Lucia mingled emic and etic approaches by placing affect theory alongside a more Āyurvedic and energetic understanding of the porousness of bodies and ritual purity: ‘Through gaining proximity, devotees aim to consume the affective power of the guru—to absorb it into their bodies. The possibility of this transmission depends on the premise that bodies are comprised of porous boundaries that interact with and absorb from others and their environments. As Teresa Brennan has argued, affect, or “the physiological shift accompanying a judgment” is also transmitted between bodies and their environments.’ Lucia explains that ‘Affect can also be explained as transmittable “force,” “energy,” and “physiological shift,” which makes it particularly applicable here because its transmission closely resembles the language used to interpret the guru’s transmission of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">śakti</i><span face="">’ (Lucia, 2018: 967 ff). In her reading of work to date on abuse of power in yoga Amelia is careful to unpick the attribution of responsibility and agency, highlighting where it has been and often continues to be attributed to the victim / survivor.</span><br />
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<span face="">Our second reading for this session was Josna Pankhania’s whistleblowing work on the Bihar School and the findings of the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry (Pankhania, 2017). Of particular note for me was the essentialist East-West dichotomy which at times appear in the analysis. For example, one concern around trans-cultural dislocation of the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">guru</i><span face="">-</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">śiṣya</i><span face=""> (teacher-student) relationship is that Western communities import the teachings but not the controls, such that guru models are imported into spheres where the traditional role of a guru is not understood. Pankhania does note that this rhetoric is problematic. The Australian broadcaster ABC suggested that yoga taught according to Western standards would result in a decrease in abuse by asking, ‘Is the claiming of yoga now by the West as a western practice going to save it from abuse?’ Pankhania noted that ‘This concept is not only problematic, but also symptomatic of the West’s continued angst about ‘the white man’s burden’, the supposed duty of the white race to engage in civilising missions to liberate the ‘savages’’ (Pankhania, 2017: 115). Pankhania links this issue with the much broader debates around identity politics and the postcolonial critique, by noting that, ‘As ‘the white man’s burden’ is unable to convincingly justify European colonialism, so too a crisis of ethics in any yoga organisation can surely not be adequately resolved through the process of cultural appropriation by the West. Concern with abusive gurus is certainly very much present in Indian society, too.’</span></div>
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<span face="">Agi Wittich, PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Religions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem joined us in this session to share her findings to date. Agi is working on ‘Yoga for Women in the Iyengar Yoga Tradition’. One of Agi’s supervisors is Yohanan Grinshpon, who’s </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Silence Unheard: Deathly Otherness in Pātañjala-Yoga</i><span face=""> (2002) has been a longstanding favourite of mine (for its classification of those who have interacted with the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Yogasūtra</i><span face=""> and its unrelenting insistence on taking the implications of the practice for the yogin to its grisly conclusion).</span><br />
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<span face="">Agi is focusing on women-oriented Iyengar yoga practice and the emergence of a historical narrative to lend authenticity to this practice within the Iyengar tradition. She notes that the Iyengar yoga tradition identifies itself as a continuation of an ancient and classical yoga lineage and argues that it justifies the inclusion of women and the adaptation of the practice through an alternative reconstructed narration of yoga history, in which women continuously practiced yoga. The current academic consensus is that there is little evidence of female practitioners of Haṭhayoga, especially </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">āsana</i><span face=""> practitioners (we saw in Daniela’s presentation that there were few female </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">yogi rāja</i><span face="">s, adept at physical practices, partly due to the structural challenges facing women who wished to pursue this lifestyle). Rather, historically, yoga appears to have been an androcentric practice. Whilst there may be evidence that women did practice they were probably a minority and had little impact on the standard hegemonic histories of yoga.</span><br />
