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Chapter from Yoga in the Modern World

Chapter from Yoga in the Modern World

Chapter from Yoga in the Modern World

Explores yoga and meditation in Eastern religions, incorporating psychological and social aspects of these practices.

A comprehensive and theory-rich investigation of the history and philosophy of yoga, from its Indian origins to the contemporary context.

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Chapter from Gurus Of Modern Yoga

Locating yoga: Ethnography and transnational practice

The Master’s Narrative: Swami Sivananda and the Transnational Production of Yoga

In this paper, Sivananda’s own poetry and the many pamphlets and books produced by this noted swami, his contemporaries, and his successors through th …

Positioning Yoga considers how the recent development of yoga, from its introduction to Western audiences by the Indian Swami Vivekananda at the 1893 …

In India, yoga is understood as a unique and valuable cultural resource that has the potential to revitalize both an individual’s health and the India …

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) was the first Indian to teach yoga in the West. This study examines his life and background and his participation in the …

Over the past three decades, yoga has become a real trend in the fitness and wellness industry, but what effect does the practice have on the lives of …

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in Yoga in Practice

Chapter in A Cultural History of Hinduism

This book revisits the early systemic formation of meditation practices called ‘yoga’ in South Asia by employing metaphor theory. Karen O’Brien-Kop al …

This paper examines transreligiosity in the context of the transmission of South Asian concepts of spirituality to the UK in the 20th century.

This paper focuses on Sāṃkhya-Yoga and Buddhist Abhidharma ontologies and their engagement. A close reading of two hitherto uncompared passages from P …

This chapter analyses two contrasting examples of yoga for health and healing, namely the popular American YouTuber Adriene Mishler and Swami Ramdev, …

Religion, Spirituality, and Public Health focuses on exploring the role of different ‘ways of knowing’ or arriving at truth, i.e. epistemes, particula …

This article will consider how the apparent dichotomy between yoga as a physical fitness activity (often termed ‘hatha yoga’) and/or as a ‘spiritual p …

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Gurus in America

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Chapter from Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century

Few thinkers have had so enduring an impact on both Eastern and Western life as Swami Vivekananda, the Indian monk who inspired the likes of Freud, Ga …

Eighty-four Asanas in Yoga: A Survey of Traditions (with Illustrations)

This is a preliminary report on the longevity practices discussed in a Bengali Islamic Yogic text by Haji Muhammad called Nurjamal ba Suratnama writte …

The article presents some remarks concerning practices aimed at achieving rejuvenation, longevity and immortality described in the literature of the T …

Wild and diverse outcomes are associated with transmutational practices: the prolongation of life, the recovery of youth, the cure of diseases, invinc …

The present chapter deals with rasāyana in the discipline of Yoga. More specifically, it focuses on the meaning of the word rasāyana in the Pātañjalay …

This article will consider the narrative and context around a particularly well-publicized incident of rejuvenation therapy, advertised as kāyakalpa ( …

The research for this article was prompted by the question: were Yoga and Āyurveda as intimately connected in premodern times as they to seem today? I …

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Yoga In Transformation

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Based on extensive interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, this article presents understandings of yoga among sadhus in northern India

Thinking in Āsana is an exploration of three popular lineages of modern postural yoga – Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga

Yoga Studies in Five Minutes provides an accessible guide to the diverse and growing field of research into yoga as a social, historical and cultural …

Post-lineage Yoga presents a ground-breaking model for scholars to understand the contemporary teaching and practice of yoga, one where peer networks …

The study is divided into five main sections, describing different modes and phases of yoga’s diffusion [in France].

Yoga in Deutschland

Erakkomajoista Kuntosaleille: miten jooga valloitti maailman

A bold reconceptualization of the scope and meaning of cosmopolitanism, examining the language of South Asian religiosity as it has flourished both in …

Shameem Black travels into unexpected realms of popular culture in English from India, its diaspora, and the West to explore and critique yoga as an e …

This compendium includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads …

The life and times of India’s most famous spiritual and literary masterpiece

The rise, fall, and modern resurgence of an enigmatic book revered by yoga enthusiasts around the world

This thesis examines the history and practices of the Dasanami-Samnyasis, one of the largest sects of Indian renunciates, founded, according to tradit …

Describing one of the most important practices of hathayoga (khecarimudra), the Khecarividya of Adinatha is presented here to an English-speaking read …

Based on thousands of primary sources and rare archival materials, Theos Bernard, the White Lama recounts the real story behind the purported adventur …

This book examines Yogananda’s life and work to clarify linkages between the seemingly disparate aspects of modern yoga, and illuminates the intimate …

This book follows up on recent findings that modern postural yoga is the outcome of a complex process of transcultural exchange and syncretism and dig …

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Chapter from Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

This chapter explores the notion of the ‘scholar-practitioner’ of yoga. It investigates how scholars who take yoga as a subject of their academic work …

The Tibetan yoga practice known as “winds, channels, and inner heat” (rtsa rlung gtum mo) isphysically challenging, and yet is intentionally designed …

Prenatal yoga classes have become widespread worldwide. Still, while scientific studies examined the benefits of such practices, the conceptual and so …

This chapter investigates the various manifestations of agency among females who practice Menstruation-Oriented Yoga (IY). The chapter discusses the p …

Harnessing Authenticity in Iyengar Yoga: Legitimizing and Romanticizing Women-Oriented Yoga through Sanskrit Texts

This article explores women-oriented Iyengar Yoga (IY) practices through a historical, textual and ethnographical analysis.

