The Dharmaputrikā and the dangers of excessive practice.


Dharmaputrikā
MS Indic δ 16 (viii), Folio 395 v.
London Wellcome


Is it possible to get sick from excessive practice? They thought so in the 11th century.

Dr Christèle Barois (AyurYog Project, University of Vienna) is making some very exciting contributions to our understanding of the relationship between Yoga and Ayurveda through her research of the Dharmaputrikā, an c. 11th century Sanskrit text:

The Dharmaputrikā, which is a systematic exposé on yoga, provides us with new elements concerning the relationship between yoga and āyurveda in medieval India, as it fully integrates medical knowledge and practices into the yogic process it describes. Thus, the Dharmaputrikā sheds light on the appropriation of some aspects of classical Indian medicine by yogins towards the end of the first millenium. This remarkable feature is manifest in chapter 4, which mentions the appearance of diseases due to excessive practice (atyabhyāsa) in the course of the conquest of the five bodily winds (pañcajaya), and in chapter 10, which describes the medical treatment (cikitsā) of diseases that arise from an imbalance of humors caused by incorrect breathing practices.
A full translation and critical edition of the Dharmaputrikā is a much anticipated output of the AyurYog Project in coming years. 

Dr Barois offers her translation of the āsana section of this text in her latest blogpost:
Eight Yoga Postures in the Dharmaputrikā