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<span face="">In addition to this reconstructed historical narrative of women practicing yoga Agi described the repurposing of ‘classic’ (androcentric) practices, adapting them to women's physical, physiological, mental and socially perceived needs. In an androcentric approach women are the marked category. Alternative practices for menstruation and the segregation of menstruating practitioners can be considered an ‘othering’. The requirement for a public (or semi-public) announcement of menstruation and the offering of alternative practices may be experienced as empowering yet also negatively impacts progression through postures and teaching qualifications. Agi’s research questions the ways in which this offers an inspirational model for women or whether it (further) restricts the options available to women and entrenches segregation in yoga classes. Her analyses suggest that it creates a glass ceiling beyond which women cannot rise in the Iyengar echelons, but does not have to result in negatively perceived segregation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Yoga in Britain</span></span></h3>
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<span face="">Suzanne Newcombe led a session on ‘Yoga in Britain: Reinforcing or challenging traditional gender roles?’ Suzanne is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University and Research Fellow at Inform, based at King's College London. She is also working on the ERC-funded project </span><a href="http://www.ayuryog.org/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">AyurYog ‘Medicine, Immortality and Moksha: Entangled Histories of Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy in South Asia.’</span></a><span face=""> Her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge was on the popularisation of yoga and Āyurvedic medicine in Britain. From 2002-2016 her work at Inform specialized in new and minority religious movements in contemporary Britain, especially originating in or inspired by South Asian beliefs. Hence her insight was particularly informative on the previous week’s topic of power and abuse.</span><br />
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<span face="">Suzanne offered a two-part presentation drawing on her research from manifold sources—interviews, government records, physical culture journals and correspondence archives. Suzanne’s focus was on the historical context of how yoga became popular in Britain during the twentieth century. She noted that whilst yoga recapitulated all the problems of British society it was also a space for change. In the context of widespread popularisation in the 1960s and 70s she argued that yoga’s popularity can be partially accounted for by the way it simultaneously supported women’s traditional identities of wife and mother, as well as a more independent identity promoted by second-wave feminism. Women typically attributed better physical health and emotional well-being to their practice of yoga and this was an important reason for their participation in classes.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Figure 4: Lyn Marshall, Richard Hittleman and Alan Babbington<br />on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on 8 July 1972.</b><br />As found in <i>Yoga & Health</i>, October 1972, Vol. 2 (8): 3.</span></td></tr>
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<span face="">Of the factors influencing the popularity of yoga for women Suzanne notes in her work that of ‘bored housewife syndrome’, where resentments of middle-class women for their duties of managing every aspect of housework and childcare was an important part of how aspirations conflicted with restricted social roles. This was an impetus for second-wave feminists to compare their positions less favourably to those of men. For a fascinating discussion please see our reading to accompany this session (Newcombe, 2007: 37-63). Second-wave feminists also challenged the medicalisation of women’s experience especially for example around childbirth which Suzanne argues is closely related to the interest in yoga. The discussion touched around Western and Āyurvedic medicine—my view of the hegemony of Western medicine was tempered by Suzanne’s incisive suggestion that the unquestioned supremacy of Western allopathic medicine was (only) between the discovery of Penicillin and the catastrophe of Thalidomide.</span><br />
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<span face="">Suzanne’s research has also explored the instructions given to BKS Iyengar when he received a monopoly to accredit teachers at adult education centres by the Inner London Education Authority. The ILEA insisted that ‘Instructional classes in Hatha Yoga need not and should not involve treatment of the philosophy of Yoga’. Thus the stipulation that ‘yoga could be approved ‘provided that instruction is confined to “asanas” and “pranayamas” (postures and breathing disciplines) and does not extend to the philosophy of Yoga as a whole’ came from the ILEA and not Iyengar’ (Newcombe, 2006: 42). Whilst Iyengar was already focusing on the physical practices of yoga rather than meditative ones this may have pushed him further in this direction. To my mind this is a significant factor in the development of modern globalised yoga as synonymous with </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">āsana</i><span face="">.</span></div>