Yoga Journal is a magazine recognized by many as an industry cornerstone and an institution in and of itself. It represents the distinctive face of yo …

This book is possibly the most easily available edition of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, whose GRETIL etext has been typed in from it, and the commentaries …

This book is the editio princeps of presumably the oldest commentary on the Yogabhāṣya and thus the oldest subcommentary on the Yogasūtra, composed by …

This book is the published version of Philipp Maas PhD thesis, a critical edition of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, i.e. the Yogasūtra of Patañjali together …

This book contains a critical edition and English translation of the Śivasaṃhitā by a team belonging to the Kaivalyadhama Institute, based on their 19 …

This book contains James Mallinson’s edition and translation of the Śivasaṃhitā, an important text of the Haṭhayoga corpus. Mallinson has based himsel …

This book contains a translation of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, i.e. the Yogasūtra ascribed to Patañjali and its primary commentary, Yogabhāṣya, of dispu …

This book examines the life of a nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Tamil yogin named Sri Sabhapati Swami (Śrī Sabhāpati Svāmī or Capāpati Cuvāmikaḷ, ca. 1828-1923/4) and his unique English, Tamil …

Many people assume, largely because of Gandhi’s legacy, that Hinduism is a religion of non-violence. In this 2006 book William R. Pinch shows just how wrong this assumption is. Using the life of Anupg …

Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old-aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-c …

In Indian languages from Sanskrit to Marathi, yoga has an enormous range of meanings, though most often it refers to philosophy or methods to control the mind and body. This book argues for a wider un …

Can the theory and practice of the yogic tradition serve as a challenge to dominant cultural and political norms in the Western world? In this essay I demonstrate that modern yoga is a creature of fab …

The installation of the YS as the Classical Yoga text in the modern age is bound up with several dialectically interlinked, ideological currents. These include colonial translation projects intended t …

Peace Love Yoga analyzes growing spiritual industries and their coherence with neoliberal capitalism. “Personal growth,” “self-care,” and “transformation” are just some of the generative tropes in the …

This book explores how modern yoga became transformed from a largely countercultural phenomenon to a part of pop culture when entrepreneurs became strategic participants in a global market and succeed …

A call for clarity in newer realms of religion and public education, Yoga and mindfulness activities, with roots in Asian traditions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, have been brought into growing number …

White Utopias: The Religious Exoticism of Transformational Festivals …

Freedom Inside: Yoga and Meditation in the Careceral State …

Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation …

From Tapas to Modern Yoga: Sādhus’ Understanding of Embodied Practices …

The Quest for Liberation-in-Life: A Survey of Early Works on Haṭha- and Rājayoga …

The Yoga of the Matsyendrasaṃhitā: A critical edition and annotated translation of chapters 1–13 and 55 …

The Serpent’s Tale: Kundalini, Yoga, and the History of an Experience …

The Dawn of Physical Yoga: Dispelling the Hindrances of Immortality …

The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla …

The Amaraugha and Amaraughaprabodha of Gorakṣanātha: The Genesis of Haṭha and Rājayoga …

Āsanas of the Yogacintāmaṇi: The Largest Premodern Compilation on Postural Practice …

The Dattātreyayogaśāstra …

Tirumūlar yoga reveals the practices through which one may achieve longevity and immortality

In the 1920s, Jagannath G

Modern yoga has emerged as a transnational global phenomenon during the course of the twentieth century and from about 1975 onwards it has progressively become acculturated in many different developed or developing societies and milieus worldwide

This article is a personal reflection on the evolution of Yoga teaching and practice in the United Kingdom as I have experienced it growing up and growing old(er) in the Lambourn Valley in Berkshire, in the South West of England

Modern, transnational yoga in the early twentieth century often defined itself in terms and ideologies borrowed from the popular current of esoteric American Protestantism known as New Thought

In Britain, yoga became an increasingly popular group activity from the 1960s onwards in government-subsidised adult-education evening classes

The history of modern yoga is rooted in the history of alchemy and the practice of magic in medieval India

This paper explores the transformation of a dualistic mind-body relationship as reported by participants in a recent qualitative study involving modern yoga and meditation practitioners

This article identifies an illustrated Harhayoga manuscript preserved in the British Library (London) and discusses the manuscript’s significance in the context of traditions of 84 postures (asana) in Yoga