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<span face="">The second part of Suzanne’s session presented careful evidence to nuance the picture of contemporary yoga as defined by neoliberalism and cultural appropriation. As part of her research Suzanne had participated in a teacher training offered by Baba Ramdev. She argued that it is in these contexts that Indian bodies can be found, including Muslim bodies, rather than mainstream yoga studios. She noted the light-heartedness of the attendees, regardless of religious affiliation, which softened the apparent contradiction between the diversity of attendees and a leadership which supports the supremacy of Hindus at the expense of Muslims. I am looking forward to more of this analysis in Suzanne’s new monograph which, according to its jacket, ‘resists the flattening of the neoliberal and cultural appropriation critiques’ (Newcombe, 2019).</span><br />
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<span face="">Sandra Sattler was our final speaker and is conducting doctoral research on the iconography of fierce goddesses in Hinduism at SOAS. She is tracing the development of fierce deities such as Cāmuṇḍā and Kālī by analysing selected </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Purāṇa</i><span face="">s and art historical material. Her working title is ‘Cāmuṇḍā’s Glory: Representations of the Fierce Goddess in Purāṇic Literature and Indian (Temple) Art’. Sandra’s background completing her BA and MA at Goettingen University, also on fierce goddesses, and her work there as a research assistant for four years teaching Sanskrit, Sanskrit literature, goddesses, and Indian art gives her a strong background for her research project. I was keen to see how Sandra worked both as a textual historian and how she drew on art historical sources. In her research she is leaving aside questions of interpretation from a psychoanalytical perspective but will incorporate symbolic references contained in the primary sources.</span><br />
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<span face="">The first part of her session entitled ‘With hollow eyes and skull garlands: Fierce goddess imagery in purāṇic literature’ gave an overview of fierce goddesses in Hinduism and her research to date. We turned to a close reading of key passages of purāṇic lore from the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Agnipurāṇa</i><span face="">. Here, Cāmuṇḍā, who appears as an individual goddess and as part of sets of divinities such as the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">mātṝkā</i><span face="">s and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">yoginī</i><span face="">s, is invoked to defeat enemies and called upon with a variety of detailed epithets.</span><br />
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<span face="">Strictly, goddess studies is not yoga studies, yet there is a close relationship between goddesses, </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">yoginī</i><span face="">s, and the powers attributed to those who are successful in yoga. The difficulty of disambiguation is similar to that of </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">āsana</i><span face=""> (postures) and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">tapas</i><span face=""> (austerities). The divinizing of the feminine as the goddess opens a window on the manifestations of gender in the religious imagination and practice. The </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">vidyā</i><span face=""> or incantation to the goddess whilst ostensibly directed at winning wars can also be used to distinguish the gross from the subtle body.</span><br />
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<span face="">The readings for this session were a chapter from the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Agnipurāṇa</i><span face=""> (Mitra, 1870: Ch. 135) and the introduction to </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal</i><span face=""> (especially 19-25). In this latter work I was intrigued by the tabulation of a typology of goddesses into mild and wild, or <i>saumya</i> and <i>ugra</i>—despite the author’s warning against dichotomous models. The tabulation was meant to be read as polyvalent, ambiguous and dynamic rather than dichotomous and static. Sandra was sensitive to the problematic Orientalist bias of much research in this area.</span><br />
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<span face="">It was a privilege for me to curate the first such research group for the Centre of Yoga Studies and I am very grateful to the researchers who generously shared their findings. The wide-ranging presentations and discussions drew out points of content, method and theory whilst bringing in the research interests of all participants. We will be offering further study groups in due course. Please stay in touch with the </span><a href="http://www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies</span></a><span face=""> for forthcoming programmes.</span></div>
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<span face="">Bevilacqua, D. 2017a. “Are women entitled to become ascetics? An historical and ethnographic glimpse on female asceticism in Hindu religions”. </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Kervan—International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies</i><span face="">, Vol. 21: 51-79.</span></div>
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<span face=""><br />Bevilacqua, D. 2017b. “Let the Sādhus Talk. Ascetic practitioners of yoga in northern India.” Presentation at the conference <i>Yoga darśana, yoga sādhana: traditions, transmissions, transformations</i>. Krakow, 2016. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.academia.edu/25569049/Let_the_S%C4%81dhus_Talk._Ascetic_practitioners_of_yoga_%20in_northern_India" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://www.academia.edu/25569049/Let_the_Sādhus_Talk._Ascetic_practitioners_of_yoga_ in_northern_India</span></a><br /><br />Grinshpon, Y. 2002. <i>Silence Unheard: Deathly Otherness in Pātañjala-Yoga</i>. Albany: State University of New York Press. <a href="http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3407943"><span style="color: #e69138;">http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3407943</span></a><br /><br />Khanna, M. 2016. “Yantra and cakra in tantric meditation.” In: Eifring, Halvor, ed. <i>Asian traditions of meditation</i>. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2016. xv, 254: 71-92.<br /><br />Lucia, A. 2018. “Guru Sex: Charisma, Proxemic Desire, and the Haptic Logics of the Guru-Disciple Relationship.” <i>Journal of the American Academy of Religion</i>, Vol. 86: 953-988. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfy025"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfy025</span></a><br /><br />Mitra, R. 1870. <i>Agnipurāṇa: A Collection of Hindu Mythology and Traditions</i>, Chapter 135. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal.<br /><br />Michaels, A., Vogelsanger, C. and Wilke, A. (Eds.). 1996. “Introduction.” In: <i>Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal, Studia Religiosa Helvetica</i>, Vol. 2: 15-34. Bern: P. Lang.<br /><br />Newcombe, S. 2019. <i>Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis</i>. Sheffield: Equinox.<br /><br />Newcombe, S. 2007. “Stretching for Health and Well- Being: Yoga and Women in Britain, 1960-1980.” <i>Asian Medicine, Tradition and Modernity</i>, Vol. 3(1): 37-63. Brill: Leiden. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/157342107x207209"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://doi.org/10.1163/157342107x207209</span></a><br /><br />Pankhania, J. 2017. “The Ethical and Leadership Challenges Posed by the Royal Commission’s Revelations of Sexual Abuse at a Satyananda Yoga Ashram in Australia.” <i>Responsible Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making. Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations</i>, Vol. 17: 105-123. Emerald Publishing Limited. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620170000017012"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620170000017012</span></a><br /><br />White, D.G. 1998. “Transformations in the Art of Love: Kāmakalā Practices in Hindu Tantric and Kaula Traditions.” <i>History of Religions</i>, Vol. 38: 172-198.</span><br />
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<span face="" style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="text-align: justify;">About the Author</span></span></h3>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Ruth Westoby</b><span face=""> is a doctoral researcher in yoga and an Ashtanga practitioner. Alongside practice and research Ruth runs workshops and teaches on some of the principle teacher training programmes in the UK. Her thesis is on constructions of gender in Sanskrit texts on Haṭhayoga at SOAS under the supervision of James Mallinson. For more information please see </span><a href="http://www.enigmatic.yoga/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">www.enigmatic.yoga</span></a><span face="">.</span><br />
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<span face=""><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Citation:</span></b></span></div>
<span face="" style="text-align: left;">Westoby, Ruth. 2019. “Yoga and Gender Study Group: SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies–Chair Notes.” </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">The Luminescent</i><span face="" style="text-align: left;">, 2 August, 2019. Retrieved from: </span><a href="https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/08/yoga-and-gender-study-group.html" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">https://www.theluminescent.org/2019/08/yoga-and-gender-study-group.html</span></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5778763582972896352.post-33938821578757255152019-07-12T19:04:00.000+01:002020-08-29T16:59:11.368+01:00Early Hatha & Rajayoga: The Latest Timeline.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #e69138;">FRIEND . PATRON . LOVER</span></h3>
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<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
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♥ $1 / month</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
♥ $5 / month</div>
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<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
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♥ $10 / month</div>
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<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
♥ $25 / month</div>
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<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
♥ $50 / month</div>
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<div style="font-weight: normal;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0