This book traces the developmental years of the Ashtanga Yoga tradition of K

Yoga has come to be an icon of Indian culture and civilization, and it is widely regarded as being timeless and unchanging

The word yoga refers to a multi-faceted array of beliefs and practices

Yoga in Britain reveals how yoga came to be an accepted, mainstream activity

This chapter offers analytical meta-reflection on the process of identifying, surveying and examining the current field of academic yoga and meditation studies

The Power of Practice showcases the pioneering achievements of renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-99) and how both disciplines transformed his life and practice

Yoga is so prevalent in the modern world-practiced by pop stars, taught in schools, and offered in yoga centers, health clubs, and even shopping malls–that we take its presence, and its meaning, for granted

A History of Modern Yoga traces the roots of Modern Yoga back to the spread of western esoteric ideas in 18th century Bengal’s intellectual circles

This essay examines the formative history of the cakras of tantric yoga through a genealogy of the “wheel of the navel” (nābhicakra) and “lotus of the heart” (hṛdayapuṇḍarīka, etc

In this paper I gather core definitional components of yogic Gnosticism (aka jñāna-yoga/ the yoga of knowledge), which I produced for a forthcoming monograph (Metaphysics as Therapy, Springer, April 2025) on the use of taxonomy in the spiritual exercises of gnostic yogas

This paper examines cinmudrā, the practice of joining the index finger and thumb together, adopted throughout the 20th century in seated postures such as padmāsana to facilitate the practice of meditation or prāṇāyāma

The Amṛtasiddhi is a text that has recently become better known to people who are interested in the study and practice of yoga, especially Haṭha Yoga

In contemporary, globalised yoga, few practices are as widespread or as emblematic as sūryanamaskār (‘salutation to the sun’)

This article was inspired by a reading of Nāgeśa Bhaṭta’s commentary, Pātañjalayogasūtravṛtti (PYV), on Pātañjalayogaśāstra I

The past and present development of modern yoga within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remains sorely understudied

This paper examines yoga āsana and vyāyāma instruction from Bengal in the twentieth century

Drawing on the example of kuśtī-pahalvānī (traditional wrestling in India) to engage with arguments presented in each of the chapters that have come before, this “Afterword” engages with the problem of how meaning is assigned to physical practices and to the body engaged in various forms of self-development and self-discipline

In Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Bön, yoga refers to expedient means (thabs, S

The “family resemblance” between the Chinese therapeutic exercises known as daoyin (lit

China has an unbroken history of therapeutic stretches, gymnastics, and callisthenic practices—collectively known as daoyin—that date back to the 2nd century BCE

Kaḷarippayaṟṟ˘ developed as an intertwined martial and medical system in various styles across South India

Throughout its development, the Keralan body practice kaḷarippayaṟṟụ has been characterised by various visions among the masters (gurukkaḷ) regarding the practice itself and its relationship to other Indian practices

The so-called “Sun Salutation” (S

This chapter aims to show how the 19th-century revival of vyāyāma became a source for modern yoga to emerge in India during the first half of the 20th century

Mallkhāmb (malla-khāmba, “wrestler-pole”) is today popularly referred to as “Pole Yoga” and it is recognised as the so-called “Authentic Indian Sport

The tradition of Turco-Persian wrestling, including its programme of physical education based at dedicated gyms known as zurkhāneh (literally “houses of strength”), contains elements that would appear to merge Turkish, Iranian, Central-Asian, and Indian influences within a mystical (Sufi) Islamic framework potentially affected to a certain degree by Buddhism

In the Nāṭyaśāstra, two main types of physical practices are described in some detail: the so-called “bodily acting” (āṅgikābhinaya) and dance (nṛtta)

The largely understudied Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā is known to a small number of Sanskritists as a compendium on kingship, which they believe to be from South India

This chapter aims to broaden our understanding of the visual record of yogis carved upon the temple pillars and walls of several Vijayanagara-era temple sites in the Deccan—including major temple complexes at Hampi, Śrīśailam, Śṛṅgerī, Lepākṣī, and Śravaṇabeḷagola

In this chapter, we formulate a corpus of premodern praxis manuals on yoga that were composed in the 18th and 19th century in rudimentary Sanskrit and vernacular languages, which were likely documenting collections of yoga postures (āsana) current among practitioners of the time

This essay aims to present the current state of research on the Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā, an ancient text on yoga which describes, with an exceptional depth of detail and a high level of bodily technicality, internal yogic practices

The Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati is a Sanskrit text on the practice of Haṭhayoga, probably composed in the eighteenth century in Maharashtra

This article reassesses the history of postural yoga in precolonial India by drawing attention to recently discovered visual material evidence of non-seated postures carved onto the pillars of Vijayanagara temples at Hampi in Karnataka

This article provides an overview to what the author has termed “early American yoga,” yoga as it was understood in the United States from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century